November 28, 2001

DMS Graduate Student Receives Young Investigator Award

Nicole Soucy, a graduate student in Dartmouth Medical School's department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, was given the Young Investigator Award at the annual meeting of the Oxygen Society in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, last week. She earned the honor for her presentation of a poster titled "Mechanisms for arsenic-stimulated vascular cell angiogenic and profibrotic gene expression." This is the second consecutive year that a graduate student in Dartmouth's Toxic Metals Research Program has taken home this competitive award.

Soucy, who graduated with a BS degree from the University of New England and a MS degree from San Diego State University School of Public Health, is working with Dartmouth toxicologist Aaron Barchowsky on the mechanisms by which arsenite exposure contributes to vascular disease. Her work involves looking at vascular smooth muscle cell responses to low-dose arsenite exposure.

Established in 1987, the Oxygen Society is a professional organization comprised of over 1,200 scientists, researchers and clinicians with an interest in the field of free radical biology, chemistry and medicine. Free radicals, molecules that are highly reactive chemically, are the natural products of metabolism. They play a major role in cell proliferation and cell injury. The Oxygen Society is an affiliate chapter of the International Society for Free Radical Research.

Nancy Serrell
Center for Environmental Health Sciences at Dartmouth