2006 Joint Program Committee Report
Experimental Biology 2006
The 2006 EB meeting was held in San Francisco, April
1-5 under the meeting-wide theme of “Advancing the Biomedical Frontier.” All
scientific and poster sessions were well-attended and overall enthusiasm for
the meeting remains high.
The APS portion of EB 2006 featured two unopposed
Techniques and Technology in Physiology Workshops on Saturday entitled
“Atomic Force Microscopy for Physiological Studies at the Nano Scale” and
“Advanced Technologies in Imaging: From Cell to Animal.” Each tutorial had
approximately 250-300 attendees. New this year was a change in the format
of one of the large rooms with capacity for 1,000 attendees. One of these
rooms was setup conference style with tables and chairs. Both tutorials
were held in this room and a number of attendees commented enthusiastically
on the change.
APS also sponsored four “Cross-Sectional” Symposia
entitled “Lipid Mediated Regulation of Membrane Transport,” “Development and
Maintenance of Epithelial Polarity,” “Spinal Interneurons: Underappreciated
Players in Autonomic and Respiratory Regulation?,” and “Could Hyperosmotic
Stress on Cells Promote Obesity and Chronic Disease? A Multidisciplinary
Look at the Effects of Hypertonicity.”
As in past meetings, APS hosted six guest societies:
The Microcirculatory 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
6,494 volunteered abstracts submitted by the deadline of November 2, 2005,
2,474 (38%) were programmed by APS. The total meeting attendance was
13,289. This is a 27% increase over EB05/IUPS 2005 in San Diego, where seven
societies met in conjunction with the IUPS Congress; and a 8% increase over
EB 2003 in San Diego, the last six-society meeting held without AAI. This
figure includes 10,456 registered scientists, 1,827 exhibitors (and their
guests), 193 high school students and teachers, 699 undergraduates and 114
guest and press registrants. APS programmed 292 sessions in total: 176
poster sessions, 53 symposia, 42 featured topics, 17 lectures, two
workshops, and one refresher course and one poster discussion.
EB 2006 marked the return to the “Physiology InFocus”
program placed on hiatus because of IUPS2005. Organized by then APS
President Doug Eaton, the program topic “From Molecules to Organisms:
Approaches to Systems and Integrative Physiology” included four symposia
scheduled throughout the meeting. These were entitled “Investigating
Cellular Signaling with Atomic Force Microscopy Methods,” “Integrating
Cellular Functions: The Role of the Primary Cilium in Cell Proliferation and
Kidney Disease,” “The Lipid in Lipid Rafts: Lipids as Signaling Molecules,”
and “Acute Lung Injury and Regulation of Alveolar Fluid Clearance.” As in
previous years, one of the tutorials listed above was designed to complement
the InFocus program.
The lectures included the traditional APS
Society-sponsored named lectures Physiology in Perspective—The Walter B.
Cannon Memorial Award Lecture, presented by Jo Rae Wright; The Henry
Pickering Bowditch Award Lecture, presented by Ulrich H. Von Andrian; and
The Walter C. Randall Lecture in Biomedical Ethics, presented by Randall S.
Prather.
Experimental Biology 2007
The JPC met at EB 2006 on Saturday, April 1 to begin
organizing EB 2007 that will be held Saturday April 28 through Wednesday May
2 in Washington, DC. The meeting will use the slogan: “Today’s Research:
Tomorrow’s Health.” The JPC met on June 14 in Bethesda to finalize and
schedule by day and time the platform sessions. The Call for Abstracts and
online abstract submission site will be available by September 2006. The
abstract deadline will be November 8, 2006. EB 2007 will again provide for a
late breaking abstract deadline, anticipated sometime in February 2007.
The JPC received ten Cross-Sectional symposium
proposals, of which four were approved: “Linking Molecular Profile to
Physiology,” “Protein O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc): Nutrient
Sensor and Modulator of Cardiovascular Function,” “The SLC26 Transporter
Family and Epithelial Function,” and “Heart Failure and Exercise: Autonomic
and Cardiovascular Responses.” Representatives of the JPC were assigned to
each symposia and they were instructed to contact the organizers of the
cross sectional symposia to ensure that gender equity is strongly considered
in finalizing their programs.
In addition, two Techniques and Technology workshops
will be scheduled on the first day of EB 2007: “Ion Channels: New
Techniques, High Throughput Technology, Biosensor Chips” and “Chronic in
vivo Models: Instrumentation, Brain Cannulation, Local Tissue
Microinjection, Arterial/Venous Lines, EMG” (the titles are not final at
this time). These tutorials are designed to provide the latest development
in methods or studying ion channels and to provide new information on
procedures to study physiological processes in vivo, in particular using
genetically manipulated mice.
The Physiology InFocus program, organized by APS
President Dale Benos, is entitled “Novel Technologies in Physiology and
Medicine” and will feature a series of four symposia focusing on: “Novel
Approaches to Structure-Function Relations in Membrane Transport Proteins,”
“Experimental Evolution as a Tool of Physiological Analysis,” “Forensic
Medicine,” and “Novel Technologies and Approaches in Imaging.” The JPC felt
that the program was very strong and in particular was intrigued by the
Forensic Medicine symposia.
As is customary, the meeting will also feature sessions
organized by the APS Publications Department, Careers in Physiology
Committee, Public Affairs Committee, Women in Physiology Committee,
Education Committee, Liaison with Industry Committee, and Trainee Advisory
Committee.
APS Conferences
The 2005 APS Conference on “Neurohypophyseal Hormones:
From Genomics and Physiology to Disease”, organized by Celia Sladek, was
held July 16-20 in Steamboat Springs, CO. Eighty abstracts were received and
the total meeting attendance was 149, including 50 invited speakers.
The 2006 APS Intersociety Meeting entitled “Comparative
Physiology 2006: Integrating Diversity,” organized by David Goldstein,
Chair, will be held October 8-11 in Virginia Beach, VA.
The 2006 APS Physiological Genomics Conference entitled
“Physiological Genomics and Proteomics of Lung Disease,” organized by Usha
Raj, will be held November 2-5 in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
The 2007 APS Conference entitled “Sex Steroids in
Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Cardiovascular-Renal System,”
organized by Jane F. Reckelhoff, will be held in October 2007 in either
Austin, TX or Williamsburg, VA.
There are no conference proposals currently pending
review or anticipated.
Collaborations With International Physiological
Societies
APS and The Physiological Society (TPS) cosponsored a
symposium at EB 2006 entitled “Spinal Interneurons: Underappreciated
Players in Autonomic and Respiratory Regulation?” chaired by Ida
Llewellyn-Smith and Lawrence Schramm. TPS will host the next cosponsored
symposium at their July 2006 Main Meeting. The symposium is entitled
“Phosphatidylinositols and Physiology: Transfer, Transport and Traffic,”
chaired by Ora Weisz and James Stockand.
The Journal of Physiology (the journal of The
Physiological Society) will sponsor a symposia at EB 2007 entitled “Exercise
Hyperemia: Are There Any Answers Yet?” In addition, the APS will sponsor a
symposia entitled “Mechanisms and Modulators of Respiratory Rhythmogenesis,”
organized by Jeffrey Potts and Judy Neubauer at the Life Science 2007. Life
Sciences 2007 is a multi-society EB-like meeting organized in part by The
Physiological Society. It will be held in Glasgow, Scotland Sunday, July 8,
2007 to Thursday, July 12, 2007. This is our contribution to the 2007 TPS
program. We may also receive one late submission from the TPS for
sponsorship at EB 2007 (in addition to the sponsorship by the Journal of
Physiology).
As committee chair, I have had a number of Email
exchanges with Nick Boross-Toby, my contact at the TPS to better organize
the annual submission to each other’s meetings. Thus far, it has been
haphazard and this year we were unable to distinguish between a submission
from the Journal of Physiology and the TPS because of a breakdown in
communications. The TPS is now aware of our annual time table and I have
emphasized to them the importance of adhering to the schedule. We have not
received any specific time table for submission of our ideas for their
meetings.
Discussions are also underway regarding an exchange
program with the Australian Physiological Society (AuPS). APS has
recommended a speaker exchange program where an AuPS member would present in
a session at an EB meeting and also visit institutions prior to or
immediately after the meeting. A reciprocal arrangement would be made for an
APS member to attend an AuPS meeting and visit local institutions in
Australia.
June JPC Meeting
The JPC met on June 14, 2006 in Bethesda. During this
meeting we finalized the time and room assignments for each symposia and
featured topic. We also, as in past years, organized the program according
to tracks and special programs so that an attendee interested in one of the
tracks will not have to worry about conflicting sessions presented at the
same time. Although this is always a bit of a logistic challenge, we felt
the time spent in scheduling the session strategically is worth the effort.
Planned Improvements to JPC Programming
One of the problems we have had in the past with
evaluating cross sectional symposia proposals is that it has become clear
that some organizers do not really understand the concept or know what is
expected of the proposal. Starting with programming for EB 2008, we will
assign a member of the JPC to each proposal as it arrives (or as organizers
contact Linda Allen for symposia forms). This will occur far enough in
advance so they can contact the organizer to suggest changes prior to review
by the JPC at its April meeting. We hope this will provide early advice on
gender equity and appropriate cross sectional balance and, thus, improve the
quality of the proposals. The JPC member will also be responsible for
presentation of the proposal to the JPC at its April meetings. Although
this may make selection more difficult, it may provide a better crop of
proposals that could be picked up by sections even if not selected as cross
sectionals.
|
