OHSU

Faculty & Staff

Peter Spencer, PhD, FRCPath

Email:
spencer@ohsu.edu
Position:
Professor of Neurology, OHSU School of Medicine
Senior Scientist, OHSU Center for Research on Occupational & Environmental Toxicology
Director, OHSU Global Health Center.

Read more about Dr. Spencer's research

PubMed Listing



Biography

Dr. Spencer received his doctoral degree from the University of London, Faculty of Medicine (Pathology) and postdoctoral training in neuroscience in the Rose F. Kennedy Center for Research on Mental Retardation and Human Development of the Albert Einstein College (AECM) of Medicine. One of five national Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Fellows in the Neurosciences (1974-76), he rose at AECM to Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and Pathology, and founding director of the Institute of Neurotoxicology. In 1988, he joined Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to found the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology, which he directed for 21 years. In 2007, Dr. Spencer was invited to found and lead the OHSU Global Health Center. He has served as Principal Investigator on numerous federal individual, program project and center grants, including a current Framework for Global Health program grant from the National Institutes of Health John E. Fogarty International Center.

Dr. Spencer holds six honorary professorial appointments at foreign institutions, including the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Beijing), and Fudan (Shanghai) and Sichuan (Chengdu) universities. An Emeritus Member of the American Society of Toxicology (2011), he was also 2010 Keynote Lecturer for the Society of Toxicologic Pathology and International Federation of Societies of Toxicologic Pathologists (Encomium by B. Bolon, Toxicol. Pathol. 39:15-18, 2011). He is an Honorary Member of the Indian Academy of Neurosciences (2005); recipient of the 2003 Distinguished Service Award, African Society of Toxicological Sciences; the 2002 Distinguished Scientist Award in Neurotoxicology, American Society of Toxicology; the 1998 Alzheimer's Association Brumback Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research; the 1997 Snider Foundation Award for Lifetime Contributions to Toxicology, and the 1997 Silvio O. Conte prize for basic and applied neuroscience contributions relevant to environmental health. Other honors include: Weil Awardee and Moore Awardee of the American Association of Neuropathologists; Member, American Neurological Association, and Fellow, Royal College of Pathologists (UK). National and international named visiting professorships and lectureships include: Alice B. Hamilton Lecturer, George H. Germann Memorial Lecturer, Sibte Hasan Zaidi Orator, Ellerman Lecturer, Hanninen Lecturer, Kugelberg Lecturer, Grass Traveling Neuroscience Lecturer, Sterling Visiting Professor, Sitlington Lecturer in Toxicology, and Tarbox Distinguished Neurosciences Lecturer.

 

Current Research Interests

Etiology, systems biology and prevention of neurotoxic and neurodegenerative disease.


Video

"The Poison that Waits?", BBC Documentary describing research on western Pacific amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and parkinsonism-dementia syndrome.
 

Selected Publications

BOOKS (selected from 7)

Spencer and Schaumburg's Experimental and Clinical Neurotoxicology, Williams & Wilkins (1980) & Oxford (2000).

First edition (1980) (temporarily unavailable)
Second edition (1310 p, 2000) Chinese Translation (Ch. 1-3 only)

PAPERS (selected from 390)

Gene Expression in normal and toxic states

Kisby, G.E. et al. Does the cycad genotoxin MAM implicated in Guam ALS-PDC induce disease-relevant changes in mouse brain that includes olfaction? Communicative & Integrative Biology, in press.

Kisby, G.E. et al. The cycad genotoxin MAM modulates brain cellular pathways Involved in neurodegenerative disease and cancer in a DNA damage-linked manner. PLoS One 6(6):e20911. Epub 2011 Jun 23, 2011.

Beyer, R.P. et al.  Multi-center study of acetaminophen hepatotoxicity reveals the importance of biological endpoints in genomic analysis. Toxicological Sciences 99:326-27, 2007.

Bammler, T. et al  Standardizing global gene expression analysis between laboratories and across platforms. Nature Methods 2:351-356, 2005.

Qin, L-X., Kerr, K.F. and Contributing Members of the Toxicogenomics Research Consortium  Empirical evaluation of data transformations and ranking statistics for microarray analysis. Nucleic Acids Research 32:5471-5479, 2004.
 

Molecular Mechanisms of Neurotoxic Disease

Tshala-Katumbay D, Desjardins P, Sabri P, Butterworth R, and Spencer P.  New insights into mechanisms of gamma diketone-induced axonopathy. Neurochemical Research 34:1919-23, 2009.

Tshala-Katumbay, D., Monterroso, V., Kayton, R., Lasarev, M.,? Sabri, M. and Spencer, P. Probing mechanisms of axonopathy. Part II:  Protein targets of 2,5-hexanedione, the neurotoxic metabolite of the aliphatic solvent n-hexane. Toxicological Sciences 107:482-9, 2009.

Tshala-Katumbay, D., Monterroso, V., Kayton, R., Lasarev, M., Sabri, M. and Spencer, P.S.  Probing mechanisms of axonopathy. Part I. Protein targets of 1,2-diacetylbenzene, the neurotoxic metabolite of aromatic solvent 1,2-diethylbenzene. Toxicological Sciences 105:134-41, 2008.

Sabri, M.I., Hashemi, S.B., Lasarev, M.R. and Spencer, P.S.  Axonopathy-inducing 1,2-diacetylbenzene forms adducts with motor and cytoskeletal proteins required for axonal transport. Neurochemical Research 32:2152-9, 2007.

Tshala-Katumbay, D., Palmer, V.S., Lasarev, M.R., Kayton, R.J., Sabri, M.I. and Spencer, P.S.  Monocyclic and   dicyclic hydrocarbons: Structural requirements for proximal giant axonopathy. Acta Neuropathologica (Berl.) July 28 112:317-24, 2006.

Field and Epidemiological Studies of Environmental Neurological Disease

Kisby, G.E., Spencer, P.S. Is neurodegenerative disease a long-latency response to early-life genotoxin exposure? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2011, 8, 3889-3921; doi:10.3390/ijerph8103889.

Spencer, P.S., Palmer, V.S. and Ludolph, A.C. On the decline and etiology of high-incidence motor system disease in West Papua (southwest New Guinea).  Movement Disorders 20:S119-126, 2005.

Horner, R.D., Kamins, K.G., Feussner, J.R., Grambow, S.C., Hoff-Lindquist, J., Harati, Y., Mitsumoto, H., Pascuzzi, R., Spencer, P.S., Tim, R., Howard, D., Smith, T.C., Ryan, M.A.K., Coffman, C.J. and Kasarskis, E.J.  Occurrence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis among Gulf War veterans.  Neurology 61:742-749, 2003.