GEMSnewsletter Editor's Note

- by Stephen Little
Newsletter online

If you were not able to attend the 2005 GEMS Spring Meeting, you missed a great scientific meeting organized by our president-elect Les Recio. There was an excellent group of speakers on the topic of “Stem Cells: Biology and Toxicological Relevance” held at the NC Biotechnology Center with 112 in attendance. The lively discussions during the breaks were indicative of the interest generated by the presentations. There is a summary of the Spring meeting in the Newsletter that was posted May 27 on the blog by Gloria Jahnke, GEMS Secretary.

Now it is time again to begin planning for participation in the next GEMS 2005 Annual Fall Meeting, which will be held at the UNC Friday Center in Chapel Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 26 and will include invited speakers, as well as talks by students and young researchers and posters on a variety of other research topics. The deadline for submission of abstracts for talks and posters is just over a month away, so its time to send in an abstract now, using the guidelines found in the Newsletter and on the blog. I want to reemphasize though, that the talks and posters are not linked to the theme of the meeting, so if you are a student, first year post-doc or technician, please send an abstract of your current research and plan to present and compete for awards. There is a travel award of up to $1500 for EMS or a comparable meeting given for the best talk by a student or post-doctoral candidate. There are 3 categories of poster awards for best poster by a student, post-doctoral candidate and technician with an award of $150 for each category.

When registering for the meeting, don’t forget to send in your membership dues if you have not renewed your membership since the last Annual Fall meeting. Please send in your membership fee of $5 for students and $10 for all others (including post-docs) using the form in the Newsletter. You can register for the meeting at the same time that you start or renew your membership. ■