Genetic Toxicology Testing

Ray Proudlock graduated from Thames Polytechnic in Woolwich in 1974. His first laboratory jobs involved plant tissue culture and DNA turnover in cultured lymphocytes. Subsequently, he performed and supervised a wide range of genetic toxicology assays at Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS, now Envigo), the third largest contract toxicology company in the world. He specialized in practical improvement of the quality and efficiency of test methods, many of which are still in routine use including Ames, in vivo micronucleus, in vitro and in vivo chromosome aberration. While at Huntingdon, he was awarded a master's degree for work on in vitro and in vivo UDS by Swansea University, which remains the academic center of excellence for genetox in the UK.

After 21 years, he left HLS as a principal toxicologist responsible for all in vivo genetox to move to Charles River Laboratories (CRL) in Montreal, Quebec, the largest toxicology facility in the world. At Montreal, he designed the laboratories then established and managed the new Genetic Toxicology facility. He trained the staff and helped set up and validate all the current standard assays from Ames to in vivo comet. The department soon established a sound reputation for quality and on-time reporting in a minimum time-frame while achieving rapid growth and good profitability. He was also responsible for heading the in vitro and in vivo drug metabolism department for a temporary (6-month) period during this time. Ray left CRL after 11 years and has since worked as a Principal Toxicologist at Bausch and Lomb (specializing in ophthalmic drugs and medical devices), as Scientific Director at Moltox (responsible for genetic toxicology testing product improvement and development) and as an independent consultant in genetic toxicology.

He has authored or co-authored numerous technical papers on genetic toxicology testing and was directly involved in the international validation of the rat micronucleus test and its integration into longer-term toxicology tests. During his career, he has trained many technical and scientific staff, written and reviewed many thousands of genetox reports and has directed innumerable studies intended for regulatory submission under European, Japanese, North American and OECD GLPs. He has worked on all sorts of materials including gases, diesel exhaust, dyes and pharmaceutical impurities. He plays squash well and golf badly.