Scientific Program

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The 2009 Program Committee of the Teratology Society, partnering with the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists (OTIS); and Neurobehavioral Teratology Society (NBTS), has arranged for an outstanding and expansive scientific program. The program for the Teratology Society Annual Meeting includes three education courses, nine cutting-edge scientific symposia, three State-of-the-Art lectures, and two lunch box sessions. There are also opportunities for open research communications such as platform talks and poster presentations. The session topics address newer concepts in the field and are likely to generate lively interaction.

Education Courses
This year there will be two Education Courses offered on Saturday, June 27. The morning course entitled “Epigenetic Mechanisms” will provide a broad-based overview of the epigenetic mechanisms by which the genome is “marked” that are thought to “program” adult disease. Topics include chromatin structure and histone modifications, DNA methylation, imprinting and X-inactivation, and epigenetics and the developmental origins hypothesis. The afternoon Education Course entitled “Adult Disease Outcomes of Developmental Programming” will focus on adult disease outcomes of developmental programming, including the metabolic syndrome (obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia), cardiovascular and kidney function, neurobehavioral function, and prostate cancer. Our Sunrise Mini-Course will discuss the identification of small nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs that may predispose to birth defects or serve as pharmacogenetic determinants of a drug response. Separate registration is required for the Education Courses and the Sunrise Mini-Course, so please register early! CME Credit is available. Please see CME Program.

Special Lectures
The meeting will kick-off on Sunday morning with the Josef Warkany Lecture which will be given by Jan M. Friedman. The Robert L. Brent Lecture, presented by Gideon Koren, will be a Lunch Box Session on Sunday, and be jointly sponsored by OTIS.  Dr. Koren’s lecture on the “Use of Natural Herbal Products during Pregnancy” will be sure to wet your appetite! The F. Clarke Fraser Award and James G. Wilson Publication Award for best paper published in the Teratology Society journal Birth Defects Research, will be presented after lunch on Sunday. On Monday morning a State-of-the-Art Lecture entitled “Fetal Origins of Adult Disease” will be presented by Peter Nathanielsz. Tuesday morning will begin with a State-of-the-Art Lecture by Lizbeth Lopez Carrillo, from the Nacional Institute of Public Health in Mexico, on the “Environment and Child Health.” Later on Tuesday, Dr. Melissa Tasinari will give a second Lunch Box Session special lecture entitled “2008 in Review: Recent Controversies in Teratology.” Our special lectures will conclude on Wednesday with a State-of-the-Art Lecture jointly sponsored by NBTS on “Monkey Models for Studies of Maternal and Child Health”, to be delivered by Deborah Rice. 

Symposia on Cutting-Edge Mechanistic Research and Translation to Clinical Applications
The general scientific program will begin on Sunday afternoon with the March of Dimes Symposium on “Prematurity: A clinical dilemma”.   This symposium will start with an overview of the global prevalence of prematurity and opportunities for intervention, followed by a discussion of prematurity in Puerto Rico, to be presented by Josée Cordero.  Subsequent talks will focus on our latest information on the causes of prematurity, ranging from infection and inflammation, to genes, to the underlying signals and mechanisms, as revealed in animal models.

On Monday afternoon a symposium on “Autism: Genes and the Environment” will highlight our Gene-Environment Interactions theme with a focus on risk factors for autism spectrum disorder. Talks will encompass epidemiological approaches to defining causes, public health implications and genetic risk factors.

Finally, the Public Affairs Committee is sure to provoke discussion with their symposium entitled “To Treat, or Not, during Pregnancy”. Talks will be presented on the placental transfer of drugs and infectious agents, cytomegalovirus and toxoplasmosis in modern obstetrics, and the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy.

Joint Symposia with TS/NBTS/OTIS
TS/NBTS/OTIS will jointly sponsor a symposium on “Global Issues in Maternal and Child Health” on Tuesday morning. Talks will cover topics from HIV and perinatal transmission, to environmental disasters, to maternal and child nutrition, to the maternal and childhood consequences of malaria.

TS/OTIS will jointly sponsor Monday morning’s symposium on “Maternal Obesity and Pregnancy”. Talks will range from an overview of the prevalence of maternal obesity and the associated pregnancy complications to animal models and epigenetic mechanisms, to management of the obese gravida.

New European Teratology Society and TS Exchange Session

In a new initiative, the European Teratology Society (ETS) and TS have set up an Exchange Session to provide an opportunity for interactions and to share perspectives. This year, the topic is “Progress in Providing Safe and Effective Drugs for Use in Children”. The ETS perspective will be presented by Luc de Schaepdrijver; Melissa Tassinari will represent TS. Come and express your opinions. 

Sessions on Methods to Assess Developmental Toxicity – from Computational Toxicology and the Analysis of Gene Regulatory Networks to Non-Human Primates as Preclinical Models for Toxicity Evaluation

This year’s Wiley-Blackwell Symposium, on Wednesday afternoon, will be on “Gene Regulatory Networks in Developmental Biology and Computational Toxicology”. Talks will focus on the developmental aspects of computational (in silico) toxicology, with topics ranging from gene regulatory networks during development, to modeling toxicity pathways using integrative genomics, systems biology, and high-throughput screening data, to conclude with the challenges that these technologies present to regulatory toxicology and legislation. This will be a great way to learn about developmental toxicology in the 21st century!

The MTA/MARTA symposium this year will look at the role of “Non-Human Primates as Preclinical Models for Toxicity Evaluation”, and provide insight into the uses of Cynomolgus and African Green monkeys.

The ILSI Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI)-Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology Technical Committee will sponsor a workshop on Maternal Toxicity and its Impact on Study Design and Data Interpretation” on Tuesday afternoon to elicit discussion on the roles of exaggerated pharmacology versus true toxicity, the relationships of maternal and fetal weight changes to developmental toxicology bioassyas and regulatory perspectives.

Special Events
The Joint TS/NBTS/OTIS Welcome Reception will be held on Sunday evening starting at 6:00 PM. The poster sessions will be held on Monday and Tuesday evening. All three of these events will take place in the exhibit hall and provide opportunities review and discuss the latest research and make new contacts. The meeting concludes on Wednesday with the Annual Banquet. The banquet provides a relaxed atmosphere to firm-up special relationships with colleges.

As you can see, the 2009 program represents the great strengths of our multidisciplinary Society and presents something for everyone. We invite you to experience the excitement in Puerto Rico!