From The CPS President Doug Jones

PHYSIOLOGY CANADA

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Volume 32 Number 02 August 2011 Issue # 0822-9058The Newsletter of the...

In This Issue...From The CPS President Doug Jones

Historical Canadian Physiological Perspectives

Recent PhD Theses

CPS Awards & Funding Opportunities

Contribute to the IUPS 2013 Scientific Program

Positions Available

Upcoming Physiology Meetings

Funding Opportunities

Submissions & Contact Information

Welcome to the Summer Edition of Physiology Canada. We are pleased to have received some positive feedback on many of the items in Physiology Canada.

We Heard You: from the survey of the membership, approximately half of the members and several of the non-members suggested that time of year and a venue other than our annual “Winter Meeting” at a “Ski Resort” was their preferred choice. Also, most agreed that there is an advantage to combining our annual meet-ing with other society/groups on a frequent basis. This was certainly in evidence from the success of the 2011 CPS Winter Meeting, at Hotel Mount Gabriel, Sainte-Adèle, Quebec, in February 10th to 12th, which was a collaborative effort between the CPS and the Canadian Action and Perception Network (CAPNET) which jointly hosted “Physiological Mechanisms of Perception, Cognition and Action”.

We Heard You, so for the 2012 meeting we are collaborating with the Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics to jointly host a meeting June 13-15, 2012 at the University of Toronto. There are discussions to host the first Plenary also with the Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences the first morning. So Hold the Date for the 2012 CPS Annual Meeting, at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, June 13th to 15th, 2012. See you there!

We are Looking Ahead, as a society in the world-wide scientific community, the CPS plays a role well above that based on its membership numbers. Here are some of the meetings in which your Executive is involved in planning in Canada, the Western Hemisphere and world-wide over the next 5 years.

2012:April 21 – 25: Invitation to help in the 125th Anniversary celebration of the APS at the Experimental Biology 2012 meeting in San Diego.

June 13 – 15: Canadian Physiological Society, Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therepeutics and Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences combined meeting in Toronto.

2013:July 21 – 26: XXXVIIth International Union of Physiological Sciences meeting in Birmingham, UK.

2014:August: First Pan-American Physiological Societies Meeting in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.

2015:Discussions have begun for a combined meeting with the Canadian Society of ZoologistsDiscussions have begun for a repeat of the 5 Country (Australia, China, Canada, UK, USA), meeting, potentially in China.

2017:August: XXXVIIIth International Union of Physiological Sciences meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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From The CPS President Doug Jones Continued...

New Discussion Site: At the time of release of the results of the CIHR September 2010 competition, I sent a message to the Society regard-ing a petition which was being circulated regarding the low percentages of funded applications (17% in the open competition). This resulted in a number of personal Emails, but most members of the Society were unaware of the discussions and uninformed of some of the information which was being brought forward as these were one-on-one. This provided the impetus for the setting up of the Blog site to facilitate discussion between the members. The Council agreed and with the help of our “Web Master”, Pat Chan, we have a new Discussion Board.

ALL CPS members have access via the WordPress URL: http://cpsscp.ca/discussion/There is a master user id (allcpsscp) and password (cps$scp&) to access and read the discussion board. It was felt that all members would have the same access while we monitor if this is successful. This is a “members only” discussion area, not a “Public” area, so you are responsible for keeping the security of the login id and password.

NRC Journals: As many members know, the NRC Press which published several Canadian journals such as the Canadian Journal of Physiol-ogy and Pharmacology , has divested itself into a Charitable Corporation, the Canadian Science Publishing (CSP)/Éditions Sciences Canada (ESC). The Society has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the CSP providing some sharing of web information as well as their providing potential funding support of the Societies meeting activities. We have also been invited to be a member of the Board of the Corporation, for which Council agreed. Dr. William Couples will be our representative for the next 3 years on the Board.

Other information: Also included in this issue to keep you, the membership, informed are: an update on the June Council; announce-ments of deadlines for award nominations, as well as some recent Ph. D. postings, etc.

We trust that you find this information helpful. The Executive is open to suggestions to meet the needs of the membership. If there is information you wish to make available to the membership, please contact the Secretary, Dr. Melanie Woodin.

Feel free to also provide copies of this Newsletter to members of your department, particularly to those who are not yet members to encourage them to join your Society.

I trust you have already had, or have some plans for a refreshing break this summer.

Respectfully,

To be asked to write a Historic Perspective has a sobering effect. It reminded me of a Wilhelm Feldberg story. At a conference, he’d met an ex-student whom he hadn’t seen for a good while. ‘Long time no see. And how is your research come along?’ ‘Didn’t you know that I retired last year?’ came the reply. Feldberg then knew that he was getting on in years…

This happens to be a good time to have a look at some major Canadian contributions on the international scene. A Canadian general heads the NATO effort in Libya. From its very start in 1949, Canadians (Louis St Laurent and Lester Pearson) were prominent in the setting up of NATO. And even earlier, Lester Pearson was much involved in the genesis of the United Nations, whose Declaration on Human Rights was drafted by a McGill law professor, JP Humphrey. For his success in bringing the Suez affair to a peaceful conclusion, Pearson was awarded a Nobel Peace prize in 1957; and, of especially topical interest, he was leader of two back-to-back minority governments. More relevant to the present context, however, are some important Canadian early contributions to our knowledge of synaptic transmitters.

Doug Jones

Historical Canadian Physiological PerspectivesNeurotransmitters and Canada By Dr. Kresimir Krnjevic Department of Physiology, McGill University

AcetylcholineIt is right to start with acetylcholine (ACh), the first generally accepted neurohumoral agent and also the main research topic of Frank (‘Hank’) Campbell MacIntosh, a major Canadian physiologist of the post-war years – who also played a leading role in the founding of the CPS.

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Historical Canadian Physiological Perspectives Continued...

Following up on Loewi’s pioneer studies on ACh release in the heart, Dale’s group had obtained good evidence that ACh was the neuro-muscular transmitter. It was likely to be released by autonomic fibres, notably in sympathetic ganglia. But was this release physiological or an experimental artifact? Rafael Lorente de Nó, at the Rockefeller Institute (later University) in New York, observed only rather variable release of ACh, even from unstimulated ganglia, or no release under optimal good conditions. So he concluded that release was not physi-ological. When Hank, as post-doc, joined Dale’s group, shortly before WWII, he repeated these experiments with an improved method of perfusion, but also taking every care to reproduce various aspects of Lorente de Nó’s experiments: and indeed found clear release, increasing as expected with the intensity and frequency of preganglionic stimulation. There was no reason to doubt that this was a physi-ological phenomenon. After these results appeared in J. Physiol., Hank became known in London as Lorente de Yes.

Perhaps even more important was a follow-up demonstrating, for the first time (with AM Harvey) that the block of ganglionic transmission caused by the lack of Ca2+ occurs presynaptically, by failure of ACh release - the Ca2+ dependence of transmitter release is now seen as a fundamental property of chemical transmissions in general. After his return to Montreal, in 1949, to head the Physiology Department at McGill for the next two decades, he continued his research on ACh release, culminating in masterly reviews of ganglionic ACh - its metabolism, storage in various compartments, release and turnover – that are still classics in the field of transmitter processing. Though much engaged in research, Hank was not a prolific writer. One of my teachers in Edinburgh, Catherine Hebb (pioneer in biochemical studies of ACh synthesis, Canadian expatriate and sister of Donald) told me once that Hank had drawers full of exciting data that remained unpublished. Notoriously, his wide-ranging findings on ACh release in the cerebral cortex never got further than an abstract at the Montreal International Physiological Congress (1953): but it is a perhaps unique example of an abstract that was still cited many decades later.

Other Canadians have at one time or other been active in research on various aspects of ACh and its functions: on ACh metabolism and release, Judah Quastel, Herbert Jasper, Vernon Brooks and Brian Collier at McGill, John Szerb at Dalhousie; its mode of action - inhibition in the heart by increased K conductance (Burgen & Terroux, McGill); excitation of nerve cells by reducing K conductance - a new form of modulation (my own group at McGill) or by enhancing inward currents (Brian MacVicar at Calgary) - to mention only some names.

DopamineLong considered merely as a precursor of noradrenaline, dopamine (DA) came into its own as an independent agent early in the 1960’s, in good part thanks to the pioneering studies of Theodore Sourkes and his collaborators in Montreal. Their finding of decreased urinary excretion of DA in Parkinson patients went far towards establishing the lack of striatal DA as a crucial factor in the aetiology of this motor disorder. In further research on this topic, with Andre Barbeau and especially Louis Poirier, Sourkes made many other important advances in this field, including the first evidence that DA’s immediate precursor, L-DOPA might be useful therapeutically. Oleg Hornykiewicz who was making parallel studies in this area in Vienna later spent several years in Toronto, which, with Phil Seeman in the lead, became an important centre of research on DA and DA receptors, and the treatment of parkinsonism and schizophrenia. Ever since the 1960’s, the DA/parkinson conundrum has been a major topic of research also west of the Rockies in the lab of Pat and Edith McGeer – who investi-gated as well numerous other neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Amino Acids: GABAAlbeit ubiquitous as constituents of proteins and busy metabolites, amino acids were not on anyone’s list of likely transmitters at synapses. Curiously, it was one of the few naturally-occurring that cannot form peptide links in proteins, the omega-amino acid GABA that first drew the attention of synaptologists. With no obvious function there (or anywhere else), its presence in large amounts in the brain (first shown by three American groups in 1950) was intriguing. At least one crucial step in establishing GABA as an inhibitory transmitter occurred in Canada, in Alan Elliott’s lab at the Montreal Neurological Institute. When Ernst Florey (a young German zoologist) came to California in the mid-1950’s, he happened to test bovine brain extracts on some crayfish sensory cells – then being studied in Wiersma’s lab. One proved to be a very effective inhibitor, and so was called Factor I. Eager to identify this Factor I, Florey came to Elliot, a leader in brain neurochemistry. With the crayfish stretch receptor as a reliable detector of Factor I activity, they systematically tested known brain constituents. By far the most potent was GABA. This set off a flurry of investigations on inhibition in crustacean muscle, notably in Japan (Takeuchis) and Boston (Kuffler). All concurred in finding membrane changes radically different from vagal action in the heart- shown by Burgen and Terroux to be a rise in K conductance, whereas the hyperpolarization in crustacean muscle was mediated by increased Cl- conductance. Moreover, GABA had a similar effect. Rapid progress by Kuffler’s group in Boston further showed a preponderance of GABA in inhibitory axons and its release by stimulation. It was natural to suspect that it might have some inhibitory function in the mammalian brain. There was some reason to think this might be the case: picrotoxin, a well-known convulsant, had proved to be an effective antago-nist of GABA in crustacean muscle. On the other hand, topically applied GABA did not seem to act as a synaptic inhibitor. This was also the conclusion reached by David Curtis (in Canberra) after testing GABA more critically on spinal neurons by iontophoretic release from micropipettes. There was a wide consensus that GABA had some sort of non-specific action, distinct from that of a synaptic transmitter.

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Historical Canadian Physiological Perspectives Continued...

That was the situation when I arrived in Canada. My own belief was that GABA was very likely to be the inhibitory transmitter in the cortex: at Babraham, John Phillis and I had tested a large number of possible agents by iontophoresis and found none that so consistently inhibited the firing of all cortical cells. Such a rapid, brief and potent action seemed just what was needed for synaptic inhibition. But without intracellular recording, one could not compare the membrane changes produced synaptically and by exogenous GABA. My imme-diate concern after setting up a lab at McGill was to do such experiments. My first postdoc in Montreal, Susan Schwartz (PhD from Abert Einstein) and I were in luck: with double electrodes – for intracellular recording and extracellular release of GABA – we showed that GABA and IPSPs elicited similar changes in membrane conductance and potential. Especially significant was that both effects had similar reversal potentials which could be readily changed by injecting Cl ions into the cells. Finally, as GABA injections into nerve cells had no comparable action, we could conclude that its action was independent of the cytoplasmic GABA levels; and more generally that, being indistinguish-able from synaptic inhibition, GABA had all the characteristics of the natural transmitter. Bearing in mind its high concentration in the brain, and that it is released by stimulation (as shown by Jasper and colleagues), there was now good reason for accepting the idea that GABA is the major transmitter released by inhibitory terminals. Albeit an important step, in a sense it was only the beginning of a story with endless ramifications as new and more precise technical probe farther and deeper into the role of GABA in normal and aberrant brain function.

GlutamateParadoxically, though known much longer, and even more abundant in the brain, glutamate came to be considered as possible transmitter well after GABA, its decarboxylation product. According to the predominant view, glutamate had clear metabolic functions in the brain, quite enough to account for its presence there. There were indications that it can cause paroxysmal excitation when applied to the brain: convulsions (as reported by Hayashi, from a 1956 study with 125 collaborators); or spreading depression (Van Harreveld 1959). It seemed that under pathological conditions glutamate might play a role in paroxysmal activity, but there was no reason to think that it could be a normal, synaptic transmitter. In a sense, more critical studies on glutamate came as byproduct of research on the inhibitory amino acids. Thus, Curtis and his colleagues, in Canberra, having demonstrated the strong, though apparently non-specific inhibitory action of GABA and β-alanine on spinal neurons, decided to test the parent dicarboxylic acids, glutamatic and aspartic. They, and related amino acids, proved to be consistently just as effective, but as excitants. Here again, however, the conclusion was that these effects were also non-specific: the authors were quite adamant that they could not be mediators of synaptic transmission. When, as already mentioned, John Phillis and I tested many compounds for possible neuroactant effects in the cortex and cerebellum, glutamate stood out because of its consistently powerful and rapid excitatory action, on every cell tested (except putative glia). At high concentration in the brain, with such transmitter-like properties, glutamate seemed to us the top candidate as major transmitter at excitatory synapses. Further progress was hampered, first, by inconclusive attempts (for technical reasons) to determine reversal potentials for EPSPs and the depolarizing action of glutamate; and second, the total absence of any pharmacological antagonists. For GABA, the situation had been quite different: reversal potentials were easily measured; and several well-known convulsants proved to be GABA antagonists. As it turned out, after years of testing, the most specific agonists and antagonists of glutamate were totally ‘new’ agents, not previously known as neuractants.

A prominent early contribution to glutamate studies came when Jasper, Elliott & collaborators (1965-1969) showed that it is released from the cerebral cortex, in amounts correlated with its electrical activity. A year or two later, Hugh McLennan – ex-student of both Jasper and Elliott, now at UBC - embarked on a search for glutamate antagonists, resulting in the 1972 identification of glutamate diethyl ester as a potent and selective blocker of synaptic activation and glutamate-induced excitation of thalamic neurons. This first pharmacological demonstration of glutamatergic transmission at a known pathway in the brain was followed up with similar findings in several other CNS areas. The difficult task of unraveling the exceptionally complex problem posed by glutamate receptors remained the main focus of activity in McLennan’s lab, for the next several decades. Notable achievements included the introduction of a new agonist transACPD, which was universally adopted for selective activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors. Of even wider significance was the crucial discovery that block of NMDA receptors in the CA1 region of hippocampal slices prevents the induction of LTP (Collingridge, Kehl & McLennan 1983). The NMDAR-dependence of LTP - one of the relatively few properties of LTP on which everyone is agreed – turned out to be a key feature of synaptic plasticity and its behavioral correlates in learning and memory. Why NMDARs play such a unique role was indicated by another groundbreaking (though perhaps less well-known) discovery by a Canadian physiologist. In 1982, John MacDonald had reported that the conductance activation by NMDARs has a region of negative slope: like the voltage-dependent Na current, the inward current generated by glutamate thorough NMDARs was self-enhancing. The non-linearly cumulative depolarization by glutamate, the basis of such functionally important phenomena as LTP, firing in bursts and paroxysmal discharges, is of fundamental importance for a wide range of research in neuroscience. Of course, Canadian labs have continued to be prominent in such studies; but it is gratifying to know that so much of the pioneering work on transmitters was done here.

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Recent PhD Theses The publication of recent trainee thesis or conference abstracts

Mechanisms of Atrial Arrhythmia: Investigations of the Neuro-Myogenic Interface in the MousePhD thesis successfully defended in 2011 by Jari TuomiLaboratory of Dr. Doug JonesDepartment of Physiology and PharmacologyThe University of Western Ontario

Arrhythmia mechanisms rely on multiple factors including structural (myogenic), nervous (neurogenic), and interrelated (the neuro-myogenic interface) factors. I hypothesized that due to this neuro-myogenic interface, the intrinsic cardiac autonomic nervous system (ICANS) is involved in most atrial arrhythmias. This thesis also provides a "Threshold Model" as a tool to assess the role of different physiological factors influencing arrhythmia. This model allows relative compari-son and interpretation of the role of various factors influencing arrhythmogenesis. The mouse allows relatively simple manipulation of genes to determine their role in arrhythmia. This thesis determined what atrial arrhythmias are inducible in the mouse (in vivo) and how to systematically study those arrhythmias. I found that atrial tachycardia/fibrillation (AT/F) and junctional tachycar-dia (JT) are inducible in the mouse. AF and JT pose significant clinical challenges as many patients do not respond well to current interventions. Neurogenic AF relies on acetylcholine, while myogenic AF relies, in part on gap junctions formed by connexins (Cxs). The atria has muscarinic M2 and M3 receptors. The duration of M2R/M3R G protein signalling is regulated by GTP hydroly-sis, a process accelerated by the regulators of G protein signalling (RGS). RGS2 deficient (RGS2 ) mice had reduced refractory periods that were normalized with a selective M3R blocker (Darifenacin) and increased susceptibility to AT/F induction compared to littermates. For the first time, this showed a role of M3 and RGS in atrial arrhythmia. Cx40 deficient (Cx40 ) mice were protected from carbachol induced AT/F, while Cx43 G60S mutant (Cx43G⁶⁰S ) mice, with an 80% reduction in phospho-Cx43 in the atria were highly susceptible to AT/F that was terminated by

darifenacin. This shows a novel neurogenic component to what was previously described as myogenic arrhythmia. Another novel finding was that JT has a neurogenic component, resulting from inappropriate AV nodal pacemaker activation initiated by autonomics. Ivabradine hydro-chloride, a selective pacemaker channel blocker, prevented JT and may be useful in patients with JT. In conclusion, this thesis has provided novel findings of the vital role of the neuro-myogenic interface in atrial arrhythmias and has provided the basis for future investigations of potential therapeutic options for patients.

In August Dr. Tuomi will enrol in the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Sudbury, Ontario. Dr. Tuomi’s long-term goal is to conduct translational research as a Clinician-Scientist.

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CPS Awards & Funding OpportunitiesThe CPS Promotional FundUp to $2,500.00 will be available twice a year to organizers of CPS events which stimulate physiology research, integration and/or teaching in Canada. For example, the funds can be used as seed money for the holding of a regional meeting, or promotion of the CPS at a national or international conference. There will be two competitions for funds, with application deadlines January 1st and July 1st. Multiple awards may be allocated at any competition. Any funds available from the January competition will be carried forward to the July 1st competition. Regular CPS members are eligible to apply. Send a 1-2 page proposal to the secretary of the CPS, describing the amount requested, date, location and nature of the planned event. Indicate how the requested funds will support the event and how the event will foster Canadian physiology. Events sponsored by the CPS Networking Fund will display a CPS banner to promote the Society and recognize its financial support. For detailed information please visit the CPS website.

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Doctor Michel Sarrazin

CPS Awards & Funding Opportunities Continued...

The J. A. F. Stevenson ProfessorshipDepartmental Chairs and Research Directors are encouraged to nominate suitable applicants from other Universities and to facilitate the nomination of their young faculty by Chairs\ Directors from other Universities.

Each year the Canadian Physiological Society offers a Visiting Professorship to an outstanding young Canadian Physiologist. The purpose of the Visiting Professorship is to promote collaboration and exchange of information among investigators at Canadian Universities and to strengthen graduate training programs in physiological research.

The society will provide travel expenses for the visiting professor; living expenses will be the responsibility of the host University. Nominations for the award are normally made by a Departmental Chair or Research Director to enable a distinguished young investiga-tor from another Canadian Institution to visit the host university and to give a lecture and/or graduate seminars. The host department or research group can be at any one of the sixteen in Canadian University Faculties of Medicine.

The candidate chosen to receive the Visiting Professorship will also present a lecture at the Annual meeting of the Society. Partial reimbursement of expenses to attend the Meeting of the Canadian Physiological Society will be the responsibility of the Canadian Physiological Society.

The selection of the Visiting Professor will be the responsibility of the Council of the Canadian Physiological Society and will be based on the scientific achievements of the candidate. Nominees for this award will be, or is expected to become, a member of the Canadian Physiological Society. The Visiting Professorship will not be awarded to candidates after the tenth year from receiving their first faculty position. In the event that more than one host University has requested the chosen recipient, the University which first placed the request will be given preference.

Nominations should be sent to the Secretary of the Society at the address given below. Each nomination should include a letter from the sponsor setting out the proposed itinerary and include the curriculum vitae of the candidate.

Nominations are now being received for the 2010 J.A.F. Stevenson Visiting Professorship. All information must be received by the Secre-tary before June 1st, 2010. Electronic versions of letters of nomination and supporting documents should be sent to: Melanie A. Woodin, Department of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G5, m.woodin@utoronto.ca.

The Sarrazin lectureshipThe Sarrazin lectureship was initiated in 1976, by the Society for a “Distinguished Speaker” to give a 1 hour lecture to the Society at its meeting and that the Lectureship would be called the “Sarrazin Lecture” in recognition of “the First Canadian Physiologist”. Although nominations were initially solicited from the membership and the Lecturer selected by the Executive, it was subsequently felt appropriate for the outgoing President of the Society to be charged with making the selection of the speaker for the subsequent Annual Meeting. The first Sarrazin Lecturer was Dr. Harold Copp, who presented his lecture at the Winter Meeting of the Society in 1977.

Look on the CPS website for a listing of the Sarrazin lecturers to date.

1659-1734Doctor Michel Sarrazin“The First Canadian Physiologist”

Invitation to Contribute to the IUPS 2013 Scientific Program

CPS Awards & Funding Opportunities Continued...

The F. C. (Hank) McIntosh Senior Visiting Professor

Each year the Canadian Physiological Society offers a Senior Visiting Professorship to an outstanding senior Canadian Physiologist. This Senior Visiting Professorship is named in honour of Dr. F.C. (Hank) MacIntosh and is sponsored by the Corporate Patrons of the Canadian Physiological Society. The purpose of the Visiting Professorship is to promote collaboration and exchange between physiology depart-ments and investigators at Canadian Universities. The visiting professor would be encouraged to visit two or more departments within the same geographical region of the country, so nominations can come from a single department or jointly from two or more. The visiting professor would be expected to spend several days at each institution giving seminars, meeting other investigators and holding sessions with the host department's graduate students.

The selection of the Senior Visiting Professor will be the responsibility of the Council of the Canadian Physiological Society and will be based on the scientific achievements of the candidate. Nominees for this award should be a member of the Canadian Physiological Society and have made a contribution to the Society. Normally, the Visiting Professorship will not be awarded to candidates before the tenth year from receiving their highest degree. Individuals who wish to be considered for the F.C. MacIntosh Visiting Professorship are encouraged to approach departments for sponsorship, but they cannot apply directly.

Nominations are now being received for the 2010 F.C. MacIntosh Senior Visiting Professorship. All information must be received by the Secretary before June 1st, 2010. Each nomination should include a letter from the sponsor/s setting out the proposed itinerary and include the curriculum vitae of the candidate. Letters of nomination and supporting documents should be sent to: Melanie A. Woodin, Depart-ment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G5, m.woodin@utoronto.ca

The 37th International Congress of Physiological Sciences (ICPS), sponsored primarily by the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) and organized by The Physiological Society (TPS) of the United Kingdom (UK), will meet in Birmingham, UK from 21-26 July 2013. All members of the world-wide international community of animal physiologists are invited to contribute to the development of the most interesting, significant, diverse and balanced scientific program ever presented at one of these Congresses.

Detailed information concerning all aspects of the Congress may be found online.

The online site for general submission of symposium proposals opens September 1 and closes 1 December. The 2-hour sessions should consist of 3 thirty minute talks by established physiologists and 2 fifteen minute talks from rising stars (within 8 years of their doctorate). Selection for inclusion on the program will be based on the topic area and gender and geographic diversity. The APS has been invited by the leadership of The Physiological Society (TPS) to specifically badge five sessions as ‘APS Symposia’.

Positions Available

The Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at The University of Western Ontario invites applications from outstanding early career investigators to fill two tenure-track positions at the level of Assistant or Associate Professor. Qualified applicants must have a PhD, MD, DDS or equivalent degree with training relevant to the disciplines of Pharmacology and/or Physiology, and an outstanding record of achievement in research and teaching. The selected appointees will be expected to:

1) establish and maintain a vigorous externally-funded research program, 2) excel in undergraduate and graduate teaching, and3) supervise research trainees at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels.

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry The University of Western Ontario Two Tenure-Track Faculty Positions Available

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Positions Available Continued...

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Upcoming Physiology Meetings

The Department of Physiology and Pharmacology is the largest research-based medical science department in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry with over 85 associated faculty members, 120 graduate students, 25 postdoctoral fellows, and 40 staff. Our Department has a strong commitment to graduate, undergraduate and professional education. Areas of research excellence include pharmacology and physiology of the cardiovascular, neural, musculoskeletal, reproductive and endocrine systems; developmental biology; stem cells and regenerative medicine; gap junctions; drug metabolism and safety; molecular oncology and chemotherapy. Several large infrastructure grants have provided state-of-the-art laboratories and core facilities. New recruits will have access to the London Regional Genomics Centre, London Regional Proteomics Centre and the London Regional Innovarium, and London Regional In Vitro Molecular Imaging Centre.

For more information, please visit http://www.uwo.ca/physpharm

Western is one of Canada’s leading research-intensive universities, and the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry has a long history of excellence in basic biomedical, applied and clinical research. Western has a full range of academic and professional programs for over 32,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The university campus is in London, a thriving city of over 350,000 people, located midway between Toronto and Detroit. London boasts an international airport, galleries, theatre, music and sporting events and is located close to several lakes and facilities for outdoor activities (www.goodmovelondon.ca). Western’s Recruitment and Retention Office is available to assist in the transition of successful applicants and their families to the university and city. Applicants should please send:

1) a detailed Curriculum Vitae, 2) a brief statement of research and teaching accomplishments and future plans, 3) copies of representative publications, and 4) the names of three referees to:

Dr. R. Jane Rylett, Chair Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C1

Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. Consideration of applicants will include an assessment of previous perfor-mance, experience, and qualifications, including qualifications which go beyond the requirements for the position.

Winnipeg Heart International, hosted by the Winnipeg Heart InternationalOctober 13-16, 2011Winnipeg, Manitobahttp://www.winnipegheart.ca

IUPS 2013 37th Congress of the International Union of the Physiological SciencesJuly 21-26, 2013 Birmingham, UKhttp://www.iups.org/

2011 APS Conference: Physiology of Cardiovascular Disease: Gender Disparities October 12-14, 2011University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippihttp://www.the-aps.org/meetings/aps/gender2011/

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Upcoming Physiology Meetings Continued...

2011 APS Conference:7th International Symposium on Aldosterone and the ENaC/Degenerin Family of Ion Channels: Molecular Mechanisms and PathophysiologySeptember 18-22, 2011http://www.the-aps.org/meetings/aps/enac/

Funding OpportunitiesJohn F. Perkins, Jr. Memorial Award for International PhysiologistsAward: Up to $5,000Deadlines: April 15 and October 15

The John F. Perkins, Jr. Memorial Award for International Physiologists promotes cultural exchange and scientific collaborations by provid-ing supplementary aid to families of foreign scientists working for a minimum of 3 months in the U.S. In this way, young scientists are able to bring their families and thus make full use of the cultural exchange as well as the scientific benefits associated with an international collaboration. The program presupposes that the visiting scientist and his/her host already have made arrangements for scientific collabo-ration and have sufficient funds to cover the needs of the visiting scientist. Several awards are granted each year. Application for the Perkins Award must be made jointly by the host, who must be an APS member, and the visiting scientist. The recipient receives funds generally not exceeding $5,000. The size of the award depends on the estimated needs over and above the amount already available to the visiting scientist. For scientific visits beginning between January 1 and June 30, the application is due on October 15 the year before with notification by December 15. For scientific visits beginning between July 1 and December 31, the application is due on April 15 of the same year with notification by June 15. Applications will now only be accepted via online submission. Please click here to apply.

Submissions & Contact InformationWe welcome your contributions! If you would like to be featured in “Who am I? Where am I?” or write a historical perspective, send us a note.

Melanie A. WoodinSecretary, CPSDepartment of Cell & Systems BiologyUniversity of Toronto25 Harbord StreetToronto, Ontario M5S 3G5m.woodin@utoronto.ca | (416) 978-8646