International Society on Toxinology

The International Society on Toxinology was founded in 1962 by a group on scientists and clinicians interested in advancing the science of toxinology. The Society had it's first international meeting in 1966 in Atlantic City, USA and it's Journal, Toxicon, was first published in 1963.

The purpose of the Society is to advance knowledge on the properties of toxins and antitoxins and to bring together scholars interested in these substances through a common Society. Membership consists of those who have conducted and published meritorious original investigations in toxinology, while persons who do not qualify for membership but are interested in the field of toxinology are eligible for associate membership.

This website is designed to give IST members and others interested in toxinology access to IST information on forthcoming meetings, subscription payment, membership profiles and related matters.

IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

The most recent IST Congress was the Pan-American Section Congress held in Miami Beach, September 18-23, 2016. There were 184 registrants at this congress, which was organised by Prof. Frank Mari and Prof. Frank Bosmans. IST warmly thanks "the two Franks" for their great work in organising this successful and enjoyable congress in sunny, hot & muggy Miami Beach, home to some of the World's largest collection of art deco architecture. Amongst the novel events organised for this congress was a paella competition between Prof. Juan Calvete (Vallencia, Spain) and Dr. Richard Lewis (Brisbane, Australia). Both cooked superb, but entirely different versiomns of paella, equally delicious, but by a narrow margin Prof. Calvete won with his traditional recipe; congratulations to both our great toxinology cooks! Look for a report on this congress in a future IST Newsletter.

The next Congress of the IST will be the World Congress, hosted by the IST Asia-Pacific Section in Hainan, China. Dates are October 24th to 30th, 2017. A website will soon be available. Registration fees will be lower for IST members so if you are not already a member and intend going to this congress, join the IST before you register.

At thePan-American Section Congress in Miami, September 2016, a revised constitution was put before members to vote on at the Business Meeting of the Society and was passed almost unanimously (only one member opposed). This revised constitution is now in effect. Members wishing to reread the revised constitution may download a copy here.

The 18th World Congress of IST was held at the University of Oxford, UK, September 25-30, 2015 . Around 480 people registered for the Congress, with hundreds of abstracts accepted. The Society thanks the organisers for their hard work in making the Congress a success.

The next IST European Section Congress of the IST is scheduled for 2018 and will be held in Yerevan, Armenia. Dates and details are yet to be finalised, though likely to be in September 2018, so watch out for further information.

The IST AGM was held during the Congress in Miami in September 2016.

Global Snakebite Initiative
This important project is the first major undertaking resulting from the Global Issues in Clinical Toxinology Conference, held in Melbourne, Australia, November 2008. At this meeting, attended by stakeholders from all continents (except Antarctica), a steering committee was formed to move towards solutions for envenomed patients Worldwide. It was considered by this meeting, attended by some senior IST members, that this process would best be promoted by close association with the IST, as a project under the IST banner. At the Asia-Pacific Section Congress in Vietnam in December 2008, a proposal was made by Prof. David Warrell, seconded by Prof. P Gopalakrishnakone (IST President), that "The Global Snakebite Initiative be formally endorsed as an official initiative of the IST." This was passed unanimously and confirmed unanimously at the IST World Congress in Recife, Brazil, March 2009. This important initiative is now officially a project of the IST. The Steering Committee, which contains a number of IST members, will produce a work plan and timeline to present to all IST members. A new website to promote the Initiative has been launched at www.snakebiteinitiative.org and it is to be hoped that this will progress to a major resource for the Initiative.

Global Snakebite Statistics
Recent research by Kasturiaratne et al, published in PLoS, has redefined global estimates of snakebite epidemiology. However, this is, to some extent, a "work in progress". One of the authors, Prof. Janaka de Silva (Sri Lanka) has kindly made available some of the data tables on which the study conclusions were based, with a "challenge" to IST members (and others) to provide more definitive data for each listed country. These tables will be listed on a separate page structure for this website. All interested members are urged to peruse this information and contact Prof. de Silva if they have additional data that might be used to update the tables. This work may be considered as one section of the Global Snakebite Initiative.

Clinical Toxinology
The issue of specialist-level training for medical doctors, in the field of clinical toxinology, and credentialling of such training, was canvassed at the Global Issues in Clinical Toxinology Conference and again, through presentations, at the Asia-Pacific Section Congress in Vietnam. As a result a proposal was put by Prof. Julian White, seconded by Prof. Dietrich Mebs, that "The Asia-Pacific Section of the IST supports the development of a clinical toxinology initiative by the IST." This was passed unanimously and confirmed unanimously at the IST World Congress in Recife, Brazil, March 2009. This important initiative is now officially a project of the IST. The new IST Constitution allows the IST to develop clinical toxinology at a global level. As this project develops, members will be kept informed. The next stage, approval of the constitution of the Board of Clinical Toxinology and establishment of the Board, occurred at the March 2013 IST Council meeting.