September 25, 2007

Two from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine have

received international honors.

Linda Toth, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and associate dean of research and faculty affairs at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, has received the 2007 Charles River Laboratories’ Excellence in Refinement Award.  The award was presented at the 6th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences in Tokyo in August.  Toth was chosen to receive this award for “a body of research that improves both the understanding and practice of refinement alternatives.”

Sponsored in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, the award honors one who has made an outstanding contribution to the development, promotion and/or implementation of refinement alternatives.  “Refinement” refers to methods aimed at minimizing pain and distress for laboratory animals.  This is the second award given since it was established in 2005.

Toth joined SIU’s faculty in 2000 and was named associate dean in 2004.  She is certified as a diplomate by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine.  She earned her bachelor's degree at Duquesne University (1972) and her master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Pittsburgh (1975, 1980).  She earned her veterinary medicine degree at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. (1986).

Miao Chang, a doctoral candidate in medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, has been awarded the 2007 Elsevier New Investigator Award.  The award was presented at the 13th annual meeting of the International Federation of Placenta Associations in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in August.  It is presented to a new researcher with the best oral presentation in pregnancy research.  The association promotes excellence in placental research that advances the understanding and treatment of obstetrical complications.

Chang was selected for the award from an international field of more than 280 new investigators.  She also was awarded a New Investigator Travel Award by the National Institutes of Health to attend the conference.  She is a graduate assistant in the laboratory of Donald S. Torry, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology and of obstetrics and gynecology.

Chang earned her master’s in molecular biology at SIU (2004) and her bachelor’s in biotechnology and industrial engineering at Shanghai JiaoTong University (2000).  She is the daughter of Fukui Chang and Zhixiang Sun of Tianjin, China.

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