Newsletter of the
Toxicologic and Exploratory Pathology
Specialty Section of the SOT
Volume 4, Issue 2
November 2003
Presidents corner, by Bruce McCullough
Dear TEPSS Members:
I hope this newsletter finds you enjoying your families,
comfortable with your current assignments and eager for
another new year of toxicologic pathology and its many
ramifications (recall it is November!). Each week it
seems I am reminded of the tremendous importance of
my personal network of valuable professional
relationships. The TEPSS was established to provide
opportunities for expanding and strengthening of these
elements of our professional lives. The point I wish to
make in this brief message is that networks and
relationships only exist with mutual participation. At
first you may have thought that I would be telling you
what you would gain from being active in TEPSS. No, I
want you to consider the converse, because networks are
not linear. The inputs come from all directions and
frequently not from the individual with whom you had
first contact. Networks are effective because people, like
you, put energy into them. Interestingly, energy inputted
isn’t lost from the network; rather the energy is
magnified by the network and others outside sense the
benefits and are drawn in seeking to appreciate the
apparent rewards. If these new members do not
contribute energy to the network eventually the network
will falter. Let’s not allow this to happen to TEPSS. We
have roughly doubled in size in the past couple of years
to more than 85 members. I regard this as an impressive
expansion for the idea and energy of a single person. The
TEPSS needs your energy and in response TEPSS will
contribute to the success of the Society of Toxicology
and eventually the network will find its way back to you
magnified many fold. As always, the SOT annual
meeting is the premier international forum for
toxicology issues and an exciting and stimulating
program is planned. So, come and participate. Rewards
will follow.
*****In this issue******
President’s Corner ..............................................1
TEPSS Student Travel Award ...........................1
Membership in TEPSS.......................................2
TEPSS 2004 Annual meeting & reception ..........
Program for SOT 2005 in New Orleans ..............
Summary of Summer 2003 officer’s telecon .......
Upcoming meetings .............................................
Volunteer opportunities .......................................
Officers 2003-2004 ..............................................
TEPSS Student Travel Awards
by Tom Monticello
Our specialty section will once again
sponsor one award this year for a
graduate student's travel to the annual
SOT meeting in Baltimore, MD March 21-25, 2004. To be
considered for a TEPSS student travel award, nominees
must be the senior author of an abstract accepted for
presentation at the annual SOT meeting, dealing with basic
or applied research on the pathogenesis of a toxic response.
Preference will be given to candidates whose professional
goals include the incorporation of pathology into their
professional activities. A letter of recommendation from an
academic advisor who is an SOT member should
accompany the application as well as a current CV of the
student. Abstracts will be judged based on clarity of
presentation and scientific merit. Deadline for submission of
nominations for this award is January 10, 2004. Please see
the SOT website (Information / Awards and Fellowships/
Specialty Section Awards) for details or contact
thomas.monticello@aventis.com.
****************************
Toxicologic & Exploratory Pathology Specialty Section
Annual Meeting and Reception
will be on
Wednesday, March 24 at 6PM.
Please attend and support your specialty section
****************************
TEPSS Newsletter - 1
Our membership drive was successful, but don't
stop now. by Doug Wolf
I want to thank everyone who renewed their membership in
the Toxicologic and Exploratory Pathology Specialty Section
(TEPSS) or joined this past year. We have been successful in
our membership drive activities growing from just over 60
members at the 2003 meeting to now over 80 members. This
is a great step forward and an excellent growth rate. The
challenge now is to not only maintain our current membership
but to continue this growth trend. Remember the goal of
TEPSS is to inform the toxicology community of the value
and importance of pathology assessment. The TEPSS does this
by supporting continuing education courses, workshops, and
symposia that highlight pathology endpoints in toxicity
assessment. Your paid membership is vital for us to achieve
these goals and we thank you for your continued support.
Please remember at the upcoming SOT renewal to check the
box next to TEPSS in the on-line form before submitting your
payment. For those of you who have an administrative
assistant perform these functions, please remember to tell
them to include TEPSS in the SOT renewal. Remember
specialty sections are the core of SOT as it is the source of
influence on meeting programming and the main route into
SOT committees and elected positions. In order to maximize
our influence as a specialty section we need as broad a support
as possible. My charge to you all this year is to invite one of
your colleagues to join our specialty section and invite a
second colleague to attend our specialty section meeting at the
upcoming SOT meeting in Baltimore where I look forward to
seeing all of you.
Program for 2004 SOT Meeting
Please plan to attend / support a number of TEPSS sponsored
or cosponsored events in the upcoming 2004 SOT meeting in
Baltimore. We are co-sponsoring one continuing education
course on Adrenal Gland Toxicity & Carcinogensis. There
will also be a symposia on Toxicogenomics in Preclinical
Drug Development and three workshops dealing with
Agricultural Chemical Safety, Biomarker Development and
Immune Modulation. There has been a great deal of time
planning and preparing for these presentations. Organizing
and presenting topics of interest to SOT members is one of our
specialty sections biggest impact and contribution to a
successful meeting. Thanks to all the members who
contributed their time and talent in getting these programs
submitted and accepted.
TEPSS Reception: Are we ready for automated
tissue examinations?? The potential use of electronic
imaging technologies to examine tissue sections is receiving
increased attention. A portion of our annual meeting will be
devoted to discussion/debate of the pros and cons associated
with such an approach. With a shortage of qualified
toxicologic pathologists, senior management will likely
embrace whatever techniques to increase capacity for
histopathological examinations. Should we be supporting or
resisting such proposals. Come join in the discussion and
ensure that your views are heard. We will not agree
necessarily, but we will listen, at least for little while.
Fortunately, this is a debate, which can take place while
drinking beer, which should improve open exchange of views.
Looking forward to seeing your happy faces at the debate.
Program for the 2005 SOT meeting
by Brian Short, TEPSS Pres-Elect, 2005 Program
Chairperson
It seems far away, but now is the time for everyone in the
Toxicologic and Experimental Pathology Specialty section
to start planning for the 2005 SOT meeting in New Orleans,
LA. The primary objective of TEPSS is to “…sponsor
scientific and educational programs including symposia,
workshops, and continuing education courses that advance
the science of toxicology through the tools of the
toxicologic and experimental pathologists” (Bylaws
plagiarism!). This year we nearly doubled our membership,
which should mean we double the number of ideas and
proposals! I will be establishing a program committee, so
please let me know if you would like to help (before I draft
you). The deadline for submitting ideas for presentations
for the 2005 SOT meeting is less than 6 months away (April
2004). We must begin preparing well before the deadline
for a successful proposal submission. These sessions are
usually most successful if they are cosponsored with other
specialty subsections, but it is not mandatory. In addition to
your ideas for programs, I know all of you have interests
and expertise that would be of value to share at SOT
meetings. I also invite you to visit the TEPSS membership
roster and other specialty memberships in the SOT website
directory for other potential speakers. The SOT meeting is
our opportunity to make an impact on the education and
scientific direction of a wide population of society members
and make everyone aware of the critical and diverse role of
our specialty. Please contact me with your ideas for topics
and speakers at Short_brian@allergan.com.
Summary of TEPSS Officers Teleconference,
September 26, 2003. The teleconference began at 2:34 pm
with Jeff Everitt, George Foley, Bruce McCullough, Tom
Monticello, Brian Short, and Doug Wolf attending.
Budget: In a post-meeting note, George Foley reported the
current balance of the specialty section with monies
derived from membership renewal and the fund drive is
$6,043 as of July 2003. Based on the new method of fund
distribution, continued membership support will provide
sufficient funds to accomplish our goals of student
support and reception speakers.
Committee reports:
Membership: There was a discussion on status of the
membership drive. Currently (as of September 26, 2003)
there are 86 TEPSS members. It was discussed about
following up on the membership drive list and each
officer contact non-members on the list and suggest they
join TEPSS. Timing of the letters and contact would be in
the October-November timeframe.
Communications: There was a discussion about timing
and content of the fall newsletter. Articles will be due by
October 24 with newsletter distribution by October 31.
Fundraisers: The Fund drive was planned as a one-time
event so it was agreed to not continue at this time.
TEPSS Newsletter - 2
Student Awards: Tom discussed the student travel awards.
He has already received one application. After discussion it
was agreed that Tom would seek two to three TEPSS
members to evaluate the student abstracts. There was also a
discussion about previous efforts employed to generate
sufficient abstracts for the competition.
SOT 2004: The format of the annual meeting was discussed
along with potential topics and speakers. Bruce and Tom
will consider topics for a brief (15-20 minute) presentation
during the TEPSS reception.
Program 2005: Brian is in the early stages of soliciting
program committee members for the 2005 program
committee. Volunteers will be sought individually and
through the newsletter.
Nomination committee: Three positions will be open in the
upcoming election: President-elect, Secretary/Treasurer,
Councilor. Jeff, Bruce, Brian and Tom will solicit
potential candidates with the aim of getting two
candidates per office for the election.
No further business was presented and the teleconference
was adjourned at 3:20 pm.
George L. Foley, Secretary/Treasurer TEPSS
UPCOMING MEETINGS OF INTEREST
PhRMA/FDA Workshop: Risk Detection, Management and
Communications: Quantitative Perspectives, Nov 5-6,
2003. Bethesda, MD
ACVP Annual Meeting, November 15-19, 2003, Banff,
Alberta, Canada, http://www.acvp.org/meeting/
Predictive Toxicology, by Cambridge Health Instit.,
November 17-18, 2003, Boston, MA. chi@healthtech.com
Joint JSTP-IFSTP Congress, February 15-18, 2004, Kobe,
Japan. http://www.pac.ne.jp/jstp-ifstp/
43rd Annual SOT, March 21-25, 2004, Baltimore, MD.
http://www.toxicology.org
23rd Annual STP, June 14-17, 2004, Salt Lake City, UT.
http://eshow2000.com/STP/index.cfm
2nd Drug Discovery and Development Summit: Novel
concepts and Technologies to Accelerate Drug
Development; December 1-5, 2003, Honolulu, HI,
www.drugdiscoverytoday.com.
Upcoming volunteer opportunities:
SOT 2005 Program Committee
Timeframe: Aug 03-Apr 2004 develop programs (CE, Symposia, Workshops) for annual meeting. Brian Short, chair
Short_Brian@Allergan.com
Student travel award committee
Timeframe: Nov 2003-Jan 2004 review applications, abstracts and supporting letters, Tom Monticello, chair
Thomas.Monticello@aventis.com
SOT volunteer opportunity information is available at the Forms & Applications section under Member Services
menu option at www.toxicology.org.
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
President
President elect
Sec-Treas
Councilor
Councilor
Councilor/ Past Pres
Name
Bruce McCullough
Brian Short
George Foley
Term
2003-4
2003-4
2002-4
e-mail
bruce.mccullough@aventis.com
Short_Brian@Allergan.com
george.foley@pfizer.com
Committee/Task
2004 Program
2005 Program
Newsletters
Tom Monticello
2003-5
Thomas.Monticello@aventis.com
Student Awards
Doug Wolf
Jeff Everitt
2002-4
2003-4
Wolf.doug@epa.gov
jye40103@gsk.com
Membership
Sage advice
TEPSS Newsletter - 3