Selected Presentations
2025 Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting
Administrative and Financial Developments – Bedell, M.
Ms. Bedell summarized administrative and financial aspects of the Registries. A breakdown of how funds were spent during FY2025 was provided, as was an overview of the budget for FY2026. Personnel support as well as proposed salary increases were also discussed.
2024 SAC Recommendations & 2025 Overview – Tolmachev, S.
Dr. Tolmachev described the USTUR’s response to each of the SAC’s recommendations from last April’s meeting, and provided an overview the USTUR’s activities and achievements during FY2025. This included completion of a long-term project to enter data from paper dosimetry records into a standardized, electronic database. Dr. Tolmachev also discussed the analysis of urine samples from living Registrants, ongoing research projects, publications, recent publications and presentations, and staff involvement in teaching/training and service activities.
Registrant Statistics and LIMS Update – McComish, S.
Ms. McComish briefly summarized Registrant statistics, intake scenarios for the two Registrants who passed away during fiscal year 2025, two records requests, and a presentation that was given to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee to determine feasibility of assessing veteran health effects of the Manhattan Project. Additionally, two commercial software companies that offered laboratory information management systems (LIMS) that would fit the USTUR’s needs were discussed.
Radiochemistry Laboratory Operations – Tabatadze, G.
Dr. Tabatadze summarized operations at the USTUR’s radiochemistry laboratory. This included progress toward implementing the laboratory’s data quality objectives (DQO) document and analysis of tissue samples. He also discussed the status of the tissue sample backlog and upgrades to equipment at the laboratory, which included installation of a new make-up air unit that can supply sufficient airflow for two additional fume hoods that were installed in FY2024, new alpha spectrometry units, and the purchase and testing of a vacuum-assisted drying oven.
The U.S. Million Person Study of Low-Dose-Rate Health Effects: Status and Importance of USTUR Collaboration – Higley, K.
Dr. Higley provided an overview of the Million Person Study. She identified the worksites associated with this study, discussed disease outcomes that are being studied, and described efforts to accurately quantify worker doses. Two USTUR studies that were conducted in support of dosimetric calculations were emphasized. Epidemiologic results observed at each studied worksite were presented for various mortality endpoints, as were preliminary meta-analysis results.
Importance of USTUR to CRPK Research – Samuels, C.
Dr. Samuels summarized the mission and dosimetry expertise available at the Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge (CRPK) and provided an extensive overview of the ways that the USTUR both directly and indirectly impacts CRPK research. Among other applications, USTUR data helps to inform development of biokinetic models, assess the likelihood of exposure to highly insoluble plutonium, and evaluate uncertainty associated with applied biokinetic models.
Mass Spectrometry Analysis Capability at PNNL – Arnquist, I.
Dr. Arnquist discussed the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) instrumentation available at PNNL. He provided general examples of the analyses that their instrumentation is capable of, and also specifically discussed the lab’s ability to address a ‘wishlist’ of sample analyses that the USTUR needs to have performed.
Death Certificate Misclassification and Risk Models – McComish, S.
Ms. McComish discussed a study that is underway to explore the impact of cause of death misclassification on measures of risk in epidemiological studies. Conventionally, it is understood that if misclassification is independent of dose, it will bias findings away from significance. This simulation study suggests that the conventionally understanding does not always hold true due to the nature of random chance.
Research and Operation in FY2026 – Tolmachev, S.
Dr. Tolmachev discussed USTUR’s goals for the coming year. These included re-establishing a throughput of 450-600 tissue sample at the laboratory, a variety of internal and collaborative research projects, analysis of urine samples from living registrants, collaboration with a graduate student from George Washington University to apply latent class modeling to adjust for misclassification in logistic regressions, and plans to present and publish the results of USTUR research.