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 next IST meeting is the Pan-American Section Congress, to be held in Brazil, November 3-8, 2013, in conjunction with the Brazilian Society of Toxinology. All members in this region are invited and encouraged to attend. More information is available on the congress website, and on the Pan-American Section page of this website.

The next World Congress of the IST will be held at Oxford University in 2015. Details are yet to be confirmed, but the tentative dates are September 25th to 30th, 2015.

IST Council has now approved and adopted the draft constitution for the Board of Clinical Toxinology and has appointed an inaugural Board to advance this initiative, first discussed at the World Congress in Recife in 2009.

The 17th World Congress of IST was held at the Hilton Hawaii Village, O'ahu, Hawaii, July 8-13, 2012.Around 350 people registered for the Congress, with 344 abstracts accepted. The Society thanks the organisers for their hard work in making the Congress a success.

At the IST AGM, during the Congress, on July 13th, 2012, the proposed new IST Constitution (version 2) was unanimously adopted by members present.

Prof. Gopalakrishnakone retired as IST President, handing over to Prof. Alan Harvey as the incoming President. Nominations for official IST positions were called for. There was only one nominee for Secretary/Treasurer, so Prof. White was declared elected (re-elected). Elections were held for President Elect and for 6 Council positions. Prof. Jay Fox (USA) was elected President Elect. Prof. David Warrell (UK), Dr. Reto Stocklin (Switzerland), Prof. Chema Gutierrez (Costa Rica), Prof. Lourival Possani (Mexico), Prof. Glenn King (Australia) and Prof. M Kini (Singapore) were elected to Council.

Prof. David Warrell (Oxford University, UK) was inducted as the 2012 Redi Lecturer/Awardee. The Society congratulates Prof. Warrell for his outstanding work in toxinology, over many years, leading to his Redi Award.

The World Health Organisation have added snakebite to their list of Neglected Tropical Diseases. This is a very important step in gaining support for dealing with the global envenoming problem.

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.

IST NEWS

The place and venue for the next IST World Congress has yet to be decided. Details will be posted here once available. The Congress will likely be during 2015.

The next scheduled IST Congress will be the Pan-American Section Congress. The 11th Congress of the Pan-American Section of IST will be held, in conjunction with the 12th Congress of the Brazilian Society on Toxinology on November 3rd to 8th, 2013 at the Casa Grande Hotel, Guaruja, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The theme of the Congress is "Envenomation by poisonous animals; a neglected disease".

Details are available on a website.

The 17th World Congress of the Society, was held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, july 8th to 13th, 2012. A website for the Congress may still be available. The Congress was jointly held with Venom Week 2012 and was a most exciting meeting.

The previous IST international meeting was the World Congress, held in Recife, Brazil, March 15-20, 2009. Further details on this important meeting will be posted on the IST website in the near future. 548 people registered for the Congress from 45 countries and there were 473 abstracts submitted. At this meeting, the changeover of IST Officebearers occurred. For the next 3 years Prof. P. Gopalakrishnakone of Singapore will be IST President and Prof. Julian White of Adelaide, Australia will be Secretary Treasuer. Prof. White was re-elected at this Congress for a second 3 year term. Elections for IST President for the next 3 year term will be held shortly, as there are several candidates. The IST congratulates and thanks our Brazilian hosts for this recent Congress in Recife, Brazil.

IST World Congresses are the premiere scientific (and social) meeting for the IST, held every three years. Recent previous IST World Congresses were in Glasgow in 2006, Adelaide in 2003 and Paris in 2000. The recent Congress website is http://www.istsbtx2009.com.br/index.asp

The most recent meeting of the European Section of the IST was in Valencia, Spain, September 11-15, 2011. A wide variety of topics were covered, from venomous animal taxonomy to genomics and venomics, plus clinical toxinology sessions and a symposium on the CONCO Project. With so many presentations, the days were long, plus numerous posters to read. More details are available at a dedicated web site http://istmeetingvlc2011.ibv.csic.es/. About 280 members and other scientists attended this large, busy and successful meeting in a spectacular Science Museum building in sunny Valencia. The Society thanks all those involved in organising this meeting, especially Prof. Juan Calvete, for their hard work and commitment to making the meeting successful. Well done!

The next meeting of the European Section of IST has yet to be determined, but there is a tentative proposal from France, possibly Nice or Cannes.

The most recent meeting of the Asia-Pacific Section of the IST was in Vladivostock, Russia, September 4-8, 2011, at the Conference Hall of the Primorsky Region Administration. The main topics were; toxin structure & mode of action, proteomics & genomics, drug development, clinical toxinology, toxins miscellaneous. More details may be found at the Congress web site http://www.ap-ist.org/index.html. About 80 members and other scientists attended this small meeting, the first IST meeting ever held in Russia. Not surprisingly the meeting had a heavy representation from Russian toxinologists, but also toxinologists from a number of other nations in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Vladivostock has a wonderful setting next to the sea, which attendees were further introduced to on the Congress tour, by boat.The Society thanks all those involved in organising this meeting, especially Prof. Eugene Grishin and Prof. Valentin Stonik, for their hard work and commitment to making the meeting successful. Well done!

The next meeting of the Asia-Pacific Section of IST has yet to be determined, but there is a proposal from China for 2014.

The most recent meeting of the Pan-American Section of the IST was held at the Hotel Real International, San Jose, in Costa Rica, April 18-22, 2010. The contact person for this meeting was Prof. Gutierrez, JOSE.GUTIERREZ@ucr.ac.cr.