Lois Swirsky Gold has directed the Carcinogenic Potency Project at University of California, Berkeley and E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for 25 years. She has published 100 papers and 2 books addressing analyses of animal cancer tests, the methodology of cancer risk assessment, and implications for cancer prevention and regulatory policy. Her most recent work is a graphic that provides a broad perspective on possible cancer hazards from human exposures to chemicals that cause cancer in rodent tests. Her most recent book is Misconceptions About the Causes of Cancer. In addition to development of the Carcinogenic Potency Database, examples of her research include methodological issues such as validity problems associated with the use of limited data from high dose animal cancer tests to estimate low-dose human cancer risks; reproducibility of results in near-replicate animal cancer tests; extrapolation of carcinogenicity, target organ and potency between species; comparison of target organs of mutagenic and non-mutagenic rodent carcinogens; ranking possible carcinogenic hazards of naturally-occurring and synthetic chemicals at doses to which people are exposed; statistical issues in risk estimation; possible hazards of herbal products, and disparities of cancer risk estimates for pesticide residues in food.

Dr. Gold has served on the Panel of Expert Reviewers for the National Toxicology Program, the Board of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, and the CDC Board of Scientific Counselors of the NCEH (National Center for Environmental Health)/ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry). She has received awards from the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and the Annapolis Center. Her web site of the Carcinogenic Potency Project is a highly accessed international resource of analyses of animal cancer tests (http://potency.berkeley.edu/).

Support for the research of Lois Swirsky Gold from 1980-2008 has been provided by Department of Energy (DOE); National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS); National Toxicology Program (NTP); National Cancer Institute; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); University of California, Berkeley, Dean’s Office of the College of Letters and Science; Low Dose Radiation Research Program, Department of Energy.

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List of publications by year and by topic.

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Last updated: October 10, 2008