News from the Secretary

Message from the President
January/February 2009

Dear LATS colleagues, Welcome to the January-February 2009 Newsletter. A short time left for our XIII LATS Congress to be held in Gramado, Brazil, April 30 – May 3, 2009. We would like to strongly encourage everyone to join us at the Meeting. We are very pleased to let you know that important efforts have been made by the Local Organizing Committee, chaired by Dr. Ana Luiza Maia to achieve all arrangements for the XIII LATS Congress. We already have a great number of registrations for the Meeting. After months of hard work, the Scientific Committee, chaired by the LATS President-Elect, Hans Graf has developed a complete and well-balanced scientific program that is attractive to clinicians, biochemists and basic scientists. Among the new scientific sessions in this Meeting, we will have four Sessions called “Poster Debate”, in which the ten best posters of each theme (Thyroid Cancer, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Clinical Thyroidology and Thyroid Hormone Metabolism and Action) will be presented orally. The authors of this posters have 3 minutes to present his data in a Power Point presentation, and 2 minutes left for discussion. From each Poster Debate Session, the two best Posters will be granted with the “Travel Grant” (TG, 300.00 USD). To be candidate for the TG the author of the poster must follow the same conditions as the authors of the Oral Session or Merck Prize, already detailed in our previous Newsletter. You can find detailed information on the XIII LATS Meeting at the Congress webpage: www.lats2009.com.br. This site can be easily accessed through the LATS website (www.lats.org). We strongly recommend that you book your hotel as early as possible to ensure availability. Please note that there are reduced registration fees for our XIII LATS Congress until 30th March 2009. This preferential discount as well as LATS Travel Grants and Young Prizes are only applicable to LATS members who are not in debt with the Society. We would like to inform you that LATS General Assembly is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 2nd at 18.50 PM. Any member may require amendments/modifications of LATS bylaws through a letter to the LATS Secretary at least one month before the General Assembly. One of the issues to be discussed in the Assembly will be the venue of the XIV LATS meeting in 2011. LATS members are invited to present a city/country for the XIV LATS Meeting at the Assembly. We want to let you know you that Dr. Eduardo K. Tomimori, LATS Treasurer, has informed that the LATS 2008 Balance is available on LATS web page at Balance Statements. It gives us a great pleasure to inform you about the last International Coordinating Committee (ICC) meeting that was held in Chicago, in the same venue of the 79th American Thyroid Association (ATA) Annual Meeting, on October 2nd, 2008. Members present were Rebecca Bahn (ATA President), Richard Kloos, (ATA Secretary), Kenneth Burman (ATA Presiden-Elect), Peter Laurberg, (ETA President), Josef Köhrle, (representing ETA Secretary & the LOC and POC Chairmen of the 14th ITC), Junji Konishi (AOTA President), Yoshiharu Murata (AOTA Secretary), Guillermo Juvenal (LATS President), Hans Graf (representing LATS Secretary) and Hugo Niepomniszcze (ICC Recording Secretary). .Dr. Hugo Niepomniszcze sent us a detailed inform about the ICC meeting. The main topics treated were: - Up to date activities of the Program Organizing Committee (POC) and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the 14th ITC (http://www.itc2010.com). Dr. Köhrle informed that the POC had a very productive meeting in Paris early this year, followed by many communications between the POC members, arriving to a general congress schedule, which may be observed in the First Announcement as well as the welcome letter, written by Dr. Wilmar Wiersinga. Dr. Wiersinga is planning several meetings and contacts with the POC members, just to select and organize topics and speakers. - Dr. Körhle said that the POC also wants to give a prominent place to the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD), perhaps a Satellite Symposium on iodine deficiency disorders. - Dr. Körhle informed that the LOC was performing an excellent job. They were impressed by the expertise of the Professional Congress Organizer in Paris, MCI. The congress venue, le Palaís des Congrès, has all necessary amenities, it is easily accessible and beautifully located. - Dr. Körhle commented that the LOC had considered the situation that the dates of the 14th ITC could overlap the jewish holidays of 2010 but they do not have the chance to change the dates because le Palaís des Congrès has no availability of alternative dates. - Dr. Niepomniszcze pointed out that there was a mistake in the list of the members of the POC in the First Announcement, because members of the LOC were also included in that list. Then, it was stated that in all future announcements only the 12 members of the POC should be included. - The last point treated was “World Thyroid Federation. Discussion of the draft prepared by the Recording Secretary” - Dr. Niepomniszcze reminded that in the ICC Meeting in New York, in 2007, the ICC members asked him to prepare a draft concerning the background, objectives and tentative rules of the future WTF. He prepared such a draft with the kindly help of Drs. Cooper and Wiersinga, and a copy was sent to every ICC member, in order to make corrections and/or modifications. During this ICC meeting in Chicago a unique project should be ready to be delivered to the Executive Committee of each sister society. - Several items regarding the organization of WTF were discussed. - Dr. Niepomniszcze asked to have the final opinions from the Executive Committees of the 4 sister societies before March 31, 2009, just to give the necessary time to present the final project to each one of the General Assemblies of the four associations. The WTF project is going to be presented at the LATS General Assembly in Gramado, Brazil, next May, for its final approval by our Society. Finally, we want to remind you of some incoming events: ATA Research Summit Thyroid Hormone in Pregnancy and Development ATA Spring Symposium Thyroid Dysfunction and Pregnancy: Miscarriage, Preterm Delivery and Decreased IQ April 16-17, 2009 The Madison, A Loews Hotel. Washington, DC http://thyroid.org/ann_mtg/2009_spring/index.html Our best regards,

Guillermo Juvenal  LATS President Ana Maria Masini-Repiso  LATS Secretary

Hans Graf  LATS President-Elect Eduardo Tomimori  LATS Treasurer