Every pharmaceutical, pesticide, personal care product and industrial chemical must meet strict international standards before hitting the market. These international guidelines, set in place by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), evaluate a chemical’s potential effects on humans and the environment.
While conventional chemical testing practices detect whether a substance is mutagenic (harmful to DNA), they do not explain how or why the damage occurs. David Schuster, a PhD candidate in biology at uOttawa, is helping to change that.
Using a technique called error-corrected sequencing (ECS), Schuster and his supervisor Professor Carole Yauk can directly examine DNA to determine whether a chemical causes mutations, how those mutations occur and where they appear in the genome. This level of detail helps researchers better assess whether a chemical is safe or needs to be modified, improving our ability to prevent mutagenic diseases such as cancer.
In collaboration with Health Canada, Schuster investigated the effects of the widespread pollutant benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF), a chemical commonly found in air pollution, tobacco smoke, and grilled foods. By using ECS to study long-term exposure, he found that BbF has a much greater impact on the liver than on bone marrow, providing important insight into the body’s response to this pollutant.
ECS is not only more precise, but also more efficient, which reduces the number of animals required for testing.
“While animal testing remains an unfortunate reality of ensuring chemical safety for humans, ECS helps reduce that burden. With ECS, we can achieve more detailed results in weeks rather than years, and we only need to use a fraction of the test subjects required by traditional methods,” Schuster explains.
“With ECS, we can achieve more detailed results in weeks rather than years”
David Schuster
— PhD candidate in biology
Collaboration on a global scale
Schuster’s impact stretches far and wide. He has contributed to international studies involving biomedical giants such as Pfizer, Roche, Novartis and Merck, and his data is already being used to inform OECD guidelines.
He also serves as co-chair of the Applied Genetic Toxicology Special Interest Group in the North American Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society and is actively involved with the Genetic Toxicology Technical Committee (GTTC), a committee within the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), where he participates in several working groups.
For Schuster, these collaborations reinforce a key belief: “Science is not a one-person effort. It truly takes a village.”
The human side of science
Despite a growing list of accolades, Schuster remains remarkably humble and appreciative of the people who supported him along the way.
He credits much of his success to his supervisors, Professor Carole Yauk (uOttawa) and Professor Francesco Marchetti (Health Canada and Carleton University).
“Carole and Francesco are outstanding mentors. They connected me with the right people, helped make my research visible and encouraged me to get involved internationally. They’re basically family to me. Francesco and I are always teasing each other, and Carole is always keeping us calm,” says Schuster.
According to Yauk, Schuster’s friendly and collaborative nature has even earned him the nickname “Schusty” within the global genetic toxicology community.
While his support system is strong, Schuster is quick to point out that being a researcher is not without its challenges.
“I struggled with imposter syndrome. I didn’t know if I was good enough. What helped was talking to Carole. She told me she still experiences imposter syndrome herself. It was reassuring to know that someone who has achieved so much still has those feelings from time to time. Everybody is human.”
Industry-bound
Originally from Stuttgart, Germany, Schuster is headed back to Europe, this time to the Netherlands, where he will join the team at Toxys under the leadership of Giel Hendriks. There, he will help expand the company’s research portfolio by advancing the use of ECS.
With emerging scientists like “Schusty” in the field, the future of genetic toxicology research is in good hands!
Read more
- Dose-Related Mutagenic and Clastogenic Effects of Benzo[b]fluoranthene in Mouse Somatic Tissues Detected by Duplex Sequencing and the Micronucleus Assay
- Prolonged Benzo[b]fluoranthene Exposure Increases Tissue-Specific Mutational Burden, Expansion of Mutant Cells, and Mutagenic Potency
- Transferability, Reproducibility and Sensitivity of Mutation Quantification by Duplex Sequencing
- MutSeqR: an open source R package for standardized analysis of error-corrected next-generation sequencing data in genetic toxicology
- The transgenic MutaMouse hepatocyte mutation assay in vitro: Mutagenicity and mutation spectra of six substances with different mutagenic mechanisms
- Power analyses to inform Duplex Sequencing study designs for MutaMouse liver and bone marrow