Wednesday, June 24, 2009

June Issue of Comparative Medicine now Available

Access articles here.

Competing Interests Policy for AALAS Journals
pp. 216-216(1)
Authors: Toth, Linda A.; Compton, Susan R.; Tolwani, Ravi

Competing Interests Policy for AALAS Journals
pp. 217-218(2)
Authors: Hankenson, Claire F.; Silverman, Jerald; Dysko, Bob C.; Thomas, Sally A.; Benner, Deborah

Alopecia: Possible Causes and Treatments, Particularly in Captive Nonhuman Primates
pp. 219-219(1)
Author: Chu, David

Errata
pp. 220-220(1)

Deletion of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Phosphatase 1 Modifies the Response to Mechanical Bone Marrow Ablation in a Mouse Model
pp. 221-226(6)
Authors: Carlson, Jodi; Zhang, Qing; Bennett, Anton; Vignery, Agnès

Moxidectin Toxicity in Senescence-Accelerated Prone and Resistant Mice
pp. 227-233(7)
Authors: Lee, Vanessa K.; Tiwary, Asheesh K.; Sharma-Reddy, Prachi; Lieber, Karen A.; Taylor, Douglas K.; Mook, Deborah M.

Endpoints for Mouse Abdominal Tumor Models: Refinement of Current Criteria
pp. 234-241(8)
Authors: Paster, Eden V.; Villines, Kimberly A.; Hickman, Debra L.

Use of Fat-Fed Rats to Study the Metabolic and Vascular Sequelae of Obesity and β-Adrenergic Antagonism
pp. 242-248(7)
Authors: Frye, Melinda; McMurtry, Ivan; Orton, Christopher E.; Fagan, Karen

The Unilateral Urogenital Anomalies (UUA) Rat: A New Mutant Strain Associated with Unilateral Renal Agenesis, Cryptorchidism, and Malformations of Reproductive Organs Restricted to the Left Side
pp. 249-256(8)
Authors: Amakasu, Kohei; Suzuki, Katsushi; Suzuki, Hiroetsu

The Physiologic Responses of Dutch Belted Rabbits Infected with Inhalational Anthrax
pp. 257-265(9)
Authors: Lawrence, William S.; Hardcastle, Jason M.; Brining, Douglas L.; Weaver, Lori E.; Ponce, Cindy; Whorton, Elbert B.; Peterson, Johnny W.

Assessing Anticalcification Treatments in Bioprosthetic Tissue by Using the New Zealand Rabbit Intramuscular Model
pp. 266-271(6)
Authors: Wright, Gregory A.; Faught, Joelle M.; Olin, Jane M.

Left Ventricular Remodeling after Myocardial Infarction: Characterization of a Swine Model on β-Blocker Therapy
pp. 272-279(8)
Authors: Angeli, Franca S.; Shapiro, Mia; Amabile, Nicolas; Orcino, Gina; Smith, Charles S.; Tacy, Theresa; Boyle, Andrew J.; Chatterjee, Kanu; Glantz, Stanton A.; Grossman, William; Yeghiazarians, Yerem

Comparison of 3 Methods to Induce Acute Pulmonary Hypertension in Pigs
pp. 280-286(7)
Authors: Roehl, Anna B.; Steendijk, Paul; Baumert, Jan H.; Schnoor, Joerg; Rossaint, Rolf; Hein, Marc

Comparison of Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress and Cardiovascular Disease in Humans and Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
pp. 287-296(10)
Authors: Videan, Elaine N.; Heward, Christopher B.; Chowdhury, Kajal; Plummer, John; Su, Yali; Cutler, Richard G.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Nathan Brewer Passes Away

The laboratory animal science community is mourning the death of AALAS founder and first president, Dr. Nate Brewer. He was 104.

One of Dr. Brewer’s lasting contributions to the field was pioneering the concept of a dedicated veterinarian managing the care and welfare of laboratory animals. Dr. Brewer retired from the University of Chicago in 1969 and spent the next 40 years consulting, pursuing his interests in the morphophysiologic differences among animals, and participating in various professional societies.

“Dr. Brewer made major contributions to AALAS and the biomedical community, including initiating the participation of veterinarians in the oversight of laboratory animal care and management,” said AALAS President Scott Perkins. “Dr. Brewer's passing is a tremendous loss to the AALAS community and he will be dearly missed.”

Dr. Brewer was born on June 28, 1904 in Albany, NY. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture from Michigan State College in 1930, a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1936, and a DVM from Michigan State in 1938. In 1977 he was bestowed an honorary degree from the College of Osteopathy.

In 1950 Dr. Brewer was one of five Chicago-area veterinarians that organized the first national meeting of the Animal Care Panel (now AALAS). Seventy-five people attended. Dr. Nathan Brewer was elected first president of the Animal Care Panel, a position he held for five years.

He received numerous awards over his illustrious career, including Man of the Year by the National Society of Medical Research in 1955. AALAS established the Nathan R. Brewer Scientific Achievement Award in 1994 that recognizes individuals who have made major and repeated scientific contributions to laboratory animal science and comparative medicine.

In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to the College of Veterinary Medicine, Office of Development, Michigan State University, F-130 Veterinary Medical Center, East Lansing, MI 48824. For more information call Goldman Funeral Group at (847) 478-1600.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

AALAS National Meeting Registration Open

Online registration for the 60th AALAS National Meeting in Denver is now open.

Registered attendees may also sign up for workshops online. Remember, you must be registered for the meeting before you can register for workshops. Exhibitors must register through their companies.

The preliminary meeting program will be available soon. In the meantime, check the AALAS National Meeting website for the latest updates.

See you in Denver!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Please Support Pro-Test Petition

You are urged to add your voice to those of other scientists showing their support for humane animal research. Research advocates at Americans for Medical Progress, UCLA Pro-Test, and Speaking of Research have set up an online petition supporting humane animal research. Please consider adding your name by going to http://www.raisingvoices.net/.

The Pro-Test Petition was inspired by a 2006 petition in the U.K. that gathered over 20,000 signatures, including that of then Prime Minister Tony Blair. That petition helped to turn the tide of public opinion in the U.K. in favor animal research. As a result, in 2008, supporters of research were able to celebrate the completion of a laboratory in Oxford whose construction had been halted for more than a year due to harassment and intimidation by animal rights extremists.

With violence against researchers escalating in the U.S. now is the time for members of the research community to publicly reaffirm the need of humane animal research. AALAS has long been proud of the role it has played in promoting humane animal research and will continue to support such research in the future.

A Reminder about Fraud Email

On Friday, June 12, around 1:00 p.m. CST, you may have received an email that looked like it was sent from the AALAS national office, but it wasn't. The fraudulent email included a picture of the AALAS office, from the AALAS website, and included the following wording:

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PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE !

Dear Joe Smith

During to one of our regular automatical verification procedures, we have detected a slight error in your account. This might be due to an innability to accurately verify your selected options of subscription or due to the recent modifications made in our database. We are urgently asking you to submit your information so that we could fully verify your identity. If your account informations are not updated within the next 12 hours your access to aalas.org will be restricted until you pass verification process.

To submit your information please click here.

We are sorry for any incovenience this email may cause, and we appreciate your cooperation.

Please do not reply to this e-mail.
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Please note that this is a phishing scam email that is asking you to log into a website that appears identical to the AALAS website. This email did not originate from the AALAS national office and should be deleted immediately.

If you have logged into the fake site, please change your AALAS password at www.aalas.org. But first, clear out your browser's internet cache, history, cookies, etc. to prevent the fake website address from reappearing in your browser, and you can start fresh by manually entering www.aalas.org.

If you provided credit card information on this phishing site, please cancel your credit card immediately.

AALAS will never send an unsolicited email asking you to confirm or change your username or password, nor will AALAS ask you to verify any information over the Internet by asking for your credit card information. The only time credit card information is required is when you are making an online purchase from AALAS.

Please be assured that AALAS is devoted to protecting your personal information and we take this situation seriously.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Beware of unauthorized email

Around 1:00 p.m. CST an email that looked like it was sent from the AALAS national office was reported. Please note that this a phishing scam email that is asking you to log into a website that looks like the AALAS website. This did not come from the AALAS national office. Please delete the email. If you clicked on the email's link in error, we recommend that you change your AALAS website username and password.

Members are reporting that this phishing site is also requesting credit card information. If you have entered your credit card information on this phishing site, cancel your credit card immediately.

Except for online transactions, AALAS will never request your credit card information over the internet for any type of verification purposes.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Election Ballots Mailed

Official ballots for the 2009 AALAS election were mailed June 8. Completed ballots must be returned within 30 days of the postmark, on or about July 8, in order to be included in the election count as specified per AALAS policy.

Don’t miss your opportunity to vote for one vice president-elect candidate to serve as 2011 President, one secretary/treasurer candidate to serve for the next three years, and, if a position is open within your district, for one trustee and/or alternate trustee candidate to serve your district for the next three years.Your district is designated by the address where your ballot is mailed.

To view the candidate bios online, click here. You must be logged in to view this page.