Garold S. Yost

Professor at University of Utah, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

Doctoral Degree in Organic Chemistry from Colorado State University

Specialties: Biochemical toxicology, pulmonary toxicology, cytochrome P450 biochemistry and gene regulation, reactive intermediates, mechanisms of bioactivation of toxicants

Garold S. Yost is a Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Utah. He received his Ph.D. in 1977 in Organic Chemistry from Colorado State University and was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Paul Ortiz de Montellano, Dept. Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Yost also was a research scientist for 3 years in the laboratory of Dr. Catherine Fenselau, Dept. Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He began his academic career in the College of Pharmacy at Washington State University (1981–87) and has been at the University of Utah since 1987. Dr. Yost is internationally recognized as an authority on toxicology in the respiratory tract, with particular expertise on the cytochrome P450-mediated mechanisms of lung injury. His primary research interests are focused on the elucidation of the chemical, biochemical, and cellular mechanisms of toxicity to lung tissues, caused by exposure to environmental pollutants and cigarette smoke, and the mechanisms of cytochrome P450-mediated dehydrogenation of drugs. His research also investigates the bioactivation of drugs to reactive intermediates, and the mechanisms by which certain P450 genes are selectively expressed in lung tissues. A major new emphasis in Dr. Yost’s research group is the metabolism of inhaled glucocorticoids by respiratory P450 enzymes in the pediatric asthmatic population. He received the Zeneca Traveling Lectureship and the Colgate-Palmolive Traveling Lectureship from the Society of Toxicology.

Dr. Yost participated in ISSX activities continuously in some capacity since 1994. He was the Secretary-Elect and then Secretary of ISSX (2002–06), served on Council (1998–2002), and served as Chair of the Scientific Affairs Committee (1998–2002). He served for six years on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Toxicology, and was the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Spacecraft Water Exposure Guidelines for the Academy. Dr. Yost has served on several study sections for NIH and was a member of the Environmental Health Sciences Review committee for NIEHS (2002–06). He is an elected Fellow and Member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Drug Metabolism and Disposition, and has reviewed manuscripts for many journals in the area of biochemistry and biochemical toxicology. He is on the editorial boards of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology (1989–present), Chemical Research in Toxicology (1991–94, 1996–99, 2005–08), Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health (1992–95), Chemico-Biological Interactions (1992–1998); Drug Metabolism and Disposition (1994–2002), and Toxicological Sciences (2002–present).

Dr. Yost has trained, or is currently training 27 Ph.D. students and 29 postdoctoral fellows. He currently has three NIH grants and an HEI grant in his research group that account for over $1 million in total costs per year. He has published 111 papers in the peer-reviewed primary literature, along with 18 book chapters. He is the editor of Respiratory Toxicology, Vol. 9, in Comprehensive Toxicology, 2nd Edition, 2010.