Meeting Information

Invitation from the President

I am pleased to invite you to attend the 60th Annual Meeting of the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, taking place VIRTUALLY this June and July! The theme for this year’s meeting is “Honoring Teratology’s Roots, Growing a Healthier Future.” This will be an exciting meeting as we celebrate both our history under the Teratology Society name and the important scientific advances symbolized by our new name and logo.

The Program Committee, chaired by Elise Madison Lewis, has put together an outstanding program around this theme, including a special session on COVID-19’s effects on pregnant women and their babies. Our keynote speaker will be NICHD Director Dr. Diana Bianchi, and recently retired NIEHS Director Dr. Linda Birnbaum will deliver the Warkany Lecture.

The program offers an exciting variety of scientific sessions on topics including:

  • Coronavirus (COVID-19) and pregnancy (free pre-meeting session on Thursday, June 11th) 
  • Investigation of a potential outbreak of birth defects
  • Gene therapy, CRISPR/Cas9 technology, breakthroughs, and ethical challenges
  • Opioid use in pregnancy
  • Embryogenesis at high-resolution
  • Perinatal and postnatal exposures to environmental chemicals
  • Obesity and metabolic disorders
  • Assessing pregnancy risk of immunomodulators

Additionally, the meeting will include 34 platform presentations, including the Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Platform and the Innovator Award Finalists Platform, and attended poster sessions. Once again, the best trainee platform and poster presentations will be recognized with special awards.

Our virtual meeting will also include two special social events for attendees to catch up and network with friends and colleagues. The first will be a special Presidents' Welcome Reception Zoom Social hosted by myself and our Past Presidents who are participating in the virtual meeting. The second will be a special Warkany Tea Zoom Social in honor of our 60th Anniversary.

The Education Committee, chaired by Caren Villano, has developed three exciting Education Courses pertaining to immune system development, juvenile toxicology, and ovarian assessment. The Education Courses will take place on Thursdays throughout the month of July.

Please visit the Annual Meeting website for complete program and registration details:
https://www.birthdefectsresearch.org/meetings/2020/

If you registered for the face-to-face Annual Meeting and/or Education Courses before the Annual Meeting went virtual, you have automatically been registered for the same events in virtual format and may be due a partial credit. You will receive an email from BDRP HQ by May 15 with details. 

Thank you to our Annual Meeting Sponsors (below) for their continued support of our meeting in its new virtual format. Their financial support has allowed us to use the best available technology for an enhanced, interactive meeting while keeping registration fees manageable for all participants. Additionally, I would like to thank our Sustaining Members (below) for their continued support of the year-round operations of the Society.

Our Annual Meeting provides us with the opportunity to promote our shared vision and scientific identity as researchers focused on the causes, manifestations, intervention, and prevention of birth defects, both structural and functional. It is also a celebration of our scientific diversity as a Society of clinicians, scientists, and science policy regulators from academic, industrial, and government sectors, and an opportunity to bring a truly multidisciplinary perspective to important and emerging scientific issues. We hope you will join us online for what promises to be an informative and engaging virtual meeting, and please consider inviting those who would have been unable to travel to Charleston due to budget restrictions!

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