ASPET Division for Toxicology Executive Committee and Business Meeting Minutes
Anaheim Hilton Avila AB
April 26, 2010
In attendance – Qiang Ma (chair) Wayne Backes, Lauren Brignac-Huber, Brian Cox, Patricia Ganey, Warren (Jay) Huber, Todd Porter, Gary Rankin, John Schuetz, Courtney Sulentic, and Mary Vore
Qiang Ma called the meeting to order. After introduction of the attendees, Dr. Ma welcomed the new officers – Dr. Patricia E. Ganey from Michigan State University, and Dr. Todd D. Porter will begin serving as Chair-elect and Secretary-treasurer-elect, respectively, effective July 2010. Congratulations were also given to Dr. Mary Vore, a Toxicology Division member who was recently elected as Secretary-Treasurer-elect for ASPET. Jay Huber was also welcomed as the student representative of the Toxicology Division.
Division Reports
Division Symposia – The division has sponsored three symposia at EB2010: (1) Regulating the regulators: redox regulation, stress response proteins and apoptosis (D. St. Clair), (2) Role of mitochondria in pathogenesis of hepatic drug toxicity (N. Kaplowitz), and (3) ABC Transporters, their roles in physiology, toxicology and cancer (J. Schuetz).
There are three proposed symposia and one division symposium for EB2011: (1) Idiosyncratic drug reactions (C. Ju), (2) Organ-specific toxicities caused by novel metabolic pathways (D. Zhang & K. Skordos), (3) Pharmacogenetics to address drug safety issues (D. Mendrick), and (4) Toxicology Division Symposium (P. Ganey). Dr. Ma asked those in attendance to think about and encourage division members to submit symposia for EB2012.
Treasurer’s Report – Dr. Backes reported that the division is in sound financial status. We carried over $13,670 in 2009, and expect that this surplus will continue. Consequently, funding is available to initiate other division-related programs, such as a Young Scientist Award or a Division-sponsored travel award.
Division Website – Dr. Jonathan Maybaum provided an update of the changes to the Toxicology Division Website. Each of the Division Websites has been revised to a format that is consistent with those of the ASPET website. The new website was launched right before the beginning of the EB2010 Conference. The division will be responsible for the content of the website, with updates being sent to Diana Perpich. The cost for the update and continued maintenance is about $720/yr.
Graduate Student Representatives to Division Executive Committee – There was a good deal of discussion on the student representative, and how that individual is selected. Currently, Dr. Huber, the 1st place winner of the Toxicology Poster competition for EB2009, is serving as the student representative, as per the policy in place from last year. Although, this has worked in some instances, many of the poster award winners are senior students who might not attend the following EB meeting. Dr. Ganey suggested that the student representative be selected on a volunteer basis. Although this was thought to be a good plan for the future, one of the logistical problems was the difficulty in identifying student members of the Toxicology Division. As there is no formal student membership in the division, most of the potential students are members of the laboratories of Toxicology Division members. Therefore, it was agreed that we will continue to have the first place Toxicology Poster Competition winner for EB2010 serve as the student representative, and will revisit this issue next year.
Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Poster Competition Award Winners
The winners of the Toxicology Division Poster Competition for EB 2010 and the awards are:
Postdoctoral award winner – Smita Ghare - $500
Title - Epigenetic Modifications of Histones Play a Critical Role in Ethanol Dependent Enhancement of FasL Gene Expression and Cell Death in CD4+ T Lymphocytes
Graduate Student Awards
1st – Lauren Brignac-Huber - $500 and a travel award for the EB meeting next year
Title - Residence of P450 System Enzymes in Endoplasmic Reticular Lipid Microdomains
2nd – Hao Yin - $300
Title - Lactoferrin Protects Against Acetaminophen-Induced Liver Injury in Mice
3rd – Eric Romer - $200
Title - H2O2 Modulates 3’-regulated IgH Transcriptional Activity via the NFκB Pathway
Young or Early Career Scientist Award – 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.
There was also mention of providing a young scientist award. There are multiple mechanisms for funding of this: (1) direct funding from the annual budget, (2) setting up an endowment, or (3) direct funding on an interim basis and accrual of an endowment until it is sufficiently large to support the award. As the crowd outside anticipating the joint Toxicology/Drug Metabolism Division mixer grew, the committee agreed to continue discussions of this topic by email.
Weiner Lectureship by ASPET – The Weiner Lectureship is endowed by Norman Weiner’s family; he was a former President of ASPET and Chair of Pharmacology at U Colorado, Denver. Divisions should try to identify an outstanding scientist as a speaker to give a lectureship at the EB meetings in odd years (2011, 2013, 2015, etc). It was recommended that the Toxicology Division suggest nominees for this award. Although time is short for the 2011 meeting, it might be possible to identify someone who could fit into one of the symposia already planned for 2011. Then we could have the endowed lectureship precede the symposium followed by the other speakers. If we are to suggest nominees for EB 2011, we should submit them to ASPET now. Regardless of actions taken for 2011, the Toxicology Division should nominate someone for this award for EB 2013 who would fit in with one of the proposed Toxicology Division symposia. The ASPET Program Committee will have the responsibility of selecting the final candidate for the Lectureship. Although a few potential nominees were suggested, the executive committee was asked to identify other potential nominees. Potential nominees should also be solicited from the membership of the Toxicology Division.