Toxicology Fellowship

Overview

Toxicology Fellowship
Edward Boyer, PhD, MD, Fellowship Director

The Medical Toxicology training program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School offers a unique approach to medical toxicology education. UMass fellowship trainees learn, in a rigorous way, the science and art of medical toxicology. Fellows also develop an understanding of medical issues of public health importance and receive mentoring toward achieving NIH funding for independent research investigations. The ultimate goal of training at the University of Massachusetts is to prepare graduates for leadership roles in academic medicine and medical toxicology.

The clinical experience offered by the UMass training program is unmatched. Located in Worcester, the second largest city in New England, UMass-Memorial Medical Center is the sole referral facility in central Massachusetts; poisoned patients are drawn from northern Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and southern Vermont. Consequently, fellows receive an excellent education in all aspects of medical toxicology, including industrial, occupational, and agricultural exposures, adverse drug reactions and drug interactions, toxicity of veterinary drugs in humans, substance abuse, as well as toxicity from therapeutic agents. The operations of the Medical Toxicology Service are supported by the hospital’s excellent laboratory system, which offers standard as well as customized toxicologic analyses with rapid turnaround times.

The UMass fellowship has fundamentally changed the field of medical toxicology in that no other program trains fellows to establish and sustain a successful career as an independent investigator conducting hypothesis-driven medical toxicology research. With a track record of NIH funding in human subjects and basic science investigations dating to 1989, the UMass Division of Medical Toxicology offers unparalleled research experience and mentoring to fellows seeking academic excellence. Fellows are strongly encouraged to use an interdisciplinary approach to team science in the development of a research plan addressing questions of public health importance.

This feature of the UMass program—an emphasis on issues of public health importance—distinguishes it from all other medical toxicology fellowships. Program faculty serve on NIH, CDC, and FDA grant review committees, federal expert advisory committees related to drug abuse, chemical terrorism, adverse drug event surveillance, overdose prevention, and infectious disease, as well expert panels convened by major research corporations. Fellows benefit from this extensive experience by learning the public health relevance of a wide variety of medical and toxicologic issues. In addition, UMass faculty collaborates in important international investigations related to environmental health. Finally, UMass medical toxicology investigators are adept at forging collaborations with successful academicians whose research involves HIV, drug abuse ethnography and epidemiology, computer science, pharmaceutical development, and treatment of drug abuse.

The approach adopted by the UMass medical toxicology training program allows graduates to reach that "cutting edge" where successful academic careers begin. Since 2004, five individuals have been mentored by the toxicology faculty to become NIH-funded principal investigators; two other graduates direct toxicology services at major teaching hospitals, one of which is a leading affiliate of Harvard Medical School. The success of graduates speaks to not only the breadth of toxicology training but also the strength of academic mentoring offered by the Medical Toxicology training program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

For further information, including application materials, contact:

Martha Wright, MBA, Program Manager
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Department of Emergency Medicine
55 Lake Avenue North, LA-166
Worcester, MA 01655
Tel: (508) 421-1417
Fax: (508) 334-7411