By the time you receive this newsletter, the 1995 election ballots will have been counted and your Society will have some new elected officers, including the President for '96/97, one council representative from each of the new Divisions of Photosensory Biology and Photosynthesis and Photoconversion, as well as two new council members at large. We had a slate of first-rate candidates and I hope that most of you sent in your ballots. In some previous years, the fraction of Society members exercising their voting rights was even lower than the averages in our national elections. I hope that the response was better this year, and will be even higher next year! By participating in the nominations and voting processes, you can have an input into the running of our Society. Therefore, it is not too early for me to urge you to participate in these important functions in the next election and, above all, to send in your ballots!
The most intense level of activity at this time of the year is the preparation of the annual meeting, to be held this year in Washington, D.C., June 17 - 22. Our Program Chair, Mike Rodgers, has put together a very exciting and scientifically lavish meeting (outlined in the January/February 1995 Newsletter) with a workshop organized by Frank Gasparro "What is Photobiology?", designed primarily for Congressional aides, science writers, and the like. For us, there are four "perspectives lectures", each to be delivered by a leader in the different scientific Divisions of our Society, who will include an overview of recent advances and indicate the exciting directions into which each of these fields are heading. There will be four photobiology schools, one photobiology course, two workshops, 24 Symposia on topics of current interest, 8 contributed paper sessions, and 3 poster sessions. In order to allow us to sample this extraordinary rich scientific fare more leisurely, the meeting has been extended by one day, and will run from Saturday to noon, Thursday. I enthusiastically look forward to this year's annual meeting and hope that as many of you as possible will attend.
The officers of the Society are particularly interested in encouraging younger scientists to participate in the annual meetings. The Young Investigator Award lecture, together with the long- standing senior ASP Award lecture, has become an annual event at our meetings. A specially designated ASP Grants and Awards Committee selects one young investigator with an outstanding record of scientific accomplishments from a list of nominees submitted by the membership. In this way the society seeks to honor young photobiologists with an outstanding research record achieved relatively early in their careers. In addition, the Society has set aside funds for assisting young scientist to attend the annual ASP meetings. The recipients are also selected by the ASP Grants and Awards Committee, and the selections are based on the submitted abstracts and other supporting materials. Other means for encouraging younger scientists were also considered at the last Council meeting (November 1994); there were suggestions for selecting contributions from our younger, Associate Members (post- docs and graduate students) for oral presentations at one of the platform sessions, especially at the Symposia. These initiatives will continue to be implemented at future ASP annual meetings, and we would be very grateful to receive suggestions along these lines from the membership at large.
One of the goals of our society is to foster scientific interactions with sister societies in this and other countries. The aim is to enrich the scientific activities of the ASP, and to encourage contacts with other scientists working in related fields and disciplines. One of our Council members, Dr. Helen Hill, was charged with exploring the feasibility of holding joint meetings with other societies. Dr. Hill investigated these possibilities and discussed her conclusions at the Fall 1994 ASP Council meeting.
Her conclusion that there were some serious practical obstacles for holding such joint meetings, one of them being the length of the projected meetings, were accepted by the Council. She suggested instead that we and other societies (e.g. The Biophysical Society, Radiation Research Society, Environmental Mutagen Society, and others) sponsor symposia at one another's meetings and publish columns in each other's newsletters. This suggestion was received with enthusiasm, and the fruits of these collaborative efforts may surface at future annual meetings, perhaps as early as 1996 in Atlanta. In the meantime, our Society has initiated some concrete steps in this direction and made a financial contribution to support the joint symposium DNA Photodamage and its Repair at the 6th European Society for Photobiology (ESP) Congress in Cambridge, England, September 2-9, 1995. This effort is being coordinated by Antony R. Young of the ESP, who is also the European representative to our Council. In turn, the ESP is planning to co-sponsor a joint symposium at our 1996 annual meeting. We are all quite excited by these new developments and the prospect of increasing scientific (and personal) interactions with members of other societies in this country and abroad. Again, I would like to solicit any suggestions for such interactions and the sponsorship of joint symposia that you, the members of ASP, may have.
With my best wishes for a good summer, and hoping to see you in Washington, D,C. at ASP '95,
Sincerely,
Nick Geacintov
The 6th ESP Congress, 2-9 September 1995, University of Cambridge, UK will feature for the first time a joint ESP/ASP programme theme (DNA Photodamage and its Repair). Two symposia have been organized as described below. For registration details contact 6th ESP Congress Secretariat on Fax Int + 44 1223 460396. There will also be an open workshop on The Comet Assay in Photobiology on 9th September. Contact Congress Chairman (ar.young@umds.ac.uk) if you would like to take part.
Molecular Mechanisms and Mutagenicity of DNA Photodamage 5th September, organized by RJH Davies
This symposium will provide a forum for an integrated discussion of the molecular processes leading to photoproduct formation in UV irradiated DNA and how they can be correlated with specific mutagenic and cytotoxic responses at the cellular level. It will focus on the nature and relative yields of the lesions produced in DNA by UV photons of different wavelengths and the mechanisms underlying their formation. Photodamage generated by direct excitation and through photosensitized pathways will be considered. Current developments in our understanding of the mutagenic properties of different classes of photoproducts will also be addressed with particular reference to the effects of sunlight.
SPEAKER: Title
J CADET: Photosensitization of purine DNA components: Oxidation and amino acid addition reactions
P CLINGEN: The induction of specific DNA photoproducts in human mononuclear cells by natural sunlight
H GORNER: Photolesions in DNA produced by irradiation at 193 and 254nm
E SAGE: DNA damage and mutation induced by ultraviolet and simulated solar radiation
M SHETLAR: Themes in C major and C minor: Photochemistry of the cytosines
J S TAYLOR: Mutation spectra of site specific DNA photoproducts
Excision Repair of DNA Photodamage and Skin Cancer 7th September, organized by C Arlett and K Kraemer
The excision repair syndromes have provided us with insights into the importance of defects in DNA repair in the generation of cancer. The process of excision repair itself can be dissected at the genetic level to reveal a complexity of modes of action and this has also revealed the presence of a set of so called "transcription syndromes". Carcinogenesis is a multistep process and the different syndromes can be utilized in the study of the initiation (mutation) step, in addition to the tumour progression via immunomodulation. This symposium is designed to provide a survey of the syndromes themselves, their clinical relevance and the ways in which they provide information towards an understanding of carcinogenesis.
SPEAKER: Title
A ABOUSSEKHRA: Mammalian DNA nucleotide excision repair reconstructed with purified protein
C ARLETT: Unusual patients: defective DNA repair does not always correlate with clinical and cellular responses
J CLEAVER: Quantitative studies of XP A expression and function
K JASPERS: Nucleotide excision repair and "transcription syndromes"
K KRAEMER: Defective DNA repair and cancer: how strong is the link?
J KRUTMANN: Immunosuppression, ICAM 1 regulation and DNA repair deficiencies
A SASARIN: UV induced mutation spectra in normal, xeroderma pigmentosum and trichothiodystrophy cells
For the first time the annual meeting will feature a keynote speaker. Michael Kasha of Florida State University (Chemistry Department), the doyen of photophysics, and many other areas will present an address "Four Great Personalities of Science: G. N. Lewis, J. Franck, R.S. Mulliken, and A. Szent-Gyorgyi." on Saturday June 17 at 5 pm. This informative and entertaining presentation will be structured around Dr. Kasha's personal memories of these four giants. The main reason for establishing a keynote speech is to get the entire meeting together early on. Some recent papers by M. Kasha, all in Proc Natl Acad Sci (USA): Singlet molecular oxygen in the Haber-Weiss Reaction' (91: 12365 94); Singlet molecular oxygen evolution upon simple acidification of aqueous hypochlorite: application to the deleterious health effects of chlorinated drinking water' (91: 12362 94); and Interplay between excited-state intramolecular proton transfer and charge transfer in flavonols and their use as protein-binding-site fluorescence probes' (91: 11968 94).
(*MAD, Meeting Affective Disorder').
We all know that the breakup of the former Soviet Union has led to severe financial hardships for our colleagues in Eastern Europe and their Institutions. Many of them can no longer afford to subscribe to Photochemistry & Photobiology. If you know such individuals abroad and would like to help, and if you have access to a library copy, you can donate your personal copy of P&P to this individual. You can do this easily by writing to our Executive Secretary, Dr. Richard Reichard, and providing him with the name and address of this person. Dr. Reichard's address is:
XIII International Symposium on Bioelectrochemistry and
Bioenergetics
Ein-Gedi (On the Dead See), Israel
7-12 January, 1996
Organized by the Bioeloectrochemical Society
"Frontiers in Biological Chemistry" awarded by the Max-Planck Institut fur Strahlenchemie, Mulheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
Starting in 1995, the Institute invites annually an internationally renowned scientists to present his work in the area of either "Bioinorganic Chemistry" or "Biological Photochemistry/Photophysics". The lecturer is expected to give a one-week seminar and a public lecture for a broader audience.
Professor Stephen J. Lippard, Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, U.S.A, has been elected to be the guest lecturer in 1995 in this series. His seminal contributions to our understanding of the mechanism of action of "Cisplatin", to the unravelling of the structure of "platinum blue" and to the structure-reactivity correlations of non-heme iron proteins (hemerythrin, methane monoxygenase) have n recent years attracted the attention of chemists, biologists and physicists.
Brian Edward Johnson, Ph.D., a British member of the American Society for Photobiology, and founder and member of other photobiology societies died suddenly on Aug. 25, 1994 of a heart attack while at his laboratory in Dundee, Scotland. Since 1969 he had organized and led the Medical Photobiology Unit at the University of Dundee. We honor him for his scientific accomplishments and for the courage he displayed as he progressively went from crutches to wheel chair as a result of multiple sclerosis.
He had an incisive mind and voice that was hard on the sloppy and the phony in research; in spite of this he acquired many friends world-wide. He was of a new generation of photobiologists, whose entire career was devoted to photobiology. Older generations have been botanists, or dermatologists, or others with an interest in photobiology.
Information on Brian's early years comes from his brother David. Brian was born 5 Jan. 1936 at Croydon, near London. His upbringing and education took place in the context of World War II, with "nighttimes spent in a dugout shelter at the bottom of the garden; the Battle of Britain fighter dogfights overhead; and the flying bombs toward the end." In school Brian was strong academically in the sciences. His first wish was to become a doctor, but places were not available.
His interests in music, sports and gardening began early. At school he played Rugby until he dislocated a shoulder. He was on the school handball teem. He was particularly fond of golf and it was on the golf course that one of his friends noticed the xanthomas on the hands that went with his unexplained shortness of breath, leading to the generally successful treatment of a high cholesterol blood level.
It is apparently not known when he developed an interest in photobiology, but he did get his Ph.D. in physiology from the University of London at the Institute of Dermatology with Ian Magnus. His Thesis was completed in 1965 on A study of the physiological effects of ultraviolet radiation on mammalian skin.
In 1964, at the time of the International Congress on Photobiology at Oxford, Ian Magnus suggested that Brian Johnson of London and Jan van der Leun of Utrecht were two young investigators who might like to come to Cornell in New York for post-doctorate experience. Brian arrived in 1965, having gotten on the airplane a couple of hours after taking his oral exam. He stayed at Cornell until 1969 and became Assistant Professor of Physiology in Medicine. Jan van der Leun came in 1967-1968. The trio of Johnson, van der Leun, and Daniels proved to be synergistic and exciting without being able to tell who was learning what from whom. Brian taught basic science to the Dermatology residents, skin physiology to medical students, and did his research on the effects of UV and cold on human skin, with medical student volunteers. Brian was immediately accepted as a peer among the clinical faculty at Cornell and by the US photobiology community. He particularly enjoyed knowing his hero, Harold Blum, who nearly alone kept photobiology going in the US in the 30s and 40s. While at Cornell Brian initiated and ran the Northeast Photobiology group, which was one of the regional precursors of the ASP.
In the early 1960s Farrington Daniels and a few others organized a series of yearly meetings of photobiologically oriented dermatologists which subsequently became the task force on photobiology of the American Academy of Dermatology. Through this disorganized group. Brian met and thoroughly impressed most, if not all, of the dermatological photobiologists in the USA. It was also in this group that he made many close friends.
Returning to the UK in 1969, he went to Dundee where he set up, organized, and supervised the Medical Photobiology program which does most of the light sensitivity-testing for patients in Scotland.
In a final act of organization, Brian left an up-to-date C.V. on his word processor. It describes his research interests in Photobiology as clinical photobiology, photosensitization, DNA damage in skin, photosensitivity, dermatitis/actinic reticuloid, photochemotherapy and other.
The CV lists 62 peer reviewed scientific publications, 13 book chapters, 36 Abstracts for conference papers, and 15 published meeting proceedings. He was supported by his wife, Ann, throughout, using her ability to type scientific manuscripts at 120 words a minute with a single stroke error per page! Brian's fondness for music lives on his musician daughter, Sarah, and his scientific interests, in his physician daughter, Laura. It was Sarah's wedding at Arbroath in July 1994 that brought together family and friends to enjoy Brian in a witty and jovial state a month before his sudden death. His progressive multiple sclerosis had discouraged him more than any who knew him from his witty and cheerful exterior.
Farrington Daniels, Jr. M.D, MPH
John H. Epstein, M.D.
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