Position Title
Professor of Respiratory Toxicology
Director of the NIEHS T32 for Advanced Training in Environmental Health Sciences
Dr. Laura S Van Winkle is a Professor of Respiratory Toxicology in the School of Veterinary Medicine Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology at UC Davis. She received a BS with honors from UC Santa Barbara in Pharmacology and worked in the biotech sector for several years before earning her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from UC Davis. Following completion of her American Lung Association Research Training Fellowship, she joined the faculty at UC Davis. Her laboratory is at the Center for Health and the Environment where she is the Director of the Cellular and Molecular Imaging Core. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT) and is a current member of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Environmental Occupational and Public Health program committee. She has served on numerous NIH Study Sections and as an Associate Editor for the SOT society journal Toxicological Sciences. She was the recipient of the SOT Inhalation and Respiratory Specialty Section Young Investigator and the Women in Toxicology Mentoring Awards. She has published over 95 research articles in the fields of inhalation toxicology, developmental lung biology, chemical bioactivation and lung injury and repair. Her research has focused on the interaction of environmental pollutants and specific lung regions, such as the distal conducting airway epithelium of the lung and how that contributes to lung remodeling. She studies chemical exposures relate to lung diseases such as cancer and asthma by investigating how chemical exposures alter life-span health. She is currently the Chair of the Graduate Group in Pharmacology and Toxicology at UC Davis and Director of the NIEHS T32 for Advanced Training in Environmental Health Sciences at UC Davis. Her research lab has mentored over 75 undergraduate students in STEM.