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The National Urban Air Toxics Research Center (NUATRC) hosted a medical/scientific workshop focused on possible asthma/air toxics relationships, with the results of the NUATRC's first research contract with the University of Cincinnati as the point of discussion. The workshop was held at the Texas Medical Center on 4 February 1994 and featured presentations by distinguished academic, government, and industry scientists. This one-day session explored the impact of various environmental factors, including air toxics, on asthma incidence and exacerbation; an emphasis was placed on future research directions to be pursued in the asthma/air toxics area. A key research presentation on the association of air toxics and asthma, based on the study sponsored by NUATRC, was given by Dr. George Leikauf of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Additional presentations were made by H. A. Boushey, Jr., Cardiovascular Research Institute/University of California at San Francisco, who spoke on of the Basic Mechanisms of Asthma; K. Sexton, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who spoke on hazardous air pollutants: science/policy interface; and D. V. Bates, Department of Health Care and Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia, who spoke on asthma epidemiology. H. Koren, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and M. Yeung, of the Respiratory Division/University of British Columbia, Vancouver General Hospital, discussed occupational health impacts on asthma. Doyle Pendleton, Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, reviewed air quality measurements in Texas. The information presented at the workshop suggested a possible association of asthma exacerbations with ozone and particulate matter (PM10); however, direct relationships between worsening asthma and air toxic ambient levels were not established. Possible respiratory health effects associated with air toxics will require considerably more investigation, especially in the area of human exposure assessment. Two major recommendations for future research resulted from this workshop and an accompanying NUATRC Scientific Advisory Panel meeting: a need for more complete individual personal exposure assessments so that accurate determinations of actual personal exposures to various pollutants can be made; and a need for field experiments utilizing biomarkers of exposure and effect to more accurately assess the extent and variability of the biological effects, if any, of individual air toxics.

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer deaths in the U.S. The concept of intraperitoneal drug delivery for therapy of intraperitoneal cancers, such as ovarian cancer, arose in the 1960s. The field of intraperitoneal cisplatin therapy for ovarian cancer was initiated in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The markedly improved survival data resulting from a third phase III trial of intraperitoneal cisplatin for ovarian cancer in early 2006 led to an NCI Clinical Announcement and a Gynecologic Oncology Group-sponsored workshop on Intraperitoneal Therapy in January, 2006, in San Diego, California. The proceedings of this workshop summarize both research trial results and practical implementation issues associated with intraperitoneal therapy discussed at this workshop.

Biofluid mechanics is increasingly applied in support of diagnosis and decision-making for treatment of clinical pathologies. Exploring the relationship between blood flow phenomena and pathophysiological observations is enhanced by continuing advances in the imaging modalities, measurement techniques, and capabilities of computational models. When combined with underlying physiological models, a powerful set of tools becomes available to address unmet clinical needs, predominantly in the direction of enhanced diagnosis, as well as assessment and prediction of treatment outcomes. This position paper presents an overview of current approaches and future developments along this theme that were discussed at the 5th International Biofluid Symposium and Workshop held at the California Institute of Technology in 2008. The introduction of novel mechanical biomarkers in device design and optimization, and applications in the characterization of more specific and focal conditions such as aneurysms, are at the center of attention. Further advances in integrative modeling, incorporating multiscale and multiphysics techniques are also discussed.

The workshop “Pharmacogenetics in Individualized Medicine: Methods, Regulatory, and Clinical Applications” was held November 15–16, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This workshop provided an opportunity for pharmaceutical scientists, clinical practitioners, clinical laboratory scientists, and FDA to discuss methods, regulatory, and the application of pharmacogenetics in clinical practice and drug discovery. Key highlights of the workshop were: (a) the use of genetic information in individualized medicine has significant potential in advancing drug development and human health by optimizing drug response, drug efficacy, and preventing adverse drug reactions; (b) various barriers exist preventing the advance of the individualized medicine in the society, industry, and clinical practice; and (c) the barriers may be overcome by integrated approaches; the education of researchers, clinical practitioners, and patients and fostering interactive communication among stakeholders. By targeting the AAPS audience, this workshop was one step among many steps that AAPS–FIP is intending to take towards removing the barriers to widespread uptake of pharmacogenetics in drug discovery and clinical practice.

The interdisciplinary workshop ‘Analysis and Visualization of Moving Objects’ was held at the Lorentz Centre in Leiden, The Netherlands, from 27 June to 1 July 2011. It brought together international specialists from ecology, computer science and geographical information science actively involved in the exploration, visualization and analysis of moving objects, such as marine reptiles, mammals, birds, storms, ships, cars and pedestrians. The aim was to share expertise, methodologies, data and common questions between different fields, and to work towards making significant advances in movement research. A data challenge based on GPS tracking of lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus) was used to stimulate initial discussions, cross-fertilization between research groups and to serve as an initial focus for activities during the workshop.

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) workshop was convened in Bethesda, MD on September 26–27, 2011, with representative scientific leaders in the field of proteomics and its applications to clinical settings. The main purpose of this workshop was to articulate ways in which the biomedical research community can capitalize on recent technology advances and synergize with ongoing efforts to advance the field of human proteomics. This executive summary and the following full report describe the main discussions and outcomes of the workshop.

The sequencing of the human genome has revolutionized biology and led to an astounding variety of technologies and bioinformatics tools, enabling researchers to study expression of genes, the function of proteins, metabolism, and genetic differences within populations and between individuals. These scientific advances are making an impact in the medical research community and hold great promise for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. This developing field also holds great promise for improving the scientific basis for understanding the potential impacts of chemicals on health and the environment. A workshop sponsored by the International Council of Chemical Associations was held to review the state of the science in the application of genomics technologies in toxicology and epidemiology. Further, consideration was given to the ethical, legal, and regulatory issues and their influence on the direction and application of genomics technologies to environmental health research. Four overarching themes emerged from the workshop: Genomics technologies should be used within a framework of toxicology and epidemiology principles and applied in a context that can be used in risk assessment; effective application of these technologies to epidemiology will require suitable biologic samples from large and diverse population groups at the relevant period of exposure; ethical, legal, and social perspectives require involvement of all stakeholder communities; and a unified research agenda for genomics technologies as applied to toxicology, epidemiology, and risk assessment is urgently needed for the regulatory and scientific communities to realize the potential power and benefits of these new technologies.

Research Setting: The research for the study reported here was conducted in conjunction with the Biomedical and Health Sciences Internship for High School Students at the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Pediatrics. The eight-week intensive summer program promotes interest in science, medicine, and health among young people by introducing students to the professional world of science, broadly defined. Interns are expected to assist in a specific research project that addresses a scientific question. They participate in a variety of lectures and are exposed to faculty members, medical students, and college graduates working as research assistants in a rich academic and clinical research setting. This study was conducted within Kaiser Permanente (KP) of Northern California as part of a larger study aimed at increasing Chlamydia screening among sexually active adolescents. It was approved by Committee on Human Research, the institutional review board (IRB) for the University of California, San Francisco and the IRB for KP Northern California.

Objective: There were two primary objectives of this study: first, we sought to identify where teenagers obtain information about sexual health; second, we examined whether aspects of a clinician's communication style with a teen during a health care visit were associated with the teen choosing that clinician as a primary source of sexual health information (as compared with parents, peers, teachers, the news media, and other sources).

Results: Teens who perceived that their clinician communicated with respect and explained information in ways that they could understand were more likely to cite their clinician as a source of sexual health information. Having time alone (confidentiality) with a physician was also associated with teens' selection of a clinician as a primary information source. Whether the clinician asked about sex during the health care visit was significantly associated with males selecting the clinician as a primary source of sexual health information. An important finding, at least for males, because teens do not always bring up the topic.

Abstract

In October 2007, a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)–sponsored workshop, entitled “Applying Principles from Complex Systems to Studying the Efficacy of CAM Therapies,” was held at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Over a 2-day period, the workshop engaged a small group of experts from the fields of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) research and complexity science to discuss and examine ways in which complexity science can be applied to CAM research. After didactic presentations and small-group discussions, a number of salient themes and ideas emerged. This paper article describes the workshop program and summarizes these emergent ideas, which are divided into five broad categories: (1) introduction to complexity; (2) challenges to CAM research; (3) applications of complexity science to CAM; (4) CAM as a model of complexity applied to medicine; and (5) future directions. This discusses possible benefits and challenges associated with applying complexity science to CAM research. By providing an introductory framework for this collaboration and exchange, it is hoped that this article may stimulate further inquiry into this largely unexplored area of research.

This is a report on the 3-day workshop “The Neuroscience of Responsibility” that was held in the Philosophy Department at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands during February 11th–13th, 2010. The workshop had 25 participants from The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, UK, USA, Canada and Australia, with expertise in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry and law. Its aim was to identify current trends in neurolaw research related specifically to the topic of responsibility, and to foster international collaborative research on this topic. The workshop agenda was constructed by the participants at the start of each day by surveying the topics of greatest interest and relevance to participants. In what follows, we summarize (1) the questions which participants identified as most important for future research in this field, (2) the most prominent themes that emerged from the discussions, and (3) the two main international collaborative research project plans that came out of this meeting.

The mainstream application of massively parallel, high-throughput assays in biomedical research has created a demand for scientists educated in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (CBB). In response, formalized graduate programs have rapidly evolved over the past decade. Concurrently, there is increasing need for clinicians trained to oversee the responsible translation of CBB research into clinical tools. Physician-scientists with dedicated CBB training can facilitate such translation, positioning themselves at the intersection between computational biomedical research and medicine. This perspective explores key elements of the educational path to such a position, specifically addressing: 1) evolving perceptions of the role of the computational biologist and the impact on training and career opportunities; 2) challenges in and strategies for obtaining the core skill set required of a biomedical researcher in a computational world; and 3) how the combination of CBB with medical training provides a logical foundation for a career in academic medicine and/or biomedical research.

In April 2011, an international advanced course and workshop entitled “Frontiers in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells” and an International Congress on Fertility and Genetics (http://www.fertigen.com.jo/ConferenceDetails.aspx) was held in Amman Jordan hosted by the Jordanian Society of Fertility and Genetics under the auspices of the International Cell Research Organization (ICRO), a UNESCO associated NGO. The Congress President Dr. Zaid Kilani, with Dr. Abdel Latif Abu Khadra, President of the Jordanian society for Fertility and Genetics, Dr. Rana Dajani of the Hashemite University of Jordan, and their Organizing Committee proved to be an excellent organizers and dedicated physician-scientists and, focusing on fertility, genetics and stem cells in a wide range of advanced therapeutic applications. Brilliant course participants included trainees, scientists and clinicians from the Greater Middle East. The lectures and practical sessions, presented by internationally acknowledged scientists, included overviews of recent achievements in pluripotent stem cell research, emphasizing the role of both the embryonic (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. A major emphasis was placed on the clinical achievements in germ cell and umbilical cord stem cell transplantation issues, and on the potential of fast and successful prenatal and pre-implantation molecular genetics diagnostics. The organization of the stem cell course in the Holy Land especially emphasized that issues of “eternal life” and “rejuvenation” are already at hand—at least in the pluripotent stem cell research field. In the lively atmosphere of the course about 60 participants had heated discussions on the possibility and ethics of advanced prenatal diagnostics, and on regulatory issues reflecting the need of separation of clinically effective versus unapproved, unwarranted stem cell treatments. An open discussion of many ethical issues, reflecting profound differences in religion and medical tradition in the different countries, made this course exceptionally interesting for both teachers and trainees.

This Meeting Review describes the proceedings and conclusions from the inaugural meeting of the Electron Microscopy Validation Task Force organized by the Unified Data Resource for 3DEM (http://www.emdatabank.org) and held at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ on September 28 and 29, 2010. At the workshop, a group of scientists involved in collecting electron microscopy data, using the data to determine three-dimensional electron microscopy (3DEM) density maps, and building molecular models into the maps explored how to assess maps, models, and other data that are deposited into the Electron Microscopy Data Bank and Protein Data Bank public data archives. The specific recommendations resulting from the workshop aim to increase the impact of 3DEM in biology and medicine.

This is a summary report of the workshop, organized by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Scientists in association with the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, the European Pharmacopoeia, the US Food and Drug Administration and the United States Pharmacopoeia, on “Assuring Quality and Performance of Sustained and Controlled Release Parenterals” held in Basel, Switzerland, February 2003. Experts from the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory authorities and academia participated in this workshop to review, discuss and debate formulation, processing and manufacture of sustained and controlled release parenterals, and identify critical process parameters and their control. This workshop was a follow-up workshop to a previous workshop on Assuring Quality and Performance of Sustained and Controlled Release Parenterals that was held in Washington, DC in April 2001. This report reflects the outcome of the Basel 2003 meeting and the advances in the field since the Washington, DC meeting in 2001. As necessary, the reader is referred to the report on the 2001 meeting. Areas were identified at the 2003 Basel meeting where research is needed in order to understand the performance of these drug delivery systems and to assist in the development of appropriate testing procedures. Recommendations were made for future workshops and meetings.

A workshop on ‘The Biology of Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens’ was held last October in a venue of the International University of Andalusia (UNIA) located in the World Historic Heritage town of Baeza, in the South of Spain. This Workshop gathered leading scientists from around the world to discuss their latest findings related to the mechanisms that intracellular pathogens use to subvert and manipulate host cell functions. The workshop focused on novel aspects that imprint current research in this discipline, including the heterogeneous behaviour of the pathogen at the population level, the host determinants that modulate susceptibility to the infection, the search for new drugs to combat these particular types of infections and also cutting edge technologies based on new imaging approaches and the use of microfluidics. Discussion on these topics provided new insights into the biology of these pathogens and enriched the field with new ideas for understanding why colonization of the intracellular niche of eukaryotic cells is a preferred strategy used by important human pathogens.

An international and interdisciplinary Radar Aeroecology Workshop was held at the National Weather Center on 5–6 March 2012 on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, OK, USA. The workshop brought together biologists, meteorologists, radar engineers and computer scientists from 22 institutions and four countries. A central motivation behind the Radar Aeroecology Workshop was to foster better communication and cross-disciplinary collaboration among a diverse spectrum of researchers, and promote a better understanding of the ecology of animals that move within and use the Earth's lower atmosphere (aerosphere).

The workshop “Bioequivalence, Biopharmaceutics Classification System, and Beyond” was held May 21–23, 2007 in North Bethesda, MD, USA. This workshop provided an opportunity for pharmaceutical scientists to discuss the FDA guidance on the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS), bioequivalence of oral products, and related FDA initiatives such as the FDA Critical Path Initiative. The objective of this Summary Workshop Report is to document the main points from this workshop. Key highlights of the workshop were (a) the described granting of over a dozen BCS-based biowaivers by the FDA for Class I drugs whose formulations exhibit rapid dissolution, (b) continued scientific support for biowaivers for Class III compounds whose formulations exhibit very rapid dissolution, (c) scientific support for a number of permeability methodologies to assess BCS permeability class, (d) utilization of BCS in pharmaceutical research and development, and (e) scientific progress in in vitro dissolution methods to predict dosage form performance.

The National Urban Air Toxics Research Center (NUATRC) hosted its first scientific workshop in 1994 that focused on possible relationships between air toxics and asthma. From that meeting came recommendations for future research including a need for more complete individual personal exposure assessments so that determinations of personal exposures to pollutants could be made. In the spring of 2001, NUATRC held a second such workshop to review progress made in this area during the intervening 7 years. Peer-reviewed articles from the workshop are published in this issue of (italic)Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements(/italic). As in 1994, academic, government, and industry scientists participated. Dave Guinnup of the Environmental Protection Agency discussed the nature of air toxics, their definition, and the basis for federal regulation. George Leikauf from the University of Cincinnati reviewed the 1994 workshop and subsequent research in this field. Current research funded by NUATRC that is addressing individual personal exposure was presented by Clifford Weisel (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey), Patrick Kinney (Columbia University) and Candis Claiborn (Washington State University). David Corry from Baylor College of Medicine highlighted new insights into asthma pathogenesis while Stephen Redd from the Centers for Disease Control presented an overview of asthma epidemiology as well as the societal costs of the disease. Mary White (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) discussed recent epidemiologic investigations by public health agencies into community concerns about asthma and hazardous air pollutants. David Peden (University of North Carolina) reviewed scientific studies into the links between asthma and air toxics as well as criteria air pollutants. In a session on occupational asthma, Lee Petsonk (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) discussed risk factors for work-related asthma, whereas Ralph Delfino (University of California, Irvine) addressed limitations of extrapolating from occupational asthma to asthma in the general population. These presentations were followed by panel discussions focusing on future research programs, both for NUATRC and similar research institutions. Recommendations for future research included improved assessments of personal exposure to air toxics as well as research focused on specific hazardous air pollutants. The latter recommendation was based on medical literature that suggests certain pollutants from the list of 188 air toxics are most likely to adversely affect respiratory health.

The Fifth International Workshop on the CCN Family of Genes was held in Toronto October 18–22, 2008. This bi-annual workshop provides a unique opportunity for the presentation and discussion of cutting edge research in the CCN field. The CCN family members have emerged as extracellular matrix associated proteins which play a crucial role in cardiovascular and skeletal development, fibrosis and cancer. Significant progress has been made in the development of model systems to tease apart the CCN signalling pathways in these systems. Results presented at the conference suggest that targeting these pathways now shows real promise as a therapeutic strategy.

The annual meeting of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group (FASDSG) was held on June 28, 2008 in Washington DC, as a satellite to the Research Society on Alcoholism meeting. The FASDSG membership includes clinical, basic and social scientists, who meet to discuss recent advances and issues in FASD research. The main theme of the meeting was “Factors that Influence Brain and Behavioral Development: Implications for Prevention and Intervention.” Two keynote speakers, Dr. Stephen Suomi and Dr. Carl Keen addressed how early environment and nutrition may influence outcome following prenatal alcohol exposure. The final keynote speaker, Kathy Mitchell, addressed issues regarding the relationship between scientists and the families with children with FASD. Members of the FASDSG provided updates on new findings through brief (FASt) data reports, and national agency representative provided updates of activities and funding priorities. Presentations were also made by recipients of the Student Research Merit award and Rosett award.

Workshop proceedings and summary reports will appear in scientific periodicals and will also be available in various forms as technical reports from the NISS in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. In particular, study papers from the workshop will be prepared that will serve as indicators of further research directions, as well as current summaries of the complex issue of combining environmental data. Potential applications and improvements in associated areas of scientific/statistical research include census sampling, geostatistics, and biological effect modeling. This workshop was an experiment in how to stimulate and foster research and collaborations across disciplinary lines. Its motivation derives, however, from ever-growing social, political, economic, and scientific needs; with such strong background, it is hoped that the workshop stimulus will be strong, compelling, and fruitful.

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The OBML 2010 workshop, held at the University of Mannheim on September 9-10, 2010, is the 2nd in a series of meetings organized by the Working Group “Ontologies in Biomedicine and Life Sciences” of the German Society of Computer Science (GI) and the German Society of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS). Integrating, processing and applying the rapidly expanding information generated in the life sciences — from public health to clinical care and molecular biology — is one of the most challenging problems that research in these fields is facing today. As the amounts of experimental data, clinical information and scientific knowledge increase, there is a growing need to promote interoperability of these resources, support formal analyses, and to pre-process knowledge for further use in problem solving and hypothesis formulation.

The OBML workshop series pursues the aim of gathering scientists who research topics related to life science ontologies, to exchange ideas, discuss new results and establish relationships. The OBML group promotes the collaboration between ontologists, computer scientists, bio-informaticians and applied logicians, as well as the cooperation with physicians, biologists, biochemists and biometricians, and supports the establishment of this new discipline in research and teaching. Research topics of OBML 2010 included medical informatics, Semantic Web applications, formal ontology, bio-ontologies, knowledge representation as well as the wide range of applications of biomedical ontologies to science and medicine. A total of 14 papers were presented, and from these we selected four manuscripts for inclusion in this special issue.

An interdisciplinary audience from all areas related to biomedical ontologies attended OBML 2010. In the future, OBML will continue as an annual meeting that aims to bridge the gap between theory and application of ontologies in the life sciences. The next event emphasizes the special topic of the ontology of phenotypes, in Berlin, Germany on October 6-7, 2011.

Chemicals present in indoor air can react with one another, either in the gas phase or on surfaces, altering the concentrations of both reactants and products. Such chemistry is often the major source of free radicals and other short-lived reactive species in indoor environments. To what extent do the products of indoor chemistry affect human health? To address this question, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health sponsored a workshop titled “Indoor Chemistry and Health” on 12–15 July 2004 at the University of California–Santa Cruz. Approximately 70 experts from eight countries participated. Objectives included enhancing communications between researchers in indoor chemistry and health professionals, as well as defining a list of priority research needs related to the topic of the workshop. The ultimate challenges in this emerging field are defining exposures to the products of indoor chemistry and developing an understanding of the links between these exposures and various health outcomes. The workshop was a step toward meeting these challenges. This summary presents the issues discussed at the workshop and the priority research needs identified by the attendees.

This report summarizes a ground-breaking workshop on the strategic direction of acupuncture research which was held in York in early July 2006. Three days were spent discussing the history, the philosophy and the practicalities of researching acupuncture. Attending the workshop were an international group of researchers with varied backgrounds, including acupuncturists, physicians, physiotherapists, sociologists and anthropologists. Supported by the Medical Research Council's Health Services Research Collaboration, Elsevier and others, this workshop was an opportunity to brainstorm the issues and to the concerns in the field and set out directions for research that would tackle some of the major challenges facing the acupuncture research community.

This report contains selected excerpts, presented as a summary, from a public workshop sponsored by the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) held to discuss West Nile Virus (WNV) and scientific considerations for tissue donors. The daylong workshop was held 9 July 2010 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Tyson’s Corner in McLean, Virginia, United States (U.S.). The workshop was designed to determine and discuss scientific information that is known, and what is not known, regarding WNV infection and transmission. The goal is to determine how to fill gaps in knowledge of WNV and tissue donation and transplantation by pursuing relevant scientific studies. This information should ultimately support decisions leading to appropriate tissue donor screening and testing considerations. Discussion topics were related to identifying these gaps and determining possible solutions. Workshop participants included subject-matter experts from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, AATB-accredited tissue banks including reproductive tissue banks, accredited eye banks of the Eye Bank Association of America, testing laboratories, and infectious disease and organ transplantation professionals. After all presentations concluded, a panel addressed this question: “What are the scientific considerations for tissue donors and what research could be performed to address those considerations?” The slide presentations from the workshop are available at: http://www.aatb.org/2010-West-Nile-Virus-Workshop-Presentations.