Health Physics Course Receives Continuing Education Award
The nation's first online-delivered Certified Health Physics (CHP) course earned an honorable
mention award (second place) from the University Continuing Education Association in a September
conference of the UCEA Great Plains Region.
The course was taught by Dr. Tom Johnson, Assistant Professor at Colorado State University. The CSU
student branch of the Health Physics Society supported the course and graduate students delivered
many of the lectures and presentations in the online course. The CHP review course was recognized
for its innovative method of delivery; the course was taught over 17 weeks, with a two hour lecture
streamed via the Internet each week and an iPod download of each presentation.
Online interaction was available both live during the class and throughout each week following the
presentation. More than 50 distance participants, mostly industry professionals, were spread across
the US and the world making this an international course.
CSU graduate students were responsible for preparing and teaching major portions of the class.
Additionally, the CSU students served as mentors to distance students taking the class, tracking the
progress of each person through the course. Participants took Part One quizzes on specific topics
each week, answering a total of more than 500 questions, all of which were graded online.
Participants were also able to also take subject specific Part Two exams and examine detailed
answers for each question. The CSU graduate students found that the review class helped to reinforce
health physics concepts and provided them a chance to use the skills they learned in their coursework.
Reviews from participants were uniformly positive, with the course generating a waiting list for the
next offering.
ACGIH® announces results of 2008 election for the Board of Directors.
ACGIH® members elected Stephen J. Reynolds, PhD, CIH, to the position of Vice Chair-Elect. He will
begin his four-year term on January 1, 2008. Dr. Reynolds is Professor and Head of the Occupational
and Environmental Health Section, Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences,
at Colorado State University. Dr. Reynolds joined ACGIH® in 1995.
ACGIH® is a member-based organization that advances occupational and environmental health.
ACGIH® is one of the industry's leading publications resources, with approximately 400 titles
relative to occupational and environmental health and safety, including the renowned TLVs® and BEIs®.
For more information, visit the ACGIH® website at www.acgih.org.
Health Physics M.S. program accredited
Colorado State's Health Physics M.S. program has received full and unconditional accreditation from
ABET/Applied Sciences Accreditation Commission. CSU's Health Physics graduate program is only the
5th in the U.S. to be accredited. Please congratulate our team: Dr. Tom Johnson and the rest of the
Health Physics faculty, our External Advisory Board and our administrative coordinator, Ms. Julie
Asmus, for this outstanding achievement, which will add significant value to the M.S. degrees
awarded to our students.
Toxicology faculty members win a very competitive major grant from the EPA.
Colorado State University will receive $748,582 in grant funding from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to develop a software tool to interpret biomarkers of human exposure to
pesticides/insecticides.
Participating CSU scientists are:
Brad Reisfeld, Principal Investigator, College of Engineering's Department of Chemical and Biological
Engineering
Michael Lyons, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' Department of Environmental
and Radiological Health Sciences
Arthur Mayeno, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' Department of Environmental
and Radiological Health Sciences
Raymond Yang, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' Department of Environmental
and Radiological Health Sciences
With this grant to CSU, EPA is helping solve the mystery of the connection between measured
biomarkers and chemical exposures. A biomarker is a substance, structure, or process that can be
measured in biological samples, such as blood or urine, to indicate exposure, susceptibility or
health effects. Examples of biomarkers include lead levels in blood or pesticide metabolite
levels in urine.
These types of biomarkers indicate exposure to specific compounds. In many cases, biomarkers can be
measured analytically, but it is not always clear what the levels mean in terms of how much exposure
occurred or what amount of the chemical reaches a place in the body where it could possibly cause a
health effect (dose).
CSU will work with Mississippi State University on this research project. This grant is one of
five that EPA is awarding in response to a request for applications called "Interpretation of
Biomarkers Using Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling." The EPA Science to Achieve
Results (STAR) research grant will be used to develop a computer model that will be able to
predict what biomarker levels mean in terms of human exposure and dose.
The researchers will use chlorpyrifos and diazinon, two organophosphate (OP) insecticides, as the
initial test compounds. The research results will allow scientists and risk assessors to
understand more about the meaning of biomarkers resulting from exposure to OP insecticides.
NIOSH Education & Research Center Comes to Colorado
The CDC/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) approved funding for the
NIOSH Mountains and Plains Education and Research Center.
CSPHI shares the excitement as this new
NIOSH Education and Research Center is one of the first concrete examples of inter-institutional
collaboration that will become a part of the proposed school of public health.
Under the leadership of Center Director Dr. Lee Newman (UCDHSC) and Deputy Director Dr.
Stephen Reynolds (CSU), the Center will expand existing training programs in Occupational Medicine,
Industrial Hygiene, Ergonomics, and
Health Physics.
It will also fund the launch of a new graduate program in Occupational Health Psychology.
The Center will expand occupational health education in the region
through continuing education offerings; community outreach; pilot research grants; and activities
designed to improve the region's diversity of occupational health professionals.
Each of these new programs will be connected to the environmental and occupational health education
and research of the proposed Colorado School of Public Health.
"It is a tremendously exciting moment for occupational health education and outreach in a region
that faces significant new challenges in protecting the health of workers," stated Dr. Newman.
Project Directors are:
Post Doctoral Fellow Awarded NIH Funding to Study Parkinsons Disease
David Carbone, Ph.D., post doctoral fellow in the Toxicology section of Environmental and Radiological
Health Sciences, recently received a grant award from NIH/HINDS. The title of his research proposal
was MPTP and astrogliosis: molecular regulation of constitutive NOS by PPAR-gamma.
While the etiology of Parkinsons disease (PD) remains elusive, perturbations in the activity of astrocytes,
a type of supporting cell in the nervous system, as well as induction of the enzyme neuronal nitric
oxide synthase (NOS1), have emerged as key components of both human PD and the chemical
1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyradine (MPTP) model of the disease. Preliminary data generated
by our laboratory have demonstrated selective induction of NOS1 in primary astrocytes exposed to a
treatment paradigm consisting of MPTP and the inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma,
designed to simulate an early stage inflammatory event such as that which likely occurs in PD.
Furthermore, our data have demonstrated suppression of this enzyme through modulation of the nuclear
orphan receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) using a novel
high-affinity ligand. It is therefore the objective of this research to characterize the molecular
mechanisms by which NOS1 is selectively induced in astrocytes, as well as the suppression of this
enzyme through modulation of the nuclear receptor PPAR-gamma. Because PD is currently incurable,
it is anticipated that this research will reveal novel targets for more effectively treating PD.
FACULTY MEMBER SELECTED FOR FULBRIGHT SENIOR SPECIALISTS GRANT
Dr. Stephen Reynolds has been selected by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (the Board), the Bureau of Education and Cultural
Affairs of the Department of State (the Department), and the Council for International Exchange of
Scholars (CIES) for a Fulbright Senior Specialists Grant in Public/Global Health.
The specialist program's main emphasis is on curriculum development, needs assessments, surveys,
institutional or programmatic research, and teacher-training activities at the tertiary level.
The purpose is to lecture in environmental health, health risk assessment and epidemiology to
graduate/postgraduate students and young faculty as well as to conduct curriculum assessment and
provide advice on improvement areas.
Dr. Reynolds will travel to the Yerevan State Medical University, Armenia, for a 14 day visit with former University of Iowa post-doctoral associate Artashes Tatevosyan, M.D., now a faculty member of the Armenian university. Together they will address curriculum development and teaching on environmental and occupational medicine, plus research in agricultural health.
THE AMERICAN PARKINSONS' DISEASE ASSOCIATION AWARDS GRANTS TO DR. MARIE LEGARE AND DR. RONALD TJALKENS
Dr. Legare's Title and Abstract
Effects of DJ-1 Mutation on Astroglial Cellular FunctionDr. Tjalkens' Title and Abstract
Targeting glia in Parkinsons disease: modulation of astrocyte inflammatory phenotype by orphan nuclear receptors.Follow this link to previous issues of department
newsletter, The Emitter
Follow this link to
recent issues of the CVMBS magazine, Insight.
Mailing Address
Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences
