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2004 Joint Program Committee Report
Experimental Biology 2004
EB 2004 was held in Washington DC, April 17 through 21,
2004. All scientific and poster sessions were well-attended and overall
enthusiasm for the meeting remains high. The APS portion of EB 2004 featured
two unopposed Techniques and Technology in Physiology Workshops on Saturday
and four “Cross-Sectional” Symposia. As in past meetings, APS hosted six
guest societies: The Micro-circulatory Society (MCS), the Biomedical
Engineering Society (BMES), the American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR),
the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (SEBM), and the
Association of Latin American Physiological Societies (ALACF).
Meeting attendance was excellent. Out of a total of
6,339 volunteered abstracts submitted, 2,433 (38%) were programmed by APS.
The total meeting attendance was 13,598. This figure includes 10,776
registered scientists, 2,037 exhibitors (and their guests), 195 high school
students and teachers, 471 undergraduates and 119 guest and press
registrants.
EB 2004 marked the ninth Physiology InFocus program.
Organized by the APS President John Williams, the program topic “Large Scale
Systems Biology” included four symposia scheduled throughout the meeting.
These were entitled “High Throughput Genomics,” “Next Generation
Technologies for Proteomics,” “New Approaches to Large Scale Systems
Biology,” and “Applications of Systems Biology to Function and Disease.” The
InFocus program was preceded by a workshop entitled “Microarrays, Proteomics
and Mass Spectrometry” which was organized by Susan Old.
EB 2004 was the fifth year to introduce two Techniques
and Technology in Physiology Tutorial/Workshops. The first, on proteomics is
indicated above. The other tutorial was entitled “The Promised Land or Fatal
Attraction? A Practical Overview of the Present and Future of Genetically
Engineered Mice” and was organized by Donald Kohan. In addition, there were
four “Cross-Sectional” Symposia developed to cut across sections:
“Biological Applications of Nanotechnology,” “The Heme-Heme Oxygenase-Carbon
Monoxide System and the Control of Cardiovascular and Renal Function,” “The
Mechanisms and Impact of Fetal Physiological Programming,” and
“Intracellular Trafficking of Membrane Proteins in Renal Epithelia.”
Other special programming included the Guyton Memorial
Symposia entitled “Arthur C. Guyton: The Man and His Science” organized by
Joey Granger and D. Neil Granger. Speakers included John Hall, Allen
Cowley, Gabriel Navar, and Harris Granger. Robin Davisson, Christine
Seidman and Kevin Fitzgerald presented the Bowditch, Canon and Randall
lectures, respectively. Four “late breaking” featured topics were also
developed. These arise from a critical mass of submitted abstracts in a
specific area and are presented without funding in available rooms. This
year they were entitled “Heme Oxygenase/ Vascular Control,” “Urinary
Concentrating Mechanisms,” “Controversies in Cardiac Preconditioning,” and
“Hot Topics in Lung Endothelial Biology.”
APS Conferences
Two APS conferences were held in 2003: 2003 APS
Conference, September 19-14, Banff, Alberta, Canada, “Adrenal Steroid
Hormone and Control of Extracellular Fluids: from Genetics to Physiology,”
organized by Daniela Rotin and Douglas Eaton; 2003 APS Physiological
Genomics Conference, October 1-4, Augusta, GA, “Understanding Renal and
Cardiovascular Function through Physiological Function,” organized by David
Pollock, Jennifer Pollock, Elizabeth Nabel, Clinton Webb, and Josephine
Briggs.
The Adrenal conference had 133 registrants and the PG
conference had 152 registrants.
Scheduled APS Conferences for 2004 and 2005 include:
2004 APS Translational Research Conference, September 8-11, Snowmass, CO
“Immunological and Pathophysiological Mechanisms in Inflammatory Bowel
Disease,” organized by Matthew Grisham and Fabio Cominelli; 2004 APS
Intersociety Meeting, October 6-9, Austin, TX, “Integrative Biology of
Exercise,” organized by Ronald Terjung, Chair; 2005 APS Conference, July
16-20, 2005, Sheraton Steamboat Resort & Conference Center Steamboat
Springs, CO, “Neurohypophyseal Hormones: From Genomics and Physiology to
Disease,” organized by Celia Sladek.
JPC Strategic Planning
The APS is planning to enter a new phase of strategic
planning in the next year. A special meeting of the JPC was held on July 9,
2004 in Chicago. The purpose of this meeting was to update the committee
members on plans for programming abstracts for IUPS and to discuss issues
related to programming APS Conferences and EB meetings.
The first half of this meeting was dedicated to APS
conferences. The APS began this program in 1992 and has sponsored 20
conferences and five intersociety meetings. Since September 2001, there has
been a decline in attendance with attendance. There are clear financial
issues as the number of attendees at conferences declines from loss of
registration revenue and penalties from conference sites. The JPC has made
a number of attempts to increase the number of conference proposals.
The JPC discussed APS conferences at length and made
the following recommendations.
1. Formation of an APS Conference Committee
Six to eight committee members with representation from
different sections; JPC Chair sits on committee as ex officio; specifically
charged with development and evaluation of APS Conferences; conference
proposals come from two sources. Solicited: individuals in an interest area
targeted by the committee; unsolicited: short letters of intent from the
membership reviewed by the committee and then formally solicited. A
solicitation indicates a very high interest in the subject area toward the
development of the conference; recurrence of meeting possible if successful.
The committee would be charged with defining measures of success.
2. Financial
Conference allocation includes registration for invited
speakers (currently in addition to allocation); allocation increased from
$25,000 to $30,000; finance committee and APS conference committee develops
plan for how extramural funds are attributed to the conference, i.e.,
allocated to defray APS allocation; allocated to conference organizer for
travel awards, reimbursements etc.
The JPC also discussed a number of issues related to EB
meetings.
Featured Topics: It is felt that the organization of a
FT needs to be centralized, that is performed by members of the JPC and not
the FT organizers. In many cases, the FT organizer is not aware of the
responsibilities associated with a FT including: selecting abstracts,
informing abstract presenters of oral presentation. In addition, the FT
organizer only has access to those abstracts submitted directly to a FT
topic category and not many other abstract submitted to general categories
which may fit into the topic being covered. The JPC offers the following
recommendations:
JPC representatives take charge of programming
abstracts for FTs; FTs be eliminated from topic category lists; a list of
FTs will be included in call for abstracts along with instructions for
potential topic categories; JPC informs selected abstracts of inclusion in
FT and reminds them of the intended spirit of providing an opportunity for
young investigators to make oral presentations at a national meeting; JPC
interfaces with FT organizer.
Poster Sessions: The JPC on a number of occasions has
discussed the organization of posters at the EB meeting. This was sparked
by a request from an APS member to integrate posters of common interest with
other societies. This is reminiscent of the “theme” program previously
used. It was initially suggested that one or two specific topic areas that
cut across societies be used as a trial balloon (i.e., oxidative stress or
signal transduction). However, upon discussion it was felt that most
attendees enjoy the atmosphere created by all APS posters being grouped
together in a single area and that it increases our identity as a society.
Moreover, even important and large targeted areas such as oxidative stress
or signal transduction could result in the isolation of those posters and
their presenters away from the main APS area. The JPC therefore recommends
not pursuing this further.
Discussion of shorter duration was made on a number of
other topics which should be deferred to additional strategic planning
sessions or added to the agenda for the strategic planning retreat:
reallocation of slots to sections; allocation of additional slots to the
teaching section; corporate sponsorship of lectureships; corporate
sponsorship of other program activities; new programmatic activities.
Curt D. Sigmund, Chair
Council Actions
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Council accepted the report of the Joint Program
Committee.
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Council approved a motion to increase the allocation
for APS conferences from $25,000 to $30,000. The funds will be used for
travel, per diem, and speaker registration at the discretion of the
conference organizer.
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