AIT News
The AIT hopes you are all keeping safe and well. If you would like a copy of the minutes from our recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) held early in December 2021 please email aitoxicology@gmail.com.
A total of 30 AIT members attended the virtual AGM. Thankyou for your attendance. The committee agreed that the webinars went well and covered a good range of topics. The AIT committee has asked for feedback from attendees on the recent AIT webinar series held during October and November 2021. Please send feedback via email at aitoxicology@gmail.com, via the contact us option on our website or in the blog area (www.aitoxicology.org), or via our Association of Inhalation Toxicologists LinkedIn page. Please send feedback if you can so the AIT committee can review your webinar experience.
Summary:
- Membership of the AIT and access to the members area of the AIT website (www.aitoxicology.org) is granted to any individual who has attended the 3-day face to face AIT conference in the past three years (3 years rolling membership), or to individuals who pay a small annual membership fee (currently £30 GBP for annual membership). The secure members area of the AIT website includes copies of most of the conference and webinar presentations since 2014. Due to the amount of information held in the AIT website members area, inclusive of the recordings from the webinars held in 2020 and 2021, the AIT committee would like to increase the annual subscription fee for non-members to access this information from £30 GBP to £50 GBP. The increase in fees will commence on 01 January 2022. No objections were raised by the AIT members present at the AGM therefore the motion was carried.
- Any webinars held in 2022 will usually be 1 hour long but will be scheduled for 1.5 hours just in case we run into technical difficulties or if there is an extended Q&A session. The time will also be adjusted to suit more time zones (the suggested timing was 3pm to 4pm UK time). Timings of our webinars will then hopefully suit the west coast USA as well as eastern areas such as India etc. The majority, if not all, webinar recordings and PDF copies of the presentations are placed onto the secure members area of the AIT website for viewing at a more convenient time if you cannot attend the actual live webinar session (you will need to apply for membership to access this area on the website - see point 1 above).
- 2022 proposed conference/webinar topics:
.
Below is a list of suggested topics to date. If any of our AIT members can present on any of the topics suggested below (or know someone that can) then please contact Kay at aitoxicology@gmail.com. In addition, if you have any suggestions of other topics to cover then please let us know (e.g. topics you may be interested to learn more about, work you would like to present to share with us or problems you would like help with). Email aitoxicology@gmail.com
i. The AIT would like to put together 2 to 4 talks on inhaled cannabinoids for our 2022 in person meeting (or virtual webinars if necessary). Some companies have generated some non-clinical data for CBD but it would depend on whether the data could be shared. Topics may include:
-
- An overview of the area (possibly including a historical perspective of the cultivation of cannabisin the UK and its medicinal applications).
- Some non-clinical data
- Some clinical data
ii. Simon Moore will follow up for his presentation given in 2021 (Primate System Design).
iii. Characterisation and Translation of dose for in vitro exposure systems.
iv. Present any new information on plethysmography
v. Intranasal dosing route focus, extrapolation to dose, translocation to brain.
vi. Some educational talks/webinars may be prepared on basic topics of inhalation toxicology for new staff in the field, with a mixture of our committee members presenting.
vii. Lung pathology – related to inhalation correlations (presented by our AIT members who are experts in this field).
viii. Foundational data (anatomical and physiological parameters) for respiratory tract across life stages (e.g. 3 months through adulthood).
ix. Regulatory acceptance/view of in vitro respiratory models.
x. Post meeting: Annie Jarabek offered to be the contact to set up one or two sessions (possibly one on the technical details such as dose and another on regulatory status/challenges). Annie actively works in this area and could bring in both EPA and FDA perspectives.
Hopefully we will all be able to meet up in person again soon.