The Liaison With Industry Committee (LWIC) met at the Experimental Biology 2003 meeting in San Diego, CA. The committee is chaired by Glenn Reinhart and is composed of representatives from most of the active Society Sections, nominated to serve by their sections. The current committee membership is composed of Robert McCall, Neural Control and Autonomic Regulation; Stephen Wood, Comparative Physiology; Jeffrey J. Zachwieja, Environmental and Exercise Physiology; Peter Morsing, Renal; Christine Schnackenburg, Water and Electrolyte Homeostasis; William Martin, Central Nervous System; Joshua C. Anthony, Endocrinology and Metabolism; Pamela I. Hornby, Gastrointestinal; Jodie Krontiris-Litowitz, Teaching of Physiology; Chahraz Montrose-Rafizadeh, Cell and Molecular Physiology, and JR Haywood, APS Councillor.

Workshop 2003: At EB 2003, the committee sponsored a workshop titled: "Understanding and Applying Critical Translational Assays," organized and co-chaired by Reinhart and Montrose-Rafizadeh, held on the morning of April 13, 2003. Speakers were Jan Van Oostrom, Jeffrey Waring and Phillip Iverson. This is the third workshop sponsored by the Committee since its reorganization and we are pleased to report that attendance was excellent (near capacity much of the time).

The Third Annual Physiologists in Industry Mixer was held April 13 with record breaking attendance. Peak attendance was estimated at 50-60 and the room was filled to capacity. At its 2002 meeting the committee decided to increase publicity for the event in 2003 and, thanks to Linda Allen, timely promotional flyers and email notices were sent to those EB03 registrants who identified themselves as working in Industry.

Novel Disease Model Award: The award typically recognizes one graduate student ($500) and one postdoctoral fellow ($800) submitting the best abstract describing a novel disease model. Five students and one postdoc applied (13 abstracts were received in 2001, six in 2002) and one student award was given. Due to the small applicant pool, plans to evaluate posters on site were tabled. Although the decline in applicants in not inconsistent with other APS awards, the LWIC will work to further publicize the award for 2004.

Workshop 2004: In June 2003, the APS Council Program Committee approved a workshop for EB 2004 entitled: "High Content Biology: Multiplexing in Cell Physiology," organized and chaired by Chahraz Montrose-Refizadeh.

IUPS 2005: Since the LWIC wishes to continue its annual tradition of sponsoring high quality workshops/symposia relevant to industry and academic physiologists alike, the committee has prepared a symposium on Metabolic Syndrome ("Metabolic Syndrome: From Clinical Insights to New Therapies") for IUPS 2005. The symposia was organized by Christine Schnackenberg, has commitments from all four speakers and is comprised of international scientists of both genders.

Miscellaneous: The LWIC agreed to endorse a symposium proposed by the Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee for EB 2004 focusing on achieving a successful postdoctoral experience. In addition, the committee worked with the Life Sciences Research Organization (LSRO) in an attempt to assess industry's need for well trained in vivo, integrative scientists. Under the guidance of LSRO a survey was drafted from the Chairmen of Physiology Department�s survey and emailed to a number of investigators employed by numerous companies. Unfortunately, the response rate was low, timelines were tight and the data set obtained failed to clearly delineate any trends. As a result more surveys have been sent out and results are pending. 

Glenn A. Reinhart, Chair

Council Actions

• Council accepted the report of the Liaison with Industry Committee.

• Council agreed to fund the LWIC mixer at EB 2004.

• Council approved a motion ensuring adequate industry representation is present on the Animal Care and Experimentation Committee, Awards Committee and the Career Opportunities Committee as voting members.