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April 2008 E-Newsletter of the
Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and
Toxicologists
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Welcome to the April
edition of ASCEPT eNews. In this issue we invite
applications from ASCEPT members for sponsorship of Pharmacology/Toxicology
seminar programs. We are calling for nominations for
the Prime Ministers prizes for Science, which include a variety awards for
outstanding Australian Science, and the Amgen Medical Researcher Award. Professor Philip Nagley
has submitted a report on the National Forum on Education in Biomedical
Sciences that occurred in December 2007. FASTS have requested ASCEPT members
examine the new codes which have been designed to replace the
existing (1998) RFCD and SEO codes. Please see FASTS response to new ABS
Research Classification below. CPT2008 is still accepting late
breaking abstracts and there are less than 20 days remaining
to take advantage of special early-bird registration fees. We also have information regarding
other conferences occurring throughout 2008. The ASCEPT toxicology special
interest group is promoting continuing education courses and IUTOX2010 is seeking
submissions for the scientific program. If any would like to contribute any
items to eNews, please send it along to Meetings First for consideration. Roselyn Rose'Meyer ASCEPT Newsletter Editor |
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HEAD OF DEPARTMENTS FOR 2008
If you are a Head of Department in 2008, please let us know at ascept@meetingsfirst.com.au. |
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**2008 ASCEPT PHARMACOLOGY/TOXICOLOGY
SEMINAR GRANTS** Background: Following the
popularity of the 2007 ASCEPT pharmacology/toxicology seminar grant program,
ASCEPT announces that applications for the 2008 ASCEPT
pharmacology/toxicology seminar grants are now open. The program seeks
to provide an added incentive to our members' departments to share their
recent research with other members of their department as well
as inviting speakers from outside their departments to also do so.
The more dialogue between Australasian pharmacologists and toxicologists
additional to our annual scientific meetings, the better. And of course, the
greater the presence of ASCEPT in our scientific community, the more
members we attract. How you spend the grant is up to you: for example,
you may wish to use it towards flying in a special speaker from interstate,
or perhaps to provide refreshments before/after each seminar to encourage
mingling and conversation. Eligibility and obligations: Once you
have 5 ASCEPT members of good standing (i.e. membership fees paid up for
current financial year) within an institute or department, you
are able to apply for a $500 ASCEPT pharmacology/toxicology seminar
grant for use in your institute or departmental seminar program. This amount
increases to $1000 if you have 10 ASCEPT members of
good standing. There are no restrictions on the type of membership (e.g. full
versus student), as long as they are paid up. No ASCEPT member can use their
name for more than one seminar grant in any calendar year (even if you
relocate). The seminars must have the ASCEPT logo appear at the start and end
of every seminar in that year's seminar program, by using a PowerPoint
slide provided by the ASCEPT Secretariat and have the current ASCEPT
membership brochures available in the seminar room on the day. ASCEPT
will advertise all seminar programs on the ASCEPT website and in the e-news,
so please provide details of your program as they become available (although
ideally as a full list for several months). Please make any other ASCEPT
members who attend one of your departmental seminars feel welcome -
let’s get talking!! You
will need to nominate a contact person from your seminar program to liaise
with Meetings First where required. Please
click here and complete the form. Applications for the 2008 program
close Wednesday 30 April 2008. |
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RESEARCH MEETING THIS FRIDAY: ‘POISONING
IN THE THIRD WORLD’ Proudly
supported by ASCEPT ASCEPT LECTURER 2008 Our guest speaker on Friday
18 April is Dr Andrew Dawson, Program Director Wellcome/NH&MRC
Research Grant Andrew trained in General Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology and
Toxicology and and worked as consultant in those specialities in Newcastle
from 1990 to 2004. He was instrumental in establishing
the Hunter Area Toxicology Service, the National consultant service for
Poisons Centres and a distance learning course in Clinical Toxicology. In
2004 he moved to Sri Lanka as the Program Director for a Wellcome Trust/NHMRC
research capacity building grant and formed a collaborative group known as
SACTRC (South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration). SACTRC
operates in 7 hopitals in Sri Lanka and India, has 15 postgraduate students
and directly employs 130 staff. Current activity includes phase II and phase
III trials of antidotes, primary community prevention,academic detailing in
primary care and development of bedside analytical techniques. In addition we
are developing open source curriculum in toxicology. The St Vincent’s Hospital Therapeutics Centre - Department of
Clinical Pharmacology & Venue Therapeutics Centre Staff Room, Level 2 Xavier Building, St
Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney Convenors For further info. call Mona on 8382 3841 or page 6822 or email mmanghani@stvincents.com.au Research Seminar CPT Director, Prof Ric Day. For further info or to request to be placed on our CPT mailing
list , email r.day@unsw.edu.au Program Journal Club Meeting commences @ 8:00 – 8:45am (paper is
circulated prior to meeting) Research Seminar commences @ 8:45 – 9.30am |
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FRONTIERS IN ADDICTION RESEARCH: TRAVEL AWARD Are
you planning on attending the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting
on Friday, November 14th, 2008? Are you an early career scientist
interested in Drug Addiction? The
United States National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will, once
again, be sponsoring an all-day satellite mini-convention at this years
Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting on Friday, November 14th, 2008 in
Washington, DC, USA.. The "Frontiers in Addiction Research"
mini-convention will have four symposia and a poster session for early career
investigators (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty)
that will take place during a two-hour extended lunch break.
Please
also copy Angela Ritchie (angela@meetingsfirst.com.au) on the email so we know about your nomination Rebecca
Ritchie ASCEPT Secretary |
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CALL FOR LATE BREAKING
ABSTRACTS – CPT 2008
A
thousand abstracts have already been accepted for The IXth World Conference
on Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (CPT2008), which will take place
from July 27 - August 1, 2008 in Québec City, Canada. Due to popular demand,
we’re now making room for more!
**Only 14 days remain to take advantage of special
early-bird registration fees!**
Early
Registration Deadline: April 30, 2008 Late
Breaking Abstracts Submission Deadline: May 30, 2008 Accommodation
Deadline: June 16, 2008 |
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ASCEPT TOXICOLOGY SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP PRESENTS A
CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSE IN TOXICOLOGY
Registrations
are accepted online or by paper. Evaluating the Human Relevance of Modes of Action in Animals
Tuesday
29 April 2008 9 am to 12.30 pm Canberra
ACT (Venue TBC – dependent on numbers) International Presenter: M.E.
(Bette) Meek, Health Canada and University of Ottawa Advanced Training in Evaluating the Human Relevance of Modes of
Action in Animals
Tuesday
29 April 2008 1.30 pm to 5 pm Boardroom, Office of Chemical Safety, Canberra ACT International
Presenter: M.E. (Bette) Meek, Health Canada and
University of Ottawa
To undertake this advanced training course participants will
need to complete the ASCEPT Continuing Education course in Evaluating the
Human Relevance of Modes of Action in Animals and have experience in
chemicals risk assessment and/or evaluating animal toxicology data. Numbers
strictly limited to 10 participants to facilitate intensive small group
learning. For further information on these two sessions, please click here. |
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AMGEN MEDICAL RESEARCHER AWARD Amgen Australia Pty Ltd
continues support of excellence in science research through The AMGEN
Medical Researcher Award, which will be presented during ASMR Medical
Research Week® under the auspices of the Australian Society for Medical
Research. The national award recognises excellence in medical research
by a postdoctoral person for translational studies in Australia. The winner
of the Award will receive a plaque and reasonable costs (up to $6,000) for
travel, accommodation expenses and registration at an international meeting of
their choice. The winner must be available for the award presentation
at the Media Luncheon on Tuesday June 3 in Melbourne during ASMR Medical
Research Week®. Interstate travel funds will be provided to the
recipient as needed. Applications close 24 April
2008 |
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The Prime
Minister’s Prize for Science is one of the nation’s most highly regarded awards and the
premier national award for scientific achievement. It is awarded for an
outstanding specific achievement in any area of science advancing human
welfare or benefiting society, and has been awarded previously to such
luminaries of Australian science as Frank Fenner, Donald Metcalf, Jacques
Miller and Graeme Clark. The winner will receive a gold medallion and a
$300,000 grant. The Science Minister’s Prize for Life
Scientists of the Year is awarded to scientists at an early stage of their
research careers. To be eligible in 2008, nominees must have completed their
PhD within the past ten years. At least four years of a Nominee’s research
career must have been spent in Australia. The prize is awarded for
outstanding achievement in science that benefits, or has the potential to
benefit, human welfare or society. The winner will receive a silver medallion
and a $50,000 grant. Applications close 9 May 2008 |
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NATIONAL FORUM ON EDUCATION
IN BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES: 11 DECEMBER 2007
The concept of a National Forum on Education in
Biomedical Sciences (NFEBMS) held at Monash University in December 2007 was
developed by Professor Phillip Nagley, Chair of the Education Committee of
the School of Biomedical Science (SOBS) at Monash University. The NFEBMS was
designed to include courses in Biomedical Science and also Science,
Biotechnology and other courses in which biomedical sciences are explicitly
taught. The relevant academic/research societies, as represented in National
Committee for Biomedical Sciences (NCBMS) of the Australian Academy of
Science, were approached to sponsor and be actively involved in the forum.
Most, if not all, of these societies have groups of active members or even
formalised special interest groups, which focus on education within their own
discipline area. The Forum was held on Tuesday 11 December 2007 at
Monash University with 120 registrants. The forum attracted participants from
within Australia and internationally. The five international participants
came from South Africa, Singapore and New Zealand. The Australian registrants
were both local Victorians (seventy) and representatives from other states
(forty five). The morning sessions consisted of presentations by
the invited speakers and in the afternoon discussion sessions After morning tea, the second session with the Theme
“Graduate attributes and employability” was presented by four speakers. Simon
Barrie (University of Sydney) spoke on the issue of why we should actually
address graduate attributes. Simon emphasized that while course planners should
take into account the expectations and needs of various external
stakeholders, in the end universities must be responsible for the academic
content of degree courses and providing the framework for student achievement
of particular skills and experiences. Phillip Poronnik (University of
Queensland) discussed the importance of communication skills and the
integrated approaches that he and his colleagues have used to develop
communication skills for students in the biomedical sciences, across entire
programs. He explained the learning guide used at the University of
Queensland, which focuses on the relationships between “knowing”, “doing”,
“language” and “evidence”. Caroline Jones (Murdoch University) then gave an
insightful and informative discussion on the important issue of which
laboratory skills our students should learn. She discussed creative ways to
teach these skills, particularly when challenged with large classes. Caroline
stressed that we all learn to do things correctly when we follow instructions
we understand and that we must experience the consequences of doing things
both correctly and incorrectly. The final presentation in this session by
Gregor Kennedy (University of Melbourne) raised the issues of the “Pitfalls
and Pleasures” in evaluating educational technology. Gregor discussed a
number of evaluation tools available and their purposes, advantages and
disadvantages. The afternoon consisted of breakout groups which had
lively discussions on a range of topics. In response to the question, “What
should be the balance between theory, laboratory work and IT skills?”, the
overall view was that this will vary with the specific degree and possible
graduate destinations and that there may in fact be different versions of
delivery of the same content. The issue of “What is the set of core concepts
and learning in Biomedical Science?” also resulted in a conclusion that we
could not be prescriptive in relation to this. It was agreed, nevertheless,
that both molecular and cellular aspects should be integral The National Forum would not have been possible
without the generous support of all our sponsors who we gratefully
acknowledge: the Australian Academy of Science, Australian Physiological
Society, Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,
Australasian Society for Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and
Toxicologists, Australian Society for Microbiology, Endocrine Society of
Australia, Genetics Society of Australasia, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and
Health Sciences, Monash University and Pearson Education Australia. The Forum brought together a wide range of teachers
and other interested individuals whose educational engagement varied from
degrees in Biomedical Science as such, to those involved in Science courses
with some biomedical aspects and Medical Laboratory Technology programs. We
achieved an unexpected unity of spirit in approaching common challenges, in
relation to specialization or breadth of courses and relationships between
discipline areas. It was of significance that no one group pushed themselves
forward as the mainstream area of biomedical sciences although the
discussions generated a common view that central foundation studies in
biomedical sciences should encompass molecular and cellular aspects. Phillip Nagley On behalf of the Organising Committee Chair: Phillip Nagley Secretary: Yvonne Hodgson Program Coordinator: Janet Macaulay (Chair of Program Committee) School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University 7 April 2008 This report was written by Janet Macaulay and edited by members of the Organising Committee |
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ASCEPT 2008
The 2008 ASCEPT Annual
Scientific meeting will run within the 4th Australian Health and Medical
Research Congress will be held November 16-21, 2008 in the Brisbane
Convention and Exhibition Centre. Organisers have commenced preparation of
the congress program, so please mark these dates in your 2008 diaries. Roselyn
Rose’Meyer Queensland member on Council |
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IUTOX 2010 It's time to submit your scientific proposal for the ICTXII meeting
scheduled for July 10 -15, 2010 in the beautiful city of Barcelona! Click
here for the form,
which includes all the details you will need to prepare and send in your
proposal. If you have any questions please
contact us directly at iutoxhq@iutox.org.
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FORTHCOMING
CONFERENCES Please click here for a list of
meetings that may be of interest to members. These are displayed on the
ASCEPT website. ASCEPT Toxicology
Special Interest Group presents a Continuing Education Course in Toxicology 29 April 2008 Canberra AusBioAlert - Intellectual Property Seminars May and June 7th Xenobiotic Metabolism and Toxicity Workshop of Balkan Countries
(7th XMTWBC) 3 – 6 June 2008 Novi Sad, Serbia International
Society for the Study of Xenobiotics, 15th North American Regional Meeting San
Diego, California, USA |
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NEWS
FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS Please click on the relevant links for any news from other
organisations that may be of interest to ASCEPT members. Research Australia ASCEPT have joined Research Australia Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies
(FASTS) Minister Gillard announced a review
of higher education CSIRO cuts and
publishing opportunity Response to new
ABS Research Classification Royal Society of New Zealand National Prescribing Service Royal Australasian College of Physicians AusBiotech AusBioAlert:
Special media and promotions offers - BIO 2008 |
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POSITIONS VACANT Looking for a new job? Listed below is a
position currently vacant that you may be eligible to apply for. Please click
on the link for jobs you’re interested in. Lecturer/Senior
Lecturer in Pharmacology, School of Life Sciences, Queensland University of
Technology, Brisbane
Closing date 6th
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INFORMATION
FROM PREVIOUS ISSUES
Please click here for more news, jobs and information that have appeared in past
issues of the ASCEPT newsletter that are now displayed on our ASCEPT website. |
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The next e-news will be sent out on Friday 16 May 2008. If there
is information you would like to include, please email it to athina@meetingsfirst.com.au by Friday 9
May 2008.
ASCEPT Newsletter Editor
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Please do not hesitate to contact Meetings First, our ASCEPT
Secretariat, if you have any queries: Angela, Athina and Jennifer Phone +61
3 9739 7697 Fax +61
3 9739 7076 Email ascept@meetingsfirst.com.au
Web www.ascept.org |
