Toby Athersuch

I was recently appointed as a Lecturer in Environmental Toxicology & Biomarkers in the MRC-HPA Centre for Environment & Health . As a member of the Centre, I am contributing to ongoing efforts to characterise the health effects of environmental pollutants and the translation of these findings to inform national- and international-level health policy. Training is also another key aspect of the Centre and I am involved in the continued development of an extensive training programme that encompasses 3- and 4- year PhD studentships, Masters level courses and several short courses.

My main research interests are in the application of molecular profiling technologies – primarily metabolic profiling using NMR and MS based platforms – to study aspects of human health and disease. A key research question of importance is how to improve exposure assessment in individuals, small area studies and molecular epidemiology projects investigating environmental exposures. I am also interested in addressing the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the toxicological implications of emerging materials such as nanoparticles.

Please refer to the MRC-HPA website for more information about opportunities for postdoctoral training within the Centre.

Research Interests:

• Metabolic profiling in human health and disease
• Novel analytical approaches for metabolic profiling
• Expanding the coverage of metabolic profiling platforms for improved biomarker discovery
• Emerging materials and nanoparticle toxicology
• Omics biomarkers for exposure assessment
• Structure-metabolism relationships and computational chemistry
• Development of chemometric tools for data analysis and omics integration e.g. statistical total correlation spectroscopy (STOCSY)

Research Interests:

During my postdoctoral research at Imperial College London, I was funded by the EU FP6 Project carcinoGENOMICS . The principal aim of the project is to develop in vitro assays as an alternative to the current chronic rodent bioassay for assessing the genotoxic and carcinogenic potential of chemicals.  I was involved in generating metabolic profile data describing sample sets provided by in vitro workpackages focusing on liver, kidney and lung cell systems. The project includes profiling of cell growth media and cell extracts using NMR and LC-MS based analytical platforms. This has given insight into the endogenous changes caused by exposure to chemical carcinogens in a range of in vitro systems that could potentially be used as the basis for high-throughput screening in chemical risk assessment.

I have also been involved in the EU FP7 Project EnviroGenomarkers  and continue to do so as a collaborator. This project is the first large-scale application of multiple omics technologies in parallel in a population study aimed at deriving intermediate biomarkers related to chronic diseases that may have an environmental component. Prospectively collected biological samples from human biobanks (Northern Sweden Health & Disease Study, EPIC-Italy) are being characterised using metabonomics, proteomics, transcriptomics and epigenetic profiling to find molecular signatures that link measures of environmental exposure to high-priority pollutants (PAHs, heavy metals) to disease risk (breast cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma).

Both of these projects have required the development of new data handling/pipeline tools and novel methods for analysis.

Postgraduate Study

I studied for a PhD in biological chemistry at Imperial College London, which was awarded in 2007.  My thesis, "Analytical and chemometric investigations of congeneric substituted aniline metabolism" focused on investigating the metabolic fate of a number of substituted anilines in vivo using NMR, MS and UPLC. These studies are part of ongoing efforts to develop predictive models of xenobiotic metabolism.

Undergraduate Study

I studied as an undergraduate at Exeter University in the Department of Chemistry. I was awarded a first-class honours degree in Biological and Medicinal Chemistry upon graduating in 2002.

Membership of Societies

Member: Royal Society of Chemistry

Member: British Toxicology Society

Member: In Vitro Toxicology Society