Barely two months away, ASP'97 (July 5-10 in St. Louis) is now entering the final planning stages. I'm pleased with the program, which in addition to venturing into rapidly developing new aspects of photochemistry/photobiology will also put us in touch with our identity as a Society - where ASP came from and where it should be heading. We have a full schedule, with 27 symposia, 6 plenary lectures, 5 school lectures, 1 workshop, 8 platform (contributed talk) sessions, 3 poster sessions, and 2 special presentations - one dealing with grantsmanship and the other with manuscript writing. In addition, various items of historic interest that document the Society's past (old photos, articles, books, etc.) will be on display. You'll be receiving the abstract book shortly. This is a very special meeting, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Society's founding. It's one that you certainly won't want to miss. I urge you not only to attend, but to stay throughout, including Thursday morning, July 10th - you won't regret it!
I look forward to seeing you in St. Louis.
MEETING AFFECTIVE DISORDER
(MAD)
Frank Gasparro
A well-characterized syndrome during meetings - not sleeping at night, falling asleep in dark rooms where flickering slides show complex data during the day. Take a break - whether it's just a walk to the riverfront and the arch or one of the following:
I had written a response to Len Grossweiner's letter, a couple of issues ago, on the subject of retired scientists and scientific meetings. Then I decided not to mail it - that is until I read the last Newsletter. I believe that Tom Coohill and "Anonymous" have not completely addressed the issues that Len's letter really pertains to. As one who left academia fifteen years ago to head a company, I probably have a more detached view of the situation, and can also speak with less restraint.
To address quickly the financial aspects, the American Chemical Society has an "Emeritus" category that is attained by having been a member for 25 years or more, and being retired. Emeriti pay half the regular fees yet retain full privileges. I think ASP should consider that option for both membership fees and meeting registrations, and AIP ought to honor the arrangement.
I did attend the Vienna Congress (if truth be told, mostly to have an excuse to take a business trip to Europe), and made a few disquieting observations that are very pertinent to the issues Dr. Grossweiner raises. I can of course only speak about my own field, where I know the players. Here's how it shakes out. My generation is now at the peak of their careers, and they are in charge of arranging symposia, setting up sessions, and generally running things. But the preceding generation, the ones we looked up to and learned from, are hardly in evidence any more. This is not because of lack of interest - I am in touch with several of them and know that they would like to contribute their accumulated experience. And of course Len's letter speaks to that, while, aside from the "Landmarks in Photobiology" symposium, Tom Coohill's response really addresses a younger group.
What I saw in Vienna was a symposium with session chairmen who spoke perfectly unintelligible English and were clearly chosen for reasons that had little to do with their skills in handling a meeting. Now I will admit that in my days as an active researcher, I did pick an occasional session chair because I felt that building a little goodwill might pay off in future transactions. But I should like to think that I would still try to involve the people who have given so much to the field in the past. And it would not just be because they have knowledge and experience, and are also able to take the longer view that comes from having seen it all.
What I would really like my generation to realize is that, if our culture does not change, they will be the next ones to be left behind, in a decade or so. Then, my friends (both of them) will have plenty of time to visit me in Scottsdale and watch me still being fully involved in the things that I am doing now.
QUARTER CENTENARY ISSUE OF ASP NEWSLETTER
In order to mark ASP's first quarter century and its burgeoning success, we are publishing a commemorative issue of the Newsletter. Past-presidents and other officers of the Society were invited to contribute memories of their terms of service to ASP, and to send photographic illustrations if they so wished. The responses that we received, and other items from the Society's history, are being included in the special issue, which will be handed out as part of the registration packet at the St. Louis meeting. Copies for those not attending the meeting will be available on request (cost including S&H is $5.00 - see insert, or contact the Secretariat by phone, 706-722-7511; fax, 706-722-7515; or e-mail, maps@csra.net).
DOES PUVA CAUSE MALIGNANT MELANOMA IN PSORIASIS PATIENTS?
A recent paper with this title in the New England Journal of Medicine (Stern et al., 336, 1041-1045, April 10, 1997) reports that psoriasis patients who were treated by photochemotherapy (8-methoxypsoralen plus ultraviolet A treatment: PUVA) developed malignant melanomas at a rate significantly higher than background. Two of these patients have since died from metastatic melanoma. The study followed patients who were first treated in 1975 or 1976. More melanomas were found during the period 1991 to 1996 than in the prior period, and the risk was higher in patients who had received more treatments. For instance, for all patients during the whole study period from 1975 to 1996 (N = 22,104) 11 melanomas were observed compared with an expected 4.8 ("expected" numbers were calculated from known incidence rates specific to each period under study, using matched age- and sex-specific incidence for whites). From 1991 to 1996 (N = 4,052) 7 melanomas were observed, compared with an expected 1.3 in this population. In this group, for patients that received more than 250 treatments (N = 1,287) the ratio of observed to expected was 10; for patients that received fewer than 250 treatments (N = 2,765) the ratio was smaller: 3.75. The authors concluded that melanoma risk starts to increase about 15 years after PUVA treatment is started.
In an accompanying editorial (pp. 1091-1092), K. Wolff, questioned the wisdom of abandoning PUVA. He noted the devastation of psoriasis on the lifestyles of sufferers, and pointed out that the statistics might be less frightening if patients who were at greater risk of developing melanoma had been excluded from the study. For instance, one of the patients, with presumed familial melanoma, had three primary melanomas. Alternative treatments for psoriasis have other undesirable side effects and have not been studied as closely as PUVA for long-term effects. He concluded that PUVA, a successful therapy, should not be abandoned, but that guidelines for treatment should be rigidly adhered to. Psoriasis patients on PUVA therapy should receive lifetime follow up with close observation, and those at risk for melanoma should be excluded from this treatment. Further studies with other cohorts of patients should be evaluated to validate the results of Stern et al.
Finally, the role of PUVA in skin cancers in psoriasis patients will only be fully clarified by molecular studies. For example, a recent paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Investigative Dermatology in Washington, DC showed few PUVA-type mutations in the tumor suppressor gene p53. (Journal of Investigative Dermatology 108, 47, 1997).
PHOTOBIOLOGY ONLINE: PHOTOBIOLOGY
RESOURCES
Dennis Valenzeno
The World Wide Web is growing exponentially, and while this provides more resources for scientists, locating these resources in a timely manner can become a real problem. Photobiology Online (POL) can help with this problem in several ways. Here we'll discuss just a few of these.
One of the major subdivisions of POL is "Photobiology Net Sites". Selecting this topic brings up a page of links to online resources at other locations. For example, there are several sites providing information about ultraviolet photobiology, a trio of sites on plant photobiology, and several general photobiology sites. In addition, there are links to various scientific societies that are related to photobiology, for example the American and the Royal Chemical Societies.
But, what about photobiology societies proper? Most people are aware that POL is a cooperative presentation of the American and European Societies for Photobiology. But, did you know that POL contains information on 9 other photobiology societies? Under the heading "Other Photobiology Societies" you can learn about a variety of national photobiology societies, as well as the Association Internationale de Photobiologie.
Starting to have a hard time remembering where to look for what? Don't worry. You can always use POL's search page. You have the option of performing a key word search to examine every word of every document in our site. Your search will result in a page which lists the documents in POL that contain your search term(s), in order of importance. If you prefer, POL will even allow you to search the entire World Wide Web (using a search protocol from Alta Vista).
or at
LAVOISIER, LA LUZ Y LA VIDA
ASP's second president, John Spikes
Under this title, reminiscent of our ASP logo "Lux et Vita", Dr. Alvaro Lopez Ruiz of the Ateneo of Madrid published an interesting note (Quim. Ind., Madrid 43(1), 62-83, 1996) on his discovery of a poem about light written by the great French scientist, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, five years before he was guillotined on May 8, 1794, at age 51, during the French Revolution. No information was provided on where the poem was found. The note includes the poem in the original French and a translation into Spanish:
Sans la lumiére la nature était sans vie,
elle était morte et inanimée:
Un Dieu bienfaisant, en apportant la lumiére,
a répandre sur la surface de la terre,
l'organization, le sentiment, et la pensée.
I translated the poem from the French into English, with a little help and a lot of criticism from several people, as follows (I hope that Lavoisier doesn't roll over in his grave too many times):
Without light, nature was without life,
It was dead and inanimate:
A beneficent God, in bringing light,
Sent forth over the surface of the earth,
Organization, sensation and thought.
This verse might be of interest to the more poetically inclined readers of the Newsletter, since most of us think of Lavoisier as the "father of modern chemistry" rather than as a photobiologist cum poet.
Lopez Ruiz in his note pointed out that Lavoisier relates light not only to life and nature but also, as suggested by the last line of the poem, to thought, i.e., the thinking man. Dr. Maria Ganfornina of our department kindly translated Lopez Ruiz's note into English, and I will be happy to send it to anyone who is interested (so that you can check my translation).
There appears to be a paucity of poetry, songs or music about the many wondrous aspects of photobiology. I have collected such items about science for over 50 years and have found very few photobiological ditties. I would very much appreciate receiving information on any poems, songs or music about photobiology that any of you might have.
Also, in an attempt to fill this void, I am sponsoring a photobiology poetry writing contest, entries to be judged at the St. Louis meeting. The prize(s) will be to see your poem(s) in print in the Newsletter. Please contact me by e-mail: spikes@bioscience.utah.edu, or at Dept. of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.
ON CHANGING TIMES
Letter from President Frank Gasparro
ASP will shortly be celebrating its 25th anniversary - an appropriate time to look back on past achievements and to plan for the future. Over its 25-year history ASP has served its members well by producing an outstanding journal and an ever more stimulating annual meeting. These two activities have provided vehicles for the presentation of research results and a forum for cross-fertilization across the spectrum of topics that comprise photobiology and related fields. However, in both these areas, there are major decisions to be made that will have long term effects on ASP. The fiscal status of the society at this time is strong. Our assets are at their highest levels ever. However, there are concerns. The growth in assets can be traced directly to journal revenues, yet these are decreasing as increased expenses are being accompanied by reduced institutional subscriptions. Now we appear to be on the verge of electronic publication with all of its ramifications, fiscal and otherwise. Council is carefully weighing a variety of options regarding the journal. However, no decisions will be made until the new editor of P&P is selected later this spring.
There are other challenges and opportunities that await our attention. Belt tightening by funding agencies is causing financial hardship for many of our members. Concerns about the cost of membership, meeting attendance, etc., have been expressed in recent newsletter correspondence (see also Diehn letter in this issue), especially for those retired members who must now finance society activities out of their own pockets. These are real problems; however, efforts to seek special consideration for selected subgroups of the membership will be a distraction from the important matters that must be dealt with both boldly and with due deliberation. Furthermore efforts such as these may also erode the asset base of ASP and further detract from the ability of the Society to move into the 21st century as a major scientific force. These concerns will be met successfully only with visionary leadership focused on the big picture.
This raises another challenge. ASP is operated by a dedicated cadre of volunteers. Although the satisfaction of seeing the success of the ASP can be gratifying, holding office takes a great deal of time and effort, and it is becoming more and more difficult to find an adequate number of candidates for council. The extreme effort is most obvious in the job of the past-president. The double duties of organizing the scientific program for the next meeting and of raising funds to defray the expenses of the scientific program has become an onerous burden. Arranging a stimulating scientific program is itself a near-Herculean task. The whole question of financial support for the meeting will need to be examined by council in the near future.
HOW TO GET FROM THE AIRPORT TO THE HYATT AT UNION STATION
Taxi Service - To downtown, approximately $25 to $28 one way. The trip takes around 20 to 25 minutes.
Airport Express - Runs every 20 to 25 minutes. Prices are $10 one way; $15 round trip. Leaves from Baggage Claim.
Rental Car - The trip from Lambert International Airport is an easy 20- to 25-minute drive. Parking at the Hyatt is $9.00 per day and may be charged to your room.
MetroLink - MetroLink is St. Louis' new light rail system. From Lambert International Airport to the Hyatt's Union Station stop (approximately 2 blocks behind the Hyatt) costs only $1.00, making MetroLink the most economical way to travel. During your stay in St. Louis, you may take a ride from Union Station to Busch Stadium, Laclede's Landing, America's Center, Forest Park and other St. Louis attractions.
This Newsletter published bi-monthly by the American Society for Photobiology
Editor: Meyrick Peak, PhD
The Photon Company
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