Associate Professor Paul Wright

Associtate Professor Paul Wright is a specialist lecturer in toxicology, toxicity testing, nanotoxicology/nanosafety, and drug design, development and regulation for a wide range of courses in the following RMIT undergraduate and postgraduate programs, i.e.: Bachelor of Applied Science degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomedical Science, Laboratory Medicine, and Nanotechnology; Graduate Diploma in Laboratory Medicine and Master of Applied Science in Biotechnology and Business. Paul also lectures on toxicology and preclinical drug testing to the Graduate Diploma of Drug Evaluation and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Melbourne University.

Program Coordinator for the online toxicology postgraduate programs:

• Graduate Diploma of Toxicology (GD103)
• Master of Applied Science (Toxicology) (MC114)

Course Coordinator of:

• ONPS2311 Toxicity Testing
• ONPS2312 Research Methods and Project
• PUBH1355 Occupational and Food Toxicology
• ONPS2387 Principles of Toxicology (undergraduate course)

Co-course Coordinator of:

• PUBH1357 Advanced Risk Assessment and Chemical Evaluation

Since 1992, Paul has held several departmental, school, faculty and university positions at RMIT including:

• Deputy chair of Faculty Research and Higher Degrees Committee (FRHDC).
• Member of several RMIT committees, including Faculty Board, Dean's Advisory Committee (DAC) and Centre Director's Committee.
• Member of the Animal Experimental Ethics Committee (AEEC) – as Dean's nominee (1996-2001).
• Radiation Safety Officer, Dept Medical Laboratory Science, RMIT.
• Member of the MAppSc (Toxicology) Course Progress Committee.

Educational development work

Paul Wright has contributed to national and international toxicology education initiatives, including:

• Development of the unique fully-online Toxicology postgraduate programs at RMIT - having developed and delivered the largest portion of these courseware.
• Lead person for the IUTOX long-term educational project: "Online Toxicology Masters Program for Developing Countries", funded by IUTOX and U.S. National Institute of Environmental Sciences (NIEHS) International Educational Research Grant (2002-2004).
• "Toxlearn" Steering Team of the U.S. Society of Toxicology - Paul was a major contributor in revising the "ToxTutor" online toxicology tutorials of the U.S. National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (NLM/NIH).
• Toxicology Education Foundation - Paul is an international contributor and reviewer of TEF's educational programs.
• Acknowledged contributor to the "IUPAC Glossary of terms used in toxicology 2nd Ed." Pure Appl. Chem., Vol. 79, No. 7, pp. 1153-1344, 2007.
• "World Library of Toxicology" at Toxipedia.org - Paul is the Australian Country Correspondent for this NLM/NIH initiative that was launched in September 2009.
• Author of the Australian chapter in the "Information Resources in Toxicology" 4th Ed. (Ed Wexler P) Elsevier Inc., 2009. ISBN 978-0-12-373593-5. Chapter 80, pp733-55.

Awards

• 2006: FIUPAC - Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
• 2002: RMIT Research Award for a successful ARC Linkage Grant application.
• 1997: Awarded 'Inaugural ASCEPT visitor' to the British Toxicology Society (BTS) - including the inaugural Australasian-BTS Exchange Keynote Lecture at the BTS'97 Congress, UK.
• 1991: 'Collegian of the Year' and Life Member - International House, Sydney University, Sydney, NSW.
• 1984-87: Australian Postgraduate Research Award - PhD research scholarship.

• Immunotoxicology: Paul has been the Senior Research Fellow of the Key Centre for Applied and Nutritional Toxicology since 1992, and his primary research interests are in the area of occupational and environmental immunotoxicology - studying the immune effects of chemicals and nanoparticles present in the workplace and environment.
• Nanotoxicology and Nanosafety: Paul is the co-ordinator of NanoSafe Australia, a new nation-wide research and testing network in nanotoxicology. Consequently, Paul has been appointed as the OHS advisor to the Management Committee of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Nanotechnology Network (ARCNN is an NHMRC expert commentator on health and nanotechnology, and was also an appointed member of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Advisory Committee on Health and Nanotechnology (ACHN). He is also an external collaborator of research projects in the Nanosafety Theme of the CSIRO Future Manufacturing Flagship.
• Natural Products Research: Paul is also the Principal Toxicologist of the  team at the RMIT School of Medical Sciences, investigating marine and plant natural products with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.
• Human Liver Cells: As an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Paul was involved in establishing Australia's 1st liver cell bank for transplantation ("The Rotary Liver Cell Bank"), and helped isolate cells used in Australia's 1st liver cell transplant operation in December 2004.
  
• Paul has been supervisor or co-supervisor of numerous research students including 8 PhD, 19 Masters and 27 Honours BAppSc students.

• Ph.D. (Toxicology), Adelaide University, 1989.
• B.Sc. (Hons 1st class, Toxicology), Adelaide University, 1984

• International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX) - Director, Executive Committee, 2001-4; IUTOX Councillor representing Australasia (ASCEPT), 1998-2009; Member of Commissions for Education and Communication, IUTOX website moderator, 2001 onwards. Chairperson of the Publications Committee (1995-2001) and Secretary of the Executive Organising Committee (1995-2000) for the 9th International Congress of Toxicology (ICT-IX) in Brisbane, July 2001.
• Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT) - held several active roles in the Toxicology Section including: Co-convenor and chief editor of proceedings for the Toxicology Workshop: "Health-based risk assessment of contaminated land: Focus on carcinogens", Melbourne, Feb, 1995; Toxicology Section Convenor (1999-2000) and Committee member (elected or co-opted for 8 consecutive years, 1993-2000 Toxicology Section Representative on ASCEPT Council (1999 Invited chairperson of the symposia sessions: "Molecular Toxicology"; "Toxicology" and Joint Toxicology/Drug Metabolism sessions at three Annual Meetings (1995, 1996, 1999 Invited speaker in the "ASCEPT Johnson and Johnson's Young Investigator Symposium", Annual Meeting of ASCEPT, Brisbane (1993 Adjudicator of various student prizes at several Annual Scientific Meetings (1993 onwards).
• Australasian Society for Ecotoxicology (ASE) - founding member, 1994 onwards.
• Australasian College of Toxicology and Risk Assessment (ACTRA) – 2009 onwards.
• Several invited lectures at conferences, including: 4 plenaries, 9 international and 9 national lectures.

Projects and consultancies

A total of 14 refereed technical and consultancy reports, including 4 chemical evaluations, 5 toxicity testing reports, and 5 technical reports for the following government and industry organisations:

• Dept of Education, Employment & Workplace Relations (DEEWR), Office of the Australian Safety & Compensation Council (ASCC).
• Toxicology Evaluation Section, Environmental Health Branch, Commonwealth Dept of Community Services and Health, Canberra.
• Worksafe Australia / National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOHS) Sydney, NSW.
• CSIRO Division of Textile and Fibre Technology, Belmont, Victoria.
• CSIRO Division Chemicals and Polymers, Ian Wark Laboratories, Clayton, Victoria.
• Tocovite Pty. Ltd., West Melbourne, Victoria.