2001 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting

Abstract

The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) held a very successful annual meeting November 15–18, 2001 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. AMP was very pleased to open its seventh annual meeting by presenting its Award for Excellence to Dr. Bert Vogelstein of John Hopkins University. This award, sponsored by Visible Genetics, Inc., (Toronto, Canada) is presented annually to a scientist who has made major contributions affecting our field. Dr. Vogelstein has been instrumental to our current level of understanding of the molecular events leading to development of colorectal cancer. In his address, he covered the genomic alterations uncovered in early studies, molecular mechanisms of genomic micro- and macroinstability, and newer studies examining gene expression changes in colorectal tumors. He discussed several examples of genes involved in regulation of angiogenesis, and presented technical approaches, such as “digital PCR,” used in his lab to improve sequencing results and detection of heterozygous mutations. We would like to congratulate Dr. Vogelstein and thank him for attending the meeting.