Fourth meeting of the European Network of Research Tissue Banks – Future strategy to increase collaborations in the supply of human tissue for biomedical research

This report records the Fourth meeting of the European Network of Research Tissue Bank (Brussels, 18th March 2004) which was attended by Mel Read MEP. The existing membership of this informal group represents European Human Research Tissue Bankers, biomedical researchers seeking access to human tissue and allied groups including animal welfare representatives. This Fourth meeting provided a forum to update members on individual activity in this area. A particular focus of this meeting was to consider the status of this group and future affiliations to increase the profile and activity of this Network. This meeting addressed differences in legislative and ethical requirements governing the use of human tissue in biomedical research in the different countries represented. Future activity of the ENRTB, planned at this meeting, will target harmonisation of current differences which are currently barriers to increased access to human tissue for biomedical research. Through the harmonisation of procurement, processing and distribution of human tissue specimens the ENRTB will provide a mechanism to benefit human health through increased use of human tissue in pharmacotoxicological studies and the associated replacement of animal tests.     

The future of interdisciplinary research and training: how to conquer the silo guardians

We have entered a new era in biomedical research in which large interdisciplinary teams are being established to answer important scientific questions. Scientists of multidisciplinary backgrounds within universities are combining forces and inter-institutional consortia that include alliances between academia and industry are springing up around the country to generate breakthrough advances. A number of driving forces are at work to establish these collaborative research approaches. By contrast, there also are barriers to be surmounted by institutions with silo mentalities for effective partnerships to be established. In order for this new era of research to reach maximal effectiveness, new approaches to education of the young and retraining of established administrators and scientists must take place. These issues were explored thoroughly at the 2006 annual meeting of the Association of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Neurobiology Chairpersons (AACBNC) that was held in Aruba from January 18 to 21. The theme of this historic meeting was the Future of Interdisciplinary Research and Training: Breaking Down the Barriers. In this introductory article, we discuss the formation of a trendsetting Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Technology, the concept of the AACBNC meeting, and the influence of the Institute on the content of the meeting. The proceedings of this meeting, including Nobel Laureate Papers and Nobel Round-Table Discussions on the future of interdisciplinary research and training, are contained in this special issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, a journal dedicated to the publication of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research in the biomedical sciences.     

Interventional cardiology and general cardiology: divided by a common speciality? From George Bernard Shaw. America and England are two countries divided by a common language.

For a couple of years now, the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) consists of two separate meetings: the conventional ACC meeting and the SCAI-ACCi2 (Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions) meeting. The SCAI-ACCi2 meeting is specifically intended for interventional cardiologists and in order to attend the meeting one has to pay either a special entrance fee for this meeting or an additional fee to attend both meetings. Even Fellows of the ACC are not allowed into this dedicated interventional meeting (unless they pay the additional entrance fee). At the ACC.08 meeting in Chicago this year, the general cardiologist (ACC.08) could be recognised by a blue badge and the interventional cardiologist by a yellow badge (SCAI.ACCi2).     

Barrels XXX meeting report: Barrels in Baltimore

The Barrels meeting annually brings together researchers focused on the rodent whisker to cortical barrel system prior to the Society for Neuroscience meeting. The 2017 meeting focused on the classification of cortical interneurons, the role interneurons have in shaping brain dynamics, and finally on the circuitry underlying oral sensations. The meeting highlighted the latest advancements in this rapidly advancing field.     

Vaccines and global health

Vaccines have made a major contribution to global health in recent decades but they could do much more. In November 2011, a Royal Society discussion meeting, 'New vaccines for global health', was held in London to discuss the past contribution of vaccines to global health and to consider what more could be expected in the future. Papers presented at the meeting reviewed recent successes in the deployment of vaccines against major infections of childhood and the challenges faced in developing vaccines against some of the world's remaining major infectious diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), malaria and tuberculosis. The important contribution that development of more effective veterinary vaccines could make to global health was also addressed. Some of the social and financial challenges to the development and deployment of new vaccines were reviewed. The latter issues were also discussed at a subsequent satellite meeting, 'Accelerating vaccine development', held at the Kavli Royal Society International Centre. Delegates at this meeting considered challenges to the more rapid development and deployment of both human and veterinary vaccines and how these might be addressed. Papers based on presentations at the discussion meeting and a summary of the main conclusions of the satellite meeting are included in this issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.     

Recognition of Dominance in the Big-Clawed Snapping Shrimp ( Alpheus Heterochaelis Say 1818) Part I: Individual or Group Recognition?

The snapping shrimp Alpheus heterochaelis uses its snapper claw to produce fast water jets in fights. Here we investigate whether these shrimp are able to recognise their opponents (individually or on a group level) in order to reduce fighting costs and risk of injury. Losers meeting familiar or unfamiliar winners differ from those meeting inexperienced opponents by showing immediate escapes after a contact as well as hardly any aggressive behaviours (e.g. water jets). There is a significant decrease in aggressiveness in these losers and this is maintained for days. In contrast, losers meeting inexperienced opponents show a slow stepwise decrease in aggressiveness after losing on several consecutive days. Thus, snapping shrimp can recognise the dominance status of the opponent. The lack of behavioural differences in losers meeting familiar or unfamiliar winners favours recognition on a group level rather than individual recognition.     

Validity of a structured method of selecting abstracts for a plastic surgical scientific meeting

In 1999, the European Association of Plastic Surgeons accepted a structured method to assess and select the abstracts that are submitted for its yearly scientific meeting. The two criteria used to evaluate whether such a selection method is accurate were reliability and validity. The authors previously established this method to be reliable on the basis of a prospective evaluation of the selection process used for the 2000 meeting of the European Association of Plastic Surgeons. It is more difficult to assess the validity of this method because there is no objective standard of quality of a scientific abstract against which the accuracy of selection can be assessed. This study statistically evaluated the accuracy of the meeting participants' assessment of presentations made during the meeting as the criterion standard for abstract selection on the basis of data obtained from the 2002 selection process. The authors evaluated the interobserver repeatability among five meeting participants of selecting the best presentations, the validity of the method of abstract selection after this criterion standard had been established, and the validity of reviewers' rating of abstracts as indicators of the scientific value of the actual presentations. The authors conclude that the assessment of platform presentations at a plastic surgical meeting is reliable. Accepting this assessment as the criterion standard, however, they could not prove the validity of their selection method or the validity of the reviewers' rating of abstracts as an indicator of the scientific value of the actual presentations.     

Meeting report: 2010 Caenorhabditis elegans Neurobiology Meeting, University of Wisconsin, USA

Against the backdrop of the scenic Lake Mendota, the C. elegans Neurobiology Meeting came to a head. Expertly organised by Brian Ackley and Bruce Bamber and hosted at the accommodating University of Wisconsin, the meeting brought together recent contributions from many of the major research groups working on the neurobiology of C. elegans. With seven keynote speakers, 57 verbal presentations and hundreds of posters, this exciting event spanned a fascinating 3 days from 27 June to 30 June 2010. In keeping with the tradition of this conference, the event on the whole was spearheaded by young investigators from several research institutions. The meeting served to emphasise the gains enjoyed by taking advantage of the genetic tractability of the worm. A thread that ran through the meeting was the importance of integrating data across different levels of biological organisation to permit delineation of the physiology underpinning discrete behavioural states. Recent advances in optogenetics and microfluidics were at the forefront of refining these analyses. The presentations discussed in this meeting report are a selection which reflects this overarching theme.     

Guidelines for genetic nomenclature and community governance for the model legume Medicago truncatula.

At the 2nd Medicago meeting (a satellite of the 1999 IS-MPMI meeting in Amsterdam), investigators perceived a need for standardization of genetic nomenclature in Medicago truncatula, due to the rapid growth of research on this species in the past few years. Establishment of such standards grew out of discussions begun at this meeting and continued electronically throughout the M. truncatula community. The proposed standards presented here are the consensus results of those discussions. In addition to standards for gene nomenclature, a method for community governance and a website for cataloging gene names and submitting new ones are presented. The purpose of implementing these guidelines is to help maintain consistency in the literature, to avoid redundancy, to contribute to the accuracy of databases, and, in general, to aid the international collaborations that have made M. truncatula a model system for legume biology.     

Development of the musculoskeletal system: meeting the neighbors

In March 2011, researchers met for the second Batsheva Seminar on Integrative Perspectives on the Development of the Musculoskeletal System. This meeting was a unique opportunity for researchers working on muscle, connective tissue, tendons, ligaments and bone to discuss the development of the musculoskeleton, recognizing that it is an integrated, functional system. The talks and discussions at this meeting highlighted that interactions between the different tissue components are crucial for musculoskeletal morphogenesis.     

International Symposium on Emerging Clinical and Pharmaceutical Applications of Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence,Fort Lauderdale,Florida, USA, 14–16 February 1993

The abstracts of the talks and posters at this recent two day meeting are reproduced below. An exhibit of equipment and reagents was also held concurrently with the meeting.     

Molecular approaches to malaria: MAM 2004 and beyond

This special issue of Trends in Parasitology comprises a collection of timely reviews arising from the 2nd Molecular Approaches to Malaria meeting held 1-5 February 2004 in Lorne, Australia, four years after the successful inaugural meeting. As the name suggests, Molecular Approaches to Malaria focused on the latest molecular developments in malaria research, and their biological and clinical implications. By no means is this special issue intended to represent a comprehensive recapitulation of all of the presentations at the meeting. Rather, the articles address, in more general terms, recent advances on broader themes that were prominent at Molecular Approaches to Malaria meeting 2004.     

Enhancing Bioinformatics and Genomics Courses: Building Capacity and Skills via Lab Meeting Activities

Reading, writing, publishing, and publicly presenting scientific works are vital for a young researcher's profile building and career development. Generally, the traditional educational curricula do not offer training possibilities to learn and practice how to prepare, write, and present scientific works. These are rather a part of lab meeting activities in research groups. The lack of such training is more critical in some developing countries because this adds to the rare opportunities to discuss and become involved in the exchanges on state of the art scientific literature. Here the authors relate their experience in introducing a weekly 1-day lab meeting in the framework of two previously organized 3-month courses on “Bioinformatics and Genome Analyses”. The main activities which are developed during these lab meetings include scientific literature follow up as well as preparing and presenting oral and written scientific reviews. These activities prove to be useful for a student's self-confidence building, for enhancing their active participation during the lectures and practical sessions, as well as for the positive impact on running the whole course program. Incorporation of such lab meeting activities in the course program significantly improves the capacity building of the participants, their analytical and critical reading of scientific literature, as well as communication skills. In this work it is shown how to proceed with the different steps involved in the implementation of lab meeting activities, and to recommend their regular institution in similar courses.     

Notes from a snail island: Littorinid evolution and adaptation

The most successful study systems are built on a foundation of decades of research on the basic biology, ecology and life history of the organisms in question. Combined with new technologies, this can provide a formidable means to address important issues in evolutionary biology and molecular ecology. Littorinid marine snails are a good example of this, with a rich literature on their taxonomy, speciation, thermal tolerance and behavioural adaptations. In August 2017, an international meeting on Littorinid evolution was held at the Tjärnö Marine Research Laboratory in Western Sweden. In this meeting review, I provide a summary of some of the exciting work on parallel evolution, sexual selection and adaptation to environmental stress presented there. I argue that newly available genomic resources present an opportunity for integrating the traditionally divergent fields of speciation and environmental adaptation in Littorinid research.     

An analysis of preliminary and post-discussion priority scores for grant applications peer reviewed by the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH

There has been the impression amongst many observers that discussion of a grant application has little practical impact on the final priority scores. Rather the final score is largely dictated by the range of preliminary scores given by the assigned reviewers. The implication is that the preliminary and final scores are the same and the discussion has little impact. The purpose of this examination of the peer review process at the National Institutes of Health is to describe the relationship between preliminary priority scores of the assigned reviewers and the final priority score given by the scientific review group. This study also describes the practical importance of any differences in priority scores. Priority scores for a sample of standard (R01) research grant applications were used in this assessment. The results indicate that the preliminary meeting evaluation is positively correlated with the final meeting outcome but that they are on average significantly different. The results demonstrate that discussion at the meeting has an important practical impact on over 13% of the applications.     

Risk of tumorigenicity in mesenchymal stromal cell–based therapies—Bridging scientific observations and regulatory viewpoints

In the past decade, the therapeutic value of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) has been studied in various indications, thereby taking advantage of their immunosuppressive properties. Easy procurement from bone marrow, adipose tissue or other sources and conventional in vitro expansion culture have made their clinical use attractive. Bridging the gap between current scientific knowledge and regulatory prospects on the transformation potential and possible tumorigenicity of MSCs, the Cell Products Working Party and the Committee for Advanced Therapies organized a meeting with leading European experts in the field of MSCs. This meeting elucidated the risk of potential tumorigenicity related to MSC-based therapies from two angles: the scientific perspective and the regulatory point of view. The conclusions of this meeting, including the current regulatory thinking on quality, nonclinical and clinical aspects for MSCs, are presented in this review, leading to a clearer way forward for the development of such products.     

The transition of the European Proteomics Association into the future

The following report provides an overview of the discussions and outcome of the EuPA General Council meeting that took place in Estoril 20-21 October 2010. During the annual meeting future policy and action plans in a variety of areas are decided. Several important points were decided upon during this meeting including the expansion of the EuPA Executive Committee by introducing a new EuPA committee - EuPA Developments - that will initially spearhead activities in standardisation, imaging ms and biobanking. The EuPA General Council also invited Russia as its 17th member. More details about these and additional activities are presented in the article.     

Protein phosphatases, from molecules to networks

The third EMBO-sponsored 'Europhosphatases' meeting brought together 180 participants with a wide range of backgrounds and research interests to discuss the current status of research on phosphatases. It became clear at this meeting that the field is very active, and just as diverse as its members. This report highlights some of the transformative research presented at the meeting.     

The change in efficiency of protective measures for reduction of 137Cs accumulation by agricultural plants in various periods after the Chernobyl accident

Dynamics of 137Cs transfer factors to plants and the effects of protective measures on this radionuclide accumulation in the agricultural production is estimated on the example of the south-western regions of Bryansk District. Three periods in decreasing the 137Cs content in plants during 20 years after the Chernobyl accident are identified. The contribution of radionuclide decay, natural biogeochemical processes and protective measures aimed at reduction of the 137Cs accumulation in agricultural plants during various periods after radioactive fallout is shown. Maximum permissible levels of 137Cs contamination of cultivated lands, where crop products meeting current standards may be obtained, at different scopes of protective measures on radioactive-contaminated territories are forecasted. Periods after radioactive fallout, when crop and forage products meeting radiological standards are obtained, are assessed.     

分享科学，创造梦——美国第43届神经科学年会参会感

美国第43届神经科学年会于2013年11月9－13日在美国圣迭戈召开。本文根据作者的参会经历,对此次会议的概况、规模,以及内容作一简介,以期让读者了解神经科学这一研究领域的前沿以及美国神经科学年会的概况。