The Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology is a multidisciplinary unit for research and graduate education in the broad areas of Toxicology. The program was founded in 1969 in the Graduate School, as one of nation’s first Ph.D. programs in Toxicology and moved to College of Medicine (COM) in 2004.
Mission
Our education mission is to provide students with an education in Toxicology that is based on an understanding of biochemistry, physiology, molecular/cell biology and metabolomics, coupled with in-depth research experience on the mechanisms by which specific agents induce toxicity, and/or the basic cellular processes upon which environmental agents impact to cause disease.
Our department consists of 18 tenured/tenure track Core Faculty with a primary appointment in Toxicology and Cancer Biology, and includes a Interim Chair/Director, Dr. Daret St. Clair. The diversity of training opportunities is enhanced by approximately 44 faculty who have Joint Appointments in the department, but whose primary appointments are in Departments and Colleges across the University. The Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology has graduated more than 150 PhDs in Toxicology who have gone on to careers in academia, government, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. The department maintains a robust extramurally supported training environment, including an NIEHS T32 training grant for doctoral students in toxicology, which has been continuously funded since 1990 and has been renewed for funding until 2015.