Dr Daniel B Pickford

I have a broad interest in environmental science issues, with a focus on impacts of environmental contaminants on wildlife (ecotoxicology) and test method development to support environmental risk assessment. This includes development of alternative methods to minimise animal use, and complements my post-graduate teaching activity in the Institute, which includes Environmental Hazards and Risk, Life cycle assessment, and research/critical skills. I am program director for the Institutes new MSc program on Climate Change Impacts and Sustainability.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Manchester, 1999
  Thesis: Investigations into the effects of endocrine-disrupting pollutants on Amphibian reproductive physiology, using the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis
• Master of Science, University of Florida, 1995
  Thesis: Endocrine Regulation of clitero-penis development in the juvenile American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)
• BSc Hons Genetics, Nottingham University, 1990

Career

• Research Lecturer in Aquatic Ecotoxicology 2003 – date Brunel University
• Research Scientist (Ecotoxicologist) 1999 - 2003 Brixham Environmental Laboratory, AstraZeneca Global Safety, Health and Environment

Research Interests

Research Activity

Research Projects

While my first degree was in genetics, my graduate research training took me into the field of ecotoxicology, and endocrine disruption in particular, and this has dominated my research activity to date. My doctoral studies were among the first to investigate the potential for endocrine disrupting effects of environmental contaminants on amphibians, and I have continued this theme through posts in industry and academia.

Here at Brunel I am currently completing a project funded by DEFRA, to assess whether native amphibians in the UK may be impacted by endocrine disrupting contaminants in the agricultural landscape. This work has greatly benefitted from close collaboration with Japanese scientists fostered through the UK-Japan Research Liason on Endocrine Disrupter Research, for which I act as one of the (UK) project leaders.

As part of my varied role in my previous post in industry (AstraZeneca), I started my involvement with international efforts to develop a metamorphosis assay for detecting thyroid-mimicking chemicals, an activity that has led me to chairing the OECD Ad Hoc committee on amphibian test method development. As a counterpoint to this activity, I am interested in developing alternative methods to rodent and amphibian test for thyroid-disrupters, using simple marine urochordates as a novel invertebrate model for thyroid function, and am supervising an MPhil student on this topic. I maintain links with industry, and currently supervise a PhD student investigating the impacts of larval exposure to estrogens on adult reproductive function, in an emerging amphibian model. My scientific interests are broad, and in line with my role in developing the Institutes new MSc program on “Climate change impacts and sustainability”, I am developing skills and research ideas relating to broader issues related to climate change and sustainability.

Grants Awarded

Grants/contracts awarded in current post

Assessing the effects of aberrant gonadal differentiation during larval development in the amphibian model Silurana (Xenopus) tropicalis. Syngenta, Joint funded Ph.D. studentship with Brunel University, Institute for the Environment. £32,527 agreed contribution from Syngenta over 3 years, March 2006.

Participation in Phase II Validation of OECD Amphibian metamorphosis Assay, DEFRA, £21,850, January 2005 - date

Assessing the impact of endocrine disrupters in the aquatic environment on British frogs and toads
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Call for proposals on effects of Endocrine disrupters in the aquatic environment (EDAQ, CTG0301), July 14 2003
£83,020. May 25th 2004 to May 24th 2007.

Investigating the effects of pollution from commercial aviation activity on embryonic and larval development in common British anurans. Seed Grant from Declining Amphibian Population Task Force £1,300 February 16th 2004 to February 15th 2005

Research contracts secured in previous employment

Assessing chronic toxicity of Bisphenol A to larvae of the African Clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) in a flow-through exposure system (2000) CEFIC/Society of the Plastics Industry, Bisphenol A Environmental Working Group (£89,000).

Conducting baseline studies on husbandry and culturing of the Giant Ramshorn Snail (Marisa cornuarietis) for development of toxicity test methods. (2002) American Plastics Council, Bisphenol A Environmental Research Task Group (£174,000).

Awards

Prize Studentship in Ecotoxicology – The Wellcome Trust (1995-1998)

Postgraduate Researchers

• Severine Larroze (registered for Ph.D) Syngenta AG and Institute for the Environment, Brunel University
• Eleni Geropanagioti (registered for MPhil) – self funded

MSc Dissertation supervision (academic year 2008/2009)

• Nigel Hargreaves (Climate Change Impacts and Sustainability)
  “Sustainability: a new Approach?”
• Ben Hosken (Environmental Science: Legislation and Management)
  “A life cycle assessment of dogs in the UK and how humans behaviour relating to them can be improved regarding the environment”
• Jefferson Nwokeoma (Environmental Science: Pollution and Monitoring)
  “Rainwater harvesting and domestic recirculating potable water systems – a solution to future water scarcity?”
• Nisha Patel (Environmental Science: Legislation and Management)
  “Public risk perception and attitude to nuclear power and other energy sources in the United Kingdom in the face of an energy gap”
• Ratri Sutarto (Climate Change Impacts and Sustainability)
  “ Assessing contributions of methane from solid waste disposal to Thailands GHG emissions”
• Tobias Webb (Climate Change Impacts and Sustainability)
  “How will the current economic climate affect the UK's ability to meet the EU's targets for renewable energy by 2020”

Program Director – Climate Change Impacts and Sustainability

Led the development and approval of this new, interdisciplinary program which aims to address the likely impacts of climate change as a result of global warming: in developing and developed countries, and from ecosystem function, energy management, national and international politics and corporate governance and sustainability to human health and welfare. The program is one of the first truly multi-school PG taught programs at Brunel University, and among the first to address this pressing and multifaceted issue in the UK higher education sector.

Module Leader for ‘Environmental Hazards and Risks’

Core module for all IfE MSc programs, and covers basic concepts in environmental risk assessment (hazard, exposure, risk, source-pathway-receptor). I deliver most of the module, with contributions from IfE colleagues on Geohazards, from a senior scientific officer in the UK Government Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and from one of our Visiting Professors, who was a senior scientist in the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and DEFRA.

Module Leader for ‘Research and Critical Skills in Environmental Sciences’

Core module for all IfE MSc programs and is intended to support our PG taught students learning through their MSc programs. I coordinate contributions from among IfE staff and external speakers, contribute sessions on experimental design, statistics and critical analysis of peer-reviewed literature and take primary responsibility for the Journal Club activity we run as part of the module, and the synoptic assessment which is research proposal for dissertation project.

Module co-leader for “Principles of Sustainable development: energy in transport and industry”.

Core module for all IfE MSc programs and is co-taught with staff from Brunel’s School of Engineering. I contribute two sessions on Life Cycle Assessment in term 1, take primary responsibility for the coursework assessment of term 1, and coordinate the module with staff in the School of Engineering.

• OECD Expert Consultation on Endocrine Disrupter Testing in Amphibians, Paris France, April 2001 (Chemical Industries Representative)
• OECD Expert Consultation on Endocrine Disrupter Testing in Amphibians, Paris France, April 2001 (Chemical Industries Representative)
• OECD Ad Hoc Expert Group on Amphibian testing, Paris, France, June 2004 (UK Government Representative and Chair)
• OECD Ad Hoc Expert Group on Amphibian testing, Paris, France, May 2008 (UK Government Representative and Chair)
• Editing of Detailed Review Paper on Amphibian Metamorphosis Assay for OECD, incorporation of Member states comments (2004)
• Preparation of integrated review of Amphibian and Mammalian test methods for detection of thyroid active chemicals, commissioned by OECD secretariat and completed 2007
• Peer review of scientific output/research proposals for various organisations including South African National Research Foundation, Dutch Research Council for Alternatives to Animal Experiments (ZonMW), American Chemistry Council
• External Examiner for PhD theses at University of Cardiff (2005) and University of Bergen, Norway (2007)
• Invited Lecturer for Faculties of Veterinary Medicine and Aquaculture University of Bologna, Italy (2007)
• Core project leader (Assessing ecological impacts on amphibian population) for UK-Japan Research Liaison on Endocrine Disrupters (2005-date)
• Full member NERC Peer Review College July 2005-2008
• Manuscript Reviewer for Aquatic Toxicology, Chemosphere, Environmental Health Perspectives, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Environmental Science and Technology, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, General and Comparative Endocrinology, Journal of Zoology, Toxicological Sciences, Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, Part B

Consultancy

• I have provided consultancy to a major agrochemical company (Syngenta AG) on various substance-specific and generic issues relating to ecotoxicity testing in amphibians (2003-date)
• Measurement of sex steroid hormones in plasma of Kemp’s Ridley turtles from Chago and D’Arrios Archipelago’s, Indian Ocean

Publications

Journal Papers

(2010) Pickford, DB., Screening chemicals for thyroid-disrupting activity: A critical comparison of mammalian and amphibian models., Crit Rev Toxicol 40 (10) : 845- 892 Download publication

(2005) Crane, HM., Pickford, DB., Hutchinson, TH. and Brown, JA., Effects of ammonium perchlorate on thyroid function in developing fathead minnows, Pimephales promelas, Environmental Health Perspectives 113 (4) : 396- 401

(2003) Pickford, DB., Hetheridge, MJ., Caunter, JE., Hall, AT. and Hutchinson, TH., Assessing chronic toxicity of bisphenol A to larvae of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) in a flow-through exposure system, Chemosphere 53 (3) : 223- 235

(2003) Pickford, DB. and Morris, ID., Inhibition of gonadotropin-induced oviposition and ovarian steroidogenesis in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) by the pesticide methoxychlor, Aquatic Toxicology 62 (3) : 179- 194