UKEMS AGM 2020

• Post by: Smith, Robert
• November 12, 2020
• Comments off

AGM 2020

Agenda

• Video Messages from the Presidents
• Treasurer’s Report
• Mutagenesis Editor’s Report
• GSN Chair’s Report
• IGG Chair’s Report
• MEG Chair’s Report
• NUKEMS Chair’s Report

A Message from the President, Karen Brown

A Message from the Incoming President, Gareth Jenkins

Treasurer’s Report

• 16 Fellows (16, 16, 14)
• 69 Members (80, 91, 86)
• 31 Students (46, 58, 44)
• Total = 116# (142, 165, 144)
• # Current membership numbers from UEKSM website following transfer from OUP (see below)

Subscriptions

• Subscriptions (£25)/membership transitioned to new UKEMS Website (manage by Affinity Events Ltd)
• Note membership still increasing as more members register on new website
• It is members responsibility to ensure that there membership is active (please check and re-register)
• Please ensure students re-join as full members once they have graduated

Bank Accounts

• Balances at 14th July 2020
  • Lloyds TSB: £140,560.43
  • HSBC: £54,007
  • Total reserves = £ 194, 567.43

• Major Debits/Credits in 2020
  • UKEMS/BTS meeting loss (D) – £ 12,546.79 (Feb 2020)
  • Mutagenesis profit share (C) – £ 94,203.00 (Apr 2020)

• Note. Accounts will be accepted/approved once the audit is completed by accountants

Breakdown of payments (2020)

Payment	£
UKEMS/BTS conference 2019 (meeting loss)	12546.79
Summer studentship/Pilot grants	9970
EEMGS travel bursaries	1 approved (subsequently not used)
EEMGS Subs	1210.98
Travel Bursaries	905.78
Society of Biology	390
IGG, MEG Annual	4000
Mutagenesis editorial expense	6000
Website costs	280
Committee expenses	1074.28
UKEMS 2020	7044.00 (paid in 2019)

Mutagenesis Editor’s Report

• 38 submissions from 1st Jan-31st May 2020; 58% rejection rate
• Average time to 1st decision 25.5 days
• Average time to acceptance/rejection 16 days
  • This figure is currently mis-leading due to the high outright rejection rate (usually returned to authors in 1-2 days following submission). The number will be more realistic at the end of the year when all manuscripts currently under review are included.

Mutagenesis Ranking and Impact Factor 2009-2018

Year	Impact Factor	Toxicology Ranking	Genetics/Heredity Ranking
2019	3.379	27/92	68/177
2018	2.898	44/93	75/173
2017	2.840	38/94	78/171
2016	2.507	40/92	84/166
2015	2.297	45/89	94/165
2014	2.793	33/87	72/167
2013	3.497	18/87	54/164
2012	3.500	19/85	53/161
2011	3.183	21/83	56/157
2010	3.983	11/83	42/146

Special Issues and Topics

• 2019
  • Special Issue: In silico approaches to genetic toxicology, Vol 34.1; Guest Editor: Masamitsu Honma
  • Special Topic: Insights into the risk, prognosis and progression of pancreatic cancer; Guest Editor: Pavel Vodička

• 2020
  • Special Issue: Implications of DNA Damage and DNA Repair on Human Diseases, Vol 35.1; Guest Editor: Bryant Nelson & Miral Dizdar
  • Special Topic: Updates addressing colorectal cancer heterogeneity; Guest Editor: Alessio Naccarati and Pavel Vodička
  • Special Topic (Planned): 3D skin models for genotoxicity evaluation; Guest Editor: Stefan Pfuhler & Raffaella Corvi

Editorial Board Changes

• Retired from the Editorial Board (Dec 2019): Alok Dhawan (India)
• Retired from the Editorial Board (May 2020): Veronique Thybaud (France)

• Appointed to the Editorial Board (Dec 2019): Bryant Nelson (USA)

Acknowledgements

• Salma Begum-Rahman, Mutagenesis Editorial ‘Office’
• Senior Editors, past and present
• Phil Bishop, OUP
• Members of Editorial Board, past and present
• Reviewers – publish an annual thank you to our reviewers; Jan issue (35:1)
• Last but not least, AUTHORS

GSN Chair’s Report

• The GSN has announced the cancellation of the January 2021 Annual meeting. We hope to recommence in Jan 2022. Other than this, all other aspects of the Network activities remain unchanged.

IGG Chair’s Report

Changes to the IGG Committee

Committee (as of July 2020):	Company	Joined	Left
Paul Fowler, Chair	FSTox Consulting	2017
Darren Kidd, Treasurer	Covance	2019
Paul Rawlinson, Secretary	Gentronix	2016
Mel Lloyd, Ordinary member	Covance	2015
Rhiannon David, Ordinary member	AstraZeneca	2015
Eva Lessmann, Ordinary member	Syngenta	2019
Grace Kocks, Ordinary member	Lhasa	2020

IGG Accounts Summary (2019)

IGG Accounts Summary (2020)

‘Save the Date’ for the IGG Annual Meeting!

• The IGG Annual meeting will be held on November 30th – December 1st 2020.
• Also, for the first time, this year we will host a New Investigator Session with an award for the best talk.
• Now most likely to be a virtual meeting on the same date with a revised running order, updates will be posted on social media.
• Rich Williams award – In memory of Rich we decided to host an annual IGG prize for an new/early career investigator there will be a small cash prize alongside travel/registration expenses to attend and speak at the next UKEMS meeting.
• IGG member companies (and NUKEMS) asked to suggest suitable candidates. Must have an industrial focus or application to be considered.
• Format of this session would be 3 short new investigator talks, voting by the audience via Menti and announced at the following days AGM.

The future of the IGG

• A Broader role representing industry?

• IGG currently holds an annual meeting with a single F2F committee meeting
• Can we do more?
  • Publications and position papers
  • Workshops (in addition to/instead of the annual meeting?)
  • Data gathering
  • Training on interpretation of regulatory assays (online content)
• Plans for meetings in conjunction with other European societies.
• Some of these activities will be starting in 2020

MEG Chair’s Report

MEG Committee Members

• Chair – Jill McKay, Northumbria University
• Secretary – Jessica Timms, King’s College London
• Treasurer – Andrew Collins, University of Oslo
• Member – Marc Gunter, IARC
• Member – Sabine Langie, Maastricht University
• Member – Hannah Elliott, Bristol University
• Member – Jonine Figueroa, Edinburgh University
• Member – Natassia Robinson, Newcastle University

MEG annual meeting

• Due to limited abstract submissions (n=10) and few registrants we predicted a low attendance (around 20-25) and therefore cancelled the meeting ahead of the situation surrounding COVID19.
• We will be working with the UKEMS committee in which we may rebrand the group in the future to build a coherent focus and build momentum.
• Plans for future meetings are currently on hold due to the COVID situation and will be revisited in the Autumn.

New Team Members and Roles

• Chair (Jill) and Treasurer (Andrew) are due to rotate off the committee
• Jonine will take over as Treasurer, but we need to elect a new Chair from existing members
• We will need at least one new member to join and therefore will soon be advertising this seat

Website

• Our new website runs well and facilitates registrations and abstract submissions for meetings (https://www.meg-uk.org/.)
• We will keep using this site in as it is more cost efficient than linking with the UKEMS website.
• We request that the UKEMS website has a more visible link to the interest groups, as currently this is difficult to find.

Finances

• Finances are in order currently, with around £6000 in credit.
• We thanks UKEMS for the yearly £2000 contribution.

NUKEMS Chair’s Report

• NUKEMS held another successful Sunday session at the UKEMS-BTS congress, Cambridge, 2019
  • This included new investigator (NI) poster pitches/ talks and online peer voting to decide on prize winners
  • Dr Ruth Morse (UWE) and Rob Smith (Covance) were our expert panel on what makes a good interview candidate and we carried out a mock interview with model answers
  • No post-conference survey was carried out this year due to the joint society nature of the conference
  • There were also a number of talks and posters by UKEMS NIs at the congress, and committee members assisted in the poster judging
• As the session won’t happen this year, the committee aims to provide some of our usual session content online, and increase our online presence
• As a number of committee members rotated off the committee in June, our focus has been on recruiting new members
  • The aim was to achieve a good representation of companies/ institutions and NI career stages
  • The new committee is as follows:

Name	Company/ institution	Career stage	Role
Fiona Chapman	Imperial Brands	Pre-clinical toxicologist, 2yrs post PhD	Chair
Beth Rogoyski	De Montfort University	Lecturer, <1yr post PhD	Vice-Chair
Lucy Swithenbank	Swansea University (Genomic Medicine)	Teaching staff, <1yr post PhD	Treasurer
Alex Afarinkia-Vinader	Covance	Report co-ordinator, graduate	Ordinary member
Harshini Asurappulige	University of West England	PhD student	Ordinary member
Rebekah Beck	King’s College London	Post-doctoral researcher, <1yr post-PhD	Ordinary member
Alan Dawson	Leicester University	PhD student/ Academic Clinical Fellow	Ordinary member
Demi Pritchard	Swansea University (IVTG)	PhD student	Ordinary member
Anup Rai	Covance	Research assistant, graduate	Ordinary member
Linda Reilly	Swansea University (IVTG)	PhD student	Ordinary member

• We are currently in the process of selecting a Secretary and allocating dedicated social media roles
• We would like to thank the former committee members for all their hard work over the years