November 11, 2002, Toronto, Canada

Pharmacogenetics-Pharmacogenomics Focus Group Business Meeting

Report of the Chairs Ron Norton and Maureen Cronin

Affiliated with the Biotechnology Section and encourage you to support that group here and during the coming year.

A. Introduction

Affiliations. The PGx Group is officially affiliated with the Biotechnology Section. We encourage you to support that section through the coming year.

Volunteer Team, Members:
Felix Frueh, liaison with the Biotechnology Section chair elect for next year.
Ryan Yates
Tony Kong
Elaine Mansfield

B. Purpose

To Encourage exchange and discussion of current topics on pharmacogenetics and/or pharmacogenomics.

C. Tools

Our primary tool is our section on the AAPS website. We have recently updated our listing. You may visit our section by opening the Inside AAPS link on the AAPS homepage. Select Focus Groups under the Inside AAPS heading. Click on the Pharmacogenetics Pharmacogenomics Focus Group.

D. Membership

One of the pages on the site is a membership listing. We have 80 members. The Membership List includes name, title, and organization. We do not list e-mail addresses or contact information on the website. Listserv messages are not particularly frequent, but may contain information of interest on focus groups, biotechnology, or AAPS activities related to PGX.

E. Events

We’ve recently updated the Events page to list and link the upcoming conferences that may be of interest. If you know of other events that deserve to be highlighted, please e-mail the leadership and we will get them on the page.

The focus group has proposed a round-table discussion on Genomic Challenges Faced by the Pharma/Biotech Industry, to be held at the 2003 AAPS Annual Meeting.

F. Theme Issue and Virtual Journal

The current PGX theme issue is contained on this site. The theme issue logs into PubMed and retrieves citations on a variety of topics relevant to PGX. You may also check out Commentaries of Recent Articles.

Maureen Cronin is one of the editors for the PGX theme issue. The 2002 edition should be completed shortly.The Submission Guidelines for posting news and articles to the site are listed there. We would like to encourage more postings to the site.

G. Links

H. PGX Annual Meeting 2002 Presentation

Click here to view the presentation in (.PDF) file format.

October 22, 2001, Denver, CO

Pharmacogenetics-Pharmacogenomics Focus Group Business Meeting

Report of the Chairs  W. Sadée and Maureen Cronin

A. Focus Group Activities

Programming. The PGx Focus Group will sponsor/cosponsor several symposia in 2002, at the Biotech Meeting in San Diego, June, and the Annual Meeting in Toronto, October. Workshops and short courses should be considered as well.

Affiliations. The PGx Focus Group is officially affiliated with the Biotech Section. Tom Zioncheck (Biotech Chair 2001) and Siddarth Advant (Chair 2002) were in attendance to emphasize the link to PGx.

AAPS PharmSci Theme Issue 2001. In order to continue the series, more manuscripts need to be submitted (including Commentaries). Guest Editors: Maureen Cronin and Michael Silber.

AAPS PharmSci Virtual Journal in Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics. This represents a guided PubMed search, supplemented by Commentaries and Select Articles (more features under development). Any member of the PGx-FG is invited to submit Commentaries (also published in AAPS PharmSci, and the PGx Theme Issue).  Correspondents are appointed to write Commentaries on select articles relating to PGx, and to screen submitted Commentaries. Current Correspondents: Sridhar Mani, Felix Frueh, Laviero Macinelli, Ignarro Segarra, Mark Dresser.  Please take advantage of this opportunity to highlight current papers and stimulated discussion.

B. Task for the coming year

Establish process of leadership selection and succession. Chair, co-chair, 4 additional members of Executive Committee. Liaison person for Biotec Section.

Institute a membership drive to attain "critical mass " for programming and other activities.

Develop long range goals.

Develop strategic plan for scientific programming and other activities.

Volunteers for Focus Group activities 

The following individuals have indicated willingness to participate in the activities and leadership.

Elaine Mansfield, Sridhar Mani, Rao Pippala, Ryan Yates, Tony Kong, Ronald Norton, Felix Frueh, Christopher  Banfield,  Greg Knipp.

C. Nominations

Thus far we have the following nominations:

Chair: Ronald Norton (Maureen Cronin will stay on as Co-Chair).

Biotech Liaison: Felix Frueh

We need additional nominations for all positions including the 4 members of the Executive Committee

Deadline November 20, 2001

D. List of Attendees

Maureen Cronin
Jean-Michel Scherrmann
Tony Kong
Tom Rushmore
Gayle Brazeau
Murali Ramanathan
Siddharth Advant
Thomas F. Zioncheck
David G. Rhodes
Pascale Anderle
Danxin Wang
Reginald Frye
Charles R. Yates
Felix Frueh
Gregory Knipp
Masahiro Nakano
Christopher R. Banfield
Bruce Maloff
Joanna Dunn

October 28, 2000, Indianapolis

AAPS Annual Meeting

The PGx Focus Group was established in October 2000, and the Focus Group Web site was online for the AAPS Annual meeting. The membership meeting was scheduled after the meeting program was printed, and was attended by the individuals listed below.

Meeting minutes
The following Focus group activities were discussed.

1. Organization and proposed by-laws

a. Until elections for Focus Group Chairs are held, these individuals will serve as Co-chairs:
Wolfgang Sadée, UCSF
Maureen Cronin, Aclara
Laviero Mancinelli, UCSF

b. Leadership elections and succession:
The Focus Group shall be governed by an Executive Committee consisting of:
Chair (one year term)
Chair-elect (one year term)
Immediate Past Chair (one year term)
Four members (two year term)

Elections for the Executive Committee Chair and members shall be held by e-mail, in August of each year, administered by the current Chair, and effective immediately after the membership meeting at the Annual AAPS meeting. In 2001 the first elections will be held to determine the chair for 2001/2. One of the current co-chairs will serve as immediate past chair.

c. Functions of Chairs and Committee members.
1. The current chair will also serve as treasurer.
2. The current chair is responsible for facilitating the preparation of a programming proposal for the Annual AAPS meeting. This is due in August of each year for consideration by the AAPS Programming Committee for the following year.
3. One individual shall be designated webmaster for the PGx Web page on AAPS Pharmaceutica (this could be an individual outside the committee)
4. One or more individuals shall serve as Guest Editors for a Theme Issue in AAPS PharmSci (this could be individuals outside the committee)
5. One individual shall serve as Guest Editor of the Virtual Journal in Pharmacogenetics-Pharmacogenomics (this could be individuals outside the committee)

2. Focus Group Activities

a. Establish Interactive Website
(see http://www.aapspharmaceutica.com/inside/focus_groups/PGx/)

Our main activities will involve a multi-functional website, with at least the following features.
· Membership list. No precise addresses are publiccized; an e-mail listserv will be available to contact all members. PLEASE use with caution to minimize e-mail traffic to what is really useful to all !!!!. Listings for post-docs are reasonable for this function.
· Events.

 Theme Issue in Pharmacogenetics-Pharmacogenomics

Guest Editors will be appointed on a yearly basis. Articles will be published in AAPS PharmSci regular issues (fully peer-reviewed) and the Theme Issue. For more information, go to  http://pharmsci.org/theme_issues/theme_issues.asp).

Guest Editors for 2001:
Maureen Cronin, Aclara Biosciences Inc.
Michael B. Silber, Pfizer Global Research and Development
These Issues can evolve into an ongoingl activity of the Focus Group. Please support this by submitting papers. Each issue will be broadly advertised and disseminated to multiple audiences by AAPS staff. Interactive papers and databases can be accommodated.

· Virtual Journal in Pharmacogenetics-Pharmacogenomics (Guest Editor to be appointed). Provides automatic and comprehensive coverage of relevant literature. Fully searchable by subject, and providing most recent articles (previous week, month, year etc.). To be implemented.

· Database and links.  Provides a list of useful links to resources in PGx. Long-range goal: develop a custom database for PGx.
______________________________________________________________________
ACTION PLAN FOR 2001

· Develop proposal for symposium at the Annual AAPS Meeting in 2002. Proposal internal deadline August 2001

· Solicit/Submit papers for PGx Theme Issues

· Develop PGx Virtual Journal

· RECRUIT ADDITIONAL MEMBERS

· Establish a list of candidates for Chair and Members of Executive Committee (by self-nomination, recommendation, etc.), prepare for election in August 2001

· Affiliations.  We shall seek formal affiliation of the PGx focus group with the following Sections (to facilitate programming):
BIOTEC
PPDM
MNPC

After refinement, these will also be put up for a vote.