Much of the work carried out by DTT is in support of the National Toxicology Program (NTP), an interagency partnership of the Food and Drug Administration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and NIEHS.
Mechanistic Toxicology Branch
Stephen Ferguson, Ph.D., leads the Predictive Toxicology & Screening Group within the Mechanistic Toxicology Branch of the Division of Translational Toxicology (DTT). His primary research focuses to understand and predict human hepatic and renal responses to drug, natural product, and environmental chemical/mixture exposures through development and qualification of a range of microphysiological systems (MPS) and diagnostic assay platforms. He leads a number of innovative toxicology investigations of environmental substances (PFAS, AFFF, PCBs, PAHs, herbicides) that apply new approach methods (NAMs) to inform regulatory decisions and enable safer product development. Emerging focus for this group seeks to develop advanced MPS that emulate toxicologic pathologies and interindividual susceptibility states to enable deeper understanding of the progressions of biological response that coalesce into recognizable pathologies and complement traditional toxicology research methods through interspecies comparisons.
Prior to joining the DTT, Ferguson led the ADME-Tox R&D program of Life Technologies (now Thermo-Fisher) to develop in vitro liver models for prediction of human drug metabolism, transport, drug-drug interactions and hepatotoxicity. He received his BS and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry and biotechnology from North Carolina State University, and currently serves as adjunct faculty to the Curriculum in Toxicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Recent Publications
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Negi C, Chan C, Tsai H, Alshammari I, Sakolish C, Chiu W, Hewitt P, Ferguson S, Villenave R, Bitounis D, Rusyn I. Assessing drug-induced liver injury liabilities in human and animal hepatocytes under static and perfused spheroid culture conditions.
Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology.
2026 Sep 02;209(9):.
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AbstractNegi C, Chan C, Tsai H, Alshammari I, Sakolish C, Chiu W, Hewitt P, Ferguson S, Villenave R, Bitounis D, Rusyn I. Assessing drug-induced liver injury liabilities in human and animal hepatocytes under static and perfused spheroid culture conditions. Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology. 2026 Sep 02
]
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Adesina P, Zhang L, Sukhawanit C, Wood S, Zhao J, Li Z, Sakamuru S, Ferguson S, Hsieh J, Reif D, Huang R, Xia M. Screening the Tox21 Compound Library for Chemicals That Stimulate the Adrenergic β1 Receptor.
Chemical research in toxicology.
2026 Aug 17;39(8):1508-1517.
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AbstractAdesina P, Zhang L, Sukhawanit C, Wood S, Zhao J, Li Z, Sakamuru S, Ferguson S, Hsieh J, Reif D, Huang R, Xia M. Screening the Tox21 Compound Library for Chemicals That Stimulate the Adrenergic β1 Receptor. Chemical research in toxicology. 2026 Aug 17
]
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LaFollette M, Blinova K, Daniel A, Dalmas D, Richardson E, Marsh G, Shoemaker J, Seo J, Vukasinovic J, Word L, Baran S, Kostrzewski T, Kang W, Sadrieh N, Ferguson S. Introduction to the 3RsC's cross-platform microphysiological systems evaluation for drug-induced liver injury in collaboration with FDA-CDER.
Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP.
2026 Jul 26;172:106189.
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AbstractLaFollette M, Blinova K, Daniel A, Dalmas D, Richardson E, Marsh G, Shoemaker J, Seo J, Vukasinovic J, Word L, Baran S, Kostrzewski T, Kang W, Sadrieh N, Ferguson S. Introduction to the 3RsC's cross-platform microphysiological systems evaluation for drug-induced liver injury in collaboration with FDA-CDER. Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP. 2026 Jul 26
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Xu T, Ooka M, Zhao J, Sakamuru S, Ngan D, Zhang L, Yang S, Travers J, Xia M, Zhao T, Klumpp-Thomas C, Zhu H, Hall M, Ferguson S, Shaw N, Reif D, Simeonov A, Huang R. Expanded Tox21 Biological Assay Panel for the Prediction of Drug-Induced Liver Injury and Cardiotoxicity.
Environmental health perspectives.
2026 Jul 07;134(3):361-374.
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AbstractXu T, Ooka M, Zhao J, Sakamuru S, Ngan D, Zhang L, Yang S, Travers J, Xia M, Zhao T, Klumpp-Thomas C, Zhu H, Hall M, Ferguson S, Shaw N, Reif D, Simeonov A, Huang R. Expanded Tox21 Biological Assay Panel for the Prediction of Drug-Induced Liver Injury and Cardiotoxicity. Environmental health perspectives. 2026 Jul 07
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Ooka M, Adesina P, Goyal V, Zhao J, Li S, Feldman G, TeKrony C, Blivis D, Harouni M, Hall M, Ferguson S, Reif D, Voss T, Huang R, Xia M. Comprehensive profiling of metal compound toxicity: potential novel targets and mechanistic insights using Tox21 screening.
Journal of hazardous materials advances.
2026 Feb;21:.
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AbstractOoka M, Adesina P, Goyal V, Zhao J, Li S, Feldman G, TeKrony C, Blivis D, Harouni M, Hall M, Ferguson S, Reif D, Voss T, Huang R, Xia M. Comprehensive profiling of metal compound toxicity: potential novel targets and mechanistic insights using Tox21 screening. Journal of hazardous materials advances. 2026 Feb
]
More Recent Publications from PubMed
