NASW 2004 Annual Meeting (archived)

NASW 2004 Seattle Conference
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NASW 2004 Seattle Field Trips

• Biology Meets Technology
• Marine Science Field Trips sponsored by NOAA

NASW 2004 Seattle offers several Wednesday field trip options for workshop registrants. The NASW field trip will include a half-day visit to the University of Washington and the Institute for Systems Biology on an excursion on advances in biological science. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Sea Grant will offer half- and full-day visits to marine science sites in and around Seattle.

Biology Meets Technology

Departs from the Washington State Convention and Trade Center at noon; $40. There will be a box lunch available to everyone who registers.

The address of the convention center is 800 Convention Place in downtown Seattle.

The exact location of departure is Level 1 South. You will enter the building on level one and go to the east side of the building. There is signage that says "Transportation" with a bus symbol. It is near the Massage Bar and Lotte Beauty Salon. Please plan to arrive before noon to have time to check in and load the bus.

In the U.S. News analysis of NIH funding, the UW School of Medicine ranked first in the nation among public medical schools and second overall around the nation for receipt of federal funding. NASW members will be greeted with a vision for the future of science and medicine by Robert Waterston, one of the three men most responsible for the sequencing of the human genome, according to the New York Times' Nicholas Wade in "Life Script."

Following Waterston's talk, visitors will have the option of visiting the Human Interface Technology Lab. The Human Interface Technology Laboratory is a research and development lab in virtual interface technology. HITL was established in 1989 by the Washington Technology Center (WTC) to transform virtual environment concepts and early research into practical, market-driven products and processes. HITL research strengths include interface hardware, virtual environments software, and human factors. The Lab hopes to develop a new generation of human-machine interfaces to provide solutions to challenges in a variety of domains.

Among projects we may view at the HIT Lab:

• Spiderworld and SnowWorld, virtual reality programs using immersive VR for pain control. Results are encouraging. Twelve patients with severe burns at Harborview reported highly significant reductions in pain levels during physical therapy when in VR compared to no VR (conventional treatment).
• Surgical simulators such as TURP, a system that simulates a surgical process known as the transurethral resection of prostate. Performing TURP is an essential skill, yet the number of TURPs that residents do during their residency has diminished substantially. The UW HIT Lab has developed an image-based representation of blood flow that provides added realism and allows the training surgeon to practice responding appropriately to the challenges of controlling bleeding.

The groups will rendezvous before boarding the bus for a short ride to the The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), a non-profit research institute dedicated to the study and application of systems biology. Co-founded in 2000 by Dr. Leroy Hood, Dr. Alan Aderem and Dr. Ruedi Aebersold, ISB's goal is to unravel the mysteries of human biology and identify strategies for predicting and preventing diseases such as cancer, arthritis and AIDS.

The driving force behind the innovative "systems" approach is the integration of biology, computation, and technology. The Institute collaborates with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington in developing both new technologies in proteomics, genomics and nanotechnology; and computational tools to handle, manage, integrate and model complex data. The ISB is applying these tools to address important biological problems such as deciphering gene regulatory networks and protein structure and controlling the behavior of complex biological systems — ranging from infectious agents to the human immune system.

ISB's President, Dr. Hood, and Director, Dr. Aderem, will host the NASW group for a briefing, facility tour and reception. Attendees will get a first-hand look at the ways systems biology will transform biology and medicine in the 21st century. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels also plans to come by to welcome the group and make a few comments on the status of biotech in this region. More information about the Institute.

Marine Science Field Trips sponsored by NOAA

Full-Day Field Trip:

NOAA Campus on Lake Washington
Cost: $10 includes lunch and transportation
7:30 a.m. — 5:15 p.m.

NOAA facilities and operations headquartered in Seattle include the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), and NOAA Ocean Service Office of Response and Restoration.

Possible topics include:

• Tsunamis are large waves that can travel thousands of miles across the ocean before reaching shore where their effect can be devastating. PMEL does tsunami modeling and forecasting, works with the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program to create maps showing hazard areas, and helped create the DART buoy warning system.
• Until just about 25 years ago, underwater vents were unknown. PMEL's VENTS program conducts research on the impacts and consequences of submarine volcanoes and hydrothermal venting on the global ocean. Now, scientists in the lab can interact with instruments on the sea floor using an acoustic modem to relay data from sea floor instruments up to a moored sea-surface buoy, which in turn sends the data to PMEL via satellite.
• The Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations attempts to understand the influence of environment on the abundance of various commercially valuable fish and shellfish stocks in Alaskan waters and their role in the ecosystem.
• NOAA's Ocean Service's Office of Response and Restoration addresses environmental threats that include catastrophic emergencies such as oil and chemical spills and vessel groundings in marine sanctuaries. They help emergency planners prepare for potential accidents, create tools to help respond to hazardous materials releases and pursue restoration from those responsible for the harm.

Full-day Field Trip:

Heaven on the Half Shell: A West Coast Look at Shellfish Farming
7:30 a.m. — 5 p.m.

NOAA's University of Washington Sea Grant program invites NASW members on shellfish farm tour to Henderson Inlet, a one-hour bus ride from downtown Seattle. Participants will tour a working oyster farm and learn about efforts to restore the health of several recently decertified oyster beds. A stop at Elliott's Oyster House on the shores of Seattle's Elliott Bay for refreshments will conclude this half-day event.

Half-day Field Trip:

Sea Otter Program — Aid for a Threatened Marine Mammal
NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary
1:30 — 3:30 p.m.

Sanctuary Program representatives will escort participants (by foot) to the Seattle Aquarium (where admission fees will be waived) for a presentation from the Aquarium and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary on sea otters. The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary is conducting critical studies on habitat carrying capacity for the sea otters. Currently there is a lot of interest in the California otter, due to high mortality rates, and the Alaska otter, due to orca predation. Participants will gain insight into current efforts that address otter mortality, birth, and habitat. After a behind-the-scenes tour, participants are free to enjoy time on their own at the aquarium.

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