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SFRBM dot SPRING 2012 • VOL. 4 • ISSUE 2 IN THIS ISSUE President's Message...............2 THE RADICAL VIEW Next FRS Webinar.................3 Barry Halliwell, B.A., D.Phil., D.Sc. ˙ Research Forum.....................3 DOT: Tell us a little about your background and current passions Foundation Supports Young in your professional life. Investigators..........................4 Halliwell: I was born in a small town in the North of England, called Preston. A small textile town, it had a good football team (Preston Call for Nominations: Lifetime North End) and a large railway station, but not much else special. Achievement Award...............8 Luckily for me, the local school system was excellent and I did well in both Humanities and Science. The Sciences won, and I obtained an Literature Review....................9 exhibition (scholarship) to St. Catherine’s College−Oxford University, to study Biochemistry. The course, unlike many Biochemistry courses SFRBM at SOT.....................10 today, had a deep grounding in Chemistry, which I have found enor- mously useful in the free radical field. Some knowledge of Chemistry Barry Halliwell UPCOMING EVENTS helps one to challenge the alleged miraculous properties of certain “an- tioxidants” by showing that they have no chemical basis. FREE RADICAL SCHOOL WEBINAR In my final year at Oxford, I did a research project on plant science which inspired me so much Mitochondrial Redox that I stayed on to do a D. Phil (Ph.D) in the Botany School, on plant metabolism during Processes photosynthesis, supported by St. Cross College. I mainly worked on photorespiration, the path- May 24, 2012 way that plants use to recycle 2-carbon compounds accidentally sent into the wrong metabolic process when O2 instead of CO2 reacts with the first enzyme in the Calvin Cycle. It turned out that H2O2 plays an important role in photorespiration, and I learned that plant organelles read- ily make H2O2. After a period, I was then offered a junior academic position (lectureship) in a medical school (Kings College London) and switched my research largely to the role of free radicals and antioxidants in human disease. However, I still have a soft spot for plants: they are our source of life-giving yet poisonous O2 and of most diet-derived antioxidants. London and its environs was an excellent place to develop an interest in redox biology with such pioneers as Eric 19TH ANNUAL MEETING Wills, Tony Diplock and Trevor Slater being close at hand. My long-time colleague, John Gut- November 14 - 18, 2012 teridge, and I worked closely together to understand the in vivo role of hydroxyl radicals, and of Hilton San Diego Bayfront transition metal ions (especially iron) as catalysts of oxidative damage and how this contributes San Diego, CA USA to human diseases as diverse as atherosclerosis, dementia and cancer. We had little competition in this novel area: most researchers were focussing on superoxide as a directly-toxic species. SFRBM HEADQUARTERS During my academic career at King's College London, I was lucky enough to go on sabbatical to University of California−Davis, with considerable interaction with the Bruce Ames group at 8365 Keystone Crossing University of California, Berkeley. Working with Carroll Cross and his team at Davis, I was able Suite 107 to extend my research interests into how air pollutants interact with humans and other animals Indianapolis, IN 46240 to cause oxidative damage, an especially fruitful line of enquiry. This productive interaction con- 317/205-9482 tinued for many years even though it was only supposed to be a one-year sabbatical. fax: 317/205-9481 [email protected] Returning to King's, I received a Lister Institute Research Fellowship which freed me from www.sfrbm.org teaching to focus purely on research, again involving the role of free radicals and disease and in particular the development of new methods to detect oxidative damage in vivo, particularly to DNA. The Lister scheme was completely non-targeted, they picked scientists based on their continued on page 7 SPRING 2012 SFRBM COUNCIL PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE President Harry Ischiropoulos, Ph.D. Harry Ischiropoulos, Ph.D. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute University of Pennslyvania I trust that this message finds all members well Vice President of Research & as we are a quarter of the way through the New Scientific Development (President-Elect) Year. SFRBM’s leadership and committees have been Henry Forman, Ph.D. active on a number of projects, several of which I will University of California - Merced briefly report on here. Vice President of Finance We are in the final stages of planning our next Annual Margaret Briehl, Ph.D. Meeting, which will be held this November in sunny San University of Arizona Diego. Special thanks goes to our Program Committee, Vice President of Education & who evaluated innovative plenary session proposals Professional Development submitted by members. Featured symposia will include: Paul Brookes, Ph.D. University of Rochester • Redox Regulation of Cancer Metabolism Harry Ischiropoulos Vice President of Membership • Cellular Redox Sensors Sally Nelson, Ph.D. • Redox Lunchbox: What Your Gut is Telling You SomaLogic, Inc. • The Free Radical Theory of Aging Vice President of Communications • Enabling Technologies in Free Radical and Redox Research Chris Kevil, Ph.D. LSU Health Sciences Center Stay tuned for future details on invited speakers and prompts to submit your latest Past President research for oral or poster presentation at the meeting. Victor-Darley-Usmar, Ph.D. University of Alabama - Birmingham SFRBM is continuing fundraising efforts for our Foundation, with the express intent to support Travel and Young Investigator Awards as well as the association’s Executive Director Mini-Fellowship program. Please consider a donation to ensure valuable training Kent Lindeman, CMP opportunities for our future redox biology and antioxidant researchers. Council Members Marcie Cole, Ph.D. Don’t forget about recognizing the contributions and achievements of our senior Brian Day, Ph.D. investigators as well. The nominations deadline for SFRBM’s Lifetime Achievement Rick Domann, Ph.D. Award is May 7. We encourage members to submit candidates for the Senior Award Neil Hogg, Ph.D. Committee’s consideration (see page 8 for more information). Eric Kelley, Ph.D. Alicia Kowaltowski, Ph.D. Aimee Landar, Ph.D. There are also new developments with our Journal,Free Radical Biology and Medicine. Francisco Laurindo, MD Many of you were aware of the charges of widespread scientific fraud that were Lee Ann MacMillan-Crow, Ph.D. leveled by the University of Connecticut against Dr. Dipak Das. The FRBM Ethics Lin Mantell, MD, Ph.D. Committee, chaired by Dr. Giovanni Mann, reviewed the allegations and, after Andre Melendez, Ph.D. following the proper protocols, has confirmed the findings of scientific fraud and Bulent Mutus, Ph.D. misconduct for 2 articles published in FRBM. They forwarded their findings to the Tim Oury, MD, Ph.D. FRBM Editor-in-Chief Dr. Kelvin Davies who has informed our publisher (Elsevier) Homero Rubbo, Ph.D. to formally retract these two articles. I appreciate the efforts of the Ethics Committee Sruti Shiva, Ph.D. for handling this most unfortunate case. Daret St. Clair, Ph.D. Albert van der Vliet, Ph.D. On a more positive note, I wanted to thank Anthony Newman and Elsevier for sponsoring awards recognizing the most prolific FRBM reviewers in 2011. Internal Marketing Committee Congratulations and many thanks to Drs. Dale Dickinson, Al Girotti, Neil Hogg, Dot Editor: Lee Ann MacMillian-Crow, Ph.D. Chris Kevil and Jacek Zielonka for their efforts and support to FRBM. We have Tak Yee Aw, Ph.D. also restructured the terms for FRBM’s Associate Editors that will allow increased Ines Batinic-Haberle, Ph.D. member opportunity to serve in these important positions. Christian Schöneich, Ph.D. Matthew Zimmerman, Ph.D. continued on page 3 2 SOCIETY FOR FREE RADICAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE SPRING 2012 President's Message, continued from page 2 FREE RADICAL SCHOOL Finally, make sure to visit our website to view the latest posts to our Scientific Forum, watch an archived webinar (the latest is Dr. Dany Kim-Shapiro’s session on “Hemoglobin VIRTUAL SEMINAR SERIES Mediated NO Signaling”) or update your Member/ Research Directory profile. SFRBM offers virtual programming on a quarterly basis, providing valuable education on a wide range of topics. As always, please contact me with your suggestions, ideas The sessions are open to SFRBM members only and are and concerns. Thanks for your continued participation in offered at no charge. SFRBM. Mitochondrial Redox Processes Wednesday, May 30, 2012 LATEST POSTS IN 1:00 pm Eastern (17:00 GMT/UTC) Speaker: Alicia Kowaltowski, Ph.D. University of São Paulo RESEARCH FORUM Cost: FREE for SFRBM members In an effort to help in the exchange of information in our field, SFRBM has rolled out a new Research Forum as a PROGRAM OVERVIEW way to increase interaction and discussion among members. Mitochondria are a quantitatively relevant source of Members can post comments about methods, techniques or reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the majority of cell general questions for which they are looking for input from types. We will review the sources and metabolism of ROS colleagues. in this organelle, including the conditions that regulate the production of these species, antioxidant pathways, Here are the latest posts and discussions that can be found regulation of mitochondrial content