Background

During his 20-year career at LLNL, Kenneth Turteltaub has served in both senior scientist and leadership roles for various bioscience groups and divisions. In addition, he has held appointments at the University of California (UC), San Francisco’s School of Pharmacy, and he served as co-program leader for molecular oncology and adjunct visiting clinical professor at UC Davis. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Turteltaub is the technical leader for the development and application of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for biomedical sciences. He founded the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Resource for Biomedical AMS at LLNL and served as its director since its inception in 1999. He is also an associate director of the joint LLNL–UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, which he helped gain NIH designation.

As division leader for the LLNL Biosciences and Biotechnology Division (BBTD), Turteltaub led more than 130 staff conducting fundamental and applied research in genomics, computational biology, pharmacology and toxicology, nanobiology, measurement science, environmental microbiology, and host pathogen biology, with a focus on detecting and countering biological and chemical threat agents. In addition to his role as division leader for BBTD, he served as program leader for Biological Detection & Medical Countermeasures.

Research Interests

Toxicology and metabolism of drugs and toxicants; accelerating development of new therapeutics, molecular mechanisms of disease; low-dose pharma(toxico)kinetics and pharmaco(toxico)dynamics, and biomedical applications of accelerator mass spectrometry.

Patents

Turteltaub, K. W., J. S. Vogel, J. S. Felton, B. L. Gledhill, and J. C. Davis, “Method of Measurement in Biological Systems,” U.S. Patent No. 5,209,919.

Turteltaub, K. W., J. S. Vogel, J. S. Felton, B. L. Gledhill, and J. C. Davis, “Method for Detection of Long-Lived Radioisotopes in Small Biochemical Samples" U.S. Patent No. 5,366,721.

Turteltaub, K. W., Vogel, J.S., Felton, J.S., Gledhill, B.L., Davis, J.C., Stanker, L.H. "Quantifying molecules in biological substances, partic. For detecting carcinogens – using radioisotopes in a biological host and accelerator mass spectrometry" U.S. Patent No. 5,209,919

Turteltaub, K. W., J. S. Vogel, J. S. Felton, B. L. Gledhill, and J. C. Davis, "Method for Detection of Long-Lived Radioisotopes in Small Biochemical Samples" U.S. Patent No. 5,366,721.

Turteltaub, K. W., J. S. Vogel, J. S. Felton, B. L. Gledhill, and J. C. Davis, "Methods of Measurement in Biological Systems - Competitive Radioimmunoassay using Long-Lived Internal Labels," U.S. Patent No. 5,376,355.

PhD, Pharmacology/Toxicology, Iowa State University, 1987

MS, Animal Science, Ohio State University, 1982

BS, Agriculture, Ohio State University, 1980

Malfatti, M., Lao, V., Ramos, C., Ong, V., and Turteltaub., K.W. (2014) Use of Microdosing and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry to Evaluate the Pharmacokinetic Linearity of a Novel Tricyclic GyrB/ParE (TriBE) Inhibitor in Rats. Antimicrob. Agents and Chemotherapy 58(11), 6477-6483.

Thomas, A.T., Stewart, B.J., Ognibene, T.J., Turteltaub, K.W., Bench, G. (2013) Directly Coupled High-Performance Liquid Chormatography-Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Measurement of Chemically Modified Protein and Peptides. Anal. Chem. 85(7), 3644-3650.

Malfatti, M.A., Palko, H.A., Kuhn, E.A. and Turteltaub, K.W. (2012) Determining the Pharmacokinetics and Long-Term Biodistribution of SiO₂ Nanoparticles In Vivo using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. Nano Lett. 12(11), 5532-5538

Turteltaub, K.W., Davis, M.A., Burns-Naas, L.A., Lawton, M.P., Clark, A.M., and Reynolds, J.A. (2012). Identification and Elucidation of the Biology of Adverse Events: The Challenges of Safety Assessment and Translational Medicine. Clin. Can. Res 17,6641-6645

Hah, S.S., Mundt, J.M., Kim, H.M., Sumbad, R.A., Turteltaub, K.W. and Henderson, P.T. (2007) Metabolism of 8-oxoguanine in MCF-7 breast cancer cells as mediated by 17β-estradiol. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, USA, 104(27), 11203-11208.

Brown, K., Tompkins, E.M., Boocock, DJ., Martin, EA., Farmer, P.B., Turteltaub, K.W., Ubick, E., Hemingway, D., Horner-Glister, E., and White, INH. Tamoxifen forms DNA adducts in human colon after administration of a single [¹⁴C]-labeled therapeutic dose. Cancer Res. 67(14), 6995 - 7002.

Malfatti, M. A., K. H. Dingley, S. Nowell, E. A. Ubick, N. Mulakken, D. Nelson, N. P. Lang, J. F. Felton, and K. W. Turteltaub, “Urinary N-hydroxy-PhIP-N₂-glucuronide Levels Are Predictive of Colon DNA Adducts after a Low Dose Exposure of the Cooked-Food Carcinogen PhIP in Humans,” Cancer Res. 66(21), 10541-10547 (2006).

Mcloughlin, K., K. W. Turteltaub, D. Bankaitis-Davis, R. Gerren, D. Macejak, L. Siconolfi, K. Storm, D. Trollinger, V. Tryon, M. Bevilacqua, “Limited Dynamic Range of Immune Response Gene Expression Observed in Healthy Blood Donors Using RT-PCR,” Molec. Med. 12(7-8), 185-195 (2006).

Borowsky, A. D., K. Dingley, E. Ubick, K. W. Turteltaub, R. D. Cardiff, and R. DeVere-White,, “Inflammation and Atrophy Precede Prostate Neoplasia in PhIP Induced Rat Model,” Neoplasia 8, 708-715 (2006).

Tompkins, E. M., P. B. Farmer, J. H. Lamb, R. Jukes, K. Dingley, E. Ubick, K. W. Turteltaub, A. E. Martin, and K. Brown, “Novel ¹⁴C-Postlabeling Assay Using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry for the Detection of O6-Methyldeoxyguanosine Adducts,” Rapid Commun. Mass Spec. 20, 833-891 (2006).

DeGregorio, M. W., K. H. Dingley, G. T. Wurz, E. Ubick, and K. W. Turteltaub, “Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Allows for Quantification of Doxirubicin at Femtomolar Concentrations,” Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology 57, 335042 (2006).

Brown, K, K. H. Dingley, and K. W. Turteltaub, “Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry,” Methods in Enzymology 402, 423-43 (2005).

K. W. Turteltaub, C. Hartman-Siantar, C. Blakeley, W., and Easterly, C., “Technology Assessment and Roadmap for the Emergency Radiation Dose Assessment Program,” Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures Program, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, UCRL-TR-215887 (2005).

Chiarappa-Zucca, M. L., R. C. Finkel, R. E. Martinelli, M. E. McAninch, D. O. Nelson, and K. W. Turteltaub, “Measurement of Beryllium in Biological Samples by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: Applications for Studying Chronic Beryllium Disease,” Chem. Res. Toxicol 17, 1614-1620 (2004).

Brown, K., E. A. Guenther, K. H. Dingley, M. Cosman, C. A. Harvey, S. J. Shields, and K. W. Turteltaub, “Synthesis and Spectroscopic Characterisation of Site-Specific PhIP-oligodeoxynucleotide Adducts,” Nucleic Acids Res. 29, 1951-1959 (2001).

Brown, K., B. E. Hingerty, E. A. Guenther, V. V. Krishnan, S. Broyde, K. W. Turteltaub,and M. Cosman, M. “Solution Structure of the 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine C8-deoxyguanosine Adduct in Duplex DNA,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 98, 8507-8512 (2001).

K. W. Turteltaub, and J. S. Vogel, “Bioanalytical Applications of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry for Pharmaceutical Research,” Current Pharmaceutical Design 6, 991-1007  (2000).

Phillips, D. H., P. B. Farmer, F. A. Beland, R. G. Nath, M. C. Poirier, M. V. Reddy, and K. W. Turteltaub, “Methods of DNA Adduct Determination and Their Application to Testing Compounds for Genotoxicity,” Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis 35, 222-233 (2000).

Turteltaub, K. W., K. H. Dingley, K. D. Curtis, M. Malfatti, R. J. Turesky, R. C. Garner, J. S. Felton, and N. P. Lang, “Studies on the Macromolecular Adduct Formation and Metabolism of Heterocyclic Amines in Humans and Rodents at Low Doses,” Cancer Letters 143, 149-155 (1999).