Course Descriptions

This unique course provides an overview of the history of toxicology told through stories and case studies covering pivotal and transformative events and discoveries through time. Topics include high profile poisonings in ancient and modern times, natural poisons, classical examples of industrial and environmental pollution, current issues, and important discoveries that led to the development of the field of toxicology and the creation of national regulatory agencies and guidelines. The use of case studies provides students with exciting and memorable examples of how poisons and pollutants have changed history and had important influences at regional, national and international scales. No previous knowledge of toxicology is required.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 18 credit units of university courses

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations. Students interested in these courses should contact the department for more information.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations. Students interested in these courses should contact the department for more information.

Weekly hours: 6 Seminar/Discussion hours

An introduction to the general principles of toxicology. Salient topics include: dose-response relationships, toxicokinetics, target toxicity, mechanisms of toxic action, general principles of toxicity testing, and mechanisms of action of antidotes.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): BIOL 224.3 or BMSC 208.3.
Note: Open to all students. Students with credit for VBMS 300 may not take this course for credit.

A discussion of major environmental pollutants, their sources, interactions with atmospheric, terrestrial and aquatic systems, exposure of people, animals and other biota, and their dose-response relationships. Some of the physical and chemical changes induced in the environment by pollutants, contaminant fate and transport, and bioremediation are also discussed.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): BIOL 120.3, BIOL 121.3 and CHEM 112.3.

This course will provide an overview of the sources, fate and effects of toxicants in the aquatic environment. Material will center around prevailing issues reported in the popular news media associated with modern and legacy contaminants, and will illustrate how laboratory and field testing can be combined to assess and predict effects on organisms.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): BIOL 120.3, BIOL 121.3 and CHEM 112.3
Note: TOX 300.3 is recommended.

Discusses natural and artificially produced radionuclides, units of radiation measurement, processes of decay and fission, interaction of radiation with matter, doses, risks of effects, and radionuclide transfer through ecosystems. Provides students with the knowledge to assess potential environmental impacts and health hazards from exposure to ionizing radiation from natural background, uranium mining and medical sources. A 2 hour tutorial once a week is included.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 2 Tutorial hours
Prerequisite(s): BIOL 120.3, BIOL 121.3 and CHEM 112.3 or PHYS 115.3.

Covers the sources, types, behavior and toxic effects of major air pollutants. It is based on four units: 1) the respiratory system as a target for toxic agents, mechanisms of damage and repair, assessment of respiratory function and standardized inhalation toxicity testing; 2) major classes of air pollutants, environmental behavior and effects; 3) climate change and the impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases; and 4) student seminars and rants on current topics in air pollution and inhalation toxicology.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): BIOL 120.3, BIOL 121.3, CHEM 112.3, and CHEM 115.3.

An introduction to human health and ecological risk assessment and an overview of Canadian and international regulatory requirements for the registration of new products, focussing on safety assessment/toxicity testing of pesticides and human pharmaceuticals, and basic principles of occupational health and industrial hygiene.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 6 credit units BIOL and 6 credit units CHEM.
Note: TOX 300 and TOX 301 recommended.

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations. Students interested in these courses should contact the department for more information.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations. Students interested in these courses should contact the department for more information.

Weekly hours: 6 Seminar/Discussion hours

This course provides students with the knowledge and tools required to design, evaluate and interpret toxicological studies. Students will learn how to identify putative causes of adverse effects, design experiments to evaluate these causes and how to estimate, and communicate about, how toxicant concentrations are linked to adverse effects. The course will include test designs at the organism, population and ecological levels of organization by using examples drawn from human and ecological toxicological disciplines. At the conclusion of this course, students will have gained an understanding of how human and ecological toxicity tests are designed, interpreted and communicated.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): TOX 300.3, TOX 301.3; and one of STAT 245.3, STAT 246.3 or PLSC 214.3

This course will provide an overview of the types of injury produced in specific organs by chemical stressors. We discuss how structural and functional changes at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ level can alter organ system function to produce adverse effects (e.g. disease). Students will become familiar with traditional biomarkers of organ injury as well as introduced to new approach methods in systems toxicological assessment. The course is organized into modules according to target organ systems with focus on adverse effects in mammals.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): TOX 300.3

An overview of the occurrence, mechanisms of action and clinical effects of commonly encountered plant toxins, mycotoxins, poisonous mushrooms, algal toxins, bacterial toxins, and zootoxins (venomous and poisonous snakes, fish, arthropods, and marine invertebrates).

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): TOX 300.3

This course will provide an overview of 21st-century approaches in toxicology covering all levels of biological organization, from molecules to ecosystems. “Omics” methods to explore the impacts of chemical stressors on the diversity of transcripts (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics), and metabolites (metabolomics) will be particularly emphasized. Exciting novel concepts, such as epigenetics and environmental DNA (eDNA) will be introduced and their use in toxicology and chemical risk assessment discussed. Last, students will be acquainted with various computational tools required to process the very large datasets resulting from these methods.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): TOX 300 and 3 credit units of 300- or 400-level TOX courses; or permission of the instructor.
Note: Students with credit for TOX 498.3 21st Century Methods in Toxicology may not take this course for credit.

An introduction to major categories, sources, routes of exposure, metabolism, mechanisms of action and toxic effects on people and ecosystems of common industrial organic chemicals, pesticides and metals. Emphasis will be placed on pollutants and industries of relevance to Canada.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): TOX 300.3
Note: TOX 301.3 recommended.

Provides students an opportunity to evaluate practical toxicology/ecotoxicology problems associated with Saskatchewan and northern ecosystems. Students will be presented with specific toxicological questions or case studies of current relevance which will be examined using research data and library facilities. Written and oral presentations will be required for each problem.

Prerequisite(s): TOX 300.3 and TOX 301.3

Students will work on a laboratory, field, library, or theoretical study under the supervision of a faculty member from the Toxicology Group. Each individual project requires approval of a research proposal by the Toxicology Chair in the term preceding registration before permission will be granted. A thorough, written report in thesis format describing the project and the summarized results submitted at the end of the project will be evaluated by the supervisor.

Weekly hours: 3 Practicum/Lab hours
Permission of the department required.
Prerequisite(s): TOX 300.3 and TOX 301.3
Note: Students with credit for TOX 481.3 may not take this course for credit. This course is only open to Honours students in the fourth year of their Toxicology program, unless special permission has been granted by the Toxicology Chair.

Students will work on a toxicology research project under the supervision of a faculty member from the Toxicology Group. Each project requires approval of a research proposal by the Toxicology Chair prior to registration. A written report in thesis format must be submitted at the end of the project.

Weekly hours: 6 Practicum/Lab hours
Permission of the department required.
Prerequisite(s): TOX 300.3 and TOX 301.3
Note: Students with credit for TOX 480.3 may not take this course for credit. This course is only open to Honours students in the fourth year of their Toxicology program, unless special permission has been granted by the Toxicology Chair.

Seminar presentations by visitors, faculty and students on a broad selection of toxicology issues. Fourth-year students in the Undergraduate Toxicology Program will be required to present one seminar and attend all seminars throughout the full academic year.

Weekly hours: 1 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): TOX 300.3 and TOX 301.3

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations. Students interested in these courses should contact the department for more information.

Weekly hours: 6 Seminar/Discussion hours

Human health risk assessment is now playing a major role in the environmental management of chemicals, from both operational and regulatory perspectives. The overall objective of this course is to provide the basic knowledge to conduct, evaluate and interpret human health risk assessments of chemicals present in the natural and built environments.

Weekly hours: 5 Lecture hours

Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of various biochemical mechanisms of toxicity, from both biomedical (human) and ecotoxicological perspectives. The focus will be on applying basic knowledge of biochemistry and physiology to the science of toxicology. Classes will involve discussions on topics related to the current scientific literature.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Provides students with an understanding of the processes that control the movement of organic and inorganic contaminants in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere and will also provide an understanding of the methods used to monitor environmental behavior of potentially toxic contaminants in biotic and abiotic matrices.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): One course in ecology or environmental biology and one course in general or environmental chemistry, or permission of the instructor and student's advisor/advisory committee.
Note: Students with credit for ENVS 816 or ENVS 819 or ENVS 823 will not receive credit for this course.

Provides theoretical background and hands-on experience in methods and techniques typically applied by toxicology professionals in academia, industry, and government. It is a modular course that covers a broad spectrum of procedures, ranging from proper handling of field equipment to biological test methods and analytical processing of samples.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Permission of course coordinator required.
Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Laboratory Safety course and GSR 962.

A comprehensive overview of the technical aspects of predicting, monitoring, and evaluating the effects of toxic substances in aquatic systems. The class will cover levels of biological organization from sub-cellular to ecosystem. It is designed as an in-depth coverage of aquatic toxicology for students pursuing graduate degrees in the aquatic sciences. Students will be exposed to materials that will be useful in setting exposure standards and assessing hazards to aquatic ecosystems due to point or non-point releases of toxic substances.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 2 Practicum/Lab hours
Permission of the instructor required.

This course will introduce students to key principles for designing robust environmental effects studies from industrial activities on the landscape, and the regulatory frameworks requiring these programs. It will cover selection of appropriate ecological effects and measurable parameters (endpoints) that can be used for pre-construction environmental assessments in regulatory approval applications, post-construction environmental effects monitoring programs, and post-project restoration.

Prerequisite(s): Undergraduate degree in biology, toxicology, environmental sciences or other related disciplines.
Note: This course is designed to complement GEOG 885 (Environmental Impact Assessment), and students are encouraged to take both courses.

Offered occasionally by existing and visiting faculty, and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly seminars presented by graduate students and invited speakers. Graduate students are required to attend and to present seminars.

Students writing a Master's thesis must register for this course.

Students writing a Ph.D. thesis must register for this course.