F. Peter (Fred) Guengerich, Ph.D., Stanford Moore Professor of Biochemistry, is the 2013 recipient of the Society of Toxicology Merit Award in recognition of distinguished achievements to toxicology throughout his career.
Guengerich, who directed the Vanderbilt Center in Molecular Toxicology from 1980 to 2011 and who served as interim chair of the Department of Biochemistry from 2010-2012, will be honored March 11 during the global society’s annual meeting in San Antonio.
“This award is really for these people in my lab who worked with me and collectively addressed hard questions that would ultimately impact the field,” Guengerich said.
During the past 30-plus years, Guengerich and his colleagues have studied how proteins called P450 enzymes metabolize drugs and cancer-causing chemicals (carcinogens), how carcinogens interact with DNA to form adducts, and how these adducts produce genetic mutations.
With more than 600 peer-reviewed original research publications, Guengerich is one of the most highly cited researchers worldwide in the areas of biochemistry and pharmacology.
A Vanderbilt faculty member since 1975, he has mentored 125 postdoctoral trainees and has received numerous awards for his teaching and research.
Guengerich is the third Vanderbilt faculty member to win the society’s Merit Award. The late Wayland J. Hayes Jr., M.D., Ph.D., won in 1989, and Michael Aschner, Ph.D., the Gray E.B. Stahlman Chair in Neuroscience, won in 2011.
