ILSI NEWS
Volume 29, Number 1, February 2011
ILSI Elects Peter van Bladeren President
In This Issue
ILSI is pleased to announce that Peter van
Bladeren, PhD, was elected ILSI president at
ILSI Elects New President ....... 1
the 2011 Annual Meeting. Prof Peter van
Bladeren has been director of the Nestlé
ILSI Europe Annual Meeting .... 1
Research Centre, Lausanne, Switzerland,
Dev Tox Database ................... 2
responsible for all science and research in
Annual Meeting Recap............. 3
Nestlé since 2002. Since 1991 he has also
served as professor of toxicology at University
New Publications ..................... 4
of Wageningen, The Netherlands. He holds a
Calendar of Events .................. 5
PhD in organic chemistry and toxicology from
Photo Spread........................... 6
the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. Prof
van Bladeren also serves as the Treasurer of the
Left to right: Michael Knowles, Peter van
Bladeren, Sushila Chang
ILSI Europe Board of Directors.
In his opening remarks at the Assembly of Members at Annual Meeting, Prof van Bladeren outlined
areas in which he believed ILSI could contribute. In the area of nutrition, he stressed ILSI should work
to understand both biology and the science of human behavior to gain insights on how to improve
2011 ILSI Executive Committee
health outcomes. In the area of risk assessment, he reaffirmed ILSI’s commitment to assess the
Officers
health risk–benefit of known and unknown substances.
Peter van Bladeren, PhD, President
Jerry Hjelle, PhD, Vice President
Prof van Bladeren said he looked forward to working with outgoing president Michael Knowles, PhD,
Sushila Chang, PhD, Chair
The Coca-Cola Company in Dr. Knowles’ capacity as Immediate Past President and with Sushila
Samuel Cohen, MD, PhD, Vice Chair
Chang, PhD, University of Queensland, Chair of the ILSI Board of Trustees.
Sara Valdés Martinez, PhD, Secretary
Liz Westring, PhD, Treasurer
More on Annual Meeting (page 3)
Members-at- Large
Annual Meeting Photos (page 6)
Marc Bonnefoi, PhD
John Doull, MD, PhD
Tamotsu Kuwata, PhD
Geoff Smith
ILSI Executive Director
ILSI Europe Annual Meeting
24 and 25 March 2011
Suzanne Harris, PhD
Science for Health beyond the Silver Anniversary
ILSI Europe turns 25th in 2011 and its upcoming annual meeting will
highlight its contribution to science and health then, now, and into the
future. The 2-day program will cover a wide selection of topics: nanoparticles to populations; health
claims to emerging health risks; and a look back at science and into the future of science.
Speakers from the Austria, Belgium, German, the United Kingdom and the European Commission will
join ILSI members, scientific advisors, and staff in Brussels on 24 and 25 March to discuss the health
challenges and opportunities industry, academia, and government share together. Please join us in
congratulating ILSI Europe for 25 years of making a difference.
Online registration is open and program and venue information is available at:
ILSI Europe Annual Meeting: 24 and 25 March 2011
© 2011 International Life Sciences Institute
ILSI Research Foundation Launches
Developmental Toxicity Database
A new database is now publicly available on the ILSI Research
Foundation web site. The Developmental Toxicity Database, Version 1
houses quantitative toxicity data on almost 200 different substances
from 315 separate experiments compiled from the published literature.
The database is notable for its levels of transparency and detail. All
contribution to the field of developmental toxicology, providing the
means to bridge toxicologists to modelers, and to offer a firm,
scientifically robust foundation for future computational toxicology
modeling efforts,” said Ann Richard, PhD, Research Chemist, National
Center for Computational Toxicology.
data are accompanied by references to their original sources, and full
sets of dose-response data – not just summary conclusions – are
compiled. This compilation of data on discrete developmental and
maternal endpoints makes review of decades of published findings
much more accessible, and helps researchers identify studies for
follow-up, in-depth analysis.
The ILSI project built upon earlier efforts to create controlled
vocabularies and ontologies for developmental studies, and to build a
public schema for promoting structure-based data mining of toxicity
studies. Richard noted that “the ILSI public database effort was the
first of its kind to bring together top experts in the field of
developmental toxicology, scientists leading efforts to develop toxicity
“The expanded chemical and study
ontologies, structure-mineable databases, and structure-based toxicity
prediction models, and representatives of U.S. and Canadian
coverage of the [Developmental Toxicity
regulatory agencies charged with implementing new technologies for
Database and the ToxRefDB] together
screening and prioritizing chemicals.” Steve Olin, PhD, ILSI Research
offers an exceedingly important and
Foundation Deputy Director, emphasized that this remarkable cross-
significant contribution to the field of
specialty teamwork is an example of ILSI’s hallmark approach that
involves convening groups of experts in complementary disciplines to
developmental toxicology…”
address scientific issues of mutual interest, leading to high-quality,
Ann Richard, PhD, Research Chemist, National Center
broadly useful products.
for Computational Toxicology
Funding for the database was provided by Health Canada, EPA, and
Another very important feature is the database’s compatibility with
other highly significant public efforts, such as the US Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA) Toxicity Reference Database (ToxRefDB)
and EPA’s Distributed Structure-Searchable Toxicity (DSSTox) Public
Database Network. Each substance in the ILSI Research Foundation
database is identified not only by its name and Chemical Abstract
Services Registry Number, but also by a Generic Substance ID
(GSID), which is used by the DSSTox effort to index chemical structure
the ILSI Health and Environmental Sciences Institute.
The database is available on the ILSI Research Foundation website at:
ILSI Research Foundation Developmental Toxicity Database
Additional links:
US Environmental Protection Agency ToxRefDB
US Environmental Protection Agency DSSTox
data. So, the GSID can link developmental data with chemical
structure, and with other types of toxicity data accompanied by a GSID.
The ILSI Research Foundation database contributes to the
standardized vocabulary used to capture the developmental studies in
ToxRefDB, and it maintains significant compatibility with that
database’s internal data structure. Where the ILSI Research
Nutrition and Teaching Reference
Available for Download!
Foundation project focuses on data extraction from published studies,
ILSI offers digital chapters of the
the ToxRefDB effort has thus far focused on data extraction from EPA
ninth edition of its landmark text,
regulatory guideline studies for registered pesticides.
Present Knowledge in Nutrition.
Together, the ILSI Research Foundation and EPA ToxRefDB efforts
Browse the table of contents and
compile public data on 428 unique chemicals: 22 in common, 172
order online. Download to your
unique to the ILSI database, and 234 unique to the ToxRefDB. This
computer. Print if you desire. Read at
extent of non-overlapping chemical content is especially important from
your leisure. For more information
the standpoint of structure-based modeling and computational
visit: PKN9 Download Information.
toxicology. “The expanded chemical and study coverage of the two
databases together offers an exceedingly important and significant
2
ILSI ANNUAL MEETING 2011
The Best in Collaboration
ILSI’s Annual Meeting provides the premier opportunity for members,
trustees, advisors, and staff from around the world to come together to
describe current work and outline future plans. It is the chance for all
stakeholders to identify ways to collaborate on important scientific and
organizational issues.
This year’s meeting, held 21 – 26 January in Lake Buena Vista,
Florida, featured a diverse scientific program. Sessions were devoted
to endocrine disruption; climate change and biotechnology; weight of
evidence; and other science and health topics. The full program and
copies of speaker presentations are available at:
2011 ILSI Annual Meeting Program and Presentations
Check out more photos from Annual Meeting on page 6: Photos
Thank You and Welcome
Keynote Speaker on
the DOHaD Hypothesis
ILSI’s greatest assets are the many volunteers who freely give their
time and energy to the organization. The ILSI Board of Trustees is
In the last two decades it has become
made up of such dedicated individuals. ILSI gives thanks to the
appreciated that adverse
following Board trustees for the contributions over the years. These
environmental exposures early in life
members resigned or their terms ended in 2010:
can have a profound impact on
susceptibility to many adult diseases,
•
such as obesity, cardiovascular
Roy Fuchs, PhD
Monsanto
disease, diabetes, metabolic
•
syndrome and cancer. At the ILSI
Ib Knudsen, DVM
Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research (retired)
2011 Annual Meeting Assembly of
•
Members, keynote speaker Cheryl Walker, PhD, The University of
Gerard Pascal, PhD
French National Institute for Agricultural Research
Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, described the “developmental
origins of health and disease” or DOHaD hypothesis, which posits that
•
Catherine Woteki, PhD
formerly Mars, Inc., now US Department of Agriculture
environmental exposures during key periods of tissue development
and organogenesis can “reprogram” the cell’s epigenome in a way that
Please join us in welcoming the newly elected trustees:
increases susceptibility to disease later in life.
•
Dr. Walker showed how recent advances in epigenetics have
confirmed the DOHaD hypothesis with the identification of epigenetic
alterations in both DNA methylation and histone methyl marks induced
Gerhard Eisenbrand, PhD
University of Kaiserslautern
•
Mark Empie, PhD
Archer Daniels Midland
by developmental reprogramming. She stressed understanding the
•
nature of the epigenetic “imprint” made by early life environmental
Monsanto
exposures on developing cells and tissues has important implications
for our understanding of disease susceptibility across the life-course
Jerry Hjelle, PhD
•
Milan Kováč, PhD
Slovak Technical University
and for identifying effective strategies for disease prevention.
A full list of Trustees is available on the About ILSI section of the ILSI
website: About ILSI
The Quarterly Newsletter of the International Life Sciences Institute
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New Publications
ILSI Europe
ILSI North America
Obesity in Pregnancy: Implications for the Mother
and Lifelong Health of the Child
Food Science Challenge - Translating the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans to Bring About Real
Behavior Change
L.Poston et al. Pediatric Research 2011;69 (No. 2)
S Rowe et al. Journal of Food Science Vol. 76, Nr. 1, 2011
In September 2009, ILSI Europe convened a workshop with
multidisciplinary expertise to review practices and science base of
health and nutrition of obese pregnant women, with focus on the long-
Food scientists and nutrition scientists (dietitians and nutrition
communicators) are tasked with creating strategies to more closely
term health of the child. The consensus viewpoint of the workshop
align the American food supply and the public’s diet with the Dietary
identified gaps and gave recommendations for future research on
Guidelines for Americans (DGA). This paper is the result of two expert
gestational weight gain, gestational diabetes, and research
methodologies. The evidence available on short- and longterm health
dialogues to address this mandate, which were held in Chicago,
Illinois, and Washington, DC, in early October 2010. This document
impact for mother and child currently favors actions directed at
controlling pre-pregnancy weight and preventing obesity in women of
takes the perspective of food scientists who are tasked with making
positive modifications to the food supply, both in innovating and
reproductive ages. More randomized controlled trials are needed to
reformulating food products; to respond to both the DGA
evaluate the effects of nutritional and behavioral interventions in
recommendations; and to consumer desires, needs, and choices.
pregnancy outcomes. Moreover, suggestions that maternal obesity
may transfer obesity risk to child through non-Mendelian (e.g.
epigenetic) mechanisms require more long-term investigation. This
View the publication
publication summarizes those findings.
Achieving A Healthy Microbiome
For more information: [email protected]
Significant scientific discoveries related to gut health have emerged in
recent years from the prioritization of medical research related to the
Guidance for Assessing the Probiotics Beneficial
Effects: How to Fill the Gap
human microbiome (microbes colonizing in the intestine) by the
J. Neu, Guest Editor. The Journal of Nutrition 2010,140:S671-S721
Europe. The microbiome is known to impact gastrointestinal disorders,
National Institutes of Health and institutions in Canada and
and may have a significant influence on immune status and the body's
The ILSI Europe Probiotics Task Force commissioned an expert group
ability to derive energy from food. Although the gut microbiome clearly
to evaluate the evidence of the functionality of probiotics in four areas:
plays an important role in gastrointestinal disease, there is no definition
metabolism; chronic intestinal inflammatory and functional disorders;
of a healthy gut microbiota.
infections; and allergy. The resulting papers were published under a
supplement entitled "Guidance for Assessing the Probiotics Beneficial
The ILSI North America Committee on Gut Microbes and Health seeks
Effects: How to Fill the Gap" of The Journal of Nutrition. Based on the
to host a consensus-style conference focused on what is known and,
existing evidence, concrete examples of demonstration of benefits and
especially, scientific gaps in our understanding. The workshop will
gaps are listed; guidelines and recommendations are defined in order
bring together experts from fields such as immunology, microbiology,
to help designing the next generation of probiotic studies observing the
epidemiology, nutrition and gastroenterology. Output of the workshop
gut and microbes interactions.
will include a peer-reviewed journal article describing the deliberations.
Impact of the workshop will be a better understanding of how to define
For more information: [email protected]
and achieve a healthy gut microbiome, and, subsequently, what
science is needed to substantiate “healthy microbiome” health claims.
Find more ILSI publications at
www.ilsi.org/pages/publications
The Quarterly Newsletter of the International Life Sciences Institute
If you are interesting in supporting the Committee’s work, contact
Taylor Wallace, PhD, at [email protected].
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ILSI Japan Celebrates 30 Years!
Calendar of Events
ILSI Japan, established in 1981, has had an active role in helping ILSI
achieve its mission to generate and disseminate scientific information
that is relevant both locally within Japan, regionally throughout Asia,
and globally.
Society of Toxicology*
6 – 10 March 2011
Washington, DC, USA
SOT 2011
Congratulations to ILSI Japan for 30 years of success!
To mark the event, ILSI Japan is organizing:
ILSI Japan 30th Anniversary: 6th International Conference on
ILSI Europe Annual Symposium 2011
25th Anniversary!
24 – 25 March 2011
Brussels, Belgium
ILSI Europe Annual Symposium 2011
Nutrition and Aging: Advanced Aging and Wellness – from Food
Supply to Dietary Habits
28 – 30 September 2011
Tokyo, Japan
ILSI Brasil Annual Meeting
6 – 8 April 2011
Aguas de São Pedro
for more information: [email protected]
You can see program information on the Conference poster presented
at Annual Meeting 2011 (on the ILSI website). Additional information
will be available soon.
Experimental Biology 2011*
9 – 13 April 2011
Washington, DC, USA
EB 2011
ILSI Japan Nutrition and Aging Poster
Save the Date!
ILSI Annual Meeting 2012
20 – 25 January 2012
ILSI Southeast Asia Region
Annual Meeting 2011
19 – 20 April 2011
Singapore
for more information:
[email protected]
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Details will be posted as they become available at:
ILSI Annual Meeting 2012
ILSI Japan 6th International Conference
on Nutrition and Aging
28 – 30 September 2011
Tokyo, Japan
ILSI Europe Symposium
“Health Benefits of Foods - From
Emerging Science to Innovative
Products”
5 – 7 October 2011
Prague, Czech Republic
Health Benefits of Foods
*One or more ILSI entities are supporting
sessions and/or presentations at this
meeting.
Visit ILSI’s consolidated
Calendar of Events for additional
meetings worldwide:
ILSI Calendar of Events
5
Five ILSI Presidents (left to right): Gary Henderson (2003 – 2006);
Peter van Bladeren (2011 – 2012); Michael Knowles (2009 – 2010);
Jim Stanley (2001 – 2002); John Ruff (2007 – 2008)
The Quarterly Newsletter of the International Life Sciences Institute
®
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The Quarterly Newsletter of the International Life Sciences Institute
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