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2007 Joint Program Committee Report
Experimental Biology 2007
The 2007 EB meeting was held in Washington, DC, April 28 through May 2
under the meeting-wide theme of “Today’s Research: Tomorrow’s Health.” All
scientific and poster sessions were well-attended and overall enthusiasm for
the meeting remains high. The primary participating societies were: APS,
American Society for Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET),
American Society for Nutrition (ASN), American Society for
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), American Society for
Investigative Pathology (ASIP), and
American Association of Anatomists
(AAA). APS hosted five 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).
The APS portion of EB 2007 featured two unopposed Techniques and
Technology in Physiology Workshops on Saturday entitled, “Emerging
Techniques for Ion Channel Studies,” and “Chronic Instrumentation in
Conscious Small Animals.” The Chronic Instrumentation workshop chairs
reported standing room only attendance. The chairs also prepared an online
link that provides the presenters’ slides and additional resources. APS also
sponsored four “Cross-Sectional” Symposia entitled, “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.”
The total meeting attendance was 13,388. This is comparable with EB 2006
in San Francisco, which included the same six primary participating
societies and had a total attendance of 13,211. This EB 2007 attendance
figure represents 11,534 registered scientists
(including 235 high school students and teachers and 632 undergraduates),
1,692 exhibitors and their guests, and 48 press registrants. APS programmed
308 sessions in total: 179 poster sessions, 64 symposia, 44 featured
topics, 16 lectures, three workshops, and one refresher course and one
poster discussion.
The Physiology InFocus program entitled, “Novel Technologies in
Physiology and Medicine” was organized by Dale Benos and included four
symposia scheduled throughout the meeting. These were entitled, “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 lectures included the 12 Section Distinguished Lectureships, the MCS
Landis Award Lecture, the Physiology in Perspective—The Walter B. Cannon
Memorial Award Lecture, presented by Frances M. Ashcroft; The Henry
Pickering Bowditch Award Lecture, presented by James D. Stockand; and The
Walter C. Randall Lecture in Biomedical Ethics, which featured two
presenters: Sandra L. Titus and David Prentice.
Experimental Biology 2008
EB 2008 will be held Saturday April 5 through Wednesday April 9 in San
Diego. The meeting will carry the slogan “Today’s Research: Tomorrow’s
Health.” The JPC met on June 20 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 2007. The abstract deadline
will be November 7, 2007. EB 2008 will again provide for a late breaking
abstract deadline, anticipated sometime in February 2008.
The JPC received 13 Cross-Sectional symposium proposals, of which four
were approved: “Role of Endogenous Hydrogen Sulfide Signaling in Health and
Disease,” “Using Nanotechnology to Answer Physiological Questions,” “Systems
and Computational Biology: A Direction for Physiology in the 21st Century,”
and “Regulatory Mechanisms in Diseases of Epithelial Transport.”
In addition, two Techniques and Technology workshops will be
scheduled on the first day of EB 2008. The first is tentatively titled,
“Mining the Metabolome” and will include presentations on Obestatin,
Intermedin and Nesfatin. The second program is tentatively titled,
“Exercising the Metabolome” and is being organized in collaboration with
David Parkes at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. The Physiology InFocus program,
organized by APS President Hannah Carey, is entitled, “One Physiology” and
will feature a series of four symposia focusing on: “Physiology and Public
Health,” “Physiological Basis of Ecosystem Health,” “Global Physiology
‘Omics’—Mechanisms in Complex Systems,” and “World Health and Nutrition.”
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 2007 APS Conference entitled, “Sex Steroids and Gender in
Cardiovascular-Renal Physiology and Pathophysiology,” organized by Jane F.
Reckelhoff, was held August 9-12 in Austin, TX. The 2008 APS Intersociety
Meeting entitled, “The Integrative Biology of Exercise V” will be held
September 24-27 in Hilton Head, SC.
This will be my last report to council as Chair of the JPC. Ronald Lynch
from the Department of Physiology, University of Arizona has agreed to
assume the chairmanship of this important committee starting January 1,
2008. It has been an honor to work with the APS staff and leadership for the
past six years. I have truly enjoyed this experience and have learned a
great deal about the inner workings of the society, perhaps more than I ever
wanted to know. I have learned that Iowa is where I live, but the APS is my
home.
I wish to thank all current and past members of the JPC, for without
them, we would not have a program at the EB meeting. Watching the JPC in
action during its June meeting no doubt would make anyone dizzy. But from
the chaos has come many outstanding EB programs. Every member of the JPC has
had a hand it making the program a reality. I thank Allen Cowley who really
was the one to introduce me to the APS, included me in the Blue Ribbon Panel
on programming years ago and then thrust me into the JPC as the first PG
representative.
There are two additional people I want to thank. First, Marty Frank for
his wisdom and humor, and particularly for his friendship especially during
2006 (he knows why). Secondly, I want to sincerely thank Linda Allen for her
efforts, efficiency, advice, and humor (and for being the voice in the
elevator at the APS headquarters). I can say with absolute certainty that
without her, this assignment would have been unbearable. Instead, she made
it fun (even when programming IUPS).
Curt D. Sigmund, Chair
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