Plenary Speakers
Read about the exciting lineup of daily plenaries for SETAC Fort Worth.
Nicole Kleinstreuer | Monday, 21 October
Artificial Intelligence for Toxicology and Beyond: Revolutionizing Risk Assessment
At the forefront of computational toxicology, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a pivotal tool for risk assessment, predictive modeling, and the development of new approach methodologies in toxicology. In this plenary lecture, Nicole Kleinstreuer, Director of NICEATM, will explore the transformative impact of AI on toxicological sciences. She will examine the shift from empirical to computational methodologies, highlighting the integration of in silico machine learning algorithms with in vitro mechanistic assays and in chemico high-throughput screening data. Kleinstreuer will showcase recent advancements in computational modeling that have enhanced our ability to predict adverse outcomes and biological responses to chemical exposures across human health and ecological risk assessment. She will discuss the challenges of integrating AI into regulatory frameworks, ensuring that the AI revolution in toxicology is both scientifically robust and socially responsible.
Nicole Kleinstreuer is the director of the NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) and the executive director of the congressionally mandated Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM). NICEATM is the US federal resource for alternatives to animal testing, and is part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Her work is centered on domestic and international efforts to develop novel testing, modeling, and analysis strategies that provide more rapid, mechanistic, and human-relevant predictions of potential environmental chemical hazards. She has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and postdoctoral training in computational toxicology. Kleinstreuer has adjunct faculty positions at the Yale University School of Public Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has published over 140 peer-reviewed publications and won numerous awards, including the 2023 NIEHS Individual Merit Award, the 2022 NIH Director’s Award, and the 2019 Society of Toxicology Achievement Award.
Ben Masters | Tuesday, 22 October
Using Wildlife Movies for Conservation and Science Communication
Ben Masters of Fin and Fur Films will show examples of how movies can be a powerful tool for science communication and conservation. He frequently works with research institutes and NGOs to communicate complex ideas to the general public in an entertaining, understandable, and relevant way. He will show clips of some of Texas' most remarkable wildlife and ecosystems.
Ben Masters is a filmmaker and writer specializing in wildlife and adventure stories. He is most known for directing Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story, The River and The Wall (SXSW 2019 Award Winner) and for producing Unbranded (Mountainfilm 2015 Audience Award Winner). Masters studied wildlife biology at Texas A&M University and founded Fin and Fur Films in 2012. He is the author of two books published by Texas A&M University Press and has written for National Geographic and Western Horseman. A proud Texan, Masters loves riding a good horse through new country, filming wildlife stories that haven’t been documented before, and using movies to help conserve wildlife and wild places.
Emily Monosson | Wednesday, 23 October
Ancient Defenses, Modern Chemicals, a Mismatch for the Ages: How Life Responds to Toxic Chemicals
How did the collection of receptors, enzymes, and proteins that protect humans from many toxic chemicals evolve? And how do they respond, if at all, to today's novel chemicals? It is well understood that life's responses to toxicants are both highly conserved and incredibly complex. Emily Monosson’s goal has been to introduce these concepts to the general public by writing about evolution and toxic chemicals -- from those that occur naturally and are essential for life, to the industrial-age chemicals that now permeate the environment and human bodies.
Trained as an environmental toxicologist, Monosson has written about science and our impact on the environment and the consequences for wildlife, plants and humans for over a decade. One of her first edited books, Motherhood the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out, gave voice to women scientists facing the problems of working in traditional scientific institutions as parents and their creative and unique solutions for maintaining a meaningful life in science. A series of books exploring the evolution and responses of life's chemical defense systems followed. From Evolution in a Toxic World to Unnatural Selection and Natural Defense, her books focus on how the chemicals we use to manage pests and pathogens often push them instead to evolve resistance, and how we might reduce these selective pressures. She lives in Western Massachusetts and has held an adjunct position at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ever since first landing there nearly thirty years ago. Her most recent book, Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic, has been called sobering, unsettling and “a short, crisp introduction to the possibility of being devoured by fungi." She is a fan of HBO’s Last of Us, though does not live in fear of becoming a fungal zombie.