2009 Aug 7th

      Dear Histamine friends,

 

      We have just had our

39th meeting of the European Histamine Research Society

      in the medieval town of

Durham, England

      . This was really a very unusual situation where we for the first time had to postpone a meeting from April until July because of the volcano ash cloud. The meeting was a great scientific success and we had some very pleasant social activities e.g. a medieval dinner at Lumbley Castle . Great thanks to the

organizer Paul Chazot

      both for the excellent meeting and also considering the circumstances for making it possible to rearrange this meeting.

 

      This meeting was also the first time we had a joint meeting with the

COST action BM0806 Recent Advances in Histamine Receptor H4R Research

      and this was a great success.

 

  • It started already on the first day with COST ACTION BM0806 TRAINING SCHOOLCOST ESR WG1 Methods Workshop
    Medicinal Chemistry & Receptor Modelling Rob Leurs
    Genomics & Bioinformatics András Falus
    In vivo preclinical studies Abdel Ennaceur
    Antibody production & validation Paul Chazot
    Inflammation models Emanuela Masini

    And in the evening there was:

    COST Public Lecture

    J C Schwartz (France)

    Histamine as a neurotransmitter in brain: From discovery to novel psychotropic drugs – A short history dedicated to the memory of Sir James Black (1924-2010)
  • MEETING PROGRAMME: There were excellent invited lectures, including the GB West lecture

    G.B.West Memorial Lecture

    Jean-Charles Schwartz (France)
    Clinical applications of pitolisant (BF2.649), an inverse agonist at the H3 receptor.

    Plenary Lectures

    Patrizio Blandina (Italy)
    Functional implications of Histaminergic Neurons Heterogeneity
    Nick Carruthers (USA)
    Translational approaches towards the identification of a histamine H3 receptor antagonist and its’ clinical evaluation for the symptomatic treatment of allergic rhinitis
    Jorge Brioni (USA) (given by M. Cowart)
    Discovery of Novel Agents for the Treatment of CNS Disorders
    Marlon Cowart (USA)
    Histamine H3 antagonist properties and efficacy in CNS models
    Steve Liu (The Netherlands)
    Histamine H3 and H4 receptors – therapeutic opportunities in airway and inflammatory diseases

    Symposia

    EHRS Young Investigator Award

    E.S.K. Assem Memorial

    Sir James Black Session

    Stimulating sessions

    • COST ACTION Histamine H4 receptors
    • General Histamine topics
    • Histamine in the Brain
    • H3 receptors in the periphery
    • Histamine in the Brain II
    • COST ACTION Histamine Medicinal Chemistry I
    • Histamine Medicinal Chemistry II
  • Travel bursaries:Student travel bursaries of 500€ each sponsored by

    and GB West Memorial Trust were given to the Bursary Winners:

    Konstantinos Kyriakidis (Greece)
    Leonardo Munari (Italy)
    Maria Sundvik (Finland)

  • EHRS Young Investigator Award:These awards were this year sponsored by Cambridge Research Biochemicals and were given to very talented young scientists.

    Results of the EHRS Young Investigator Awards 2010

    First prize:
    Christelle Anaclet Complementary and Synergistic Control of Wakefulness by Orexins and Histamine, Demonstrated Using a Double Knockout Mouse Model.
    Second prize:
    Saara Nuutinen Histamine and Dopamine in Alcohol Addiction: Friends or Enemies?
    Third prize:
    Natasha Lethbridge Major Human Histamine H3 Receptor Isoforms Display Pharmacological Difference
  • Poster prizes:Results of the Poster Competition
    Winner P1
    Tommas J. Ellender, Icnelia Huerta-Ocampo, Marco Capogna & J. Paul BolamMiriam Walter
    Histaminergic modulation of striatal function
    2nd P19
    Linda J Kay and Peter T Peachell
    Paradoxical effects of the EP2 agonist, Butaprost, on histamine release form human mast cells
    3rd P24
    Roland Geyer,Igel, P., Bernhardt, G., Buschauer, A.
    Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationships of Conformationally Constrained Cyanoguanidines: Potent and Selective Histamine H4 Receptor Agonists
  • WEBSITE:Grateful thanks to Anna Gilicze, Hungary, a student in the group of András Falus, who is the webmaster. She has worked very well and quickly. The latest NEWS is regularly updated. Paul Chazot is still responsible for the scientific part of the website. You are all regularly requested to add interesting papers and short expert reviews. If you have old programmes (or old pictures) at home lying around I am particularly interested to add information to our website about earlier meetings that we lack information about. Please tell me and send to me especially about the meetings: Seville 1997, Kuopio 1990 and meetings before 1980.
  • PROCEEDINGS of the EHRS DURHAM MEETING:The proceedings of the meeting will be published in the journal Inflammation Research. We decided at the General Assembly meeting to publish our proceedings from now on as abstracts but peer reviewed, as before.
  • ASKING FOR PICTURES:I would like to ask those present at the EHRS 2010 meeting in Durham for photos. Have you any photos and in particular the bursary winners, Young Investigator Award Winners and others. Please send them to me for the records and for possible exhibition on our website.
  • LIST OF MEMBERS:Please let me know if you have changed or plan to change address or E-mail address so we can have an updated list of all members. Also if you know of any Histamine colleague that has changed address please let me know at Anita.Sydbom@ki.se
  • NEXT MEETING:Our next meeting will be our 40th meeting and therefore a special one. It will be in Sochi, Russia, by the Black Sea, 11-15 May 2011, and organised by Roman Khanferyan. The website for this meeting will be active soon.

    With all the best wishes

    See you in Sochi next year!

    Anita Sydbom
    President EHRS