2012 World Congress on In Vitro Biology

June 3 – 7, 2012

SIVB Heads to the Puget Sound

Plans for the 2012 World Congress on In Vitro Biology in Bellevue, Washington, are well underway. The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue on Seattle’s Eastside from June 3-7, 2012 and is being co-sponsored by the Japanese Tissue Culture Association (JTCA) and the Japanese Society for Alternatives to Animal Experiments (JSAAE). This year’s Congress is being held in conjunction with the 13th International Conference on Invertebrate and Fish Cell Culture on Sunday, June 3, 2012.

I am pleased to announce that Leroy Hood will be the keynote symposium speaker.  Dr. Hood is a pioneer in the systems approach to biology and medicine. His research has focused on the study of molecular immunology, biotechnology and genomics. Dr. Hood’s professional career began at Caltech, where he and his colleagues developed the DNA gene sequencer and synthesizer and the protein synthesizer and sequencer––four instruments that paved the way for the successful mapping of the human genome and lead to him receiving the 2011 Fritz J. and Delores H. Russ Prize awarded by the Academy of Engineering for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine and forensic science. A pillar in the biotechnology field, Dr. Hood has played a role in founding more than fourteen biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Darwin, The Accelerator and Integrated Diagnostics. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. Of the 6,000+ scientists world-wide who belong to one or more of these academies, Dr. Hood is one of only fifteen people accepted to all three. He is also a member of the American Philosophical Society and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Animal and Plant Program Chairs (Dr. Brad Upham and Dr. Vibha Srivastava) are assembling a very exciting agenda that includes the following Plenary, Animal and Plant Symposia and workshops:

• Advanced 3-D Tissue Culture Systems Workshop
  
• Advances in Abiotic and Biotic Stress Tolerance
  
• Applications of Nanotechnology in “In Vitro” Biology (Nanobiology)
  
• Applications of RNAi and MicroRNA in Agriculture and Forestry 
  
• Inducible and Tissue-specific Plant Gene Expression Systems
  
• Carcinogenesis: The Need for Advanced Mechanistic In Vitro Systems
  
• Commercialization of GMO's: IP - Risk Assessment and Regulatory Issues
  
• DNA Recombination Based Tools for Plant Genetic Engineering
  
• Environmental Toxicology and Endocrine Disruptors
  
• Food Safety and Security Roundtable Discussion
  
• Gene Knockdown and Gene Knockout
  
• In Vitro Animal Cell Sciences Student and Post Doctoral Oral Presentation Competition
  
• In Vitro Manipulation and Breeding of High-Value Fruit Crops
  
• In Vitro Methods for Crop Improvement
  
• In Vitro Systems to Study Obesity and Metabolic Diseases
  
• In Vitro Tools for Plant Conservation
  
• New Therapeutic Approaches to Cancer from In Vitro Studies
  
• Next Gen Transformation Technologies
  
• Non-human Viruses in Biomedical Research
  
• Nutraceuticals in the 21st Century: Identification, Production, and Demonstration of Efficacy and Safety
  
• Omics Technologies in the Dissection of Biological Processes
  
• Plant Biotechnology Student and Post Doc Oral Presentation Competitions
  
• Regulatory Acceptance of Alternative Carcinogenicity Tests
  
• Research Integrity Workshop
  
• Student Networking Luncheon
  
• Student Networking Symposium: Writing and Submitting a Grant Proposal
  
• Sustainability in Agriculture
  
• Teaching Concepts in Transgenic Crops Workshop
  
• Update on Multi-institutional Biotech Projects

There are plenty of opportunities for students, such as free registration, special student workshops, ability to apply for eight different Student Awards and ability to submit their abstract to the Student Oral Presentation Competitions.  Click Here for information on the Student Opportunities. We expect a large number of students to participate at the 2012 Congress.

Please make your reservations early for the 2012 World Congress in Bellevue. If you have questions, please feel free to contact the 2012 Program Chair, Dr. Fredy Altpeter, the Animal Program Chair, Dr. Brad Upham, or the Plant Program Chair, Dr. Vibha Srivastava.

Plan to come early and stay late this year as there are numerous special events being planned before and after the meeting including a tour of the Institute for Systems Biology and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.  More information will be posted as tours are finalized.

See http://www.sivb.org/meetings.asp for the latest developments on the 2012 World Congress or contact the SIVB Business Office at (919) 562-0600.

 
Information submitted by the SIVB Business Office