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The Gulf Coast Physiological
Society (GCPS) met at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Mobile, AL on March 5-6,
2004, hosted by the University of South Alabama and the USA Medical
Sciences Foundation. The meeting attracted 143 attendees from 14
institutions or research centers, including the University of South
Alabama, Alabama State University, Auburn University, University of
Alabama at Birmingham, Talladega College, Spring Hill College, University
of Mississippi Medical Center, Tulane University, Louisiana State
University (LSU) New Orleans, LSU Shreveport, Pennington Biomedical
Research Center, Xavier University, University of New Orleans, and Emory
University. One of the successes of the meeting was the significant
participation of undergraduate students and undergraduate faculty advisors
from regional institutions. The meeting was organized by Mary Townsley,
President of the GCPS. The local organizing committee also included James
Parker, James Downey, Thomas Lincoln, and Michael
Cohen.
The two-day meeting opened with a welcome from the GCPS President, who
introduced the keynote speaker, Clinton Webb. Webb is the Robert B.
Greenblatt Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology at the
Medical College of Georgia. His lecture on “Integration of sympathetic
neural control and inflammatory mediators in the regulation of blood
pressure” was sponsored by the American Physiological Society (APS). The
keynote address was followed by an oral session organized around
renin-angiotensin signaling and hypertension. An additional oral session
on Friday afternoon began with a talk from invited speaker Michael
Cohen,
whose talk on signaling involved in cardioprotection set for focus for
oral presentations in the session. The poster session was held early
Friday evening following a talk by D. Neil Granger, the new APS President,
who gave an overview of APS and discussed goals for his term of office.
The banquet on Friday evening concluded with a brief business meeting and
election of new officers. Patricia Molina (LSU, New Orleans) was elected
as President. Michelle Meneray (LSU, New Orleans) will serve as
Secretary/Treasurer. New Councillors for the Society include Mouhamed
Awayda (Tulane University), Barbara Alexander (University of Mississippi
Medical Center), Matt Grisham (LSU Shreveport), and Mark Taylor
(University of South Alabama).
The meeting continued Saturday morning with two oral sessions. Invited
speakers William Chilian and Thomas Lincoln, gave talks on control of
coronary vascular tone and vascular signaling due to nitric oxide and
cyclic nucleotides, respectively, which set the focus for other oral
presentations in those sessions. Overall, attendees presented more than 80
abstracts, programmed either as oral presentations or as posters.
Patricia Molina will chair the organizing committee for the next meeting
of the GCPS, targeted for spring, 2005 in New Orleans.
Mary Townsley
President, GCPS
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| Mary Townsley, President of the Gulf Coast Physiological Society addresses the annual meeting
attendees. |
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| APS President-Elect
D. Neil Granger, Mary Townsley, and Thomas Lincoln at the Gulf Coast
Physiological Society meeting. |
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| Gulf Coast
Physiological Society President Mary Townsley questions a poster
presenter at the meeting. |
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