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On the evening of November 6, 2008, fall
colors in full splendor on the sprawling Health Science Campus of the Univ.
of Toledo ushered the delegates, students and guests to the 23rd annual
meeting of the Ohio Physiological Society (OPS) to the Dana Center, the
venue of the meeting. The meeting was co-sponsored by the OPS, the American
Physiological Society (APS), the Office of the Dean of the College of
Medicine, Univ. of Toledo and the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology,
Univ. of Toledo College of Medicine.
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| High school students from northwest Ohio in
session with the panelists, including Senior Physiologists. |
This year’s meeting had several interesting features, the first of which was
a golf outing on Thursday for all interested meeting attendees. The same
evening, the meeting kicked off with a new feature introduced this year,
i.e., a panel discussion jointly sponsored by the APS as part of the
Physiology Understanding (PhUn) Week program. This event was an extension of
the traditional portion of the PhUn week activity, which included a
classroom visit to Springfield High School earlier in the week (November 3)
by two members of the APS, Eric Morgan and Bina Joe of the Univ. of Toledo.
The panel discussion was attended by well over 100 area high school
students. The panelists included distinguished members of the OPS, including
the founding President, Peter Lauf; a previous OPS president, Norma Adragna
from the Wright State Univ.; and the current president, Bina Joe; the two
keynote speakers, Joseph Nadeau from the Case Western Reserve Univ. and
Muthu Periasamy from the Ohio State University; Michael Bisesi, the
Associate Dean of the Univ. of Toledo College of Graduate Studies, and
Jeremy Nixon, a biology advanced program teacher from Springfield High
School. The students were engaged in one-on-one discussions on a variety of
topics such as, “What are the different branches of physiology?”; “What do
physiologists do everyday?”; “What subjects should I study to become a
physiologist?”; to questions on science fiction such as, “Is it possible to
create a Hulk-like creature?” It was obvious both during and after this
session that the panelists and the youngsters enjoyed the deliberations, the
essence of which reverberated in positive comments from faculty and students
alike.
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| Active discussions between researchers from
different institutions for biomedical research from all over Ohio. |
The second interesting feature of this
meeting was that the theme of the meeting, “From Form to Function,” gave us
the opportunity to unite the two themes of “nature” and “nurture” as
highlighted by the two keynote lectures delivered by a geneticist, Joseph
Nadeau, and a physiologist, Muthu Periasamy, both of whom are distinguished
scientists from the state of Ohio. Following a formal welcome address by
Michael Bisesi, Joseph Nadeau presented the keynote lecture, “Genetic and
Systems Studies of Metabolic Diseases.” This was followed by a dinner
reception at the Hilton where all the delegates had a chance to intermingle
and exchange pleasantries.
The second day of the meeting commenced with a special lecture by Gale Davy,
the Director of Outreach and Advocacy, Americans for Medical Progress. This
lecture on “Public Policy-The Critical Role of Scientists,” was
well-received by young investigators, who were later seen conversing with
the speaker and exchanging information to sign up for this important cause.
This was followed by an open poster session where students and faculty alike
actively discussed their mutual research interests.
The third interesting feature of this meeting was that it was a
student-centered meeting, which meant that oral presentations were
exclusively from students. The first of the two oral presentation sessions
was moderated by a graduate student from the Univ. of Toledo College of
Medicine, Damien Earl. The speakers for this session were Ying Xu from the
Ohio State Univ., Ameet Chimote from the Wright State Univ., Edward Toland
from the Univ. of Toledo College of Medicine and Patrick Mineo from the
Miami Univ. Following lunch, the second session continued with presentations
by Patricia Shamhart from the North Eastern Ohio Univ. College of Medicine,
Kaylan Haizlip from the Ohio State Univ. and Gargi Roy from the Univ. of
Toledo College of Medicine. This session was moderated by Guillermo Vasquez
of the Univ. of Toledo College of Medicine. The concluding keynote lecture
entitled, “Cardiac SR Ca2+ ATPase and its role in Heart Disease,” was
delivered by Muthu Periasamy.
Three awards were presented at this meeting: an early-bird registrant raffle
award, which was won by Alissa D. Delong of the Univ. of Toledo, and two
Lauf awards. The latter are travel awards to students supporting attendance
at the Experimental Biology Meeting of 2009. This year’s award for best oral
presentation was won by Patricia Shamhart from the North Eastern Ohio
University College of Medicine. Kaylan Haizlip and Ying Xu from the Ohio
State Univ. were the runners-up. The Lauf award for best poster presentation
went to Michelle Monasky from the Ohio State Univ. Christopher Dearth from
the Univ. of Toledo was the runner-up.
The scientific sessions of the meeting, which were attended by more than 90
registered participants, were concluded with appreciative remarks by Peter
Lauf. The charge for the 24th annual meeting of the OPS was ceremoniously
handed over by the presentation of the new OPS banner with the new OPS logo
to the next OPS president-elect, Paul Janssen, from the Ohio State Univ.
(Pictures Courtesy: Andrew Beavis and Jack Meade, Univ. of Toledo College of
Medicine).
Bina Joe
OPS President 2008 |
