As a Board Certified
Toxicologist with postdoctoral research experience in the fields of
biochemical toxicology and pharmacology, Dr. Rao has served on
national expert panels convened by the U.S. EPA, DOE, CDC, and the private
sector.
During the past 15 years,
Dr. Rao has lead numerous public health risk assessment
investigations with a focus on the nature of adverse effects toxic
chemicals and hazardous substances in the general
environment. He was a principal toxicologist and risk
assessor of over 25 hazardous sites for federal, state and private
agencies.
Lower East Fork
Poplar Creek Public Health Risk Assessment
Toxicological
studies performed in support of the remedial investigations of the
Lower East Fork Poplar
Creek (Oak Ridge, TN) is perhaps one of the most extensive
engagements by the Department of Energy in environmental
restoration programs.
As a senior scientist, Dr.
Rao lead the development of reference doses for insoluble mercury, which was key to assess
risks posed by mercury to public health and ecosystem. Dr.
Rao was responsible for development of a bioavailability study
strategy to mercury in the ecosystem. Based on these studies
soil contamination levels were compared to tissue levels of mercury
and other toxic contaminants.
Toxicoinformatics:
Chemical Mixtures and Cancer Risks
U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's pioneering efforts in the
integration of scientific analytical tools into regulatory decision
process created unique toxicoinformatics initiative through the
"Toxicant Interaction Project" for Dr. Rao and his team at SAIC. As the SAIC lead scientist and
project manager, his team provided the agency for over eight years
with a highly specialized toxicoinformatics concepts,
tools and systems to predict cancer risks posed by chemicals
present in the environment.
Toxicoinformatics:
Dioxin Toxicity Analysis
The mere word
"dioxin" invokes terrifying response from public and the problem of
dioxin-first, how dangerous it is to human
health and environment and second, how to regulate its presence
in the environment-dominate EPA's agenda for the past three
decades.
Dr. Rao's team spent
several years through support to Department of Defense, EPA projects on the toxicology as well as risk
assessment. The projects initiated by Dr. Rao drew the
attention of SAIC Corporate leadership and was selected for two
years in a row to receive SAIC's internal Research and Development
Grant.
A key issue that Dr. Rao and his team worked was on the modeling of
the cellular update of dioxins. Given the complex
chemistry of dioxins, its uptake by cells was considered a crucial
link to establish its hazard. This would also enable
regulators to set concentrations in the environment considered as
acceptable. A key finding from Dr. Rao study was that
the Ah-receptor dependent uptake of dioxins is complex
and competitive which would make accurate exposure to dioxin
difficult. The model developed from this study recognizes
this complex uptake mechanism and makes suitable changes for a
variety of conditions. The peer groups considered this
approach as technically superior and merit further
investigations.
Dr. Rao performed subject
matter expert reviews of the serum dioxin mobility and long-term
multi-year study investigated long-term health consequences of phenoxy herbicide
exposure in Air Force personnel in Southeast Asia during the
1960s (under contract to US Air Force).
Public Health Risk
Assessment
Dr. Rao was
the principal toxicologist and risk assessor for the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory
sites (under contract to SAIC). The project involved
development of public health risk assessment study design for
exposure to hazardous chemicals for varying weather conditions and
the impact of the unique Alaskan permafrost groundwater resources.
A total of 5 sites including a lake were under this study.
Petroleum hydrocarbons, Heavy metals, PAHs, PCBs, and VOCs were investigated for
possible impact on public health and ecosystem.
He performed extensive
toxicity/hazardous analysis for over two years of bioremediation
technology demonstration study for pentachlorophenol and
dioxins (BioTrol Inc.), soil
treatment systems (RETEC) for polyaromatic
hydrocarbons, and bioremediation technologies (Allied Signals).
Performed numerous
specialized toxicological analysis of drugs, environmental
mutagenic and carcinogenic chemicals, chemical mixtures,
pesticides, industrial chemicals, and complex toxic
substances. For example, his toxicological evaluation
of 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane (DMDNB) for the Army Environmental Hygiene Agency (AEHA)
was considered one of the most extensive up to
1995.
Heavy Metal Toxicity Assessment
Dr. Rao has
served as a subject matter expert toxicologist in studies on the
neurobehavioral effects on children due to exposure to lead, a
toxic heavy metal in the environment.
Under the US National Academy of Sciences Young
Investigator Fellowship (1993-95), he collaborated with
scientists at the Institute for Clinical and Preventive Medicine
(Bratislava, Slovakia) investigating health effects on children from
exposure to low levels of lead in Bratislava.
Similarly, he has served
as the expert toxicologist in several investigations (under
contract to EPA), on Integrated Exposure and Uptake
Biokinetics (IEUBK) lead model comparing model-derived blood
concentrations of lead with long-term toxicity criteria for
children. He was one of the external scientists involved in
the validation of algorithms and assumptions built into the
IEUBK model.
In a related public health
risk assessment application, Dr. Rao used the IEUBK lead model to
compare model-derived blood-lead concentrations and soil
concentrations for the Remedial Investigations and
Feasibility Studies at the Bunker Hill (Idaho).
The Bunker Hill Study Area
is a former smelting facility located along I-90 in the Silver
Valley in northern Idaho. It encompasses the towns of Pinehurst,
Smelterville, Wardner, and Kellogg and the communities of Page,
Ross Ranch, Elizabeth Park, and Montgomery Gulch.
These remedial
investigations contributed to the development of clean-up
alternatives for the contaminated sites in the Bunker Hill.
Dr. Rao was
the principal investigator of over a dozen short-term studies on
toxicity characterization (lead, arsenic, antimony and cadmium) and toxicokinetics of
lead and arsenic in animal models.
