The 2010 Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) annual meeting was a joint meeting with the International Association for Plant Biotechnology (IAPB) in Saint Louis Missouri in June. The joint meeting occurs every four years when the IAPB meeting is held in the U.S. Four years ago, the IAPB meeting was held in Beijing, China. The last joint SIVB/IAPB meeting was held in Orlando, Florida in 2002. This year’s meeting in Saint Louis was a success. Overall attendance was a bit lower than expected, but the meeting attracted a wide range of interesting speakers and poster presenters, and as in past years the free student registration initiative attracted 42 Student Registration Fellowship recipients whose SIVB registrations were made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). There were almost 800 meeting attendees in total, with about 250 being SIVB registrants. SIVB raised a total of $95,500 for the 2010 meeting, including $24,800 from NSF for the student initiative. The venue for the meeting was outstanding – the America’s center in Downtown Saint Louis provided a centrally located venue with ample meeting rooms and a magnificent auditorium for plenary sessions. The surrounding Saint Louis area provided opportunities for “extra curricular” activities like visiting the famous Gateway Arch, taking in a Cardinals baseball game, or visiting the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Each day of the meeting began with impressive plenary speakers including Roger Beachy, Indra Vasil, Michael MacCracken, Robert Paarlberg, Mary Ann Lila, Pascal Braun, Mark Howden, Jay Keasling, Peter Beyer, Steven Pueppke, Jeffery Gordon, Eric Sachs, Richard Flavell, Robb Fraley, and Calestous Juma. Contributed paper sessions as always covered plant and animal topics and together with plenary sessions covered diverse topics including:
- Climate change and its effects on agriculture
- Advances in plant science: tolerance to heat, drought, insects, and diseases
- Advances in biofuels and other biorenewables from plants
- Metabolic engineering of plants/cells and microbes for pharmaceuticals and nutriceuticals
- Agriculture and biotechnology in developing countries
- Plant tissue culture and application
- Biosafety, regulatory structures and commercialization
- Biomarkers
- Advanced dynamic 3D in vitro systems
- The use of stem cells in regenerative medicine and in vitro toxicology
- Biological sensors of environmental, chemical and biological toxicants
- Animal-plant interactions
- A comparative approach to innate immunity
- Preservation and storage technologies
- Evaluating the impact of bioactive molecules on animals using in vitro models
- The basics of cellular imaging
As in the past, the meeting emphasized student education and also included SIVB sponsored education related activities including a workshop on “How to Get the Most from a Scientific Conference” and student and post doc oral presentation competition sessions.
Next year’s meeting will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 4 – 8, 2011. Look forward to seeing you there!
T. Michael Spencer, 2010 SIVB Program Chair
NB: A DVD of the plenary sessions from the 2010 In Vitro Biology Meeting held in collaboration with the 12th IAPB World Congress is available for purchase. This DVD includes morning plenary sessions and is available for $15 if paid by check/ $25 if paid by wire transfer.
