Julio C. Davila is a Toxicologist with 17 year experience in Pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Davila received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of Los Andes (Venezuela) in 1975. He completed his M.S. degree in Toxicology at the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine in 1981, and his Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy in 1990. That same year, Dr. Davila went on to three years of post-doctoral training in the Chemical Pharmacology Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. In 1993, he joined the Drug Safety Assessment group at G.D. Searle/Monsanto and then at Pharmacia Corporation in 1999 to manage the In Vitro Toxicology Laboratory.His research interest and Drug Safety support have been focused on developing and applying in vitro and in vivo modeling systems to enhance the mechanistic understanding of drug- and chemical-induced toxicity. Dr. Davila establishes primary cell culture models (e.g., hepatocytes, cardiomyocytes, pancreatic acinar cells, adrenal cortical and renal epithelial cells) and various cell lines coupled with emerging technologies (e.g., Omics, RNAi, Cellomics) to predict in vivo drug organ and tissue toxicity, metabolism, and idiosyncratic reactions caused by drugs and chemicals across species.
Currently, he is working on generating stem cell-derived hepatocytes as a source of primary cells as well as developing in vivo and in vitro test systems for predicting drug-induced liver injury (DILI) in patients with hepatic steatosis/metabolic syndrome. In addition, Dr. Davila is an active member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX) and the Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB). He has received several awards including the Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH, NHLBI), Colgate-Palmolive Visiting Professorship Award in In Vitro Toxicology sponsored by the SOT, the Research Fellow Award from Monsanto/Pharmacia Corporation and the 3Rs Award (for applying Alternative Methods to Reduce, Refine and Replace animal testing) from Pfizer Inc. Dr. Davila has been actively involved in various SOT Programs. Amongst these are the Student Minority Program, the Continuing Education Committee, the Committee on Diversity Initiatives, and the In Vitro Specialty Section (Councilor, Vice-President and President).
He has co-authored one national/international patent application and more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Dr. Davila serves on the editorial board of the Toxicology in Vitro Journal and the Current Protocols in Toxicology and is an ad hoc reviewer for Toxicology Applied Pharmacology, Toxicology Letters, International Journal of Toxicology, Toxicological Sciences and for the Alternative Research Development Foundation.
Selected Publications
1. Strom SC, Davila JC, and Grompe M. (2010). Chimeric mice with humanized liver: Tools for the study of drug metabolism, excretion and toxicity. In: Maurel P (ed.). Hepatocytes, Methods in Molecular Biology 640, Chapter 27, pp 491-509; Springer Science LLC; New Jersey.
2. Davila JC, Donaldson DB, Engle SJ, Pryor HI, Vacanti JP. (2009). Stem Cell Technology for embryotoxicity and hepatotoxicity evaluation. In: Ekins S, Xu J (eds) Drug Efficacy, Safety, and Biologics Discovery: Emerging Technologies and Tools. Chapter 8, pp 175-213. John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey.
3. Miki T, Marongui F, Ellis ECS, Dorko K, Mitamura K, Ranade A, Gramignoli R, Davila JC, Strom SC. (2009). Production of hepatocyte-like cells from human amnion. In: Dhawan A, Hughes RD (eds). Hepatocyte Transplantation, vol 481. Chapter 13, pp 155-168. Humana Press, New Jersey.
4. Davila JC, Xu JJ, Hoffmaster KA, O’Brien PJ, Strom SC. (2007). Current in vitro models to study drug-induced hepatotoxicity. In: Sahu S (ed) Hepatotoxicity: From Genomics to In Vitro and In Vivo Models. Chapter 1, pp 3-55. John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey.
5. Davila JC, Cezar G, Thiede M, Strom S, Miki T, Trosko J. (2004). Use and application of stem cells in toxicology. Tox Sci. 79: 214-223.
6. Kramer JA, Curtiss SW, Kolaja KL, Alden CA, Blomme EAG, Curtiss WC, Davila JC, Jackson CJ, Bunch RT. (2004). Acute Molecular Markers of Rodent Hepatic Carcinogenesis Identified by Transcription Profiling. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 17: 463-470.
7. Lamba V, Lamba J, Yasuda K, Strom SC, Davila JC, Hancock M, Yang W, Fackenthal JD, Rogan B, Writin S, Schuetz EG. (2003). Hepatic CYP2B6 expression: Gender and population differences and relationship to CYP2B6 genotype and CAR expression. JPET. 307: 906-922.
8. Davila JC, Rodriguez RJ, Melchert RB, Acosta D. (1998). Predictive value of in vitro model systems in toxicology. Ann. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 38: 63-96.
9. Davila JC, Morris DL. (1999). Analysis of cytochrome P450 and Phase II conjugating enzyme expression in adult male rat hepatocytes. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. 35: 120-130.
10. Osawa Y, Davila JC, Nakatsuka M, Meyer CA, Darbyshire JF. (1995). Inhibition of P-450 cytochromes by reactive metabolites. Drug Metabol. Rev. 27: 61-72.