Biomedical Researchers Meet In Anaheim For EB 94

A variety of topics--including, for example, the pathophysiology of asthma, genetic manipulation in pharmacology, and nutritional epidemiology of chronic diseases--will highlight the agenda at the second Experimental Biology 94 (EB 94) conference, which gets under way in Anaheim, Calif., next month. Fifteen thousand researchers are expected to attend the meeting, whose multi- and interdisciplinary thrust will be geared to physiologists, pharmacologists, immunologists, experimental pathologists, nutritionists, and anatomists who study human health and disease. Experimental Biology 94 is an interdisciplinary biomedical meeting and exposition to be held April 24-28. More than 6,000 oral and poster presentations are expected. Here is a sampling of special sessions. Preparing for Tenure: Five Perspectives Sunday, April 24, 4:00 P.M. Anaheim Convention Center, Room A2/3 The Use of Animals in Biomedical Research and Teaching: Where Do We Stand? Sunday, April 24, 4:00 P.M. Anaheim Hilton, California A Women in Physiology Mentoring Program Sunday, April 24, 5:00 P.M. Anaheim Marriott, Grand Ballroom Salon J/K Today's Scientist: Mentor, Manager and Role Model Sunday, April 24, 6:00 P.M. Anaheim Hilton, California A Grantsmanship Today: Peer Review at NIH Sunday, April 24, 8:00 P.M. Anaheim Convention Center, Room A1 Workshop for High School Teachers and Biology Students Monday, April 25, 8:30 A.M.-3:30 P.M. Anaheim Convention Center/Anaheim Marriott Experimental Biology Internet Workshop Wednesday, April 27, Noon Anaheim Convention Center, Room A6 Faculty Career Development Wednesday, April 27, 5:00 P.M. Anaheim Marriott, Orange County Salon 3/4 EB 94, a multi-society-sponsored meeting, will be held at four venues in Anaheim from Sunday, April 24 through Thursday, April 28. Six organizing societies--the American Physiological Society, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, American Society for Investigative Pathology, American Institute of Nutrition/American Society for Clinical Nutrition, American Association of Immunologists, and American Association of Anatomists--along with 10 other "guest" societies, have come together to develop and sponsor the meeting. Guest societies are affiliates of this year's six sponsoring societies--whose mix can change from year to year, depending on whether they hold their annual meetings as part of the larger EB conference. The Experimental Biology conferences replace the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) annual meeting. The EB meetings were created to give FASEB member societies more flexibility to stage their own meetings or choose which years they would participate in the EB conferences. Although EB 94 maintains an affiliation with FASEB--for example, contracting the federation for expertise in setting up a job-placement service and managing marketing schemes-- EB 94 is a separate entity, explain organizers. The six organizing societies are also members of FASEB. To focus on the overlapping disciplines of the participating societies, theme topics--areas of biomedical research pertinent to participants--will again be used to organize many of the presentations, as they were at the 1993 EB meeting. Nine topics have been chosen for this year: cardiovascular biology, cell injury, epithelial cell biology, growth and development, inflammation, metabolic processes, molecular communication and structural biology, neurobiology, and respiratory biology. David Kauffman, EB 94 program chairman and a professor of pathology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, says that one of the purposes of the thematic approach is to create "several smaller meetings within a larger meeting context." In addition, he says, the themes offer a "more coherent organization of topics," as opposed to having talks organized society by society. The purpose of this intersociety organization of programs, the meeting's organizers say, is to accommodate the needs of individual attendees, such as clustering talks by subject matter in the same location or avoiding conflicts in scheduling. Kauffman explains that presentations have four levels of organization: "symposia, made up of invited speakers; mini- symposia; oral sessions; and poster sessions--[all of which are] made up of presentations from invited speakers and submitted abstracts." Nearly 6,000 scientific oral and poster presentations arranged into more than 250 sessions are expected. Many special sessions, discussions, and workshops covering subjects such as mentoring, grant writing, and the use of laboratory animals are also being sponsored by individual societies and their subsections (see story on page 4). Scientific presentations span the biomedical spectrum from those with a very narrow appeal to those with a broad, interdisciplinary interest. For example, "Diet and Chronic Diseases in Countries in Socio-economic Transition," sponsored by the American Institute of Nutrition and the Society for International Nutrition Research, is expected to draw epidemiologists, cardiologists, and cancer experts. Benjamin Caballero, a pediatrician and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who is cochairman of the session, explains that this symposium will highlight "substantial changes in the quality and quantity of the diet [of people in developing countries] . . . and what this means for the health-care systems of these countries." The symposium "What Happens to Cardiovascular and Renal Homeostases During Pregnancy?", sponsored by the American Physiological Society, "aims to bring the study of the physiology of pregnancy more into the limelight," according to Virginia Brooks, an associate professor at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, and cochairwoman of the session. Brooks explains that this symposium, under the neurobiology "theme," will present an "integrated view of the many pregnancy-induced changes in the cardio-renal system--some that may not be beneficial to [a mother]." She expects this session to have a broad appeal, bringing together basic scientists such as molecular biologists as well as clinicians. Donald Capra, the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) program chairman and a research physician at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center, points out that the symposium on "Apoptosis and Necrosis," cosponsored by AAI and the American Society for Investigative Pathology, will feature Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the codiscoverer of the AIDS virus, as one of its speakers. Capra adds that the AAI symposium on "Gene Expression in Lymphocyte Development" has "the top list of speakers around...everyone is a star." These speakers include Fred Alt, a Howard Hughes investigator from Harvard Medical School who is presenting "Analysis of Lymphocyte Development by Rag-2-Deficient Blastocyst Complementation," and Daniel Littman of the University of California, San Francisco, cochairman of the session, who is presenting "Analysis of CD4 Gene Regulation in Transgenic Mice." One of the special sessions thought to be a big draw is "The Use of Animals in Biomedical Research and Teaching: Where Do We Stand?", sponsored by subsections of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the American Physiological Society. Roger Maickel, a professor in the School of Pharmacy at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., and chairman of this session, says its purpose is to "stimulate thinking on this subject" in the vein of "where have we been, where are we going, what are we doing, and what are the implications" of using animals in research, teaching, and testing. Maickel expects an attendance of 200 to 300, from "grad students to deans of colleges." Exhibits And Job Placement Organizers expect about 500 groups representing industry, government, publishers, and biomedical associations to be displaying state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, supplies, books, and journals in the EB 94 Exhibit Hall at the Anaheim Convention Center, April 25 through 28, 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health Division of Research Grants and the National Library of Medicine will also have staff members on hand to answer questions. Tutorials on various techniques such as the use of reagents, instrumentation, and data analysis will round out the types of exhibits available for attendees. These are expected to run from one to two hours. A computerized program that will let participants tailor their schedule of talks and exhibits will again be available to attendees. This service will be offered at three to five computer stations located in the Exhibit Hall at the Convention Center. At the computers, attendees can use keywords to search for topics or presenters, as well as for exhibit products and demonstrations. New to the service this year is the ability to constantly update the database. For example, if a certain device proves to be particularly popular at the show, exhibitors can add more information about it to the database, thereby making the service more interactive with the interests of participants. Organizers also mention that a computer diskette with the complete EB 94 program can be ordered before the meeting--by April 1--to allow attendees to sift through the program using a personal computer. Another popular highlight of EB 94 is the job-placement service, located at the Anaheim Convention Center Arena at various times April 24 through 27. This service will arrange and manage formal interviews between candidates seeking postdoctoral training or permanent positions in the life sciences and recruiters from academia, government, and industry. On-site registration will be available, although organizers suggest that advance registration, which closes on April 15, is more convenient. EB 94 organizers also stress that there will be no logistical problems because of the January 17 Los Angeles earthquake, but advise attendees to fly into the airport closest to Anaheim--John Wayne (Orange County) Airport--not the Los Angeles International Airport. For more information, contact the FASEB Office of Scientific Meetings and Conferences, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md. 20814-3998; (301) 530-7010.

Biomedical Researchers Meet In Anaheim For EB 94

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