Brooke Martin

Brooke Martin
Research Assistant Professor

Email: brooke.martin@umontana.edu

Phone: (406) 243-4546

Brooke Martin completed a research year (Honours) in 1989 in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Lay at the University of Sydney synthesizing novel Cr(V) compounds and studying chromium and vanadium mutation rates in Salmonella Typhimurium. After three and a half years in the Paint and Pigment industry working for Dulux, ICI, Australia, she returned to acadaemia and completed a PhD with Dr. Karen Wetterhahn at Dartmouth College in 1998, looking into the toxicity and metabolism of chromium, arsenic and cadmium compounds in human lung cells. From 1998-2000 she was an American Heart Association Postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Jerry Kaplan in the Division of Cell Biology and Immunology of the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah Medical School. Dr. Martin moved to the University of Montana in 2000 as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Kent Sugden. She is now a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and has taught biochemistry and metal toxicology.

 

Research Interests

My research interest remains the study of toxic metals in biological systems. The basic question I am pursuing is the underlying mechanistic basis of the oxidative stress parameters that are observed following metal exposure. Obvious cellular target systems are the mitochondria and the interaction of metals with the antioxidant enzyme systems within the cells. A genetically pliable and high biomass organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is being used as the model organism in these investigations. Exposure to excess levels of toxic or essential metals may lead to protein turnover or regulatory events that provide potential biomarkers of the specific toxic effects of metal consumption. As metal exposure is usually as consequence of the deposition of multiple metals into drinking water or the air I am also investigating the way in which co-exposure may lead to competing or synergistic toxic effects. Such co-exposure profiles include arsenic exposure as a consequence of copper mining and chromated copper arsenic exposure from pressure treated wood.

Representative Publications

Ardon OA, Kaplan J and Martin BD. 2002 “Iron Uptake in Yeast“ in Molecular and Cellular Iron Transport Marcell Dekker Templeton D ed. Chapter II.2

Sugden KD, Campo CK, and Martin BD. 2001 “Direct Oxidation of Guanine and 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-Guanine by a High Valent Chromium Complex” Chem. Res. Toxicol. 14(9) 1315-1322

Martin BD, Schoenhard JA and Sugden K D. 1998 “Hypervalent Chromium Mimics Reactive Oxygen Species as Measured by the Oxidant-Sensitive Dyes 2',7'-Dichlorofluorescein and Dihydrorhodamine” Chem. Res. Toxicol., 11(12) 1402-1410.

Barr-David G, Hambley TW, Irwin JA, Judd RJ, Lay PA, Martin BD, Dixon NE, Hendry P, Ji J-Y, Baker RSU, and Bonin AM. 1992 “Suppression by Vanadium(IV) of Chromium(V)-mediated DNA Cleavage and Chromium(IV/V)-Induced Mutagenesis. Synthesis and Crystal Structure of the Vanadium (IV) Complex (NH4)[V(O){HOC(Et2)COO}{C(Et)2COO}]” Inorg. Chem. 31, 4906-4908.

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