Shawn Wnek, PhD, DABT
Director, Health Sciences
Senior Toxicologist
Dr. Shawn Wnek is a director of health sciences, senior toxicologist, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT). He has over 15 years of training and professional experience in the fields of risk assessment, chemical emergency response, human health and environmental toxicology, and industrial hygiene. Dr. Wnek obtained a B.S. in Biology from Baldwin-Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. Upon graduation, he worked at a contract research organization involved in developmental, reproductive, and inhalation toxicological evaluations to support safety assessments of pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and industrial chemicals in a variety of in vivo models. Dr. Wnek attended The University of Arizona and obtained a Ph.D. in the field of Pharmacology and Toxicology. His graduate research focused on the mechanism of arsenic-induced bladder cancer following exposure to arsenic and its metabolites.
As a senior toxicologist for CTEH, Dr. Wnek serves as a consulting toxicologist. His duties include providing guidance for human health and environmental risk assessments and remediation plans, leading responses to, and providing toxicological and industrial hygiene support for hazardous materials incidents, and providing toxicological support to healthcare providers and response workers with potential chemical exposures. Dr. Wnek has extensive knowledge and experience in the mechanisms and toxicities of a wide range of compounds including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), constituents associated with oilfield exploration and production, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides/herbicides, irritant gases, fire smoke and particulate matter, solvents, and metals toxicology.
Dr. Wnek participates in a wide range of projects involving chemical evaluations in various media including water, soil, and air. He is a responding toxicologist in the CTEH Toxicology Emergency Response Program (TERP). Dr. Wnek has performed a number of human health risk assessments and safety evaluations for various state agencies and industrial clients across the United States. Dr. Wnek is a member of the Society of Toxicology and the American Industrial Hygiene Association.
Education
- Ph.D., Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
- B.S., Biology, Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, OH
Past or Current Professional Affiliations
- Society of Toxicology
Publications
- P.T. Hazards after the Storm: Floodwater Drainage Pump Stations and Exposure to Hydrogen Sulfide
- Toxicology of Metals
- Petroleum smoke incident support: the composition and adverse health effects of petroleum fire smoke
- Strategies for Assessing Human Health Impacts of Crude Oil Releases
- Global gene expression changes in human urothelial cells exposed to low-level monomethylarsonous acid
- Interdependent genotoxic mechanisms of monomethylarsonous acid: Role of ROS-induced DNA damage and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 inhibition in the malignant transformation of urothelial cells
- Monomethylarsonous acid produces irreversible events resulting in malignant transformation of a human bladder cell line following 12 weeks of low-level exposure
- Low level exposure to monomethylarsonous acid-induced the over-production of inflammation-related cytokines and the activation of cell signals associated with tumor progression in a urothelial cell model
- Arsenicals produce stable and progressive changes in DNA methylation patterns that are linked to malignant transformation of immortalized urothelial cells
- Persistence of DNA damage following exposure of human bladder cells to chronic monomethylarsonous acid
- Epigenetic mediated transcriptional activation of WNT5A participates in arsenical-associated malignant transformation
- Reactive oxygen species regulate properties of transformation in UROtsa cells exposed to monomethylarsonous acid by upregulation of MAPK signaling cascade