FEB/MAR 2007
Volume 13 - No. 1
SRNT Newsletter
Advancing Science & Health
February/March 2007, Volume 13, Number 1
Highlights of the 13th Annual SRNT Meeting
Austin, TX
Feb 21-24, 2007
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Austin Capitol Building; photo courtesy of Raphaela Finkenauer. |
On February 20, two half-day and two full-day pre-conference satellite meetings were held. The first half-day meeting was entitled Global eHealth Innovation through Tobacco Control: Lessons Learned from the Web-assisted Tobacco Interventions (WATI) Initiative. This meeting focused on the use of technology to send health promotion messages and to help smokers quit and stay quit. The second half-day meeting, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was entitled 2007 Addressing Tobacco in Healthcare National Forum: Innovations in e-Health and e-Technology for Health Services Research. The third meeting, presented by the SRNT Global Network Committee, was entitled Networking for Global Tobacco Reduction: The Role of SRNT. This meeting included addresses by Yumiko Mochizuki-Kobayashi, Director, Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO; Prakash Gupta, President, 14th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health; and Laurent Huber, Framework Convention Alliance. The final meeting, entitled Increasing Access to Effective Treatments: The Case for More Flexible Regulatory Policy, was funded by the NIDA, NCI and Robert Wood Johnson. This meeting focused on identifying barriers to the use of evidence-based treatments.
Later that evening, the formal scientific program began with the opening remarks and awards ceremony. SRNT President Ellen Gritz, Ph.D. welcomed attendees and thanked the many people involved in planning the meeting. Neal Benowitz, Chair of the Awards Committee, then presided over the award presentations. Piedad Huerta presented the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Award to Dr. Lynn Kozlowski. Three SRNT awards were then presented. The John Slade Award which honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to public health and tobacco control through service-based public policy and public advocacy was given to Tracy Orleans, Ph.D. (introduction by Sue Curry, Ph.D.). The Russell Jarvik Young Investigator Award which honors scientists early in their careers who have made extraordinary contributions to nicotine and tobacco research was given to Judith Prochaska, Ph.D. (introduction by Phillip Gardiner, Ph.D.). Lastly, the Ove Ferno Award for clinical research on nicotine and tobacco was given to Sharon Hall, Ph.D (introduction by Maxine Stitzer, Ph.D.). In honor of her award, Dr. Hall then addressed the attendees with a presentation entitled Tobacco Dependence as a Chronic Relapsing Disorder: Co-Morbidities and Complexities. A reception with live music, food, and drinks followed Dr. Hall's address to celebrate the award winners and the start of the 13th annual meeting.
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St. Mary's Cathedral; photo courtesy of Raphaela Finkenauer. |
The Program Committee reviewed nineteen symposia submissions, and those considered the timeliest, of the highest quality, and most integrative across the diverse interests among SRNT members were included in the scientific program. The titles of those symposia presented at the meeting were as follows:
1. Human Allelic Variation that Contributes to Nicotine Dependence and Success in Smoking Cessation
2. A Translational Approach to Understanding Gender, Adolescence, and Vulnerability to Nicotine Addiction
3. Factors that Impact Nicotine Bioavailability: Findings from the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers Program
4. Health Disparities and Tobacco Use
5. Molecules to Behavior: The Influence of Gender and Hormones on Responses to Nicotine and Smoking Cessation
6. Nicotine in Non-Neuronal Cells
7. Cue-Provoked Craving: Observations, Mechanisms, and Clinical Implications
8. Expansion of Non-Cigarette Tobacco Products: Current Research and Policy Implications
9. Using Social Marketing to Influence Tobacco Use Behavior: The Experience of the American Legacy Foundation
10. Parent Smoking, Parenting, and Adolescent Smoking: Moderators, Mediators, and Reciprocal Influence
11. What Role, if any, Does Dopamine Play in Cigarette Smoking?
12. Addressing Comorbid Psychiatric Problems in the Treatment of Nicotine Dependence
Applying similar criteria, twelve oral paper sessions were organized around the following themes:
1. Reward and Reinforcement
2. Psychiatric Comorbidity
3. Weight
4. PREPS and Harm Reduction
5. Craving
6. Pregnancy/Post-partum
7. Youth Smoking and the Media
8. Geographic, Socioeconomic, Racial and Ethnic Factors
9. Biological Variation
10. Attention
11. New Medications
12. Predictors of Change in Smoking
There were also three poster sessions, with 446 presentations spanning the breadth of nicotine and tobacco research. The poster sessions provided an excellent format for discussing research in a less formal setting, with increased opportunity for interaction between scientists and professional networking.
Posters were arranged in a manner designed to increase interaction across disciplinary boundaries at the conference. Rapid response posters communicating late-breaking findings were presented in the third poster session, which was held on Saturday.
We recognized the contributions of outstanding young scientists in several ways. As noted above, Dr. Judith Prochaska received the 2007 Russell-Jarvik Young Investigator Award. As part of a Young Investigator plenary session (chaired by Dr. Bernard Le Foll, last year's recipient of the Young Investigator award), Dr. Prochaska presented an address entitled Breaking Down Barriers to Treating Tobacco Among Individuals with Mental Illness. In addition to Dr. Prochaska's address, three New Investigator Travel Award recipients presented their work during this session. The award recipients were Dr. Dawn Lawhon, Ph.D. (U.C. San Francisco), Ryan Vandrey, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University), and Joshua West, M.P.H. (San Diego State University/UC San Diego). Lastly, the American Legacy Foundation Travel Scholarship to Increase Diversity in Nicotine and Tobacco Research was awarded to 14 graduate students, post-doctoral trainees, and assistant professors. The scholarship, administered by the Tobacco-Related Health Disparities Committee of SRNT, and funded by the American Legacy Foundation and the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, was designed to increase the diversity of researchers interested in nicotine and tobacco research and promote collaboration and intergenerational and interdisciplinary networking. Awardees also attended a networking luncheon held on February 23rd.
Thanks to the SRNT Training Committee (chaired by Dennis McChargue, Ph.D.), this year's annual meeting also provided several opportunities for graduate student, post-doctoral, and assistant professor attendees to network with each other and more experienced researchers. A graduate student reception was held Thursday evening to provide a casual atmosphere for trainees to meet and interact. Friday morning, trainees had the opportunity to have breakfast with three experienced and successful researchers, Drs. Saul Shiffman, Robin Mermelstein, and Raymond Niaura, Ph.D. Finally, the SRNT Training Committee organized a workshop entitled Applying for and Obtaining a Job: Perspectives from Academia, Medical Centers, and Industry. This workshop was chaired by Dr. Dennis McChargue. Other panel members included Allison Chausmer, Ph.D. (NIH/NIDA), William Shadel, Ph.D. (RAND Corporation), Lee Cohen, Ph.D. (Texas Tech University), and Bonnie Spring, Ph.D. (Northwestern University and Feinberg School of Medicine).
Two additional workshops were held in conjunction with this year's meeting. The first workshop was moderated by Michele Bloch of the National Cancer Institute and was entitled Tobacco Companies are Racketeers: An Update on the Federal Tobacco Lawsuit. The second workshop was moderated by Ann Malacher of the CDC Office on Smoking and Health and was entitled The National Youth Tobacco Surveys From 1999 to 2006 -The Data, Access to the Data, and Ways to Use the Data to Address Youth Tobacco Use.
The SRNT Member's Meeting included a Presidential report by Dr. Ellen Gritz, and reports from the chairs of many of the SRNT committees. Notably, the Chair of the SRNT Nominations Committee, Dr. Neil Grunberg, announced that the incoming President-Elect is Dr. Scott Leischow, the incoming Member Delegate at large is Dr. Roberta Ferrence, and the incoming Member Delegate for North America is Dr. Deborah Ossip-Klein.
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The Driskoll Hotel, downtown Austin; photo courtesy of Raphaela Finkenauer. |
In summary, the 2007 SRNT meeting was extremely successful in bringing together nicotine and tobacco researchers from diverse disciplines, scientific perspectives, and geographic regions. Colleagues from academia, government, and industry interacted with one another and learned about the latest and most important research findings in the nicotine and tobacco field. Sessions were well-attended, and participants collectively expressed enthusiasm for the plenary lecturers and other sessions.
The 14th Annual Meeting of SRNT will be held in Portland, Oregon, February 27-March 1, 2008, at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower. The 9th Annual SRNT European meeting will be held October 3-6, 2007 at the Hotel NH Eurobuilding in Madrid, Spain. In addition, the 1st Latin American SRNT Conference will be held September 5-8 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the 1st Oceania SRNT Meeting will be held October 4 in New Zealand. Please plan to attend! As always, be sure to check out www.srnt.org for up-to-date conference information.