Koren Mann, PhD, Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the School of Biomedical Sciences at McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is the 2024 recipient of the Society of Toxicology’s Metals Specialty Section Career Achievement Award. The award, presented during the Society’s annual meeting earlier in March in Salt Lake City, Utah, recognizes a senior investigator whose outstanding research accomplishments have substantially advanced our understanding of metals toxicology. The Metals Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology was founded in 1979 with the goal to encourage collaboration amongst researchers and to attract graduate students to the rapidly expanding field of metal toxicology.
“This award is given in recognition of a person’s contribution to research on the toxicology of metals, but also contribution to the Metals Specialty Section and mentoring of the next generation of scientists,” says Prof. Mann. “I am proud to be nominated and recognized by my peers for my research contributions, but also equally excited about the trainees who have come through my lab to see what they do in the future.”
After graduating with a BSc in Biology from Nebraska Wesleyan University, Prof. Mann obtained a PhD in Pathology/Immunology from Boston University School of Medicine. Following that, she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Oncology at McGill, where she researched the use of arsenic as a potential chemotherapy in cancer treatment. She was appointed Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the fall of 2021.
She has led an independent research program since 2009. Her laboratory researches the environmental health effects of metals, in particular, the toxic effects of arsenic and tungsten on the immune system and how this can lead to different pathologies. Currently, Prof. Mann leads projects including investigating arsenic-induced atherosclerosis and the effect of tungsten on bone and B lymphocytes.
Prof. Mann has published extensively over the past two decades, including 75 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters, as well as presenting almost 70 abstracts and conference presentations. She currently serves as an Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives.
Congratulations Prof. Mann!