2010Councilreports

This year the CAENLA consisted of 9 (nine) members: Dr. Juana M. Pasquini (chair; UBA Buenos Aires Argentina), Dr. Marta Antonelli (CONICET Argentina), Robin Miskimins (USA), Guillermina Almazan (Canada); Mike Collins (Cuba/USA), Ernesto Bongarzone (UIC USA), Gustavo Pigino (UIC-USA), Carmen Sato (USA) and Francisco Nualart (Univ. de Chile). The major function of the committee during 2009 was the selection of the Young Latin American Scholars. As in previous years, the availability of this award was announced on the ASN website. It was also announced by the SAN (Argentinean Soc for Neurochemistry) and DR. Marta Hallak, who periodically is sending the news in Neurosciences also announced the award. By the dead line the application was just one. The last two years I have worked together with Dr. Susan Mc Guire who chaired the Young Investigator Education Enhancement Committee and she was able to detect another candidate for the Scholar. After inviting her, she accepted and finally two applications were analyzed by the committee members, who ranked them based on the following criteria: 1) the applicant’s qualifications and interest in neuroscience; 2) the quality and commitment of the host laboratory; 3) the benefit of visiting a US lab for the applicant’s scientific career and 4) the recommendation letter attached to the application. Both candidates were selected and the awardees are Hernan C. Hoyos and Evangelina Aparicio, both from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The awardees were notified by email and later with a formal letter from the ASN Secretary. Hernan C.Hoyos will be working at Dr. Ernesto Borganzone’s lab and Evangelina Aparicio in Albuquerque, in Nora Perrone´s lab.

When Dr. Monica Carson was President of the ASN, she suggested also doing something different, such as inviting different laboratories which were able to support students during their stay in the USA and which were interested in having Latin-American students over. My feeling is that it will be a wonderful idea because if the awardees were supported by the host laboratories we could just fund air tickets and some money for attending the meeting and we would probably be saving money. Unfortunately, we will not be able to carry this idea out yet. Probably the Committee has to discuss this possibility in more depth. One thing that is imperative is calling for a specific number of scholarships from the beginning. In my opinion, another important point is that we need to discuss the aim of the scholarships again. I know that some of us think that this is useful for searching for a position for a postdoc; however, for me it is also very important for scholars to learn or improve new techniques or do experiments which are difficult to perform in our lab. After discussion, we will need to establish the aim of the scholarship, taking advantage of the renovation of the Committee

Electronic Communication Committee

Babette Fuss (Chair)

bfuss@vcu.edu

The Electronic Communication Committee has continued to implement updates to the ASN website. In addition the committee has continued to work successfully and in a highly productive manner with Christian Schmitz and Ed Cross (from Stassines Advertising) on more extensive improvements and updates to the ASN website.
Most importantly and in response to continued problems with the service provider, the ASN website was migrated in July 2009 to the service provider 1and1.com. This migration now provides reliable service at relative low costs.
To improve the process of applications for ASN awards, Susan McGuire and Christian Schmitz have developed online database application forms. These were successfully used for this year’s YIEE and YLAS award applications.
Based on an initiative by Pauline Starley from Portland press, Ed Cross has embedded an RSS reader (web feed format to publish frequently updated contents) for ASN NEURO into the ASN home page.

Historian’s Report

George H. DeVries

George.Devries@va.gov

Jordi Folch-Pi Award Committee

Eric Murphy

emurphy@medicine.nodak.edu

The Jordi Folch-Pi Award Committee is pleased to announce that Dr. Richard Bazinet, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto is the 2010 recipient of the Jordi Folch-Pi memorial award. Dr. Bazinet’s current research centers on the mechanisms underlying the uptake of fatty acids into the brain as well as the interplay between n-3 and n-6 fatty acids in lipid-mediated signaling. He continues his work on understanding the influence of n-3 and n-6 fatty acid members on changes in lipid-mediated signal transduction in depression. Dr. Bazinet has been very successful in his research endeavors and has published his work in outstanding Tier I journals, with over 55 peer-reviewed publications to date. The Committee noted that Dr. Bazinet demonstrated that he had established an independent laboratory as illustrated through his scope of work and funded grants. The Committee has no doubt that he will continue to make outstanding contributions to the field and look forward to seeing his career continue to prosper and flourish.

This year we had a very tight competition between candidates and those still eligible for 2011 have been encouraged to apply next year. For the selection process, a conference call was utilized and the merits of each candidate discussed at length by each committee member, followed by an open discussion by all committee members regarding each individual candidate. This call provided a forum by which an integrative discussion of the perceived strengths and weaknesses of each candidate was discussed by each committee member and discussion followed for each candidate. An oral vote was taken ranking each candidate and Dr. Bazinet was the unanimous choice. Through this mechanism, we were fair to all candidates and provided a real-time discussion of their merits.

However, the lack of responsiveness by the membership of ASN to nominate junior colleagues whom they feel are deserving of this award is a significant concern. The committee emphasizes that all ASN members should nominate outstanding post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty for the Jordi Folch-Pi award. Although we are all very busy and over committed, the Committee emphasizes that this is the premier award by ASN to recognize a rising star in our ranks. While the Committee has solicited nominations, it is imperative that the senior members of ASN recognize the importance of this award and their duty to nominate individuals whom they feel are suited for the award.

In the past, the Committee has targeted ASN members with e-mails containing the requirements for the Folch-Pi Award and reminding them to nominate colleagues. These have met with little success, but did stimulate several members this year to nominate candidates. While the committee will continue to use this mechanism, it is imperative for ASN members to take on the responsibility to nominate candidates.

The composition of the committee changed substantially this year as Brian Popko, Inderjit Singh, Robert Zand, and Sandra Hewitt have rotated off of the committee. The Chair thanks them for the dedicated service over the years to the Folch-Pi Award Committee. New committee members are Tom Seyfried, Xianlin Han, Francesca Bosetti, and Colin Combs.

Marian Kies Award Committee

G. Jean Harry and Regina Armstrong (Co-Chairs)

rarmstrong@usuhs.edu

The committee received six nominations. Application packages were reviewed by committee members; with the decision sent to the ASN President the last week of January. According to the Standing Rules, the award winner was notified more than one month in advance of the annual meeting. The quantity of the applicant pool was appropriate given the size of the Society. The quality of applications received was extremely high. Consistent with the method used in 2009, selection was based on an evaluation of the quality and significance of the thesis research, the publication record, recommendation letters, other activities, future potential, and an overall evaluation of the candidate. Dr. Dorothy P. Schafer was selected as the 2010 awardee. She was notified of the selection by Dr. Doug Feinstein. The committee is in need of replacement appointments this year. Members of the Society were helpful in soliciting nominations this year however, additional efforts continue to be required to ensure applications of high quality and sufficient quantity are received to maintain the respected honor to the award. The majority of the nominations were received late during the last week of the submission period. The offset of timing between the award nomination deadline versus the normal abstract submission deadline again made the majority of nominations dependent on a “late breaking abstract” option for eligibility.

Membership Committee

Vlad Parpura (Chair)

vlad@uab.edu

The membership committee received total of 106 applications, since the last business meeting. Nine applications were incomplete due to unresponsiveness of the applicants; while one applicant withdrew a completed application; they were not further considered. The committee endorsed 96 applications (90 ordinary and 6 corresponding) and approved by Council.

President’s Report

Douglas Feinstein (President)
doug.feinstein@asneurochem.org

This is my first report as ASN president. Therefore, I would like to begin by thanking the ASN membership, council and officers for their support and confidence in electing me to this position.
A major focus of ASN has, and continues to be the promotion of young investigators, and fostering an interactive and collaborative community of neuroscientists. In this respect, the 2009 meeting in Charleston was highly successful. The exit interviews remain an important part of our meeting, to provide an index of how we are doing as well as gain constructive comments for improving future meetings. As always, attendees appreciated greatly the overall scientific quality and content, the numerous student and post-doc activities, and the many opportunities to interact with speakers and attendees. However only 55 surveys were collected last year; to increase that number this year the exit survey will be made available to fill out and submit on line. In the past year we have had an outstanding increase in our total membership, with 96 new members at the end of 2009, more than half post docs or students. We need to thank everyone who has helped recruit new members, and Vlad Purpura for his role as membership chair.
One of the biggest changes to ASN this past was the launch of ASN NEURO, spearheaded by Monica Carson, Wendy Macklin, and of course Tony Campagnoni the Founding Editor in Chief. As you know, the journal was accepted to be indexed by PubMed within 2 months of launch, a very fast time for this to occur attesting to the quality of the articles being published. For that we have to thank the members of the editorial board for their efforts. However, the number of articles being submitted to the journal is much lower than hoped for; I therefore encourage all ASN council members and officers to commit to submitting a research paper or review article during the upcoming year, and to make your colleagues aware of the benefits of publishing in ASN NEURO. We are all aware of the desire to publish in journals with high impact factors; based on what has already been published and the profiles of the authors, I think we can anticipate a very good initial impact factor at the end of 2 years.
There have been several changes during the past year regarding the organization and running of our annual meeting. In brief, with the help of many people including past and present officers, Sheilah Jewart and her team (Tim Stassines and Ed Cross), and our web guru in Germany (Christian Schmitz), we are now producing and publishing the meeting abstracts, providing them online for download, and producing CDs that are handed out at the meeting. This was a large task that I think has been extremely well carried out, and we look forward to comments and criticisms to make this a more efficient process with improved quality for future meetings.
Financially, this past year Jean Merrill, ASN treasurer for many years, stepped down, and we were fortunate that our treasurer-elect Karen Chandross was willing to take on that responsibility. Importantly, at the beginning of 2009 we had to make important decisions regarding where to place or transfer our assets; choices which Karen, Sheilah, and Jean helped to decide upon. We are now in a financially secure situation and hopefully funds will grow slowly but steadily.
Another significant change to the annual meeting is that this year we invited a group of local high school students to visit the meeting for ½ day to introduce them to the worlds of neuroscience, neurochemistry, and cutting edge research. This event was recommended at our last council meeting, and we have to thank Oscar Bizzozero for taking a leading role in organizing this event with the local High Schools and teachers. We also have to thank Martha Stokely for organizing the details of the visit which included finding speakers and mentors. If successful I hope that this will continue to be a part of our Annual meeting.
In an effort to increase participation in the meeting, this year we initiated a digital image contest, based on similar competitions run by various microscope and antibody companies. Depending on how this is received, this may or may not turn into an annual event.
We have kept on track with planning of future meetings. Plans for the 2011 meeting in St Louis are well underway and we will get a report from Sandy Hewett on that subject. Several venues were suggested for the 2012 meeting, but after visiting the Inner Harbor area, and several nearby hotels, it was clear that Baltimore could provide an excellent site, many restaurants in easy walking distance, great hotel rates, and excellent facilities for the meeting. I am also pleased to announce that Matt Rasband accepted to be the program chair for the 2012 meeting, and Francesca Bosetti the chair of the local host committee. The next combined ISN:ASN meeting is scheduled for 2013. Terri Wood, together with a planning committee including representatives from Latin America, put together a tremendous proposal for having the meeting take place in Cancun at an earlier time of the year, and in addition presented an alternative venue to the convention center. This was presented to the ISN council at the Busan meeting, quickly approved, and to her (and Sheilah’s credit) the alternate site (Hilton Golf and Resort) was also approved. I hope that ASN members will be able to play a role in both the program design and attendance for this meeting.
Our fund raising for the 41st meeting has been extremely successful. The NIH R13 grant received an outstanding score (17) and was well funded. We are always indebted to ISN for their meeting support without which keeping our registration fees low and providing travel awards to Latin American scholars would be extremely difficult if not impossible. Several pharmaceutical companies have continued to support our meeting at significant levels, and this year we have to thank Karen Chandross for her success at obtaining continued funding from Sanofi Aventis.
On the other hand, collecting member ship dues is always a concern, but as indicated by our Treasurer's report, in the last year we saw a significant increase in total dues collected. Hopefully this will be an ongoing trend. We also need to thank everyone who includes attending the ASN meeting as one of their priorities.
In summary, 2009 was a very good year for ASN, and with continued input from officers, council, and members 2010 should be even better.

Program Committee (2010)
Phil Haydon
philip.haydon@tufts.edu

The program committee developed an exciting program for this meeting including four plenary speakers, Rick Morimoto, Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, Tom Sudhof and Brian Macvicar who will present lectures covering the diverse representation of the ASN.
55 sessions proposals were submitted from which the program committee selected 27, based on breadth of topics and perceived quality of the sessions, for inclusion in the program. The committee was elated with the quality of the submissions which speaks to the vitality of Neurochemistry as a field.
In addition to the selected symposia and colloquia, 5 oral presentation sessions were selected based on submitted presentations. After removing these presentations two poster presentations sessions were organized which contained 249 posters.
The organization of this excellent program without the significant contributions of the program committee which included Phil Haydon, Chair, Tika Benveniste, Tony Campagnoni, Monica Carson, Doug Feinstein, Marie Filbin, Vittorio Gallo, Sandra Hewitt, Robert Miller, Vlad Parpura, Brian Popko, Eliana Scemes, and Harry Sontheimer.

Public Policy and Education Committee

Sandra Hewett, Chair

shewett@neuron.uchc.edu

This committee has two major tasks: 1) to help organize a forum to educate the lay public about a subject of medical/scientific interest and 2) to publicize the Society to the scientific community. Current committee members are Sandra Hewett (Chair, 2006-2010), Monica Carson (2006-2010), Vittorio Gallo, (2006-2010), G. Jean Harry, (2006-2010), Tammy Kielian, (2006-2010), Colin Combs (2010-2014) and Dana McTigue (2010-2014). Sandra Hewett will turn over the reigns of the committee to incoming Chair Tammy Kielian (2010-2014) at the Santa Fe, NM meeting. To maintain committee continuity, Jean Harry and Monica Carson have agreed to stay on for an additional two year term (2010-2012).
Thirty-five to 40 people attended the public outreach program on Spinal Cord Injury at the Charleston meeting, which was organized by local host Dr. Naren Banik. Drs Tammy Kielian and Jean Harry from the PPEC attended/hosted the event with Dr. Banik. The topic for this year’s meeting Public Outreach Forum (March 6th; 4-6pm) is entitled: “Nutrition, Exercise and Dietary Supplements: Impact on Physical Health and Brain Function”. Speakers include a PPEC member G. Jean Harry from the NIEHS, who will discuss the protective effects of exercise on brain function, ASN member Susan O. McGuire, Univ. Illinois, Chicago who will discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of dietary supplementation, and James A. Joseph from the USDA, affectionately known as the “Blueberry Guy”. He will discuss how nutritional status affects function of the aged brain. Three local dieticians (Kelle Vort, Nina Dougherty, and Jan Esparza) will attend and participate in the panel discussion slated to follow the scientific “lay” talks. Registration to attend has been requested on the flyers and a website has been set up strictly for that purpose. Additionally, registrants can call the office of the Dept of Neurosciences at the Albuquerque School of Medicine. Publicity for this event has been handled by the local host committee.
Publicity with respect to the ASN and the ASN meeting, in general, has been handled by Sheila Jewart the Society’s business manager. Flyers have been given to ASN members and have been strategically placed at the Society for Neuroscience Meeting as well as have been sent out to members of the ASN to put in places of prominence at their home institutions. The first call for session proposals for the 2011 meeting has been placed in the Feb 5th edition of the SFN on-line bulletin Neuroscience Nexus. Our best publicity still comes from ASN member word of mouth and encouragement of our colleagues to attend.
Dr. Kielian, in her capacity as new chair, has scheduled a committee meeting in Santa Fe. The Program Chair for the 2011 meeting has been working with the local host committee already and has identified the next public outreach topic: Alzheimer’s disease. Commitments from clinical/investigators at Washington University have already been assured.

Secretary’s report

Babette Fuss, Secretary

bfuss@vcu.edu

As members of the Electronic Communication Committee the Secretary and the Past-Secretary have continued to implement updates to the ASN website. In addition, ASN and the Electronic Communication Committee have continued to work with Christian Schmitz and Ed Cross (from Stassines Advertising) on more extensive improvements and updates to the ASN Website. For further details see Electronic Communication Committee report.
With the support of Mary McKenna and Sheilah Jewart the US Trademark registration for the Transactions of the American Society for Neurochemistry was renewed in February 2010. This registration will be valid for 10 years.
A number of changes to the Standing Rules have been approved by council during the last couple of years. However, the Standing Rules as written on the website had not been continuously updates. Therefore, the Secretary, the Past-Secretary (Steve Levison) and the Standing Rules Committee have formulated updated version of the Standing Rules. While all changes had been approved by council previously, to ensure that there are no problems regarding the final phrasing final approval by council has been requested.

Standing Rules

Cara-Lynne Schengrund (Chair)

cxs8@email.psu.edu

Between Drs. Levison and Fuss, an updated version was put together of the Standing Rules that included changes approved at Council meetings, recorded in the Minutes of those meetings, but not necessarily entered into the copy available on the ASN web site. The edited version was sent to all members of the Standing Rules Committee. Aside from comments about a possible formatting issue, no edits were received.
Not in the Standing Rules available on line are the rules for the Bernie Haber Award Fund and membership of that Committee.

Treasurer’s Report

Karen Chandross (Treasurer)

karen.chandross@sanofi-aventis.com

The Treasurer’s activities for 2009 have included submission of tax information to the accountant and finished forms to the IRS, and participation in discussions involving financials with the Executive Committee. Because we have been gearing up for the Santa Fe meeting, our coffers are full and 2009 showed a rebound into the profit area. An effort needs to be made to increase the dues paid by members, as currently we take in only about a quarter of the dues owed to the Society based on membership. As in previous years, a recommendation from the Treasurer is that a formal business plan to sustain the Young Investigator’s Award and build up the Young Latin American Fund be considered and implemented by Council. The ASN would like to acknowledge the generous support received for the 2010 meeting from the ISN, NIH, and a number of pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer Healtcare, and TEVA, as well as income generated from the Basic Neurochemistry textbook.

Young Investigator Education Enhancement Committee

Susan O. McGuire (Chair)

sumc@uic.edu

MEETINGS ASN 2012 - BALTIMORE ASN 2011 - ST. LOUIS AFFILIATED MEETINGS TRAVEL AWARDS PAST MEETINGS PUBLIC FORUM

PUBLICATIONS ASN NEWSLETTER ASN NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES NEUROCHEMISTRY NEWS BASIC NEUROCHEMISTRY TEXT JOURNAL

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION INFORMATION APPLY ONLINE PAY DUES ONLINE SEARCH MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY

SOCIETY BUSINESS ASN NEWSLETTER

JOB LISTINGS JOB PLACEMENT FORMS JOBS AVAILABLE JOB SEEKERS

AWARDS JORDI FOLCH PI AWARD MARIAN KIES AWARD BERNARD HABER AWARD LATIN AMERICAN AWARD YIEE TRAVEL AWARD ASN NEURO TRAVEL AWARD

ABOUT THE ASN OFFICERS AND COUNCIL ASN, COMMITTEES BYLAWS, RULES AND CORPORATION HISTORY CONTACT US

RESOURCES FOR THE PUBLIC OTHER NEUROSCIENCE WEB SITES RESEARCH GRANT PROPOSALS