The meeting began with welcoming remarks by Dr. Bill Craig.

The working hypothesis is that components of the acute inflammation response in mammalian ventricle are mediated by changes in sarcolemma ion channels; I Na: a persistent Na current & I K1: an inwardly rectifying K current.

Steve Flaim- Having a list of all the companies in San Diego County that deal with issues in the Industrial Advisory Board will be helpful. It was suggested that CONNECT directory might be a good source, but it was pointed out that the smaller companies might not be on the directory because they are not willing to pay for this. BIOCOM is another good source of the list of companies in San Diego County and vicinity.

Walt Baxter- Irvine has a lot of small medical companies that are members of the Industrial Affiliate Group in UC Irvine. Dr. Baxter volunteered to contact some of these companies and potentially recruit them as board members.

The time when the gatherings are scheduled also matters. Most of the companies prefer to meet early in the morning or in the evening after work hours.

Sean Cahill – The goal of the IAB membership should be given a huge emphasis. i.e. connection to the faculty.

Steve Halpern responded that marketing the successes that this IAB has accomplished is a good strategy like what the von Leibig center did, which they recorded all their forums on DVD for public access and was aired on UCSD TV

Steve Flaim- Networking and access to UCSD faculty is a huge benefit of being a member; so write-ups on UCSD’s faculty and researchers, adding the von Leibig story and success on internships that the IAB has brought should be sent to prospective members.

Shirley Lee will provide a list of San Diego companies that Von Leibig center had. To view the list please go to “Lifesciences Directory”.

Rowella Garcia will prepare the list of existing IAB members.

The Whitaker Institute brochure will be updated.

An event to gather all the IAB members will be planned.

Of the 45 listings in the IAB Directory, 22 are company representatives.  Of those 22 representatives, approximately 15 are active in the IAB.  That level of participation is terrific, and I suspect rivals most of the other IAB-type organizations around the country.  I would therefore propose that rather than, or in addition to, working to increase participation, we work to recruit new member companies to the Board.  (Although a get-together event would be fun!)

- W. Craig

Reports on IUPS and System-wide Bioengineering Symposium – Dr. Shu Chien

 The 35th Congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences ( IUPS) was held in San Diego, CA., March 31 - April 5, 2005, which was organized by the six member societies of the U.S. National Committee of the IUPS, the American Physiological Society, the Society for Neuroscience, the Microcirculatory Society, the Society of General Physiologists, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, under the auspices of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. There were approximately 5000 attendees from all over the world. This attendance almost doubled the numbers when it was held in Russia and New Zealand.

 The Multi-campus Research Unit entitled “Bioengineering Institute of California” is a consortium of the Bioengineering programs of the 10 University of California campuses. An annual System-wide Bioengineering Symposia will be held on June 26-27, 2005 at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This symposium will bring faculty, students and postgraduate researchers from all of the UC campuses. Roderick Pettigrew, the Director of National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) will be the guest speaker. The program will have a great emphasis on industry. For more information, please visit http://ucbioeng2005.cbse.ucsc.edu/.

Report on Stem Cell Initiative – Dr. Shu Chien

A 29-member Oversight Committee was formed by the State of California for the Stem Cell Initiative. UCSD has Drs. Ed Holmes (Dean of Medical School) and Leon Thal (Chair of Neuroscience) on this committee. They have agreed that the location of the headquarters does not matter. The main focus is on how to obtain grants. An outline for the call for training grant application has been drafted, but the deadline has not been set.

BMES Chapter for Undergraduates at UCSD –Shirley Lee and Ben Kavanaugh

 The BMES has successfully published the inaugural issue of the Bio-E Quarterly Newsletter. A Graduate Student Panel in January 26, 2005 was held where students gained valuable insights from the current students working in bioengineering labs. BMES also plans on giving the students company tours, at least four per quarter, so that they could actually see the type of environment that they will expect when they start working in the real world. Dr. Flaim suggested Friday afternoons are usually the best time to schedule tours. The company tours will start at the beginning of Winter 2006. Please visit http://bmes.ucsd.edu for more information.

Drs. Chien and Craig thanked everyone for another successful meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 9:30am.

For contact information please contact Rowella Garcia at rgarcia@bioeng.ucsd.edu.