Letter from the President

Thomas Knudsen

The 47 th Annual Meeting of the Teratology Society was a great success. Special thanks to Elaine Faustman for her leadership as Society President in 2006-07, to the Program Committee for organizing a strong scientific program, and to the meeting attendees for loyal participation and active engagement at all of the sessions.

Please reflect for a moment on the NIH Roadmap to 21st Century Medicine (E Zerhouni, circa 2003) and its three integrated themes within the context of our Society's appreciative assets. In New Pathways to Discovery the modeling of molecular complexity through systems-based approaches may help us capitalize on the key advances from the human genome project to reveal hidden principles underlying the fundamental mysteries of development. Through Research Teams of the Future scientists and clinicians come together as interdisciplinary teams focused on problem-solving to tackle the complexity at higher informational scales. Redesigning the enterprise for 21 st century medicine is completed by a nationwide infrastructure or Translational Network that relies on newer information technologies and techniques to

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1     Letter from the President / 48 th Annual Meeting

3     From the Public Affairs Committee / WHO Report

4     Website Committee Update

5     FASEB Update / Book Review

6     New era in Toxicity Testing

48 th Annual Meeting

Christina Chambers

The 2008 Program Committee has put together an exciting and varied program for Monterey in collaboration with the Neurobehavioral Teratology Society (NBTS) and the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists (OTIS). The preliminary program will be available for viewing on the website in October. Symposia topics include fetal hypoxia, leftright patterning in development, stem cell technology as it relates to teratology, food safety and nutrition across the developmental spectrum, childhood pesticide exposure, in vitro methods in teratology, vaccine safety, vascular disruptive defects, and an overview of the methods and findings of the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Special sessions on one-generation vs. two-generation studies, and teaching teratology in the 21 st century are planned, as well as an update on the National Children’s Study. A workshop on pregnancy registry methods is also incorporated into the meeting, with joint sponsorship by the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology. The Education Committee has developed an excellent course on functional teratology that is focused on CNS outcomes, and a mini-course on nano-particles. The Society will be submitting an application for continuing medical education credit for physicians.

The format of the meeting will be slightly different in 2008. In response to the recommendations of the Strategic Planning Session participants and the membership, the meeting will be condensed from five days to four, ending on Wednesday evening, July 2. The Education Course will be presented in its entirety on Saturday, June 28. An extended break will be included in the afternoon for lunch with colleagues or perhaps the XXVII Annual Volleyball game.

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