ASPET Division for Toxicology Executive Committee and Business Meeting Minutes
PDF Version
Walter E. Convention
Center room 143C, Washington, DC
April 11, 2011
In attendance – John
Schuetz (Chair), Wayne Backes, Lauren Brignac-Huber, Patricia Ganey, Jack
Hinson, Qiang Ma, Todd Porter, Courtney Sulentic, and Mary Vore (ASPET Council
Liaison)
Dr. John Schuetz
called the meeting to order. After
introductions, Dr. Schuetz announced the election results and welcomed Dr. Hinson
as Chair-elect and Dr. Monica Valentovic (not present at the business meeting)
as Secretary/Treasurer-elect; positions are effective July 2011. Dr.
Schuetz also noted that some ASPET divisions have as many as 17 members on the
Executive Committee by inviting non-elected nominees to join the executive
committee. The current committee
discussed this as an option with the potential benefit of having a larger pool
of members to draw on for suggestions for symposia topics and other matters
relevant to the division. The potential
drawbacks were thought to be largely logistical (i.e. efficient communication,
meeting attendance quorum and decision making).
The committee did not make a final decision regarding this option.
Division Reports
Division Symposia
EB2011
The division organized
and sponsored one division symposium: Hypoxia, Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1a and
Toxic Responses (P.E. Ganey) and sponsored four other symposia: (1) Drug
Metabolism and Action in Pathophysiological Conditions (R. Ghose and E.T.
Morgan); (2) Idiosyncratic Drug Reactions (C. Ju); (3) Organ-Specific
Toxicities Caused by Novel Metabolic Pathways (K. Skordos and D. Zhang); (4)
Pharmacogenomics to Address Adverse Drug Events (D.L. Mendrick and P.B.
Watkins). The division also co-sponsored
four symposia: (5) Therapeutic Peptides: Novel Approaches in Drug Development
(S. Alagarsamy and M.A. Holinstat); (6) microRNA Controlled Regulation of Drug
Metabolism and Disposition (T. Yokoi and A. Yu); (7) Systems Biology of
Oxidative Stress and Therapeutic Implications (I. Laher); (8) Pharmacogenomics
and Personalized Medicine (A. Gaedigk and J. Paul).
EB2012
There are three
proposed symposia: (1) Pharmacogenetics in Oncology (H. Swanson); (2) From
Structure to Knockout: Common themes between Cyps and transporters (M. Vore);
(3) Nuclear Receptors and human disease (H. Swanson and J. Chiang).
Due to concerns from
ASPET regarding Divisions carrying over a large unspent surplus each year, Dr.
Schuetz initiated a discussion of using Division funds to support an all-day
symposia for 2013 potentially co-sponsored with the Drug Metabolism Division. Interest was generated but there was concern
that an adequate amount of emphasis and visibility be duly placed on the
Toxicology Division. Dr. Schuetz
suggested a potential topic centered on the role of TLR in mediating toxicity
with ties to preclinical/clinical applications (Clinical Pharmacology Division
could be a co-sponsor) and drug metabolism.
An important outcome (other than drawing down the unspent budget
surplus) of an all-day or half-day symposia sponsored by the Toxicology
Division would be to attract non-toxicologist and emphasize the cutting-edge
research and applications of toxicology as a discipline.
There was also
discussion regarding ways to increase student and post-doc involvement in
proposing symposia. Suggestions were: 1)
add a post-doctoral representative to the executive council (winner of post-doc
poster competition); 2) increase involvement of student and post-doc
representative in council activities through e-mail and teleconferences; 3)
increase ability of students and post-docs to interact by establishing a link
to a student/post-doc e-mail directory and initiating a blog on the Toxicology
Division website.
Treasurer’s Report
Dr. Sulentic
distributed the division statement of revenue and expense supplied by ASPET
which summarized years 2006 through 2011.
The division is in sound financial status and carried over $12,013 in
2011 which is expected to continue. Due
to concerns from ASPET regarding Divisions carrying over a large unspent
surplus each year, discussion focused on how best to spend down some of the
surplus. Potential options were 1)
sponsor an all-day or half-day symposia co-sponsored with other division(s)
(see above); 2) sponsor a Young Investigator Award ($1000-2000 per award); and
3) sponsor a student/post-doc luncheon to increase networking and interaction
between students/post-docs in the Toxicology Division.
Funding options for
establishing a Young Investigator Award per Christie Carrico are to fund
straight from surplus budget or establish an endowment which would require an
initial $15,000 for a yearly $650 award or $20,000 for a yearly $1000
award. It was also suggested at the
business meeting to offer the award on alternate years. With a surplus of $12,013 which appears to
increase conservatively by approximately $1000 every year depending on our
speaker and mixer expenses, we do not currently have the funds to establish an
endowment. Furthermore, if we decide to
establish an endowment, we could not fund some of the other activities
suggested above. This topic requires
further discussion and resolution.
NOTE: The 2010
Business Meeting also discussed the possibility of establishing a Young or
Early Career Scientist Award. That
discussion is summarized below:
“The committee discussed potential
opportunities for young scientists. There was mention of having a Toxicology
Division platform session. This would allow the division to select students and
junior faculty to speak at upcoming EB meetings, providing them valuable
speaking experience, and to help promote the careers and visibility of these
individuals. There were also suggestions about providing travel awards to young
scientists, which would be provided by the division. These would augment the
travel awards already in place for students through ASPET. It was mentioned
that if the scientific talk is 20 minutes or longer, ASPET will cover the
travel costs for the scientist up to $1,000 for domestic speakers. Speakers
selected from abstracts for 10-15 minute talks will receive complimentary
meeting registration.”
Division Website
Jessica Hammett will
replace Diane Perpich as Webmaster.
Several revisions to the website were suggested and discussed including
establishing a link to a student/post-doc e-mail directory and creating a blog
as mentioned above along with general updating of the website.
Graduate Student and Post-doctoral Representatives to Division
Executive Committee
Lauren Brignac-Huber,
our current graduate student representative was present at the Business meeting
and contributed significant input to our discussions regarding increasing
student and post-doc interaction with the Toxicology Division as discussed
above. The committee also agreed to add
a post-doctoral representative to the Executive Council. It was agreed that the winner of the
postdoctoral poster competition would take on the role as representative. Additionally, like the graduate student
representative, the post-doctoral representative would receive a travel award
to the EB meeting for the following year provided that an abstract is submitted
for the meeting. There was concern that the
representatives may no longer be in a student or post-doctoral position around
the time of the EB meeting. However,
there was discussion that such a travel award would provide the opportunity for
students/post-docs transitioning to new positions to still attend the EB
meeting and continue to take advantage of networking and other opportunities
offered at the meeting.
Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Poster Competition Award
Winners
The winners of the
Toxicology Division Poster Competition for EB 2010 and the awards are:
Postdoctoral Awards:
1st place & Council
Representative: Kosuke Saito - $500 and $600 travel award for EB2012
Title: The K+ Channel
KCNK1: CAR-mediated Gene Regulation of Male-specific Induction by PB and
Hepatic Hypertrophy
Honorable mention:
Rakhee Agarwal - $200
Title: Acetaminophen (APAP)-induced
Hepatotoxicity and Protein Nitration in Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase (nNOS)
Knockout Mice
Graduate Student
Awards:
1st place
and Council Representative: Jessica Morgan - $500
Title: The ABC Transporter
Mrp4 (Abcc4) Plays a Crucial Role in Normal Testosterone Production
2nd place:
Elina Pathak – $300
Title: Protective Role
of a Manganese Porphyrin in an in vitro Model of Sepsis-induced Renal Injury
3rd place:
Christopher Kuhlman - $200
Title:
Phenol/Hydroquinone Reduces Lymphocyte Counts and Produces Quinol-Thioether-
and 4-Hydroxy-2-nonenal-Modified Proteins: Implications for Benzene-Mediated
Hematotoxicity