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Join us today, April 1, for Visiting Speaker Edward J. Calabrese, Ph.D., Professor of Toxicology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003

HORMESIS: Adaptive Responses in Biology and Medicine

Edward J. Calabrese is a Professor of Toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst.  Dr. Calabrese has researched extensively in the area of host factors affecting susceptibility to pollutants, and is the author of over 750 papers in scholarly journals, as well as more than 10 books, including Principles of Animal Extrapolation; Nutrition and Environmental Health, Vols. I and II; Ecogenetics; Multiple Chemical Interaction; Air Toxics and Risk Assessment; and Biological Effects of Low Level Exposures to Chemical and Radiation.  Along with Mark Mattson (NIH) he is a co-editor of the recently published book entitled Hormesis: A Revolution in Biology, Toxicology and Medicine.  He has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and NATO Countries Safe Drinking Water committees, and on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Dr. Calabrese also serves as Chairman of the Biological Effects of Low Level Exposures (BELLE) and as Director of the Northeast Regional Environmental Public Health Center at the University of Massachusetts.  Dr. Calabrese was awarded the 2009 Marie Curie Prize for his body of work on hormesis.  He was the recipient of the International Society for Cell Communication and Signaling-Springer award for 2010.  He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from McMaster University in 2013. In 2014 he was awarded the Petr Beckmann Award from Doctors for Disaster Preparedness.

Over the past 20 years Professor Calabrese has redirected his research to understanding the nature of the dose response in the low dose zone and underlying adaptive explanatory mechanisms. Of particular note is that this research has led to important discoveries which indicate that the most fundamental dose response in toxicology and pharmacology is the hormetic-biphasic dose response relationship. These observations are leading to a major transformation in improving drug discovery, development, and in the efficiency of the clinical trial, as well as the scientific foundations for risk assessment and environmental regulation for radiation and chemicals.