- Email: [email protected]
Preface IFPA meeting 2016
Placenta xxx (2017) 1e3
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Placenta journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/placenta
Preface IFPA meeting 2016 Leslie Myatt Oregon Health & Science University, United States
a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 4 March 2017 Accepted 13 March 2017 Keywords: Preface
The 2016 meeting of the International Federation of Placenta Associations (IFPA 2016) was organized by the Placenta Association of the Americas and was held in the Oregon Convention Center (OCC) in Portland, Oregon, USA. The OCC is the largest convention center in the Pacific Northwest and is located in the Lloyd District, one of the most dynamic neighborhoods in downtown Portland. Three hundred and three participants from twenty six countries across the world gathered in the autumn sunshine in Portland. Leslie Myatt from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Moore Institute of Nutrition and Wellness at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) together with a dedicated team of colleagues organized the conference. Abstracts for the meeting were published in Placenta Vol. 45, September 2016, 63e133 with late breaking abstracts included in the meeting program. Financial assistance was provided by the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the Department of Pathology, the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness and the Oregon National Primate Research Center, OHSU together with the March of Dimes. New to the program this year two satellite sessions were held that preceded the meeting on “New Methods for Exploring Multiscale Placental Architecture” organized by Leslie Myatt and Kent Thornburg and “Uteroplacental Pathology and the Human Placenta Project” organized by Terry Morgan. 1. Scientific program The theme of the meeting was “Placenta: Back to the Basics” emphasizing the fundamental mechanisms underpinning placental function and the latest technologies available to assist in its
elucidation. The program consisted of two Keynote lectures, three Symposia, the National Institutes of Health lecture, five Award Lectures, three new investigator/junior faculty oral presentation sessions, twelve workshops and two poster sessions. The meeting commenced with two keynote speakers who highlighted novel research technologies at OHSU with particular relevance to placental research. Jonathan Lindner outlined his cutting edge imaging work with “Advanced ultrasound imaging, insights from perfusion and molecular imaging” and Joe Gray described the latest development in imaging technologies from macro to nano-levels with “Exploring the architecture of life at multiple scales.” These talks preceded the NIH lecturer Francesco DeMayo (Research Triangle Park, USA), who presented his work on molecular mechanisms that are regulated by progesterone and which govern the ability of the uterus to support pregnancy. The first symposia highlighted the use of bioinformatics and systems biology approaches to studying placental function. Nathan Price (Seattle) set the scene using genome scale analysis of mRNA and miRNA regulation of preterm birth as an illustration of the application of bioinformatics to a clinical problem and was followed up by Tom Metz (Richland) and Andrew Adey (Portland) describing state of the art metabolomics and single cell analytical approaches respectively. The second highly anticipated symposium focused on trophoblast specification/progenitors. Hubert Schorle (Bonn, Germany) gave an outstanding elucidation of use of the mouse as a model to study trophoblast stem cell development and was ably supported by Mana Parast (San Diego, USA) describing controversy in the definition of human trophoblast stem cells and Soumen Paul (Kansas City, USA) describing the role of transcription factors in trophoblast development. The final symposium centered on viral infection and the placenta and was highly topical given the intensity of interest surrounding the Zika virus and the placenta. Sally Permar (Chapel Hill, USA) described the use of non-primate models to examine immune protection against virus transmission across the placenta using her own work with cytomegalovirus as an example. This was followed up by Gil Mor (New Haven, USA) describing polymicrobial effects on viral-induced teratogenesis. The final presentation of this symposium was data “hot from the lab” with Peta Grigsby, Antonio Frias and Dan Streblow (Portland, USA) reporting their breaking data on the effects of Zika virus on primate pregnancy. I would like to sincerely thank all the keynote and symposia speakers who did an outstanding job in setting a high
E-mail address: [email protected]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.03.009 0143-4004/© 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Please cite this article in press as: L. Myatt, Preface IFPA meeting 2016, Placenta (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.03.009
2
L. Myatt / Placenta xxx (2017) 1e3
scientific bar for the meeting. Twelve workshops were included in IFPA 2016 and each was a lively discussion of the latest work in their respective areas and were set up to ask provocative questions of the audience. I would like to thank all the workshop chairs who dedicated their time and effort in finding speakers and in making the workshops truly interactive and participatory for the audience. 2. Highlights of early career researchers This year with the support of additional funding from Elsevier, IFPA was able to institute a new award for best oral presentation by a junior faculty member in addition to the existing award for best presentation by a new investigator. With that in mind three oral presentation sessions were held, each with four new investigators and two junior faculty presenting. The panel of judges chose Emily Su (Denver, USA), as the winner of the inaugural IFPA Early Career Research Award for the best oral presentation by a junior faculty member and K Bryce Wolfe (Madison, USA) as the Elsevier Placenta New Investigator Award for the best oral presentation by a new investigator. Natalie Cureton (Manchester, UK) and Cassidy Blundell (Philadelphia, USA) received honorable mentions for the New Investigator award. The new investigators contributed the majority of the two hundred posters presented. Thanks to Theresa Powell and her large group of poster judges for visiting and grading every new investigator's poster. The quality of the posters was very high and they had a difficult job in selecting the winner of the Trophoblast Research Award, Samantha Wilson (Vancouver, Canada), the second place winner Phillipp Velicky (Vienna, Austria) and no less than three honorable mentions, Cecilia Kwan (Ithaca, USA), Gordon Stevenson (Sydney, Australia) and Rabab Al Lahham (Galveston, USA). 3. Awards Sascha Drewlo PhD, (Detroit, USA) was the recipient of the prestigious Gabor Than Award in Placentology which acknowledges outstanding contributions to the field of placentology in all its aspects, including the relationship with fetus and mother to early career investigators who are normally within 10 years of their terminal degree. Sascha gave a talk entitled “Quo Vadis trophoblast? Exploring the new ways of an old cell lineage.” The Trophoblast Research Award lecture was given by Claudia Gohner (Jena, Germany) on “Immune-modulatory effects of syncytiotrophoblast extracellular vesicles during normal and preeclamptic pregnancy” and which built upon the work she had presented as a poster the year before. The IFPA Senior Award was presented this year to Richard K Miller (Rochester, USA) in recognition of his many years of service to the field of placentology and to IFPA. Richard gave an overview of his work “Placental toxicology e susceptibility, assessment and contributions to reproductive and fetal/neonatal e Gruslin Award, outcome.” This year another new award, the Andre was established with gracious support by Elsevier, in honor of the e Gruslin a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and memory of Andre placental researcher who sadly passed away in 2014. The inaugural recipient of the Gruslin Award was Shannon Bainbridge (Ottawa, e's who presented an illuminating Canada) a colleague of Andre lecture “Understanding the molecular underpinnings of distinct subclasses of preeclampsia.” Many thanks go to Estela Bevilacqua, chair of the Awards Committee and the committee itself for the excellent work they did in selecting the awardees. IFPA has a long tradition of supporting new investigators, a task that was made easier this year with the receipt of funding from Elsevier that enabled us to provide fifteen Elsevier Travel Awards in addition to thirty eight Loke Awards and fifteen NIH travel awards,
to support attendance by new investigators. We would like to thank Charlie Loke for his ongoing and unwavering support of this endeavor and to acknowledge both Elsevier and the National Institutes of Health for their assistance. 4. Social program and activities I would like to acknowledge the generous donation by the City of Portland of a travel pass for every delegate, which enabled full use of streetcars, light rail and bus services enabling delegates to move easily around Portland. The opening reception and gala dinner were held at the conference hotel and featured Pacific Northwest cuisine and wines. The gala dinner was the setting for presentation of awards and ended with the usual dancing led by the energetic new investigators, but with able assistance by members of the IFPA Executive committee and featuring a vigorous rendition of the IFPA song. A measure of the success and camaraderie was the large number of delegates both young and old still dancing at midnight! The New Investigator's Mixer was attended by 141 investigators and was held on the deck of the OHSU Kohler Pavilion which provided a beautiful view of the sun setting over the city and reflecting on Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. Transportation to the event included a ride on the Portland Aerial Tram. Thanks go to Samantha Louey (Portland, USA) who volunteered to marshal the new investigators and facilitate their movement from the convention center to the event. 5. Many thanks First and foremost I would like to thank my colleague Kent Thornburg for his tremendous support and enthusiasm for holding the meeting in Portland and to the Moore Institute of Nutrition and Wellness for providing the financial underpinning necessary for successful organization of the meeting. Without this commitment the meeting could not have got off the ground. The financial challenge posed by organizing a meeting was also relieved by the generous support of our sponsors for which we are grateful. I am also very grateful to the many invited speakers and the workshop organizers who undoubtedly contributed to the overall success of the meeting and to the session chairs who kept the meeting running smoothly. I am also grateful for prompt support by the many abstract reviewers and the help of Marie-Claire Morley (Compass Events, UK) for efficient organization of the abstract review. A large vote of thanks also goes out to the local organizing committee members, Antonio Frias, Victoria Roberts, Terry Morgan, Kent Thornburg, Peta Grigsby, Shawn Chavez, Bob Brace, Ceci Cheung, Alina Maloyan and Amy Valent for their input of ideas, unflagging enthusiasm and effort they committed to making the meeting a success. This truly was a team effort. Nick Illsley (Hackensack, USA) also deserves special mention for his ongoing advice on program organization and Gendie Lash (Guangzhou, China) for her editing of this conference report. Successful events do not function without the dedicated effort of many backroom staff. I would like to extend everyone's sincere appreciation for the work of staff from the Moore Institute including Liana Haywood with the conference advertising, website design and program booklet, Bernadette Battilega for efficient oversight of registration, Mae Culbertson and Kim Rogers for logistical assistance and Susan McGinn for financial support, all under the very capable direction of Lisa Rhuman. Kim Koteff of Vicki Johnson and Associates provided tremendous experience in organization of hotels and conference space and attention to the many minor details necessary to ensure the smooth and successful
Please cite this article in press as: L. Myatt, Preface IFPA meeting 2016, Placenta (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.03.009
L. Myatt / Placenta xxx (2017) 1e3
running of the meeting. There is absolutely no doubt that the scientific success of the program rested firmly on the solid organizational base. For me, the organizer, after two years of organization the meeting itself went by in a blur but I was reassured of its success by the many, many congratulatory and positive comments I received on the organization and above all the quality of the science presented. It was also rewarding for one who is passionate about mentorship and training to be able to provide funding for so many
3
new investigators to attend the meeting, present their exciting science and be reassured that placental research has a bright future. Conflict of interest The author does not have any potential or actual personal, political or financial interest in the material, information or techniques described in this paper.
Please cite this article in press as: L. Myatt, Preface IFPA meeting 2016, Placenta (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.03.009
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Placenta journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/placenta
Preface IFPA meeting 2016 Leslie Myatt Oregon Health & Science University, United States
a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 4 March 2017 Accepted 13 March 2017 Keywords: Preface
The 2016 meeting of the International Federation of Placenta Associations (IFPA 2016) was organized by the Placenta Association of the Americas and was held in the Oregon Convention Center (OCC) in Portland, Oregon, USA. The OCC is the largest convention center in the Pacific Northwest and is located in the Lloyd District, one of the most dynamic neighborhoods in downtown Portland. Three hundred and three participants from twenty six countries across the world gathered in the autumn sunshine in Portland. Leslie Myatt from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Moore Institute of Nutrition and Wellness at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) together with a dedicated team of colleagues organized the conference. Abstracts for the meeting were published in Placenta Vol. 45, September 2016, 63e133 with late breaking abstracts included in the meeting program. Financial assistance was provided by the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the Department of Pathology, the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness and the Oregon National Primate Research Center, OHSU together with the March of Dimes. New to the program this year two satellite sessions were held that preceded the meeting on “New Methods for Exploring Multiscale Placental Architecture” organized by Leslie Myatt and Kent Thornburg and “Uteroplacental Pathology and the Human Placenta Project” organized by Terry Morgan. 1. Scientific program The theme of the meeting was “Placenta: Back to the Basics” emphasizing the fundamental mechanisms underpinning placental function and the latest technologies available to assist in its
elucidation. The program consisted of two Keynote lectures, three Symposia, the National Institutes of Health lecture, five Award Lectures, three new investigator/junior faculty oral presentation sessions, twelve workshops and two poster sessions. The meeting commenced with two keynote speakers who highlighted novel research technologies at OHSU with particular relevance to placental research. Jonathan Lindner outlined his cutting edge imaging work with “Advanced ultrasound imaging, insights from perfusion and molecular imaging” and Joe Gray described the latest development in imaging technologies from macro to nano-levels with “Exploring the architecture of life at multiple scales.” These talks preceded the NIH lecturer Francesco DeMayo (Research Triangle Park, USA), who presented his work on molecular mechanisms that are regulated by progesterone and which govern the ability of the uterus to support pregnancy. The first symposia highlighted the use of bioinformatics and systems biology approaches to studying placental function. Nathan Price (Seattle) set the scene using genome scale analysis of mRNA and miRNA regulation of preterm birth as an illustration of the application of bioinformatics to a clinical problem and was followed up by Tom Metz (Richland) and Andrew Adey (Portland) describing state of the art metabolomics and single cell analytical approaches respectively. The second highly anticipated symposium focused on trophoblast specification/progenitors. Hubert Schorle (Bonn, Germany) gave an outstanding elucidation of use of the mouse as a model to study trophoblast stem cell development and was ably supported by Mana Parast (San Diego, USA) describing controversy in the definition of human trophoblast stem cells and Soumen Paul (Kansas City, USA) describing the role of transcription factors in trophoblast development. The final symposium centered on viral infection and the placenta and was highly topical given the intensity of interest surrounding the Zika virus and the placenta. Sally Permar (Chapel Hill, USA) described the use of non-primate models to examine immune protection against virus transmission across the placenta using her own work with cytomegalovirus as an example. This was followed up by Gil Mor (New Haven, USA) describing polymicrobial effects on viral-induced teratogenesis. The final presentation of this symposium was data “hot from the lab” with Peta Grigsby, Antonio Frias and Dan Streblow (Portland, USA) reporting their breaking data on the effects of Zika virus on primate pregnancy. I would like to sincerely thank all the keynote and symposia speakers who did an outstanding job in setting a high
E-mail address: [email protected]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.03.009 0143-4004/© 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Please cite this article in press as: L. Myatt, Preface IFPA meeting 2016, Placenta (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.03.009
2
L. Myatt / Placenta xxx (2017) 1e3
scientific bar for the meeting. Twelve workshops were included in IFPA 2016 and each was a lively discussion of the latest work in their respective areas and were set up to ask provocative questions of the audience. I would like to thank all the workshop chairs who dedicated their time and effort in finding speakers and in making the workshops truly interactive and participatory for the audience. 2. Highlights of early career researchers This year with the support of additional funding from Elsevier, IFPA was able to institute a new award for best oral presentation by a junior faculty member in addition to the existing award for best presentation by a new investigator. With that in mind three oral presentation sessions were held, each with four new investigators and two junior faculty presenting. The panel of judges chose Emily Su (Denver, USA), as the winner of the inaugural IFPA Early Career Research Award for the best oral presentation by a junior faculty member and K Bryce Wolfe (Madison, USA) as the Elsevier Placenta New Investigator Award for the best oral presentation by a new investigator. Natalie Cureton (Manchester, UK) and Cassidy Blundell (Philadelphia, USA) received honorable mentions for the New Investigator award. The new investigators contributed the majority of the two hundred posters presented. Thanks to Theresa Powell and her large group of poster judges for visiting and grading every new investigator's poster. The quality of the posters was very high and they had a difficult job in selecting the winner of the Trophoblast Research Award, Samantha Wilson (Vancouver, Canada), the second place winner Phillipp Velicky (Vienna, Austria) and no less than three honorable mentions, Cecilia Kwan (Ithaca, USA), Gordon Stevenson (Sydney, Australia) and Rabab Al Lahham (Galveston, USA). 3. Awards Sascha Drewlo PhD, (Detroit, USA) was the recipient of the prestigious Gabor Than Award in Placentology which acknowledges outstanding contributions to the field of placentology in all its aspects, including the relationship with fetus and mother to early career investigators who are normally within 10 years of their terminal degree. Sascha gave a talk entitled “Quo Vadis trophoblast? Exploring the new ways of an old cell lineage.” The Trophoblast Research Award lecture was given by Claudia Gohner (Jena, Germany) on “Immune-modulatory effects of syncytiotrophoblast extracellular vesicles during normal and preeclamptic pregnancy” and which built upon the work she had presented as a poster the year before. The IFPA Senior Award was presented this year to Richard K Miller (Rochester, USA) in recognition of his many years of service to the field of placentology and to IFPA. Richard gave an overview of his work “Placental toxicology e susceptibility, assessment and contributions to reproductive and fetal/neonatal e Gruslin Award, outcome.” This year another new award, the Andre was established with gracious support by Elsevier, in honor of the e Gruslin a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and memory of Andre placental researcher who sadly passed away in 2014. The inaugural recipient of the Gruslin Award was Shannon Bainbridge (Ottawa, e's who presented an illuminating Canada) a colleague of Andre lecture “Understanding the molecular underpinnings of distinct subclasses of preeclampsia.” Many thanks go to Estela Bevilacqua, chair of the Awards Committee and the committee itself for the excellent work they did in selecting the awardees. IFPA has a long tradition of supporting new investigators, a task that was made easier this year with the receipt of funding from Elsevier that enabled us to provide fifteen Elsevier Travel Awards in addition to thirty eight Loke Awards and fifteen NIH travel awards,
to support attendance by new investigators. We would like to thank Charlie Loke for his ongoing and unwavering support of this endeavor and to acknowledge both Elsevier and the National Institutes of Health for their assistance. 4. Social program and activities I would like to acknowledge the generous donation by the City of Portland of a travel pass for every delegate, which enabled full use of streetcars, light rail and bus services enabling delegates to move easily around Portland. The opening reception and gala dinner were held at the conference hotel and featured Pacific Northwest cuisine and wines. The gala dinner was the setting for presentation of awards and ended with the usual dancing led by the energetic new investigators, but with able assistance by members of the IFPA Executive committee and featuring a vigorous rendition of the IFPA song. A measure of the success and camaraderie was the large number of delegates both young and old still dancing at midnight! The New Investigator's Mixer was attended by 141 investigators and was held on the deck of the OHSU Kohler Pavilion which provided a beautiful view of the sun setting over the city and reflecting on Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. Transportation to the event included a ride on the Portland Aerial Tram. Thanks go to Samantha Louey (Portland, USA) who volunteered to marshal the new investigators and facilitate their movement from the convention center to the event. 5. Many thanks First and foremost I would like to thank my colleague Kent Thornburg for his tremendous support and enthusiasm for holding the meeting in Portland and to the Moore Institute of Nutrition and Wellness for providing the financial underpinning necessary for successful organization of the meeting. Without this commitment the meeting could not have got off the ground. The financial challenge posed by organizing a meeting was also relieved by the generous support of our sponsors for which we are grateful. I am also very grateful to the many invited speakers and the workshop organizers who undoubtedly contributed to the overall success of the meeting and to the session chairs who kept the meeting running smoothly. I am also grateful for prompt support by the many abstract reviewers and the help of Marie-Claire Morley (Compass Events, UK) for efficient organization of the abstract review. A large vote of thanks also goes out to the local organizing committee members, Antonio Frias, Victoria Roberts, Terry Morgan, Kent Thornburg, Peta Grigsby, Shawn Chavez, Bob Brace, Ceci Cheung, Alina Maloyan and Amy Valent for their input of ideas, unflagging enthusiasm and effort they committed to making the meeting a success. This truly was a team effort. Nick Illsley (Hackensack, USA) also deserves special mention for his ongoing advice on program organization and Gendie Lash (Guangzhou, China) for her editing of this conference report. Successful events do not function without the dedicated effort of many backroom staff. I would like to extend everyone's sincere appreciation for the work of staff from the Moore Institute including Liana Haywood with the conference advertising, website design and program booklet, Bernadette Battilega for efficient oversight of registration, Mae Culbertson and Kim Rogers for logistical assistance and Susan McGinn for financial support, all under the very capable direction of Lisa Rhuman. Kim Koteff of Vicki Johnson and Associates provided tremendous experience in organization of hotels and conference space and attention to the many minor details necessary to ensure the smooth and successful
Please cite this article in press as: L. Myatt, Preface IFPA meeting 2016, Placenta (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.03.009
L. Myatt / Placenta xxx (2017) 1e3
running of the meeting. There is absolutely no doubt that the scientific success of the program rested firmly on the solid organizational base. For me, the organizer, after two years of organization the meeting itself went by in a blur but I was reassured of its success by the many, many congratulatory and positive comments I received on the organization and above all the quality of the science presented. It was also rewarding for one who is passionate about mentorship and training to be able to provide funding for so many
3
new investigators to attend the meeting, present their exciting science and be reassured that placental research has a bright future. Conflict of interest The author does not have any potential or actual personal, political or financial interest in the material, information or techniques described in this paper.
Please cite this article in press as: L. Myatt, Preface IFPA meeting 2016, Placenta (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2017.03.009