Online ASP Newsletter
Volume 29, Issue 1
Spring, 2000
Editor: John S. Connolly, Ph.D.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE . . . . .
CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT-ELECT
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Rosalie Crouch
Department of Ophthalmology/Biochemistry, Medical University of South Carolina,
Charleston, South Carolina
Education: Randolph-Macon Women's College, A.B. (chemistry), 1963;
Lehigh University, M.S. (organic chemistry), 1965; Belfer Graduate School,
Einstein School of Medicine, Yeshiva University, Ph.D. (organic chemistry),
1972; Columbia University, Postdoctoral Fellowship (NSRA trainee under Koji
Nakanishi), 1972-75.
Appointments: Technical Officer, Imperial Chemical Industries, Inc.,
Welwyn Garden City, England, 1965-67; Research Associate, Schering Corporation,
New Jersey, 1967-69; Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Biochemistry,
Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Charleston; 1975-78; Associate
Professor, MUSC, 1978-82; Professor, MUSC; 1982-present; Dean, College of
Graduate Studies, MUSC, 1991-99; Associate Provost for Re-search, MUSC, 1995-99;
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, MUSC, Jan. 2000-present.
Research Interests: Photobiology of rhodopsin; light to energy transition
via bacteriorhodopsin; light damage to the lens and retina.
ASP Service: Scientific Council 1996-99; Editorial Board (1994 98);
Editorial Advisory Board (June 1999-present); Education Committee member;
regular symposium organizer and presenter at national and international meetings.
Candidate's Statement: As President, my focus would involve several
areas. First, I would endeavor to recruit young scientists to our Society
and to the Annual Meeting. These young scientists will be the future leaders
of the Society. Second, I would work with the Editor-in-Chief to continue
the improvement of the Journal and to move forward with the difficult, yet
necessary, transition to electronic publishing. Third, I would enthusiastically
support our efforts in the education area. There are many fine speakers who
could reach young people at the high school and undergraduate-college levels
and ignite their interest in photobiology. Fourth, as new photoreceptors
are discovered, new phototherapies are developed, and new photoregulation
events are identified, I would encourage our Society to embrace these new
fields and encourage scientists in those areas to present papers at our meetings,
publish in our journal, and join our membership. Fifth, I would make every
effort to work with the current and future organizers of the annual meeting
on presenting an event of high quality, but possibly shorter in duration. |
John Spudich
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Medical
School, Houston, Texas
Education: B.S., 1967, Mathematics, University of Illinois, Urbana;
Ph.D., 1976, Biophysics, University of California, Berkeley; postdoctoral:
1976-78, Harvard Medical School, Department of Microbiology and Molecular
Genetics, and 1978-80, UCSF, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.
Appointments: 1980-90, Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor,
Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, New York; Visiting Professor, 1990, Department of Chemistry, MIT;
Professor; 1991-present, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics,
University of Texas Medical School, Houston; currently William M. Wheless,
III, Professor in the Biomedical Sciences.
Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms of photosensory transduction;
microbial rhodopsins and visual pigments: structure/function, activation
mechanisms, and color regulation; mechanism of pathogenesis of rhodopsin
mutations in retinitis pigmentosa and related retinal diseases.
ASP Service: Regular attendee and speaker at annual meetings since
1988; organizer of symposia on Photosensory Receptor Signaling Mechanisms
(1998) and Rhodopsins (1999); Associate Editor, Photochemistry and Photobiology,
1997- present; elected to ASP Council 1998; Chair, Mentoring Committee, 1998-99;
Chair, Publications Committee, 1999- present.
Candidate's Statement: My main efforts would be to recruit new members,
especially younger scientists, to our annual meeting and to the Society,
work with the Editor-in-Chief to improve the quality of submissions to our
journal, seek new funds to strengthen our already sound financial position,
and encourage as much as possible clinical/basic-science cross-fertilization,
which I feel is one of the most exciting goals of ASP.
Molecular photobiology is on the verge of a large expansion of interest within
the general biomedical research community in the coming decade for several
reasons: First, powerful methods of protein structure/function analysis based
on time-resolved crystallography and vibrational spectroscopy are developing
rapidly. For these new approaches the researcher needs the temporal precision
provided by light-activation, and therefore photoreceptors and photoenergy
transducing molecules are the natural choices for this incisive technology.
Second, several new photosensory receptors have been discovered in the past
few years, and genome projects are clarifying their distribution in nature.
Third, on the medical front, studies of mechanisms of photodamage and
photoprotection at the molecular level and photodiagnostics and photodynamic
therapy are progressing rapidly. Many researchers in photomedicine already
see ASP as a natural home, while scientists in the first group need to be
more actively drawn in. As President, I would pursue as immediate goals
strengthening representation in ASP of investigators of structure/function
of photoactive molecules such as visual pigments and microbial and plant
phototransducers, so that these scientists might find ASP a natural home
as well, and to encourage clinical/basic science communication at our meetings. |
PHOTOBIOLOGY FOUNDATION NEWS
The Photobiology Foundation is up and running. Recently added to the Board
of Directors is George "Bud" Brainard from the Department of Neurobiology
at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
In addition, the beginnings of Web site have been established
(http://photobiologyfoundation.homestead.com).
Take a look; there are pages on the Board of Directors, History, and Goals
of the Foundation. In addition you will find a "Photobiology Hall of Fame"
site and a "Photobiology in the News" page. At the hall-of-fame site we are
soliciting nominations for the eventual final ballot. All donors of $100
or more will receive ballots and have a chance to have their say.
Frank Gasparro
Director
ELECTRON-DONOR-ACCEPTOR GORDON CONFERENCE
The 2000 Gordon Research Conference on Electron-Donor-Acceptor Interactions
will be held on August 13-18 at Salve Regina College, Newport, Rhode Island.
A wide variety of electron-transfer phenomena will be discussed. Conference
details, a list of invited speakers, and application information are available
at the conference Web site:
http://orgwww.chem.uva.nl/gordon/.
Devens Gust, Vice Chair
Gust@asu.edu
SOLAR MAX 2000
It is fitting in the year of the 13th ICP that it is also a year for maximum
solar activity. Point your Web browser to:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/solarmax/index.html
to see some interesting pictures and links.
Frank Gasparro
CANDIDATES FOR COUNCILOR (Vote for 4)
David A. Bellnier
PDT Center, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York
Education and Appointments: B.S., 1975, Biology, State University
of New York at Buffalo, N.Y.; M.S., 1977, Natural Sciences/Experimental
Pathology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and State University of New York
at Buffalo; Ph.D., 1980, Radiation Biology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute
and State University of New York at Buffalo; Research Fellow/ Instructor,
1981-84, Department of Urology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard School
of Medicine, Boston, Mass.; Research Fellow, 1984-85, Center for Advanced
Laser Research, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; Cancer Research
Scientist III, present, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biophysics,
and the PDT Center, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, N.Y.
Research Interests: Preclinical and clinical studies of photosensitizers
for photodynamic therapy.
ASP Service: Regular attendee at annual meetings; currently serve
on ASP Council.
Candidate's Statement: As we enter the next millennium, we must continue
to increase the public awareness of photobiology. This can only help in
attracting new members and strengthen support for the public and private
funding of photobiology education and research. In addition to the traditional
forms of information dissemination, a simple and effective way to accomplish
this is to have a strong presence on the World Wide Web. The rapid increase
in the number of Web pages belonging to ASP members presents an opportunity
to take advantage of this new resource. I will encourage those members to
include information about photobiology, as well as links to other relevant
Web sites, for the benefit of both the public and the photobiology community.
A unique feature, and strength, of ASP is its eclectic composition.
Unfortunately, this is not always in evidence at every meeting and conference.
As such, I will work to enhance and strengthen the interdisciplinary nature
of our society.
Steve Britz
Climate Stress Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland
Education: Johns Hopkins University, B.A., 1971; Harvard University,
A.M., 1972; Ph.D., 1976; Yale University, NASA Post-doctoral Fellow, 1977-80.
Appointments: Plant Physiologist, Light & Plant Growth
Laboratory/Plant Photobiology Laboratory, USDA, Beltsville Md., 1980-90;
Supervisory Plant Physiologist and Research Leader, Climate Stress Lab.,
USDA, Beltsville Md., 1990- present.
Research Interests: Control of plant growth, development, and composition
by visible-light and ultraviolet radiation; evaluation of the role of blue
light under high-irradiance, daylight conditions; application of photobiological
principles to agricultural problems.
ASP Service: Member of the Society since 1975; contributed to the
journal; reviewed manuscripts; attended national meetings as able; attended
international congresses (Rome, Strasbourg, Philadelphia, Kyoto, and Vienna).
Candidate's Statement: In this age of increasing specialization and
disciplinary fragmentation, the ASP continues to provide a home to biologists
with general interests centered on light. As a Councilor, I would seek to
expand this sense of inclusion by sponsoring activities such as symposia
and special lectures that address unifying and cross-cutting themes. The
emerging area of cryptochromes is a good example. As a parent, I am concerned
about the level of science education in our schools and scientific literacy
in the population as a whole. As a scientist, I am concerned about bringing
up the next generation. Yet, I continue to be impressed by the large number
young people who contact us concerning science-fair projects that address
problems ranging from photomotility to photosynthesis to environmental
photobiology. Unfortunately, many of these projects come to us late and suffer
from a poor understanding of the science and techniques needed to make reasonable
conclusions. We clearly have an opportunity to influence this situation.
As a Councilor, I would strive to increase the availability of tools (study
guides, model experiments, information on simple technology) and contacts
that could improve the impact of school-science projects.
Holly L. Gorton
Department of Biology, St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City, Maryland
Education: B.A., Biology, Reed College 1976; Ph.D., Biology, 1981,
Stanford University; Postdoctoral Fellow, 1981 Shell Development Company
and 1981-85 University of Connecticut, Department of Biological Sciences.
Appointments: Assistant to Full Professor of Biology, St. Mary's College
of Maryland, St. Mary's City, Md., 1988- present; Assistant Professor, Biology,
Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., 1985-88.
Research Interests: Plant photobiology including photoprotection,
photosynthesis and stomatal regulation, light penetration, and photosensory
biology. Current work involves light-driven chloroplast movements in higher
plants, and photoprotection in snow algae.
Candidate's Statement: The ASP provides a forum for discus-sion and
interchange of ideas among a diverse group of scientists studying organisms
from bacteria to plants to people and tackling significant questions at
ecological, organismic, and molecular levels. We are from universities and
small colleges; we teach; we do clinical and basic research. I seek to foster
the intellectual enrichment that this interdisciplinary milieu provides while
also providing opportunities for interactions among colleagues within the
same ASP division. I would bring to the Council my perspective as a teacher
and researcher at a small college of the liberal arts and sciences. Such
institutions contribute a disproportionately large number of Ph.D. candidates,
and many students who later become photobiologists nurture their first sparks
of interest in such a setting. My work with undergraduates in the classroom
and research laboratory requires me to take a broad view of photobiology,
and this breadth would help me as a Council member.
Guilherme L. Indig
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Wisconsin
Education and Appointments: Assistant Professor, 1995-present, Department
of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Postdoctoral
Research Associate, 1992-94, Department of Chemistry, Boston University;
Postdoctoral Research Associate/ Fellow, 1989-91, Department of Chemistry
and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University; Ph.D.,
1989, Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo, Brazil; DAAD
Fellow, 1986, Department of Physiological Chemistry, University of
Düsseldorf, Germany; community college teacher, 1983-85, São
Paulo, Brazil; B.Sc., 1979, Department of Chemistry, State University of
Campinas, Brazil; high school teacher, 1977-82, São Paulo, Brazil.
Research Interests: Subcellular targeting in photodynamic therapy;
oxygen-independent mechanisms of photosensitized cell destruction;
natural-product photosensitizers; photostability of drugs and drug formulations.
ASP Service: Member since 1996; contributed to Photochemistry and
Photobiology both as author and reviewer, regular attendee and speaker at
ASP annual meetings.
Candidate's Statement: I believe that the strength and social impact
of our multidisciplinary society is sustained by the triad of membership,
outreach, and funding. Consequently, I propose to work closely with the
President, Councilors, and other society members to increase membership volume
and diversity and foster a broader involvement of current and future members
in the society's activities and programs. Likewise, I propose to elevate
the impact and profile of ASP with programs designed to reach specific sectors
of our social/professional fabrics, such as local communities, specialized
media, sister societies, the private sector, and governmental agencies. To
this end, I intend initially to create a Web-based expertise database containing
the professional profiles of our membership, including listings of volunteers
willing to give presentations to general audiences and/or at colleges and
universities both in the U.S. and in any other country in which membership
is represented. The ASP-expertise database could be used not only as a mirror
of our society for external consumption but also as a platform to enhance
inter-member interactions and cross- pollination. I would subsequently encourage
the formation of committees to manage task-specific outreach programs to
fulfill the needs and protect the interests of our society and membership.
Last but not least, I intend to search systematically for stronger corporate
support to boost traditional and yet-to-be ASP programs, such as travel awards
for our younger members or more senior members from economically disadvantaged
countries to attend our annual meetings.
Carl Hirschie Johnson
Department of Biology, Box 1812-B, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Education: University of Texas, B.A., 1976; Stanford University, Ph.D.,
1982; Harvard University, postdoctoral research, 1982-87.
Appointments: Professor of Biology, Vanderbilt University (1999 present),
Associate Professor (1994-99), Assistant Professor (1987-94).
Research Interests: Circadian clocks, Photobiology, Cell Biology.
ASP Service: Symposia speaker at ASP meetings in 1984 and 1999; reviewer
for Photochemistry & Photobiology.
Candidate's Statement: As Councilor, I will listen to the needs and
concerns of ASP members, and attempt to improve the balance at ASP meetings
between presentations of basic research versus applied research.
Christopher R. Lambert
Department of Chemistry, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut
Education: University College Cardiff, Wales B.Sc., 1979; Paisley
College of Technology, Scotland, Ph.D. 1983; Center for Fast Kinetics Research,
Austin, Texas, Postdoctoral position, 1985.
Appointment: Assistant Professor, Connecticut College, 1997; Instructor
Harvard Medical School, 1993; Research Fellow, University of Keele, U.K.,
1987; Research Associate, Paterson Institute for Cancer Research and Manchester
University, U.K., 1985.
Research Interests: Carotenoid photophysics, antioxidant mechanisms
and radical reactions in membranes.
ASP Service: Member of ASP since 1982; served on the education committee
and have organized symposia on education and photochemistry; organizer of
symposia on antioxidant activity of carotenoids at this year's international
meeting.
Candidate's Statement: As a member of ASP, I have regularly attended
ASP meetings over the last seven years. I would like to see the Society recapture
many of its old strengths. Over the past decade, we seem to have lost touch
with several areas of photobiology including photobiophysics and fluorescence.
Many people who used to belong to the ASP have left for the Biophysical Society
(amongst others). While I understand that our Society has evolved, as any
living society should, I would like to encourage a more diverse representation
of disciplines at ASP meetings. I am also interested in making the ASP meetings
more accessible either by encouraging more travel awards or by investigating
ways to reduce the costs of meetings. Finally, I would also like to see
reintroduced the magical ingredient that encouraged many members to attend
the society's business meeting!
David Mauzerall
Rockefeller University, New York, New York
Education: B.S., 1951, St. Michael's College, Winooski, Vermont; Ph.D.,
chemistry, 1954, University of Chicago.
Appointment: 1954-present, Research Associate, Assistant, Associate
and Full Professor, Rockefeller University; 1965-66, Visiting Professor at
University of California, San Diego.
Research Interests: Photochemical electron transfer at the lipid
bilayer-water interface and in photosynthesis; determination of thermodynamic
properties of photobiological systems with photoacoustics; photochemistry
possibly related to the origin of life.
ASP Service: None
Candidate's Statement: Photochemistry has made great progress in the
last decades and this progress is now extending to photobiology and
photomedicine. The ASP is in the ideal position to encourage and support
these advances. I would help the President and the Editor-in-Chief to improve
the breadth and quality of our publication in these fields. In particular,
I would attempt to enlarge contributions in the area of photosynthesis, which
has been under-represented. A mini-symposium and a meeting symposium on recent
advances would be good beginnings to enlarge this section of the photobiology
field. Research in photobiology is necessarily interdisciplinary. These
interactions could be encouraged by broad-based symposia. I would stress
these integrative aspects of the society.
Hasan Mukhtar
Department of Dermatology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Education: Ph.D., Biochemistry, Kanpur University, Kanpur, India,
1971.
Appointments: Assistant Professor, 1980, Associate Professor, 1986,
Professor, 1990, Department of Dermatology with secondary appointments in
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Physiology and Biophysics, General
Medical Sciences and Radiation Oncology, Case Western Reserve University.
Associate Editor: Photochemistry and Photobiology, Toxicology and Applied
Pharmacology, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Skin Pharmacology and
Applied Skin Physiology; editorial academy, International Journal of Oncology;
editorial boards, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics,
Experimental Dermatology, Photodermatology, Photoimmunology and Photomedicine,
Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Antioxidants & Redox Signaling,
Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery.
Research Interests: Photoprotection, photocarcinogenesis, photodynamic
therapy, and cancer chemoprevention.
ASP Service: Organized symposium and helped in fund raising; reviewer
for a long time and currently (from January 2000) Associate Editor of
Photochemistry and Photobiology.
Candidate's Statement: ASP is a superb organization that is always
receptive to the voice of its membership. The future of ASP lies in propagating
its mission by serving as an advocacy group and by recruiting new, especially
young, members and making them interested in careers in photobiology and
photochemistry research. This can be accomplished by providing incentives
to this pool of scientists. ASP in general has done an excellent job in this
direction, but the efforts should be intensified. ASP should also promote
more joint meetings or overlapping meetings with other societies and sponsor
satellite meetings on selected topics. We should involve young and talented
investigators who are conducting bench research in planning for these meetings.
ASP must be more proactive in promoting photobiology awareness to the general
public. I would work with other members of ASP to make sure that the general
public receives accurate, scientifically valid information, on the effects
of solar radiation in the human population.
Frances P. Noonan
Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology, The George Washington University
Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
Education: B.Sc., University of Queensland, Australia, 1964; Postgraduate
Honours (First Class) in Biochemistry, 1966; Ph.D. Microbiology (Immunology),
University of Queensland, Australia, 1977; Postdoctoral, Frederick Cancer
Research Center, 1978-82.
Appointments: 1992-present: Research Professor, 1986-1992; Associate
Research Professor, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 1987;
Expert, Biologic Resources Branch, Biologic Response Modifiers Program, National
Cancer Institute, Frederick, Md., 1983-86; B.S. Hanson Research Fellow/ Research
Fellow of the Anti-Cancer Foundation of the Universities of South Australia
and Flinders University of South Australia, 1982; Visiting Scientist, Department
of Dermatology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Research Interests: Photoimmunology; UV carcinogenesis; genetics of
susceptibility to UV immunosuppression
ASP Service: Member since 1980; Councilor, 1993-1996; have attended
most ASP Meetings since 1980; symposium organizer, 1995; Participant,
International Congresses of Photobiology, 1980,1984,and 1988; symposium
organizer, 1996 and 2000.
Candidate's Statement: The strength of the ASP is in its diversity.
Since interdisciplinary research is rapidly becoming the "moving edge" of
science, I would continue to encourage full participation of all Divisions
of the ASP in all aspects of Society activities and strongly encourage
interaction between Divisions. I would support increased participation of
the ASP in "umbrella" scientific organizations such as AIBS to increase access
to science-policy decisions. This would allow input from the ASP into science
policy as well as keep ASP members informed of the laest policy considerations
that can strongly affect funding strategies. I would also continue to support
the Society's strong ties with the photomedicine community.
Andrew J. Rainbow
Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Education: B.Sc., Honours Physics, University of Manchester, U.K.,
1965; M.Sc., Radiation Biology and Radiation Physics, Guy's Hospital Medical
School, University of London, U.K., 1967; Ph.D., Biology, McMaster University,
1970.
Appointments: Lecturer, Department of Radiology, McGill University
and Medical Physicist Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, 1971-72; Medical
Physicist for the Hamilton and District Hospitals, 1972-80 and for
Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals, 1980-84; Assistant to Full Professor, Department
of Radiology, 1972-84; Professor of Biology and Radiology, 1984-86, Acting
Director, Institute for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, 1994-95; Professor
and Chair, Department of Biology, 1996-2000, McMaster University.
Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms for DNA repair in mammalian
cells and their role in the prevention and treatment of cancer and other
human disease; mechanisms of mammalian-cell responses to photodynamic therapy.
ASP Activities: Member of ASP since 1978 and appointed Councilor-at-Large
for one year in 1999; I regularly attend Annual ASP Meetings with my graduate
students and contribute frequently to Photochemistry and Photobiology.
Candidate's Statement: I would like to continue as a Councilor for
the ASP. I am particularly interested in promoting increased membership in
the society and increased attendance and participation (both scientifically
and socially) at annual meetings.
Paola Taroni
Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Education and Appointments: Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Politecnico
di Milano, 1987; visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, 1988; CNR (National Research Council) staff researcher,
1988-99; Associate Professor of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, 1999-present.
Research Interests: Applications of lasers in medicine and biology.
Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging. Photon migration (optical
mammography, time-resolved oximetry).
ASP Service: ASP member since 1991; have attended some annual meetings
and International Congresses on Photobiology.
Candidate's Statement: I started my research activity working on
time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and later extended my interests to
other areas of photobiology, especially photon migration. This offered me
the opportunity to note that different research activities, even close ones,
often run parallel with one another, but hardly get in touch. I intend to
favor contacts and exchanges of ideas among people working in fields that
are conventionally regarded as distinct and unrelated. Actually, such contacts
allow researchers to take advantage of methods already developed for different
purposes and to benefit by solutions devised for different problems. Moreover,
novel techniques can thus find new interesting applications, not foreseen
in the area in which they were originally carried out. Exchanging "problems
and solutions" can be very beneficial to research, when it involves not only
different research areas but also different geographic areas. As an Italian,
I have seen in several cases that European people are usually well aware
of research performed in other European countries, and several effective
cooperations are active. Unfortunately, this is often not true when we consider
research performed in both the United States and Europe. Americans are often
unaware of research carried out in Europe and vice versa. Great benefits
would come to all of us if the ASP could extend farther out of the U.S.
Concerning this, my goal is to contribute to the interdisciplinary and truly
international character of photobiology. Neither of these features is easy
to achieve or sometimes even to deal with, but the advantages they bring
may be striking, and young people especially should have the chance to experience
them.
Masakatsu Watanabe
Okazaki Large Spectrograph; National Institute for Basic Bio-logy, Okazaki,
Japan
Education: B.S. (1970), M.S. (1972), Ph.D. (1978), Biology, University
of Tokyo.
Appointments: Assistant Professor (1978), Associate Professor (1991),
Okazaki Large Spectrograph, National Institute for Basic Biology.
Research Interests: Photoreceptors and signal transductions in
photoregulation of movements, metabolisms, development, and reproduction,
especially photomovement in unicellular algae; UV-sensing; instrumentation
for photobiological action spectroscopy.
ASP Service: Plenary lecturer and symposium organizer at Philadelphia
(1984) and San Francisco (2000) (ASP and International Congress) meetings,
respectively; participated also in International Congresses, 1992 (Kyoto)
and 1996 (Vienna); (relatedly) organized an international symposium on "New
Prospects of Photobiology and the Future Plan of the Okazaki Large Spectrograph,"
1996 (Okazaki).
Candidate's Statement: The current explosive expansion of new knowledge
in the field of photobiology has been brought about by a combination of
molecular-biological methodologies and classic physiological and genetic
approaches. Such interdisciplinary endeavors and resultant successes should
be accelerated by providing more opportunities for researchers having diverse
backgrounds, research goals, and nationalities to come together, exchange
ideas, and collaborate. I, myself, have been active in and enjoyed such
activities as the Scientific Director in charge of the operation of the
internationally and interdisciplinarily used Okazaki Large Spectrograph.
I would therefore try to enhance such interactions by, e.g., planning and
realizing international workshops under the joint sponsorship of ASP and
other related organizations.
"Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride....
True science teaches us to doubt and to abstain from ignorance." -
Claude Bernard (1813-1878)
PHOTOSTABILITY '99: THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
PHOTOSTABILITY OF DRUGS AND DRUG PRODUCTS
On July 10-15, 1999, under the sponsorship of the American Society for
Photobiology and AAI, the Third International Conference on the Photostability
of Drugs and Drug Products was held in Washington, D.C. This biennial meeting
had previously been held in Oslo, Norway, in 1995, and Pavia, Italy, in 1997.
This is the first time it has been affiliated with another major meeting.
This three-day meeting held Monday through Wednesday was co-chaired by Drs.
P. Donald Forbes (Primedica), Steve A. Baertschi (Eli Lilly), and Joseph
T. Piechocki (FDA). This was followed by a one-day training course on the
basics of pharmaceutical photostability testing developed and coordinated
by Dr. Piechocki with the help and assistance of many experts from industry
and academia in attendance
There were approximately 100 attendees at this meeting, representing industry
and academia, from Europe, Asia and the US. The major focus of the meeting
was solving the problems, with using the International Conference on
Har-monization (ICH) Guideline on the Photostability Testing of New Drug
Substances and Products, on an international basis.
Papers and posters presented at the meeting addressed such subjects the effect
of lamps, sample-chamber design, power, container covers, and trace impurities
on the results obtained. Discussions of the pros and cons of using the new
small, inexpensive, spectroradiometers for lamp spectral-power distribution
(SPD) and power measurements were also discussed. The UV- and visible-power
distributions of several commercial and proprietary testing chambers, along
with the effect of different power levels and lamp replacement, were presented.
A discussion as to the future of this international meeting was held between
APS officers and the past and present organizers in attendance. An agreement
to remain affiliated with the ASP and its European counterpart, the European
Society for Photobiology (ESP), on a trial basis, was reached. This arrangement
should allow the meeting to continue to be held on a biennial basis in both
Europe and the U.S. This means that the meeting would alternate between the
two groups. The next meeting is planned for Chicago in 2001 so as not to
conflict with International Photobiology Congress in San Francisco this year.
Interested parties are advised to become more closely affiliated with either
ASP or ESP and access their respective bulletin boards on a regular basis
at http://www.pol-us.net or
http://www.pol-europe.net.
Hanne Hjorth Tønnesen
SEEING THE LIGHT
Why do human beings, and most other creatures on this planet, have eyes that
are tuned to see visible light?
Of course, "visible" light is, by definition, what our eyes see. But it's
more than just a tautological question: Why don't we see infrared instead,
or ultraviolet, or some other segment along the spectrum of electromagnetic
radiation?
Textbooks for decades have been offering up a standard answer to this question,
an answer with the simplicity and aptness of a Kipling "Just So" story: Most
of our sun's radiation is in the form of "visible" light, and our eyes evolved
to tune in that range of wavelengths.
It's a nice story, but about as accurate as "How the Camel Got His Hump,"
says Kenneth Brecher, a professor of physics and astronomy at Boston
University. Brecher discovered the error when he got curious about the old
saw and did some fancy calculations to test it.
Most of the sun's radiation, he found, is in the infrared band, not the visible.
So, if the long-held explanation were correct, our eyes should have evolved
to see infrared light.
Brecher presented his findings [in January 1999] in Austin, Texas, at a meeting
of the American Astronomical Society, in a presentation entitled, "Why don't
we see in the infrared?"
If we did, our world would look very different. Trees and grass would shine
brightly, skies would be dark and forbidding, and our veins would show darkly
through our skin.
Infrared would also be a very useful kind of light to see by, especially
in dim light, because warm-blooded creatures emit a lot of it, just as the
sun does. Seeing in the infrared would be a great way for predators to find
prey--and for the prey to see the predator coming. So why don't our eyes
work that way?
It may be, Brecher speculates, that there is no effective biochemical system
that would allow eyes to work in the infrared, the way the chemistry of our
eyes works for visible light.
Vision relies on molecules of a substance in the retina called rhodopsin.
Each rhodopsin molecule can absorb photons and convert their energy into
a chemical change, triggering the sensation of vision in the brain. But,
as far as Brecher has been able to determine, there isn't a molecule around
that would work the same way with infrared light.
The eyes of different creatures do have different peak sensitivities, Brecher
says, extending through parts of the visible range (some with the ability
to distinguish colors and some without it), and in some cases--bees, for
example--extending into the ultraviolet. But he knows of no animals whose
vision is most sensitive in the infrared.
Snakes do have infrared sensors that they use to help them find warm-blooded
prey, but this is not in any way a sense of vision. It is more like a sense
of smell or touch, Brecher said, giving them only a rough indication of
direction, rather than an image.
For that matter, even plants do not take advantage of the maximum energy
from the sun. Chlorophyll absorbs most of its solar energy from the red part
of the spectrum (leaving the green light to be reflected), rather than from
the infrared.
So, Brecher speculates, perhaps there are no chemical processes that would
allow eyes, or plants, to respond to infrared--or, if there are, maybe evolution
failed to discover them.
But if most of the sun's energy is in the form of infrared light, how come
nobody has noticed this before now? Shouldn't that be a simple thing to measure?
Apparently not. Many textbooks, including some recent, widely used ones,
repeat the old explanation.
"Abell's Exploration of the Universe," a college astronomy text whose most
recent edition was published in 1995, says: "It is surely no coincidence,
but rather a consequence of evolutionary adaptation, that human eyes are
most sensitive to electromagnetic radiation at those wavelengths at which
the sun puts out the most energy."
The discrepancy arose from a subtlety in how the calculations to determine
the sun's peak output are done, Brecher found.
The different kinds of light, and all the rest of the spectrum of electromagnetic
radiation that includes radio waves, x-rays, and gamma rays, as well as visible,
ultraviolet and infrared light, are essentially all the same thing--although
physicists have a hard time pinning down exactly what that thing is.
All these forms of electromagnetic radiation can be thought of as waves,
vibrating with a certain wavelength (the distance from the peak of one wave
to the next). Or they can be thought of as particles, known as photons, which
are described by their frequency--a number that is inversely proportional
to the wavelength.
Because the two ways of measuring light are interchangeable, nobody worried
much about which way the light was being measured. It's much easier to measure
directly the wavelength of light than its frequency, however, so that's how
scientists tend to do it.
But, in this case, Brecher found, the way you measure it really does make
a difference. When computed using wavelength, the sun's peak emission is
indeed in the visible range, somewhere in the green part of the spectrum.
But when computed using frequency, the peak comes out where it really belongs,
out in the infrared.
How could this be? Part of the problem is in the way the peaks are figured,
in one case averaging the output per unit of wavelength, in the other case
per unit of frequency. Because the units themselves change as you move along
the spectrum, the size of the "bins" in which emission is being counted changes.
It's as if you were counting how many tennis balls could be piled up into
boxes, but the boxes were different sizes. It would take more balls to fill
wider boxes than to fill a narrow box to the same height.
Similarly, in a wider range of wavelengths, it takes more photons to bring
the peak up to the same height; plotting the sun's emissions this way distorts
the result.
Furthermore, Brecher found, frequency really is the correct way to do the
measurement. While light can be thought of as either waves or particles,
depending on the circumstances, in this case it makes more sense to think
of particles. That's because the way the eye responds depends on the number
of photons that strike the retina.
It may sound like so much scientific mumbo-jumbo, but scientists who listened
to Brecher explain his conclusions at the astronomy meeting agreed that he
indeed had seen the light.
"What he's saying there is perfectly logical," said Charles Townes,
a Nobel laureate in physics and professor at the University of California
at Berkeley. "Our eyes detect quanta," that is, units of radiation, or photons.
"His argument on wavelength versus frequency is completely valid."
Townes added that, since the old explanation was wrong and it turns out we
don't take advantage of the sun's greatest output, that leaves open the question
of why our eyes evolved the way they did. "We don't know enough about evolution
to know for sure," he said.
The sun's peak radiation is not the only part of the puzzle. For instance,
what we often see is not direct sunlight, but light filtered through clouds.
And that light has a different peak.
On a cloudy day, the light we see by is much more blue. So perhaps our eyes
evolved as a compromise among the different kinds of light we are exposed
to.
Whatever the answer is, it is clear that the standard explanation is wrong.
Now we just have to wait for all the textbooks to catch up.
David L. Chandler, The Boston Globe, Jan. 18, 1999
UPCOMING PHOTOBIOLOGY EVENTS
June 4-7: Xth International Symposium on Luminescence Spectrometry
- Detection Techniques in Flowing Streams - Quality Assurance and Applied
Analysis, Granada, Spain; Ana M. Garcia-Campana, Department of Analytical
Chemistry, University of Granada, Av. Fuentenueva, E-18071 Granada, Spain;
amgarcia@goliat.ugr.es
June 18-23: Gordon Research Conference on Biophysical/ Chemical Aspects
of Photosynthesis; Kimball Union Academy, Meridan, New Hampshire;
www.grc.uri.edu/
July 1-6:
Photobiology 2000 (13th
ICP): Joint International Congress; San Francisco
July 22-27: XVIIIth IUPAC Symposium on Photochemistry, Dresden, Germany,
www.chm.tu-dresden.de/photoiupac2000
August 13-18: Gordon Research Conference on Electron-Donor-Acceptor
Interactions, Newport, Rhode Island
http://orgwww.chem.uva.nl
Sept. 4-6: SEAWPIT 2000, Yokyakarta, Bali, Indonesia,
www.userpage.fu-berlin.de/~xbiokw/seawpit2
Oct. 19-21: Photophysics and Photochemistry 2000, Cascais, Portu-gal,
www.itqb.uni.pt/pp2000/
"Man can learn nothing unless he proceeds from the known to the unknown...
Observation is a passive science; experimentation is an active science."
- Claude Bernard (1813-1878)
PHOTOIUPAC 2000
Differing from previous symposia, the lectures at the XVIIIth IUPAC Symposium
on Photochemistry will start on Sunday, July 23 at 9.00 am and end on Thursday,
July 27.
To participate in the entire conference you might plan to arrive in Dresden
on Saturday afternoon, July 22 (and attend the welcoming reception at 7:00
pm) and depart on Thursday, July 27, after the Porter Medal lecture, which
should end around 6:00 pm (unless you want to take part in tours on Friday,
which you may book at the registration desk).
Please note the change of the banquet date from Thursday to Tuesday in contrast
to our early-registration forms, which some registrants have already used.
Please visit the conference Web site for the most up-to-date information:
http://www.chm.tu-dresden.de/photoiupac2000/
Silvia Braslavsky and Thomas Wolff
PHOTOPHYSICS AND PHOTOCHEMISTRY 2000 CONFERENCE
This conference will be held in Cascais, Portugal on October 19-21, 2000.
The homepage
(www.itqb.unl.pt/pp2000) has
been updated to include the Scientific Program, Abstract Guidelines and
Accommodation information. Please note the following:
Final Program: The program has been enlarged to accommodate two
contributed lectures instead of one. Anyone wishing to present a contributed
lecture should send an additional hard copy of the abstract to me at the
address below.
Abstracts: Abstracts should be submitted in electronic form (RTF file),
using the instructions given on the homepage (deadline: 15 June). If for
any reason this will not be possible, abstracts can be submitted as hard
copies (deadline: 15 May).
Accommodations: Participants will be accommodated in the Hotel Atlantic
Gardens in Cascais, where the scientific activities will take place (please
see update of Conference Site).
Prof. Josef Michl
Conference Chair
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA
PHOTOBIOLOGY 2000 UPDATE
We have received nearly 800 abstracts, about 350 invited and 450 proffered.
The 13th ICP is living up to its image: the photobiology conference of the
millennium! There is still time to submit last-minute research reports (until
the middle of May). With all of these papers, the program is jam-packed with
papers spanning all areas of photobiology. Take a look at the program at
www.pol-us.net. Now posted are all of
the symposia and the invited speakers. As soon as all of the proffered abstracts
are sorted and categorized, the platform sessions and poster sessions will
be posted (early April).
Another attraction is the city hosting us. San Francisco is surely one of
the USA's most cosmopolitan cities, with many attractions--a great walking
city. If you get tired of walking, you can hop a cable car. Excellent shopping,
baseball (the San Francisco Giants are at home during our meeting), or the
Metreon--Sony's newest venture--offers everything from video games for your
kids to movie theaters including an IMAX! Our meeting site, the Hyatt
Embarcadero, is in the heart of the financial district and near the ferry
terminals for rides to Sausalito and other interesting points!
At the meeting, there will be several plenary presentations (see Web site
for a list). In addition, after the opening ceremonies we will be lead from
the hall to a sumptuous reception by dragon dancers. At the reception, a
string quartet will provide background music, and past-President Tom Coohill
will present a 100-year retrospective of photobiology. For those of you who
don't know Tom, be ready for an informative and entertaining presentation.
At the business meeting, Dave Mitchell will present a slide show from this
past winter's visit to the Antarctic.
Other sites of interest: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts, Asian Art Museum, California Palace of the Legion of
Honor, the M.H. DeYoung Museum, and the California Academy of Sciences.
Of course, San Francisco is also well-known for it fine dining suited to
all palates!
Frank Gasparro
President, 13th ICP
2000 ASP AWARDS
At its meeting in Chicago, on December 12, 1999, the ASP Council approved
the recommendations of the Grants and Awards Committee for the Society's
Research Award and the New Investigator Award for the year 2000.
The Grants Awards Committee consists of David Bellnier, Irene Kochevar,
Francesco Lenci, Nancy Oleinick, Dan Yarosh, and myself. We received
seven nominees for the ASP Research Award and two for the New Investigator
Award. We are pleased to announce that Christopher M. Foote was selected
as the 2000 ASP Research Awardee and Emmanuel Liscum, III, was chosen
as the ASP 2000 New Investigator Awardee.
A Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA, Chris
Foote was educated at Yale University and the University of Göttingen,
and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has spent his entire
professional career at UCLA, advancing to the rank of Professor in 1969.
Between 1978 and 1981, he was the Chairman of the department. He has been
invited to give numerous named lectureships, including the Reilly Lecture
at the University of Notre Dame in 1996 and the Robert W. Murray Lecture
at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1999. He has been an ASP Councilor
and was President of the Society in 1988-1989. He has been a member of the
editorial board of several journals, including Photochemistry and
Photobiology. He has published over 230 journal articles, co-edited two
monographs, and co-authored an organic chemistry textbook. His work on
photosensitized oxidations and on singlet-oxygen reactions has made truly
significant contributions to photobiology. During his tenure at UCLA, he
has trained many photochemists. Dr. Foote will give the ASP Research Award
Lecture at the International Congress on Photobiology meeting on Sunday,
July 2, 2000, at 11:30 am. The title of his lecture is "Photooxidation of
Guanosine and Derivatives."
Emmanuel Liscum is an Assistant Professor in Division of Biological Sciences
at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He educated at the State University
of New York at Plattsburgh, and received his Ph.D. in plant biology from
Ohio State University. His major research interests are the mechanism of
signal transduction during photomorphogenesis and genetic regulation of plant
growth and development. He was a recipient of the Ohio State University Graduate
School Presidential Fellowship, and the OSU Butler Award for Outstanding
Graduate Student Research and Teaching. He is the author of 21 peer-reviewed
publications and several invited reviews and book chapters. His current interest
of molecular components involved in plant phototropism and blue-light
photoreception is one of the most actively investigated areas in plant biology.
Dr. Liscum is scheduled to give the ASP Young Investigator Award Lecture
at the ICP meeting in San Francisco on Monday, July 3, 2000. The title of
his lecture is "Phototropin Signaling: A Light-Activated Phospho-Relay Leading
to Differential Hormone-Dependent Gene Expression and Growth?"
Henry W. Lim, Chair
Grants and Awards Committee
PHOTOBIOLOGY ONLINE SELECTED FOR CURRENT WEB
CONTENTS
The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), the people who produce Current
Contents, are starting a new service called Current Web Contents
(www.isinet.com/products/webselect/webselect.html).
ISI has reviewed many web sites against a set of exacting criteria, including
authority, accuracy, currency, navigation and design, applicability and content,
scope, audience level, and quality of writing. (A full description of the
criteria can be found at
www.isinet.com/hot/essays/23.html.)
POL was recently notified that it had been selected for inclusion in this
scholarly collection of scientific web sites.
POL congratulates the winners of the recently completed Fifth Birthday Contest:
Grand Prizes:
1. One-year membership in the European Society for Photobiology - Mark
Kleinman
2. One-year membership in the American Society for Photobiology - Janet
Morgan
First Prizes:
3. ASP's two-volume set of Publications in Photobiology - Claudia de
Alencar
4. Set of two archival CD-ROMs covering Photochemistry and Photobiology
for 1996-1997 & 1998-1999 - Murray Waldman
Runner-up Prizes:
5. The Photobiology Wardrobe: A stunning ensemble of an ASP shirt and hat!
- Frank Fisher
6. The Photobiology Mug Shot: An ASP coffee mug - Rich Vincent
Dennis Valenzeno
dvalenze@kumc.edu