2007 International Dose-Response Society Awards

The International Dose-Response Society is proud to announce the recipients of the first annual awards for Career Achievement, New Investigator and Leadership. These awards are presented to individuals in each category who have made outstanding contributions to the field of Hormesis. The awards committee selecting the recipients was Helmut Hirsch, University at Albany, Ken Mundt, Environ, and Barbara Callahan, University Research.

This years awards go to Edouard Alexandre Azzam, Ronald E. J. Mitchel and Erno Tyihak for Career Achievement, Nina Cedergreen for New Investigator Achievement, and Sadao Hattori for Leadership. Congratulations to all.

Outstanding Career Achievement

Edouard Alexandre Azzam, PhD
Ronald E. J. Mitchel, PhD
Erno Tyihak, PhD

Outstanding New Investigator

Nina Cedergreen, PhD

Outstanding Leadership

Sadao Hattori, PhD

Edouard Alexandre Azzam, PhD

Edouard Azzam earned his Ph.D. degree in Radiation Biology from the University of Ottawa (Canada) in 1995. During his post-graduate studies and subsequent research career, he focused on characterizing the effects of low dose/low fluence ionizing radiation in normal human cells. He has shown that biological effects at low doses cannot be predicted from effects at high doses. He extended earlier studies in human lymphocytes and found that adaptive responses to g-radiation also exist in human and rodent fibroblasts. Pre-exposure to small doses of g-rays protected against DNA damage and carcinogenesis from subsequent exposures to higher doses of radiation. In particular, under the mentorship of Professor Ron Mitchel, he found that exposure of mouse embryo cells to doses as low as 1 mGy reduced the level of chromosomal damage due to endogenous oxidative processes and decreased the frequency of neoplastic transformation to a level below the spontaneous rate. More recently, at his laboratory at the New Jersey Medical School where he is Associate Professor, he showed that low dose/low dose-rate g-ray exposures modulate cell cycle progression, and up-regulate anti-oxidant defenses and DNA repair activity in normal human fibroblasts grown under conditions encountered in vivo. While mitochondrial protein import and membrane potential were decreased by high dose g-radiation, they were enhanced by low doses. His ongoing studies have also revealed novel biomarkers of low dose exposures that are associated with cytoprotective properties. In addition, Edouard is pursuing research on propagation of radiation effects (i.e. the bystander response) that he began during his post-doctoral studies at Harvard University under the mentorship of Professor John Little. His data indicate that cytoprotective effects induced by low dose g-rays may be propagated to neighboring cells by intercellular communication mechanisms. Currently, his research is supported by the US Department of Energy, NIH, and NASA.

Ronald E. J. Mitchel, PhD

Ron Mitchel was granted his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and was subsequently awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in the UCLA School of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry. He then returned to Canada and joined the Radiation Biology & Health Physics Branch of Atomic Energy of Canada in Chalk River Ontario as a Research Scientist, where he has remained for the rest of his career. In the late 1970’s he focused his research on radiation induced adaptive responses, and since then has lead the AECL low dose research program.

His research examines the biological effects and risks of ionizing radiation at the molecular, cellular and whole animal levels. Experimental models include yeast, human and other cells in culture, and rodents in vivo. Investigations focus on understanding the biological responses to low doses and low dose rates of high and low LET radiation and assessing their influence on radiation risk, including cancer and non-cancer diseases, heritable mutations and teratogenic effects. The central theme of the research is the adaptive response to radiation, a non-targeted hormetic effect of radiation and one aspect of a general response to stress. The genetic control of the adaptive response is examined in relation to DNA repair processes, cell cycle control and apoptotic signals, and the influence of these processes is being related to the biological control of low dose radiation risk in vivo. The implications of these biological processes for current theories of human and environmental radiation risk and radiation protection practices are being assessed.

Ron is now a consulting scientist at AECL, an adjunct professor of Biology at Laurentian University, Associate Editor of two scientific journals, and the author of numerous peer reviewed scientific publications. His research results, and their implications for the nuclear industry have been regularly presented at National and International conferences and to many nuclear industry groups. In 2003 he received the W. B. Lewis Medal, the highest honour jointly awarded by the Canadian Nuclear Society and the Canadian Nuclear Association.

Erno Tyihak, PhD

Ernő Tyihák is a scientific adviser at Plant Protection Institute of Hungarian Academy of Sciences and lecturer at Budapest University of Technology and Economics (for chromatography, mainly overpressured layer chromatography, OPLC) as well as honorary professor at Szeged Science University, Szeged, Hungary. He is candidate of chemical sciences (PhD degree) (1978) in biochemistry and at that time he is Dr. techn. at Technical University of Budapest (1978) as well as he is doctor of chemical sciences (DSc degree) (1994) in analytical chemistry from Hungarian Academy of Sciences., Budapest, Hungary.

His main scientific achievements are as follows: finding of formaldehyde cycle and of formaldehydome system; discovering of double immune response of plants to pathogens; finding of non-linearity and molecular order in innate and induced resistance; discovering of double effect of trans-resveratrol (interaction between trans-resveratrol and formaldehyde); new approach to mechanism of action of trace elements; development of overpressured layer chromatography (OPLC as an analogy with HPLC) as well as of BioArena system ( a complex bioautographic system).He is author of over 110 publications (among other in writing of 9 books) (mainly in English) (between 1975-2007) in the areas of chromatography, biochemistry, cell proliferation, immunization, oncology. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Planar Chromatography (JPC).He is named as inventor at 25 basic patents.He participates usually in international chromatographic and biochemical congresses as plenary lecturer or lecturer. He organized already 6 international conferences on Role of Formaldehyde in Biological Systems – Methylation and Demethylation Processes.He is member of the Hungarian Chemical Society and the Hungarian Biochemical Society, a member of Presidium of Hungarian Society for Separation Sciences and member of International Society for Planar Separations.

Nina Cedergreen, PhD

Nina Cedergreen was born in the western part of Denmark in 1969. In 1989 she began her Masters studies in biology at the University of Århus, Denmark, and completed her degree in 1997 with a M.Sc. in Ecological Plant Physiology. In January 2001, she defended her Ph.D. in plant adaptation to multiple stresses focussing on the physiological and morphological adaptation of aquatic plants to varying levels of nitrogen and light availability. Soon thereafter she was employed as an Assistant Professor at The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark, working with the effect of pesticides on aquatic plants and algae. It was during this work that Dr. Cedergreen first observed the phenomenon of hormesis. As a stress physiologist it caught her curiosity and in 2005 she succeeded in getting a three-year research grant from the Danish Research Council to investigate the mechanisms behind hormesis in plants, together with the research’s leader Steve Duke from the Natural Products Utilization Research Unit, USDA, Oxford, Mississippi. Since then Nina Cedergreen has been involved in developing statistical models to test for the presence of hormesis and has conducted a large database study to investigate the size and frequency of hormesis among several herbicides. Currently, Dr. Cedergreen is looking at hormesis in different plant endpoints (root and shoot growth, leaf elongation, stalk production, etc.) as well as over time after spraying. Also, she is examining the photosynthetic response to hormetic doses of herbicides to explain hormetic growth increases. Finally, gene expression in response to hormetic doses of glyphosate is being explored, again with Steve Duke’s group at NPURU, USDA. Hopefully this important work of Dr. Cedergreen’s will give us a larger insight into the physiological mechanisms behind hormesis in plants.

Sadao Hattori, PhD

At the forefront of hormesis, for over 20 years Sadao Hattori has been a proponent of the hormetic effect of radiation. Having done extensive research in radiation hormesis and encouraging his colleagues to focus their studies in this direction as well, Dr. Hattori’s extensive work, research, and lectures have been instrumental in bringing an understanding and appreciation of the low-dose effect to the scientific and medical communities. Dr. Hattori is now working to create a hormesis medical society in Japan. The International Dose-Response Society salutes Dr. Hattori’s work and efforts as he is at the vanguard of hormesis. We are honored to award him with this first award for outstanding leadership.