SOT 2007 Annual Meeting

Plenary Opening Lecture: The Impact of Human Activities on the Atmosphere
Monday Morning, March 26, Time: 8:15 AM–9:15 AM
Lecturer: Nobel Laureate Mario Molina, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA.

About half of the world’s population is now living in urban areas, exposing millions of people to harmful levels of air pollutants caused mainly by emissions from motor vehicles and industries. Slash-and-burn agricultural practices and forests fires also contribute to worsening air quality on broad regional scales. Emissions from these fossil fuel and bio-mass burning activities have lead to increases in the amount of atmospheric particulate matter and other air pollutants. These increases also contribute to climate change, which is among the most serious environmental challenges facing society in the 21st century. Other human activities such as burning fossil fuels are also contributing to climate change: it is clear that the average temperature at the Earth’s surface is rising, and floods, droughts and other extreme weather events are occurring more frequently. The consequences of these changes are potentially very damaging to human society.

SOT is pleased to have Dr. Mario Molina present the opening Plenary Lecture at the 2007 SOT Annual Meeting. Dr. Molina’s groundbreaking contributions span the fundamental sciences of chemistry and physical chemistry, and extend to the far-reaching domains of human and environmental health. Dr. Molina embodied the importance of the “roadmap” decades before our current appreciation for this concept propelled it to the forefront of our research enterprise. Dr. Molina is a rare visionary. His ideas have translated into broad actions that have improved the health of millions of humans by improving the safety of the air and decreasing environmental diseases.

Merit Award Lecture: The Use of Biomarkers to Inform MechAnisms of Carcinogenesis and Risk Assessment
Monday Afternoon, March 26, Time: 12:30 PM–1:20 PM
Lecturer: James A. Swenberg, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.

Plan to attend this special lecture by the winner of the 2007 SOT Merit Award.

SOT/EUROTOX Debate: Motion—Children Are More Vulnerable To Chemical Toxicity and Risk Assessment
Tuesday Morning, March 27, Time: 8:00 AM–8:30 AM
Endorsed by: Society of Toxicology (SOT)
European Societies of Toxicology (EUROTOX)
Debaters: SOT: Donald R. Mattison, NIH, Bethesda, MD.
EUROTOX: Herman Autrup, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.

The co-authors will debate the proposition that children are more vulnerable to chemical toxicity. The following definitions will be used; Children—from a period prior to conception to 18 years of age, Vulnerable—adverse effects at blood and/or tissue concentrations less than those producing toxicity/adverse effects in adults (>17 yo), chemical toxicity—alteration in health status or biomarkers. Dr. Autrup will take the pro position at the SOT Meeting and Dr Mattison will take the pro position at the EUROTOX Meeting.

Issues Session: Scientific and Ethical Consideration in Human Exposure Studies
Tuesday Afternoon, March 27, Time: 12:00 NOON–1:20 PM
Chairperson(s): Steven Gilbert, Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders, Seattle, WA and William Sette, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC.
Endorsed by: Ethical, Legal & Social Issues Specialty Section*
Regulatory and Safety Evaluation Specialty Section
Risk Assessment Specialty Section

This symposium will review some of the issues surrounding the scientific and ethical considerations related to intentional human exposure studies and purely observational studies. The relevance and importance of these studies will also be discussed. In early 2006, EPA published a Human Studies Rule that banned all third-party intentional dosing research on pesticides involving children and pregnant women intended for submission to EPA, and required that EPA neither conduct nor support any intentional dosing studies that involve pregnant women or children for all substances EPA regulates. The final rule also adopted stringent enforceable ethical safeguards to protect adult individuals who volunteer to participate in third-party intentional dosing research with pesticides, and called for establishment of a Human Studies Review Board (HSRB) to obtain independent scientific and ethical review on whether to accept certain existing human studies and to review new study protocols. The HSRB then met to review a series of studies on pesticides undergoing re-registration. In a separate effort, EPA has also developed a set of best practices for the design and implementation of observational exposure measurement studies that involve human participants, including children, but do not involve intentional exposures. These activities define a new landscape in which human studies performed or supported by EPA, or performed by third parties to generate data that will be used by them under the pesticide laws, will be reviewed, evaluated, and conducted. We will discuss these new EPA efforts and consider more broadly some of the issues related to defining the scientific value and justification of such studies, and some of the scientific and ethical challenges of conducting them with pesticides.

Featured Session: Town Hall Meeting—The Future of SOT: Science, Communications, and Member Services
Tuesday Afternoon, March 27, Time: 12:00 NOON–1:20 PM
Chairperson: George B. Corcoran, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.

During the past 18 months, three Strategic Committees have been diligently working to provide recomendations for the sustained and improved future of SOT and the toxicology profession. Charges to the three Strategic Committees are a) Science ( (Cheryl Walker, Chair) - develop a strategy to most effectively promote the advancement of the science of toxicology to enhance human, animal and envi- ronmental health; b) Membership Services (Patricia Ganey, Chair) - develop a strategy to provide the most effective and critical career resources that promote the professional advancement of all members of the Society; and c) Communications (Bernard Goldstein, Chair)—develop a strategic plan to help SOT communicate more effectively both the value of toxicology as a science and of SOT as a scientific society. The leadership of the three strategic committees (Science and Membership Services Communications) will present draft reports at the Town Hall Meeting to a) achieve the goals of informing SOT members and other Annual Meeting attendees of both the thinking and the progress of the three strategic committees, b) to create an open forum for comments and input from all interested parties and c) to allow strategic committee reports to benefit from such input. Comments from the Town Hall Meeting attendees will be considered for inclusion in the final reports that are due for completion in April 2007. The final reports will be used by Council to develop an integrated strategic plan for SOT.

Science Strategy, Cheryl Walker, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Smithville, TX.
Communication Strategy, Bernard Goldstein, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Membership Services Strategy, Patricia Ganey, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.
Panel Discussion, Cheryl Walker, Bernard Goldstein, Patricia Ganey

Special Session: Medical Toxicology Session
Tuesday Afternoon, March 27, Time: 12:00 NOON–1:20 PM
Lecturer: Eric Lavonas, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is responsible for more acute accidental poisoning deaths in the United States than any other toxin. Carbon monoxide poisoning is ubiquitous, with at least 15,000 diagnosed nonfatal cases in the US each year; a larger number of cases almost certainly go undiagnosed. Many survivors of CO poisoning develop delayed neurological sequelae that often are not apparent for 321 days after poisoning. The cellular mechanisms for this injury are increasingly well understood; several classes of antidotes prevent this delayed injury in animal models. This session will present a state-of-the-art review of carbon monoxide poisoning, including current diagnosis and treatment, pathophysiology, and investigational research. Eric Lavonas, MD, FACEP, is an emergency physician and medical toxicologist, practicing at Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC, where he serves as Director of Medical Toxicology Hospital Services and Medical Director of Hyperbaric Medicine. Dr. Lavonas is past chair of the Hyperbaric Medicine Section and Chair-Elect of the Toxicology Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He works closely with CDC and local government in the areas of carbon monoxide poisoning prevention and treatment. His research interests include novel antidotes to prevent neurological sequelae after carbon monoxide poisoning.

Keynote Medical Research Council (MRC) Lecture:
The Genetic Control of Programmed Cell Death in the Nematode Caenorhabditis Eelegans
Wednesday Morning, March 28, Time: 8:00 AM–8:50 AM
Lecturer: Nobel Laureate Robert Horvitz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

Naturally-occurring or “programmed” cell death (often referred to as apoptosis) is a normal feature of animal development. The misregulation of cell death has been implicated in a diversity of human disorders, including cancer, heart attacks, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. Programmed (apop-totic) death can be activated by a broad variety of xenobiotics. An understanding of programmed cell death should provide new insights concernin human biology and new approaches to the development of pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of such disorders. Dr. Horvitz’ laboratory has analyzed the mechanisms responsible for programmed cell death by studying the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. During the development of C. elegans, 131 of the 1,090 cells generated undergo programmed cell death. His laboratory has characterized developmentally, genetically and molecularly the roles of many genes that function in C. elegans programmed cell deaths. They have analyzed genes that control the death process, genes that act in the phagocytosis of dying cells by their neighbors, and genes that function in the digestion of the DNA of cell corpses. In addtion, Dr. Horvitz’ laboratory has have identified genes that specify which cells will or will not express this cell-death program. Many of the C. elegans genes involved in programmed cell death show structural and functional similarities to genes that act in mammalian apoptosis, indicating that the mechanisms of programmed cell death are conserved among organisms as distinct as nematodes and humans. A number of the human counterparts have been implicated in human disorders, including deafness and cancer.

Special Session: Meet The Directors Session — A Dialogue with NIEHS
Wednesday Afternoon, March 28, Time: 12:00 NOON–1:20 PM

In this moderated session, Dr. David Schwartz will discuss emerging trends in bench-to-bedside translational research at the NIEHS and the role of toxicology in advancing new institutional initiatives focusing on gene-environment interactions and exposure biology. Attendees will gain a better understanding of current and future toxicology research and educational programs sponsored by the NIEHS and the need for engagement of the toxicology community.

Special Session: Soapbox Session
Wednesday Afternoon, March 28, Time: 12:00 NOON–1:20 PM
Chairperson(s): Harvey Clewell, The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC and John Morris, University of Connecticut Pharmaceutical Sciences, Storrs, CT.

This year, for the first time, the SOT Annual Meeting will feature an informal, one-hour “Soapbox” Session at which members can share ideas, views, and concerns of interest to the general toxicology community. Each speaker will be allowed to address the audience for up to 10 minutes on a toxicology topic they have submitted in advance. Topics can reflect either an area of continuing concern or an issue that has arisen during the meeting topics are expected to be novel, controversial, contrary and/or unpopular. After each speaker, the audience will have up to five minutes to challenge or support the speaker with questions or comments. Both the speakers and the audience are expected to maintain the same level of civility and propriety adhered to in the regular scientific sessions, except that humor, hyperbole, and friendly sarcasm are encouraged. The session chair and co-chair will have full authority to assure that these standards of conduct are met. If you would like to participate, you must submit your topic to the Soapbox Session chair or co-chair before or during the meeting, but not later than noon on Tuesday, March 27. Full session logistical details can be found on the SOT Web site at www.toxicology.org. SOT expects some “lively” debate, so please plan to attend!

Soapbox Session Abstract Submittal Instructions

Soapbox session speaker candidates should email their proposed topics to the chair, Harvey Clewell, or co-chair, John Morris, no later than noon on Tuesday, March 27. The submittal should include the title, presenter, affiliation (if any), and a short (less than 250 word) abstract. They will be contacted with the decision of the chair/co-chair regarding their proposal by 6:00 PM, Tuesday. The decision of the chair and co-chair will be final.

Topics can reflect either an area of continuing concern or an issue that has arisen during the meeting—topics are expected to be novel, controversial, contrary and/or unpopular. They should represent ideas, views, and concerns of interest to the general toxicology community. The Soapbox Session is not intended to serve as a personal forum or a “back door” for rejected abstracts.

Note: No projector or computer slide capability will be provided, but speakers can hold up a poster as a visual aid if desired. Presentations are for 10 minutes with a 5 minute audience participation time.