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Announcements
EBM and SEBM Inaugurate a European Office
Dr. Farzin Farzaneh Named EBM European Editor
Experimental Biology and Medicine (EBM) and the Society for Experimental Biology and
Medicine (SEBM) have, over the past year, launched a bold globalization plan. This
globalization plan is aimed at increasing the recognition of EBM and SEBM worldwide.
The first phase of this plan began in January 2008 with the establishment of an Asia
Pacific EBM/SEBM office at the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan Taiwan and
the naming of Dr. Huan-Yao Lei as our EBM Asian Editor.
It is my great pleasure to announce that the second phase of the globalization plan has
now been initiated with the opening of an EBM/SEBM office at King's College London
on July 1, 2008. We have named Dr. Farzin Farzaneh as our first EBM European Editor.
In accepting this important position Farzin said "At a time when experimental biology is
being traslated into increasingly more effective therapeutics, I am honoured and delighted
to have the opportunity to join Steven Goodman and his distinguished Editorial Board at EBM.
In a remarkably short period of time Steven and his colleagues have set EBM on track to occupy
a firm position as one of the leading international journals in life sciences. I very much look
forward to playing a part in this exciting venture and will strive to work with colleagues in Europe
and beyond to make EBM one of the most efficient and effective forums in the communication of basic
and translational research in biomedical sciences."
Farzin is a Professor of Molecular Medicine at King's College London and President of the International
Society for Cell and Gene Therapy of Cancer (SCGT). Farzin joined King's College London in 1985 and was
appointed the founding head of the Department of Molecular Medicine in 1993. He was awarded a Personal
Chair in Molecular Medicine in 1996, elected to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists in
1997 and later that year to the Fellowship of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture &
Commerce for his contributions to the development and public understanding of cancer gene therapy. Having
been a co-founder of the European Society for Cancer Gene Therapy, he served as Secretary General of the
International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy of Cancer 2001-2006, and was appointed its Pressident in 2007.
He has published over 200 scientific papers and edited two books on the functional analysis of the genome and
cancer gene therapy.
We are very fortunate to have recruited Dr. Farzin Farzaneh to be our seminal EBM European Editor. With his
appointment and the establishment of the EBM/SEBM office at King's College London, we anticipate greater
recognition of the journal and Society in Europe. This should lead to an increased number of manuscript
submissions, library subscriptions and SEBM memberships in Europe.
SEBM Symposium at EB 2008
Progress in Pharmacogenomics and Its
Promise for Medicine
Chairs: Burton E. Sobel, University of Vermont and Charles A.
Blake, University of South Carolina
Papers from this symposium will be published in an upcoming issue of Experimental
Biology and Medicine.
Pharmacogenics addresses the impact of a specific genotype on
drug metabolism such as rapid compared with slow acetylation of
procaine amide and their disparate clinical consequences.
Pharmacogenomics (PGM) addresses the impact of diverse and multiple
genes on multiple aspects of the pharmacology of a specific drug
including pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, metabolism, distribution
volume, the impact of compensatory mechanisms on drug action among
numerous other factors. PGM is pivotal in basic science, drug
development, and elucidation of the risk of adverse drug reactions.
Regulatory agencies are increasingly interested in PGM in identifying
patients appropriate for specific treatment modalities and excluding
those at risk of adverse drug reactions. Practical applications of PGM
already abound including those in the use of selective serotonin
receptor inhibitors, biologics, atypical antipsychotics, and
antineoplastic drugs. Screening for susceptibility to the long QT
syndrome is another example. Our symposium will address progress being
made in the field with respect to drug development, regulatory agency
considerations, and applications in the use of psychotropic drugs and
hemoglinopathies. Twenty-five minute presentations followed by five
minute Q&A sessions with respect to these topics are anticipated to
be made respectively by Mr. Randal J. Kirk, Mary K. Pendergast, Meeta Patnaik, M.D.,
and Steven R. Goodman, Ph.D. In addition to his
discussion of pharmaco-proteomic approaches to drug therapy of sickle
cell disease, Steven R. Goodman will address the relevance of the field
to the mission of the journal of the Society of Experimental Biology
and Medicine which he serves as editor.
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