Presidential address 2002. Parasitology in the 21st century

During the past several weeks, I, like many of my predecessors, have read many speeches previously delivered at the annual meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists (ASP). These are wonderful, exciting papers, and I recommend them to you. The history of our Society and much of parasitological research and philosophy are contained in these speeches. An understanding of parasitology and specifically of the ASP in the 21st century necessitates an understanding of our roots. Just as proteomics, genomics, DNA, and Mendel are a continuum, so is our progression as a science and as a Society. This thought is not original with me. Several presidents have discussed this point in detail: Eloise Cram in 1956, "Stepping Stones in the History of the American Society of Parasitologists" (Cram, 1956); Martin Ulmer in 1978, "What's Past is Prologue" (Ulmer, 1978); Harry Hoogstraal in 1984, "ASP: Its Historic Role and Modern Opportunities" (Hoogstraal, 1985); and Mike Kemp in 1988, "Parasitology a Degenerate Discipline, Populated by Degenerate Scientists, Studying Degenerate Organisms?" (Kemp, 1989).     

The Cyclical Return of the IQ Controversy: Revisiting the Lessons of the Resolution on Genetics,Race and Intelligence

In 1976, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) published a document entitled “Resolution of Genetics, Race, and Intelligence.” This document laid out the Society’s position in the IQ controversy, particularly that on scientific and ethical questions involving the genetics of intellectual differences between human populations. Since the GSA was the largest scientific society of geneticists in the world, many expected the document to be of central importance in settling the controversy. Unfortunately, the Resolution had surprisingly little influence on the discussion. In 1979, William Provine analyzed the possible factors that decreased the impact of the Resolution, among them scientists’ limited understanding of the relationship between science and ethics. Through the analysis of unpublished versions of the Resolution and exchanges between GSA members, I will suggest that the limited impact of the statement likely depended on a shift in the aims of the GSA due to the controversies that surrounded the preparation of the document. Indeed, the demands of the membership made it progressively more impartial in both scientific and political terms, decreasing its potential significance for a wider audience. Notably, the troubled history of the Resolution raises the question of what can make effective or ineffective the communication between scientists and the public—a question with resonance in past and present discussions on topics of social importance.

     

The Golden Anniversary of the Society of Protozoologists (1947-1997)1

ABSTRACT The history of the Society of Protozoologists is traced from its birth, half a century ago, to the present time. Emphasis is placed on events of the formative years, since data from the scattered records and memories of those times need to be assembled in one place before they are entirely forgotten or “misremembered.” As is true in the establishment of any new association, the people involved are responsible for its later success. Thus tribute is especially paid to the original founding fathers and the early charter members who worked so hard and so unselfishly to assure the permanence—and long—lasting usefulness-of their Society in a specialized branch of biology. An obvious value of a new scientific organization lies in its production of a scholarly journal. In the present case, such a publication was launched early, and it rapidly became known worldwide as a protozoological research outlet of the highest quality. The aims and goals of the founders seem to have been well met over the past 50 years, but the international Society of Protozoologists faces new challenges and obligations in the years ahead.     

Political advocacy by the American Society for Cell Biology and its partners

I trace how the American Society for Cell Biology became a strong political advocate for the scientific community. I celebrate how good leadership and an effective staff enabled its energetic volunteer organization to have an impact, but I also ask how the effort can be made more successful.Many scientists take for granted that their scientific societies advocate for the well being of their individual members and the health of science. However, advocacy is a relatively recent development that emerged over the past two decades. Advocacy is essential in a democracy because science competes for taxpayer dollars with every other activity supported by the federal government. Advocacy is also important to ensure that lawmakers adopt sensible policies. I review how the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and its allies learned how to fulfill this obligation, and I ask the reader to join the effort. The objective of these advocacy efforts is to influence political decisions through education and information, but the efforts by scientific societies are completely nonpartisan. Support from both political parties is essential to meet our goals.During the 1970s and 1980s biomedical scientists discussed federal funding and public policies that affected our science. Each year the public policy staff of the Federation of Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) helped member societies reach a consensus recommendation on the level of federal funding for the biosciences. However, we tended to talk to ourselves because we lacked effective ways to communicate with politicians or the outside world. For the most part we relegated the responsibility for advocacy to medical school deans and presidents of research universities. Their professional associations—the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Association of American Universities (AAU)—generally did a reasonable job of representing the interests of the scientists who worked at their schools.     

A strategy for young members within national radiation oncology societies: the Italian experience (AIRO Giovani group)

AimTo briefly review history, structure, past events and future projects of AIRO (Associazione Italiana Radioterapia Oncologica) young group (AIRO Giovani), focusing on its specific commitment to multidisciplnary networking among junior clinical oncologists at a national and international level.BackgroundAIRO Giovani is a part of AIRO composed by members under 40 years old. Its main activities are scientific and educational meetings dedicated to young Italian radiation oncologists and collaborative research projects.Materials and MethodsAIRO Giovani structure, events organized and supported by AIRO giovani as well as scientific activities are here reported from its creation in 2007 up to current days.ResultsAIRO Giovani group was able to create a consolidated network between Italian junior radiation oncologists, while opening the possibility to collaborate with junior groups of other national scientific societies in the field of oncology and with ESTRO young members. Scientific projects carried out by the group have been successful and will be further implemented in next years.ConclusionsAIRO Giovani is still in its infancy, but its early positive experience supports the creation and development of young groups within national radiation oncology societies.     

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

There is no generally accepted method for assessing abstracts that are submitted for a medical scientific meeting. This article describes the development and prospective evaluation of such a method applied to the 220 abstracts submitted for the 2000 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Plastic Surgeons. Structured abstracts were evaluated in three categories: aesthetic surgery, basic research, and clinical study. Each anonymous abstract was assessed separately by 10 reputable European plastic surgeons. These reviewers used a structured rating questionnaire which resulted in a score given by each reviewer to each abstract between -6 and +6. The scores of all 10 reviewers were added for each abstract, and the papers were accepted in each of the three categories on the basis of this abridged score. To evaluate the reliability of this structured method of selection, the interrater agreement among the reviewers was tested by means of kappa analysis and the Cronbach alpha coefficient. The kappa values for agreement among reviewers regarding acceptability of abstracts were low, but the alpha coefficient indicated an acceptable degree of reliability of the average reviewers' ratings for all categories. Using a structured questionnaire can be helpful in the objective assessment of abstracts for a scientific meeting and may facilitate comparison of abstracts. Meritocratic dichotomy of abstracts by the reviewers is advocated to further improve reliability of the rating. Even though reliability generally increases with the number of reviewers, the annual increase of submitted abstracts may necessitate a decrease in the number of reviewers for each abstract.     

Health and Safety Advisory Committee (HASAC) of the International Embryo Transfer Society (IETS) has managed critical challenges for two decades

The International Embryo Transfer Society (IETS) was founded in 1974. Early members used the society as a forum for the exchange of scientific and technical information relevant to a newly emerging embryo transfer industry. The impact that embryo transfer could have on the international trade of livestock genetics was clear by 1982, so the IETS commissioned the Import/Export Committee. The initial challenge for this Committee was to deal with concerns about disease transmission via embryo transfer. Many of the early concerns have been dispelled, but at the time they threatened the continued development of a fledgling industry. Over the past two decades, many new critical challenges have been met and managed by this Committee, which was recently renamed the Health and Safety Advisory Committee (HASAC). Assessing risks of animal disease transmission via reproductive technologies and establishing protocols for managing these risks are still major issues for HASAC. However, additional concerns have developed as views of the society changed and as novel applications of biotechnology in farm animals were identified. This paper is intended to chronicle some of the major changes and challenges that were managed by members of the HASAC and its Subcommittees from the early years of embryo transfer to the current millennium with technological advances in molecular biology.     

A unifold, mesofold, and superfold model of protein fold use.

As more and more protein structures are determined, there is increasing interest in the question of how many different folds have been used in biology. The history of the rate of discovery of new folds and the distribution of sequence families among known folds provide a means of estimating the underlying distribution of fold use. Previous models exploiting these data have led to rather different conclusions on the total number of folds. We present a new model, based on the notion that the folds used in biology fall naturally into three classes: unifolds, that is, folds found only in a single narrow sequence family; mesofolds, found in an intermediate number of families; and the previously noted superfolds, found in many protein families. We show that this model fits the available data well and has predicted the development of SCOP over the past 2 years. The principle implications of the model are as follows: (1) The vast majority of folds will be found in only a single sequence family; (2) the total number of folds is at least 10,000; and (3) 80% of sequence families have one of about 400 folds, most of which are already known.     

History of the international embryo transfer society Part II

During 1979, service to members, including publication of abstracts of articles pertinent to interests of members, publication of bibliographies covering topics of embryo transfer, publication of the proceedings of the owners-managers workshop, service as a source of information and contacts for members, and updating members through publication of a newsletter, has been maintained and increased in scope. Membership has been growing steadily throughout the year and, at this writing, the membership has exceeded 200 from 22 countries. Thus, as the Society approaches the 1980 decade, it can do so with an optimism of not just survival but of continued growth in size, breadth of service to members, and range of species and topic interests. There is a good mix in the Society between the commercial and university research sectors interested in embryo transfer. Also, there is a good mix between animal scientists, veterinarians, physiologists, and others interested in this specialty interest area. It is expected that these factors will contributeto a healthy future for the Society.     

Life cycles of successful genes

By exploring time-series data from MEDLINE abstracts, we observe that only a few genes have been quoted with increasing frequency during the past 25 years. This is probably the result of selective pressure by the scientific community. Over the years, this selection has produced an extreme power law distribution of the information available for individual genes. Interestingly, those genes that are successfully selected are not necessarily the most important genes to the cell. To stress the implication of this finding we show that there is no correlation between a gene's impact in the scientific literature and its centrality in protein-interaction networks.     

Eukaryotic origins

The origin of the eukaryotes is a fundamental scientific question that for over 30 years has generated a spirited debate between the competing Archaea (or three domains) tree and the eocyte tree. As eukaryotes ourselves, humans have a personal interest in our origins. Eukaryotes contain their defining organelle, the nucleus, after which they are named. They have a complex evolutionary history, over time acquiring multiple organelles, including mitochondria, chloroplasts, smooth and rough endoplasmic reticula, and other organelles all of which may hint at their origins. It is the evolutionary history of the nucleus and their other organelles that have intrigued molecular evolutionists, myself included, for the past 30 years and which continues to hold our interest as increasingly compelling evidence favours the eocyte tree. As with any orthodoxy, it takes time to embrace new concepts and techniques.     

The Human Genome Project and eugenic concerns.

The U.S. Human Genome project is the largest scientific project funded by the federal government since the Apollo Moon Project. The overall effect from this project should be of great benefit to humankind because it will provide a better understanding both of single gene defects and multifactorial or familial diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, and cancer. At first this will lead to more exact ways of screening and diagnosing genetic disease, and later it will lead, in many if not most instances, to specific genetic cures. However, in the past, in both the U.S. and German eugenic movements genetic information has been misused. Hopefully, by remembering and understanding the past injustices and inhumanity of negative eugenics, further misuse of scientific information can be avoided.     

Slender,Older Women Appear to Be More Susceptible to Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Lung Disease

Background: Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are environmental microbes that are associated with a variety of human diseases, particularly chronic lung infections. Over the past several decades, NTM lung disease has been increasingly seen in postmenopausal women with slender body habitus.Objective: This article reviewed the clinical and experimental evidence that supports the observation that thin older women (aged 50–80 years) are predisposed to NTM lung disease. We posited 3 potential pathways for this predisposition: relative estrogen deficiency, abnormal levels of adipokines that alter immune responses, and abnormal expression of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) related to fibrillin anomalies similar to Marfan syndrome (MFS).Methods: Using the PubMed database, a literature search was performed (all publications up to July 2009) by pairing the key phrase nontuberculous mycobacteria with weight, malnutrition, female gender, body habitus, leptin, adipokines, estrogen, menopause, postmenopausal, or body mass index. Non-English-language articles were included if their abstracts were in English. Relevant articles were also identified from the abstracts.Results: Published case reports and series indicate that in the past 20 years, NTM lung disease has been recognized in disproportionately increased numbers in postmenopausal women. Among these patients, slender body habitus and thoracic cage abnormalities, such as pectus excavatum and scoliosis, are commonly described. Notably, no long-term prospective clinical studies exist to corroborate that low weight is an independent risk factor for NTM lung disease. However, based on the findings of a limited number of experimental studies, we hypothesize that decreased leptin, increased adiponectin, and/or decreased estrogen in older women with slender body habitus may account for their increased susceptibility to NTM infections. We further speculate that in some patients with features mindful of MPS (slender, scoliosis, pectus excavatum, or mitral valve prolapse), there may be anomalies of fibrillin, similar to MFS, that lead to the expression of the immunosuppressive cytokine TGP-β further increasing their susceptibility to NTM.Conclusions: It is likely that both sufficient environmental exposure and host susceptibility are required for the establishment of NTM lung disease. The observation that NTM lung infections are more common in slender, older women without any overt immune defects suggests that abnormal expression of adipokines, sex hormones, and/or TGF-β may play an important role in their susceptibility.     

The Evolution of Human Origins

Because humans are the product of our evolutionary past, learning how we evolved is fundamental to all anthropological investigations. We now realize that reconstructing why unique human attributes evolved requires an understanding of our starting point, but this is a relatively recent perspective. One hundred years ago, the question of human origins was identical to that of hominin origins. Accepting Australopithecus into human ancestry, coupled with the modern synthesis of evolution, led anthropologists to consider humans as products of natural selection. They realized that increased intelligence did not initially distinguish our lineage, and that early hominins were apelike in many ways. Australopithecus brought bipedalityr and brain expansion came with Homo . Because the human mind and behavior are products of evolution, we must reconstruct the selective pressures that shaped our lineage in order to understand ourselves today. Paleoanthropology, as with all anthropology, is becoming ever more question oriented, drawing on many areas of inquiry. [Keywords: human origins, human evolution, history, data, theory]     

The evolution of British Biology: Presidential Address to the Linnean Society delivered at the Anniversary Meeting, 24 May 1983

British biology is multiply divided between 115 national societies and 900 local ones, as well as divisions between amateurs and professionals, pure and applied, universities and research institutes. It is in fact composed of four strands, three of them (natural history, scientific biology and preservation/conservation) having arisen independently, and all having given rise to the fourth (international) strand. Natural history declined at the end of the nineteenth century with the growth of professional biology, government funding, and new techniques imported from abroad; it has recovered spectacularly since the 1939–45 war. Scientific biology grew mainly from continental science, and came of age as a professional discipline around 1900. Concern for conservation has risen as human pressures on the environment have increased.
The question asked is whether this serendipitous structure is the most efficient one, in a time when the conditions which gave rise to much of it have changed: personal motivation, the role of scientific meetings, ease of travel, accessibility of libraries, sources of funding, etc. The trends have always been to split, and virtually all attempts at co-ordination have failed. This process leads to long-term inefficiency, and for scientific, political and personal advantage, the future will almost inevitably require some foci for biologists beyond narrow subject societies. The Linnean Society is peculiarly fitted to become an active focus, perhaps catalysing an amalgamation or federal sybiosis along the lines of the Royal Society of Chemistry.     

Transgenic Technology meeting 2008 in Toronto, Canada: a meeting report

In a history that goes back to 1999, the Transgenic Technology meetings started out in Sweden and over the years began to attract a growing community of technicians and researchers mainly from Europe. As the meetings started to attract an expanding worldwide audience, the community decided to found the International Society for Transgenic Technologies at the Barcelona meeting in 2005. The 2007 convention was held at Brisbane, Australia, and in 2008, the 8th Transgenic Technology meeting was held for the second time on behalf of ISTT and for the second time outside of Europe in Toronto, Canada. Due to its excellent program with over 400 participants the meeting was able to attract the highest number of delegates of all past TT meetings. With extended times for plenary discussions about technical and organizational aspects, as well as top level scientific presentations, both technicians and scientists enjoyed this as an extremely fruitful meeting from which they could take home solutions for daily routines as well as new insights and ideas for coming projects.     

Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen des Kindesalters

The understanding of neurodegenerative diseases of childhood has been changing rapidly in recent times: not only is the number of different diseases and underlying genetic defects steadily increasing, approaches to diagnosis and treatment have also developed because of recent technological and therapeutic advances relating to this group of disorders. New gene defects have been identified that provide a basis for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying this group of diseases, and for the development of targeted therapies. This review focuses predominantly on one of the most common groups of diseases leading to degeneration of the central nervous system, neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL). The number of NCL-causing genes and knowledge about genotype–phenotype correlations has been growing over the past few years and the first therapies have been developed. Hence, this group of diseases represents the rapid scientific development in the field of rare neurodegenerative diseases in childhood very well.     

The Society for Applied Bacteriology The First Fifty Years

The major part of this history, the formative years, was compiled by the Society's Archivist entirely from original materials. As such it complements an earlier account of the Society's development (S.B. Thomas 1963 Journal of Applied Bacteriology 26 , 66–68). The other part of this article, the recent past, was compiled by the Honorary General Secretary from the minutes of the last 10 years of committee meetings. This bipartite approach gives emphasis to those features that have had a persistent influence on the evolution of the Society , the needs and interests of young microbiologists, an awareness that publications and meetings have to be tailored to meet the needs and aspirations of the membership, a respect for those who have given much to the Society, and a perception of trends, both national and international, in the development of applied bacteriology within the broader context of microbiology. The names of those who are or have been honorary officers and honorary members of the Society are given in the Appendix.     

Future Prospects: Scientific Quality Relies on the Critical Reviews from Our Peers

From Executive Editor to Editor-in-Chief is a big jump for me, and means many more responsibilities.I could feel the pressure on my shoulders;from the hopes of my predecessors,my colleagues, and the board members. As a journal with a 57-year history,JIPB has built its credit over the years,publishing many original works in both Chinese and English.However,in the international scientific community,JIPB is still a minor player, especially under the current not-so-healthy impact factor-driven publishing environment.