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 1000 attendees. One of these rooms was setup conference style will 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 7 societies met in conjunction with the IUPS Congress; and a 8% increase over EB03 in San Diego, the last 6-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, 2 workshops, and 1 refresher course and 1 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 will meet 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.
We also anticipate examining the program in advance of the June JPC meeting to develop several themes or “tracks” as we have in previous years and programming these sessions so that there is no conflict between sessions within a given track.
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, Colorado. 80 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 EB2007 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 8 July 2007 to Thursday 12 July 2007. This our contribution to the 2007 TPS program. We may also receive one late submission from the TPS for sponsorship at EB2007 (in addition to the sponsorship by the Journal of Physiology).
As committee chair, I have had a number of e-mail exchanges with Nick Boross-Toby, my contact at the TPS to better organize the annual submission to each others 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 next meeting of the JPC will be held on June 14, 2006 in Bethesda. During this meeting we will finalize the time and room assignments for each symposia and featured topic. We will, as in past years, organize 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 fell the time spent in scheduling the session strategically is worth the effort.
We may also receive a special program symposia to consider on the topic of Evolution vs. Intelligent Design. If it is received on time and is enthusiastically received by the JPC, funding this symposia will be action item for council.
The JPC will also spend a few hours discussing those aspects of the new Strategic Plan which impact on programming. I will include an addendum to this report after the meeting to inform council of what was discussed.
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 advise 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.