Newsletter of the
Toxicologic and Exploratory Pathology
Specialty Section of the SOT
Volume 7, Issue 1
January 2006
President’s Corner
By Jack Harkema
Dear TEPSS Members:
It has been another busy Summer and Fall for members
of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) and the Toxicologic
and Exploratory Specialty Section (TEPSS). Many of
you have helped to organize and prepare scientific
sessions and continuing education (CE) courses for the
2006 annual meeting in San Diego this coming March.
Several excellent proposals from our membership were
submitted for consideration and I am delighted with the
CE courses, scientific symposia and workshops that we
will be sponsoring or co-sponsoring at this year’s
meeting. Thanks to all of you who gave of your time
and effort in this important work for the society and our
specialty session.
As you are well aware, the SOT annual meeting will be
held in beautiful San Diego on March 5-9, 2006.
Visit the meeting website to view the numerous, diverse
and interesting scientific and social events that make up
this full and exciting program (website link is at
http://www.toxicology.org/ai/meet/am2006/index.asp).
A diverse slate of interesting scientific sessions has been
selected by the SOT program committee. This year,
TEPSS is sponsoring or co-sponsoring five scientific
sessions  1) Advancing Toxicology by Improving
Linkage of Traditional Toxicity and Pathology
Endpoints with Toxicogenomics, 2) Historical
Perspective on Inhalation of Low-Solubility Particle and
Lung Tumor Formation, 3) Mode of Action Associated
with Induction of Endothelial Cell Tumors —
Hemangiosarcoma, 4) Risk Assessment Implications of
Direct Nose-To Brain Transport of Inhaled Xenobiotics,
and 5) Genomics in Risk Assessment: Utility for the
Characterization of Mode of Action. TEPSS is also
sponsoring or co-sponsoring five CE courses on Sunday,
March 5  1) Predictive Power of Novel Technologies
(Cell to Omics): Promises, Pitfalls and Applications, 2)
Comparative Endocrine Toxicology, 3) Practical
*****In this issue******
President’s Corner ..............................................1
TEPSS Student Travel Award ...........................2
TEPSS Student Travel Awards for 2005 ...........2
Guidelines for SOT Program Submissions ........3
TEPSS Officer Roles and Responsibilities ........3
TEPSS Officer Activities for 2005-2006 ...............5
Upcoming Meetings of Interest .........................6
Officers 2005-2006 ............................................6
Strategies for Evaluation of Immunosuppression in
Pharmaceutical Development, 4) Neuropathology for
the Toxicologist, and 5) Assessing Airway Injury and
Remodeling Induced by Inhaled Pollutants Using
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Microscopy, and
Modeling. I encourage you and your colleagues to
sign up for one of these or other informative courses
that are offered on the first day of the meeting. Taking
a CE course is a good way to start off the meeting.
TEPSS Is Looking for a Few Good Officers!
The offices of Vice-President Elect, SecretaryTreasurer and Councilor will be filled in 2006 (see
roles and responsibilities, page 3) Any TEPSS
members with nomination suggestions (yes, selfnominations are accepted and encouraged!) should
contact Brian Short (short_brian@allergan.com)
While attending the March meeting, I also encourage
you to attend the TEPSS reception and business
meeting which is scheduled for Tuesday night, March
7. It will be a great time to visit with friends and
colleagues and to meet new members and students. It
is also a special time when we honor TEPSS students
who are presenting outstanding poster or oral
presentations related to their graduate research. Please
invite colleagues or students who may be interested in
joining TEPSS.
TEPSS Newsletter - 1
As I stated in the last newsletter, for the TEPSS to
continue to grow within the SOT, it will be important for
us to become more visible and active within the Society,
not only at the annual meeting, but also by participating
on various standing and ad hoc committees of SOT. I
continue to encourage all of you to think about
submitting your names to SOT as potential members for
such committees as Membership, Program, Continuing
Education and Animals in Research. Participating on
Regional Chapters of the SOT are also excellent venues
to serve the Society.
As members of the TEPSS, it is also important to
encourage our peers, coworkers, and students to join our
specialty section. Today, more than ever before,
pathologists are playing important and diverse roles in
toxicology and other biomedical sciences. The SOT and
TEPSS is a place where our knowledge and expertise in
toxicologic pathology are valued, shared, and fostered
by the membership. Let’s all continue in 2006 to
improve our specialty section by increasing participation
and encouraging colleagues and students to join SOT
and TEPSS.
Abstracts will be judged based on clarity of
presentation and scientific merit. Abstracts that
present work which illustrates the use of morphologic
and/or clinical pathology techniques in new ways or
use molecular techniques to increase the understanding
of whole animal or tissue toxicologic responses will be
given preference.
Preference will be given to
candidates whose professional goals include the
incorporation of pathology into their professional
activities.
Awards will be presented at the TEPSS reception on
Tuesday night, 7 March 2006. Selected candidates
must present a brief (10 minute) synopsis of their
research projects at the TEPSS reception during the
annual meeting.
Happy New Year to you all and I’ll see you in San
Diego.
The goal of TEPSS is to encourage scientific and
educational programs that advance the science of
toxicology through the tools of pathologists. We
encourage student members, and membership in
TEPSS is free to students who are already SOT
members. For further information, please contact Dr.
Glenn Cantor, Discovery Toxicology, Bristol-Myers
Squibb Co., PO Box 5400, Princeton NJ 08543-5400,
glenn.cantor@bms.com, 609-818-4115.
Jack
TEPSS Student Travel Awards for 2005
By Gail Walter
TEPSS Student Travel
Awards
TEPSS sponsored two student travel awards at the
2005 SOT Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Award
criteria included research that illustrated the use of
By Glenn Cantor
It’s not too late! Please spread the word
to any interested graduate students who have submitted
abstracts to the 2006 SOT annual meeting that travel
funds are still available from the Toxicologic and
Exploratory Pathology Specialty Section (TEPSS).
TEPSS provides two travel awards of $1000 each to
assist students to attend the SOT meeting in San Diego,
March 5-9, 2006. Funds for one of the awards are
provided by Merck. To qualify for the travel award,
students must have submitted, and have had accepted,
an abstract for presentation at the 2006 SOT Meeting.
The student applicant must be the primary/presenting
author of the abstract.
To apply for the awards, eligible applicants need to send
a copy of the abstract along with a letter (maximum of 2
pages) describing the research project and professional
goals, as well as a letter of sponsorship from an
academic advisor who is a member of SOT, to Dr. Glenn
Cantor (contact information below) on or before 16
January 2006.
Toxicologic & Exploratory Pathology Specialty Section
Annual Meeting and Reception
will be on
Tuesday, March 7 at 6 PM.
Please attend and support your specialty section
traditional morphologic and/or clinical pathology
techniques in new ways, or the use of molecular
techniques to increase the understanding of whole
animal or tissue toxicologic response. The $1000
awards were presented at the TEPSS reception on
March 6. Award recipients were Alison Hege for her
poster
entitled
“Toxicogenetic
Analysis
of
Susceptibility to Acetaminophen-Induced Liver
TEPSS Newsletter - 2
Injury” under the mentorship of Ivan Rusyn at the
University of North Carolina, School of Public Health,
and to Ankur Dnyanmote for his poster entitled “Role of
Lower Progression of DCVC-Initiated Renal Injury in
Diabetes-Induced Protection from Nephrotoxicity” under
the mentorship of Harihara Mehendale at University of
Louisiana at Monroe. Alison Hege’s travel award was
generously sponsored by Merck and Company. Both
students received a plaque and a gift certificate from
Taylor and Frances. All of the submitted abstracts were
excellent and reaching a consensus on the awardees was
challenging. We are looking forward to recognizing
students again at the SOT meeting in 2006 and
encourage graduate students to apply for this award.
Guidelines for SOT Program Submissions
By Lynda Lanning
(Editor’s note:
Lynda is currently
serving on the SOT
Program Committee,
and thus was involved
in the review and
selection of
programs for the 2006 SOT Meeting. The following are
her suggestions on how to write a solid proposal that
will be considered by the Program Committee. Since the
proposals received by the Program Committee are quite
variable in terms of the level of detail, the Program
Committee tends to give preference to those proposals
that are most complete and therefore provide the best
understanding of the proposed session).
When developing a proposal for a symposium,
workshop, or roundtable, attention to the following items
will make the proposal as strong as possible. First, make
sure that you follow the guidelines on the website in
regard to the criteria for each of these types of
presentations. The Symposia are 3-hour presentations
(Chairperson plus 4-5 speakers) covering ‘cutting edge’
science, new area, concepts and/or data. Workshops
cover ‘state-of-the-art’ knowledge in toxicology in 3
hours or less with typically a Chairperson and 4-5
speakers. Controversial topics are more appropriate for
Roundtables. These last 1.5 hours and have a moderator
and 2-4 participants which make 3-5 minute statements
on the topic followed by questions and discussion led by
the moderator(s). If you are unsure of the appropriate
type session for your proposal, use your best judgment in
choosing a session type. If the SOT Program Committee
feels that it is better suited for a different session type,
the Committee will make the change and if the session is
tentatively accepted the session contact person will be
informed of this change.
All proposals must be complete with a fully
developed, clear abstract, all proposed speaker names,
presentation titles and short, clear paragraphs
describing what will be covered by each speaker.
Incomplete proposals (i.e., a proposal with only
session titles) will not provide the SOT Program
Committee with the information necessary to make a
decision on the acceptability of the session for the
program. Remember to make the session topic and
presentations broad enough to cover the topic
adequately.
When selecting a topic, scan the session topics from
recent SOT meetings and avoid covering information
presented previously. Non-SOT member speaker
participation should be limited to one or two speakers
and the Chairperson(s) must be SOT members.
Finally, endorsement by relevant Specialty Sections is
important and provides the SOT Program Committee
with valuable information as to the appropriateness of
the topic and speakers
TEPSS Officer Roles and Responsibilities
By Brian Short and Susan Emeigh Hart
Upon
being
nominated for or
elected as an
officer of the
Toxicologic and
Exploratory
Pathology
Specialty Section
(TEPSS) the first
question one asks
is “So, what am I
supposed to do?
Details of the rules and regulations regarding the
TEPSS can be found in the by-laws on file with the
Society of Toxicology (SOT).
The following,
however, is an abridged version of a handbook that’s
been put together by the TEPSS officers (the complete
version is available on the TEPSS website).
Term of Office
In general the term of office ends on April 30 and
therefore new officers begin their duties May 1 of the
effective year. Multiple year offices and succession
are indicated below (note that Councilors serve for two
years each, with one Councilor elected each year)
President (Four years: as Vice President-Elect, Vice
President, President & Past President)
 Presides over the annual reception and all
officer’s meetings and teleconferences
TEPSS Newsletter - 3








(minimally three per year for the latter -one in Jun-Aug (pre-membership drive/Fall
Newsletter), one in Oct/Nov (pre-election
ballot) and one in Jan (Student Awards),
including generation and distribution of the
agenda
Represents the specialty section at all SOT
functions, is the decision-maker for all
time-critical decisions, and provides
direction for future goals of the section.
Annually
reviews
By-Laws
for
amendments or updates.
Works with the Past President to put
together a slate of candidates and hold the
election in January (see Past President),
notifies successful and unsuccessful
candidates for office.
Works with the Secretary/Treasurer to issue
at least two, preferably three issues of the
TEPSS newsletter, writes the President’s
message (ideally, spring, fall and winter)
Works with the Secretary-Treasurer and
SOT to set dates, times and menus for the
TEPSS reception and Officer’s Breakfast
meeting (this also includes any awards,
certificates and plaques, to be conferred on
students and outgoing officers) This is
done with SOT-supplied template
Attends the SS President’s meeting (the
Vice President is also invited to attend).
Works with the Secretary-Treasurer to
generate the SS annual report (from SOTsupplied template)
Endorses and accepts proposed symposia,
workshops, CE courses for which TEPSS is
listed as the primary endorser. Responsible
for providing ranking of all such proposals
by early May
Vice President (see under President)
 Responsible for soliciting, receiving and
coordinating submission of proposals from
the TEPSS membership or other SOT
members by April 30 for primary
endorsements
and
arranging
for
prioritization of these proposals (usually
don by consensus of the officers, by
teleconference
 Identifies important advances in the field or
industry thought-leaders and contact those
individuals who may be willing to put a
program together.
 Forms a Program Committee in August or
earlier (should include Vice President Elect,
Councilors and a few general members).

Provides guidance to those who are
willing to organize a symposium or
course.
 Responsible for coordinating requests for
outside meetings.
Note that the submissions for symposia are due in
April. That means that the incoming Vice President
and VP-Elect have to get to work to line up
organizers, chairpersons, and symposia months well
in advance of the March SOT Annual Meeting!
Vice President Elect (see under President)
 Works with the Vice President to solicit
suggestions from the TEPSS membership
and submitting them to the SOT Program
Committee
 Becomes Vice President at the Annual
Meeting in March, and President the
following year.
 Takes responsibility for maintenance and
updating of the TEPSS webpage on the
SOT website (coordinate with Debbie
O’Keefe; Debbie@toxicology.org). This
includes ensuring all content is up-to-date
(officer list and contact information, ByLaws, membership directory). Receives
all content to be posted on the TEPSS
website
Secretary/Treasurer (Two year term of office)
 Reviews monthly financial statements
and quarterly ledgers generated by SOT,
ensuring that all donations received are
acknowledged
promptly
and
appropriately
 Produces at least 3 issues of the TEPSS
newsletter, spring (prep in April, send in
May), fall (prep in Sep, send in Oct), and
winter (prep in Jan, send in Feb). Solicit
contributions from all TEPSS officers for
content. Distribution to TEPSS members
is electronically (coordinated through
Rita Rose, rita@toxicology.org) and by
posting on the TEPSS webpage
(coordinate through VP-Elect).
A
template is now available for newsletters.
This also involves, if possible, generating
a short article that provides an overview
of the TEPSS reception and taking digital
photographs at the reception for inclusion
in the spring newsletter.
 Records and issues meeting minutes with
action items/dates for all TEPSS
Officer’s meeting and teleconferences
within a timely fashion (1-2 weeks)
TEPSS Newsletter - 4
First-Year Councilor
 Serve as head of the Student Travel Award
committee. This involves:
o Ensuring the description of the award(s)
on the website is correct, and has the
correct contact information (coordinate
with VP-Elect)
o Collecting
the
applications
for
distribution to the TEPSS Officers,
o Presiding over selection of award
winners and notifying them of their
awards.
Also must ensure the
President/Secretary-Treasurer have the
award winner’s names in time for
plaques and certificates to be generated.
o Presenting student awards at TEPSS
reception
Second-Year Councilor
 Chairs membership recruitment efforts.
This involves generation of a plan for
increasing membership, presenting same to
the TEPSS officers, and overseeing the
plan’s implementation (ideally in the fall,
before SOT membership reminders are
distributed)
Past President (Councilor)
 Leads the nominating committee for new
officers, so that a slate of officers is
proposed in December for a January ballot.
(Note:
all officers are expected to
participate in the nomination process; it’s
suggested that each officer propose several
nominees for his/her own office as the
outgoing officer will have the best idea of
what the office entails and who among the
TEPSS membership will fill that office best)
 Provides historical knowledge and guidance
to other officers.
TEPSS Officer Activities for 2005-2006
(and How YOU Can Help!!)
By Susan Emeigh Hart
The fact that the TEPSS officers meet in person only
once a year doesn’t prevent them from getting things
accomplished!
The following list is what we’re
presently working on for you; in return, the bolded
actions are ways that you, the TEPSS membership, can
help make these goals happen:

We have a few applications for the student
travel awards, but thanks to generous
donations from our members, asset growth
and the continued sponsorship of these
TEPSS Newsletter - 5




awards by Merck, will be offering several
of these this year and thus are soliciting
additional applications! To this end, the
application deadline has been extended
until the 16 January 2005, and a mass
mailing was sent to all SOT members,
which should hopefully reach any eligible
students. TEPSS members are urged to
encourage any eligible students to
apply for these awards (see page 2).
Additionally, TEPSS members who
wish to donate their CE Course
teaching honoraria directly to TEPSS
to help fund student travel can do so by
checking, “I am unable to accept…” on
the SOT Speaker Honorarium Form.
Underneath, select choice 2, “Other”,
and name TEPSS as the recipient for
the funds.
The slate of officer nominees for 2006 is
nearly finished. Several names were
proposed for each office and several
candidates have accepted nominations
BUT THERE ARE STILL OPEN
SLOTS ON THE BALLOT FOR ALL
OFFICES. TEPSS members are
encouraged to contact Brian Short
with suggestions for nominees (see
page 1).
The TEPSS webpage should have a new
look in 2006, thanks to the efforts of Vice
President Elect Pat Haley. The test site is
in preparation, to be delivered to him to
“test drive” and approve in the near
future. Any suggestions or content for
the website should be directed to Pat
(phaley@incyte.com)
TEPSS will have a poster at the SOT
Specialty Section Poster session in 2006
(also displayed at the Student Reception),
thanks to the efforts of Past President
Brian Short. He hopes to have the poster
in shape by the end of January, but any
members
who
have
materials
(photographs, etc.) that might be useful
to Brian can send those directly to him.
The newest
member of
the Hart
family!
(Nautical
Mile TOF,
AKA
“Nemo”)
UPCOMING MEETINGS OF INTEREST
25th Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicologic Pathology, June 18-22, 2006, Vancouver, BC, Canada,
"Toxicologic Pathology of the Respiratory System." For additional information, visit
http://www.toxpath.org/AM2006/index.asp
TEPSS OFFICERS 2005-2006
Please feel free to contact your officers of the section with any questions, comments or suggestions. Your suggestions for
programs and membership are especially welcome and encouraged. The section exists to serve its members by providing
CE courses, workshops and symposium as well as supporting student travel.
Office
Name
Term
e-mail
Committee/Task
President
2005-6
harkemaj@cvm.msu.edu
2006 Program, etc.
Jack Harkema
VP (President-elect)
2005-6
lyndal@otsuka.com
2007 Program
Lynda Lanning
VP-elect
2005-6
phaley@incyte.com
Website
Pat Haley
Newsletters,
Secretary-Treasurer
2004-6
shart@genaera.com
Susan Emeigh Hart
financials, budget
Councilor
Gail Walter
2004-6
walterg@net-link.net
Membership
Councilor
Glenn Cantor
2005-7
glenn.cantor@bms.com
Student travel
awards
Councilor/ Past
President
Brian Short
2003-4
Short_Brian@Allergan.com
Nominations
Student Representative
Alison Hege
2005-6
ahege@med.unc.edu
Liasion to SOT
Student Advisory
Committee
TEPSS Newsletter - 6