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, ASPET (pharmacology), ASN (nutrition), ASBMB (biochemistry), ASIP (pathology), and AAA (anatomy). 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 a comparable with EB06 in San Francisco which included the same six primary participating societies and had a total attendance of 13,211. This EB07 attendance figure represent 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, 3 workshops, and 1 refresher course and 1 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 thirteen 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 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 6 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).