Techniques Employed to Evaluate Risk Resulting from Exposure to Chemical and Physical Agents, Exposure Limits and How They Are Established, Overview of Testing Procedures for New Products

Defining Environmental vs. Genetic Causes

Interpreting Disease Clusters, Abnormal Incidence of Disease in a Given Region, Disease Patterns in Migrant Workers and Immigrants, Association of Disease with Specific Behavior

Accidental Human Exposure Documents Health Risks

Atomic Bomb, Industrial Accidents

Evaluation of Data in Human Subjects

Strengths and Limitations, Analysis of Data Presentation

Class Taught by Dr. Norman Robbins

Director, Center for the Environment

Prospective Studies, Retrospective Studies, Conventional Randomized Clinical Trials, General Design [Phase I, II, III & IV], Typical Parameters Evaluated

Evaluation of DNA & Chromatin Damage

DNA Strand Breaks, Chromosome Aberrations & Sister Chromatid Exchanges, Comet Assay, Detection of DNA Adducts

Assays to Evaluate Sequence Specific Damage to DNA

DNA Footprinting Assays, Analysis of the Specificity of DNA Strand Breaks, Ligation Mediated PCR

DNA Repair Genes, Mutator Phenotypes, Suppressor Genes, Metabolic Activation or Detoxification of Carcinogens

Regrowth & Clonagenic Assays to Evaluate Cytotoxicity, Numerous Cell Culture Assays to Evaluate Specific Responses, Ames Test - Reversion Assay to Evaluate Mutagenicity

Mutation Frequency, Mutation Rate and Mutation Spectra, Selectable Gene Targets

Recessive and Dominant Targets, Purging of Pre-Existing Mutants, Bacterial Systems - E. coli lac Operon, Mammalian Systems - hprt, aprt and tk as Reporter Genes, Mammalian Systems - Hemizygous versus Heterozygous Targets, Phenotypic Expression Period

Evaluation of Mutations without Selection, Gene Targets in Man, Gene Targets in Transgenic Animals

Types of Vectors, Why use Vectors?

DNA Repair

Mutator Phenotypes, Impact of Repair on Distribution of Damage & Mutations

Mutation Hot Spots, Spontaneous Mutations, Environmentally-Induced Mutations