A History of the Teratology Society

THOMAS H. SHEPARD,

MASON BARR, JR.,

ROBERT L. BRENT,

3,4

ANDREW HENDRICKX,

5,6

DEVENDRA KOCHHAR,

GODFREY OAKLEY,

8,9

AND

WILLIAM J. SCOTT, JR.

Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195

Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105

DuPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Delaware 19899

Department of Pediatrics, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107

University of California, Davis, California 95616

California Regional Primate Research Center, Davis, California 95616

Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania 19107

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta,

Georgia 30322

Children’s Hospital Research Foundation, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229

ABSTRACT

Background: The 39-year history of the Teratology

Society is reviewed. An abbreviated history is outlined

in table form, along with listings of the Warkany Lec-

tures, the postgraduate courses, and ofﬁcers of the

Society.

Methods: A year-by-year description of the events,

including the scientiﬁc and social content of the annual

meetings and changes in the business of the Society,

is given, in many cases using comments from the past

presidents. The valuable and unique diversity of the

members is discussed and illustrated, presenting the

disciplines and main research area of the presidents.

The number of submitted abstracts and the various

categories are tabulated, averaging the number and

type over four periods. Within the past 10 years, a

signiﬁcant increase in the number of abstracts dealing

with epidemiology and developmental biology is evi-

dent. The Society’s development is compared with that

of a human, and the question is asked: Have we

reached the maturational stage of old age or senes-

cence, or is the Society still maturing gracefully? This

question needs further discussion by all the members.

Results: During the past 40 years, we have developed

the scientiﬁc basis to prevent birth defects caused by

rubella, alcoholism, and folate deﬁciency, as well as

many other prenatal exposures.

Conclusions: We must now engage in the political

battles to obtain the resources needed to conduct

further research and to implement the prevention pro-

grams, as well as to provide care and rehabilitation for

persons with birth defects.

Teratology 62:301–316, 2000.

INTRODUCTION

A history should record and honor the past, help plan

for the future, and entertain the reader. In 1998, Philip

Mirkes, the president of the Teratology Society, asked

the authors to write a history of the Teratology Society

to coincide with the year 2000. The content of this

publication is summarized as follows. Table 1 presents

the Society’s presidents, meeting place, and key

changes in the Society’s function; Table 2 lists all the

ofﬁcers, with their place of work, Table 3 outlines the

Warkany Lectures; and Table 4 lists the education

courses. A year-by-year description of events detailing

the activities for each year is given, but this begins in

1967–1968, since Wilson and Warkany (’85) previously

covered the preceding years. In these accounts, we

have asked the past presidents to assist and provide

interesting and amusing anecdotes. A section on the

diversity of the Society has been included, as we believe

that one of our unique valuable assets is the contribu-

tion from many scientiﬁc disciplines from molecular

genetics to epidemiology and dysmorphology in the

study of teratology. The scientiﬁc methods used in the

yearly abstracts have been classiﬁed and counted in

order to give some idea of how the Society’s research

techniques and approaches have changed over the past

40 years. Lastly, we attempted to compare the Society’s

life with that of a human and asked the question: Is our

Society in its middle age or old age or, worse, senes-

cence? We believe that the Society should be proud of

its past, but we should not be mired in nostalgia. In

other, simpler, words, it is proper to look back but not

to stare.

*Correspondence to: Thomas H. Shepard, Birth Defects Research

Laboratory, Box 356320, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

98195-6320. E-mail: [email protected]

Received 7 January 2000; Accepted 14 April 2000

TERATOLOGY 62:301–316 (2000)

TABLE 1. Abbreviated history of Teratology Society

Year of

meeting President Meeting site Key topics

Business and

administration

1961 J. Warkany Cincinnati, OH Organization of society, chromosomal defects

1962 J.G. Wilson Gainesville, FL Chromosomal defects, developmental

genetics

1963 F.C. Fraser Ste. Adele, Quebec Thalidomide, cellular basics of development,

teratogenic agents

1964 D.A. Karnofsky

and M.M.

Nelson

Harriman, NY Epidemiology, cellular basis of development,

teratogenic agents

1965 I.W. Monie San Francisco, CA Viruses, oncogenesis

1966 S.Q. Cohlan Corpus Christi, TX Riboﬂavin deﬁciency, primate model

pesticides

1967 M.N. Runner Estes Park, CO X-irradiation, mechanism of thalidomide,

ﬂuid problems in the embryo

1968 R.L. Brent Buck Hill Falls, PA Immunology, Trypan blue Dr. H. Kalter, ﬁrst editor of

Teratology

1969 T.H. Shepard Crystal Mountain, WA Whole embryo culture (Dennis New);

thalidomide, isoenzymes

1970 R.W. Miller Annapolis, MD Di George syndrome pharmacokinetics

1971 J. Langman Williamsburg, VA

1972 S. Pruzansky Brown’s Lake, WI Transplacental carcinogenesis, cartilagenous

dwarﬁsm

1973 D.G. Trasler St. Jovite, Quebec Potato blight, male sexual development

1974 J.R. Miller Vancouver, BC Fetal alcohol and other syndromes, placental

morphology, animal testing

1975 E.M. Johnson Pocono Manor, PA Developmental pharmacology, preclinical

teratology testing

Concurrent sessions at

meeting

1976 L.S. Hurley Carmel, CA Cleft palate epidemiology, Down syndrome,

copper deﬁciency, and mutant gene

quaking mice, immunology and

teratogenesis

Poster sessions started

1977 J.L. Sever Reston, VA Estrogen and birth defects, mesoderm in

polydactyly, terathanasia, preventive

methods, teratomas, postnatal defects

R.L. Brent, editor of

Teratology

1978 E.V. Perrin Mackinac Island, MI Ethical issues, polybrominated biphenyls,

molecular biology

1979 A.R. Beaudoin Cedar, MI Biomechanical factors; mutational rates,

limb defects

Wilson Young Investigator

Award started

1980 R.M. Hoar Portsmouth, NH Fetal alcohol syndrome, facial clefts

1981 C.A. Swinyard Palo Alto, CA Ethanol, radiation, workplace hazards,

Bendectin trial

Public Affairs Committee

initiated

1982 W.J. Scott French Lick, IN Developmental neurotoxicology of opiates,

receptors, in vitro embryo culture,

prevention of congenital defects, drug

metabolism

1983 D.M. Kochhar Atlantic City, NJ Neurotoxicity of heavy metals, expert

witness, growth factors, gene insertion

1984 R.E. Staples Boca Raton, FL Bendectin

1985 G.P. Oakley Pine Mountain, GA Risk assessment, teratology answering

services

1986 L.B. Holmes Boston, MA Hyperthermia, postnatal outcome with lead

and cocaine

1987 A.G. Hendrickx Rancho Mirage, CA Diabetic embryopathy, yolk sac, chemical

disposition and toxicity, regulation and

legislative process

First meeting of

Organization of

Teratology Information

Services (OTIS)

1988 C.T. Grabowski W. Palm Beach, FL Teratology in 1990s; advances in morphology

1989 M.S. Christian Richmond, VA Male infertility; retinoids, regulatory issues,

lead and behavior, developmental biology,

computers and teratology information

Vice-President-elect position

initiated; position paper

on retinoids, Student

Travel Awards started

1990 E.F. Zimmerman Victoria, BC Homeotic genes, apoptosis, cocaine

1991 C.A. Kimmel Boca Raton, FL Preimplantation teratology, the war to

prevent congenital defects, developmental

neurotoxicology, molecular targets in the

embryo, Accutane

Business ofﬁce with

executive secretary

established

1992 R.K. Miller Boca Raton, FL Prevention of neural tube defects, genetic

teratology

1993 M. Barr Tucson, AZ Molecular approaches, occupational hazards T.W. Sadler, editor of

Teratology

1994 J.W. Hanson Puerto Rico

1995 J.M. Desesso Newport Beach, CA Risk assessment, trophoblast cells, folic acid,

neural crest, antioxidants

1996 K.K. Sulik Keystone, CO Molecular mechanisms, maternal nutrition,

retinoids

1997 J.F. Cordero W. Palm Beach, FL Apoptosis, molecular mechanisms of

pharmacology, targeted gene disruption,

regulation of apoptosis

L.B. Holmes, editor of

Teratology

1998 P.E. Mirkes San Diego, CA Genetic susceptibility, gene mapping, legal

cases, arsenic, name change for society

F. Clarke Fraser Young

Investigator Award

initiated; New

professional management

team (ADG) was hired

1999 A.R. Scialli Keystone, CO Apoptosis, oxidative stress, skeletal

development, and postmarket surveillance

of drugs

2000 G.P. Daston W. Palm Beach, FL

302 SHEPARD ET AL.

TABLE 2. Alphabetical list of past and present officers of the Teratology Society

Name Institution President Secretary/treasurer Treasurer

Council

member

Barr, M., Jr. University of Michigan 1992–1993 1986–1988

Beaudoin, A.R. University of Michigan 1978–1979 1971–1974

Benirschke, K. University of California, San Diego 1963–1965

Brent, R.L. du Pont Hospital for Children and

Jefferson Medical College

1967–1968

Brown, K.S. NIDS 1983–1985

Christian, M.S. Argus Research Laboratory 1988–1989 1983–1987

Cohlan, S.Q. New York University 1965–1966 1960–1964

Cordero, J.F. Centers for Disease Control 1996–1997 1991–1993

Dagg, C.P. Jackson Memorial Laboratory 1963–1968

Daston, G.P. Procter & Gamble Co. 1999–2000 1991–1994

DeSesso, J.M. Mitretek Systems 1994–1995

Fantel, A.G. University of Washington 1988–1990

Faustman, E. University of Washington 1960–1964

Finnell, R.H. Texas A&M University 1997–2000

Francis, E.Z. U.S. EPA 1992–1995

Fraser, F.C. McGill University 1962–1963 1960–1961

Friedman, J. University of British Columbia (2001–2002)

Grawbowski, C.T. University of Miami 1987–1988 1979–1981

Greene, J.A. CIIT 1984–1986

Gunberg, D.L. University of Oregon 1960–1962;

1967–1969

Hales, B. McGill University 1996–1999 1998–1999

Hanson, J.W. University of Iowa 1993–1994 1990–1991

Hendrickx, A.G. University of California 1986–1987 1979–1983

Hoar, R.M. Roche Pharmaceutical 1979–1980 1974–1978

Holmes, L.B. Massachusetts General Hospital 1985–1986 1982–1984

Hook, E.B. University of California, Berkeley 1987–1989

Hurley, L.S. University of California, Davis 1975–1976 1968–1972

Jensh, R.P. Jefferson Medical College 1990–1992

Johnson, E.M. Jefferson Medical College 1974–1975 1967–1970

Jones, K. University of California 1998–1999

Kalter, H. Children’s Hospital Research

Foundation

1966–1968

Kaplan, S. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee 1977–1978

Karnofsky, D.A. Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute 1963–1964 1961–1963

Kavlock, R.J. U.S. EPA (2000–2001) 1995–1997

Khera, K.S. Bureau of Chemical Safety, Canada 1980–1982

Kimmel, C.A. U.S. EPA 1990–1991

Kochhar, D.M. Thomas Jefferson Medical College 1982–1983 1971–1973

Langman, J. University of Virginia 1970–1971 1968–1969

Long, S.Y. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee 1978–1979

Manson, J.M. Merck Co. 1988–1991

Miller, J.R. University of British Columbia 1973–1974 1970–1971

Miller, R.K. University of Rochester 1991–1992

Miller, R.W. National Cancer Institute 1969–1970

Mirkes, P.E. University of Washington 1997–1998

Monie, I.W. University of California 1964–1965

Moss, S. National Institutes of Health 1973–1974 1974–1975

Murphy, M.L. Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute 1960–1961

Nelson, M.M. University of California, Berkeley 1963–1964 1961–1963

Oakley, G.P. Centers for Disease Control 1984–1985

Perrin, E.V. Wayne State School of Medicine 1977–1978 1974–1975

Pruzansky, A. University of Illinois 1971–1972

Rodier, P.M. University of Rochester 1993–1996

Rogers, J.M. U.S. EPA 1998–2001

Runner, M.N. University of Colorado 1966–1967 1961–1963

Sadler, T.W. University of North Carolina 1991–1994

Scialli, A.R. Georgetown University 1998–1999

Schardein, J.L. International Research &

Development Corporation

1985–1987

Schwetz, B.A. Food & Drug Administration 1979–1980 1979–1980

Scott, W.J., Jr. University of Cincinnati 1981–1982 1977–1979

Seegmiller, R.E. Brigham Young University 1999–2000

Sever, J.L. NIH, George Washington University 1976–1977 1970–1971

Shepard, T.H. University of Washington 1968–1969 1966–1967

Slikker, W. NCTR 1995–1998

Smith, D.W. University of Washington 1975–1977

Staples, R.E. Staples Consulting, Inc. 1983–1984 1974–1977

Steffek, A.J. University of Illinois 1973–1975

Sulik, K.K. University of North Carolina 1995–1996 1991–1993

Swinyard, C.A. Stanford University 1980–1981 1968–1972

Thiersch, J.B. University of Washington 1964–1966

Trasler, D.G. McGill University 1972–1973

Tyl, R.W. Center for Life Sciences and

Toxicology

1992–1995

Walker, B.E. Michigan State University 1962–1964

Warkany, J. Children’s Hospital Research

Foundation, Cincinnati

1960–1961

Wilson, J.G. Children’s Hospital Research

Foundation, Cincinnati

1961–1962

Wise, D. Merck Research Laboratory 1998–2001

Zimmerman, E.F. Children’s Hospital and Research

Foundation, Cincinnati

1989–1990 1981–1983

A HISTORY OF THE TERATOLOGY SOCIETY 303

YEAR-BY-YEAR ACCOUNT OF THE PAST 32

YEARS OF THE TERATOLOGY SOCIETY

The living ex-presidents from 1967 on were asked to

contribute scientiﬁc and social highlights and other

pertinent information about their year in ofﬁce. Sadly,

some did not respond, requiring us to describe their

year and, in general, these accounts lack full details as

compared with those that were added, with editing, by

respondents.

1961–1967

For the period 1961–1967, refer to “The History of

Organized Teratology in North America,” by James G.

Wilson and Joseph Warkany, Teratology 31:285–296,

1985.

1967–1968

The annual meeting was held at The Inn at Buckhill

Falls, situated in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, May

15–17, 1969. The Buckhill resort is an elegant old

resort, which was frequented by many of the members

of Philadelphia high society during the summer

months and the spring and fall in the early years of the

nineteenth century.

The Society had fewer committees and had not yet

attained national recognition. The ﬁnancial obligations

were minuscule compared with the cost of planning a

meeting and governing the Society in the 1990s. There

were no outside donors who supported the Society or a

professional organization that helped administer the

Society’s activities and annual meeting.

We believe that the members of the Teratology Soci-

ety in 1999 would ﬁnd it humorous to discover the cost

of running the meeting in 1968, as well as the cost of

attending the meeting. The cost of a room at Buckhill

Falls was $32.50 per day, which included two meals, a

very large breakfast, and a banquet-like dinner. The

registration fee for the meeting was $5.00, and the

Society Membership dues were in the range of $15.00 –

20.00, which included a subscription to the Journal.

These increased costs, adjusted for a 4–5-fold inﬂation,

may not be excessive.

A trio from the Curtis Institute of Music played

chamber music at the banquet meeting. It cost $50.00

to have these wonderful young students perform at the

Buckhill Falls Inn. There were a few symposia and

speakers from other countries. Felix Beck and John

Lloyd were invited to the meeting and talked about the

TABLE 3. Warkany lectures

Year Speaker Subject

1985 Bengt Ka¨lle´n Congenital defect epidemiology

1986 Philip Leder Insertional mutagenesis

1987 Kurt Benirschke Borderline of pathology and embryology—the placenta

1988 Thomas Shepard Borderlines between human embryology, teratology, and medicine

1989 E. Marshall Johnson Scoring of chemical hazards

1990 Devendra Kochhar Retinoic acid biology

1991 F. Clarke Fraser Teratogenic risks; organic solvents

1992 Robert Brent Radiation effects; the importance of animal research in determining human risks

1993 Heinz Nau Interspecies pharmacology

1994 John McLachlan Molecular teratology: diethylstilbestrol

1995 Andrew Hendrickx Primate models for teratology

1996 William Webster Rodents, risks, and reactions

1997 Godfrey Oakley Preventing birth defects

1998 John Gerhardt Signal transduction during embryogenesis

1999 Carole Kimmel Improving risk assessment

TABLE 4. Continuing education courses

Year Title Organizer

1984 Principles of teratology Allan R. Beaudoin

1985 Experimental design and data evaluation in teratology Allan R. Beaudoin

1986 Pharmacokinetics and metabolism Gary L. Kimmel

1987 Embryology and morphology Allan R. Beaudoin

1988 Postnatal manifestations of developmental toxicology Guillermo Millicovsky

1989 Foundations of abnormal development Ronald P. Jensh

1990 Molecular biology of abnormal development Richard M. Hoar

1991 Human developmental toxicants Ronald D. Hood

1992 Pharmacokinetics and developmental toxicology Robert J. Kavlock

1993 Embryology for teratologists M.H. Feuston

1994 Molecular and cellular techniques in teratology George Daston

1995 Principles in teratology Richard H. Finnell

1996 Risk assessment in developmental toxicology Thomas B. Knudsen

1997 Approaches for studying mechanisms of abnormal development Patrick J. Wier

1998 Development and function of the endocrine and immune systems Craig Harris

1999 Organ system maturation and functional postnatal development Melissa Tassinari

304 SHEPARD ET AL.

mechanism of Trypan blue teratogenesis. This was the

ﬁrst time that Bob met Dr. Lloyd in person, and they

have been colleagues ever since.

Dr. Warkany chaired the ﬁrst session. Dr. Wilson

also chaired a session and presented some papers. An

immunology symposium was held because immunology

was exploding during the 1960s. Presenters at that

symposium were A.M. Silverstein from Johns Hopkins,

who studied fetal immunogenesis and congenital infec-

tions, primarily in sheep. Jonathan Lanman, who did

some of his work at the Rockefeller Institute, presented

his papers on maternal-fetal immunological relation-

ships. Some may recall that these studies demon-

strated that immunization of the mother with paternal

skin did not harm the fetus. Drs. Jim Wilson, Felix

Beck, John Lloyd, Ron Jensh, and David Gunberg par-

ticipated in a symposium on Trypan blue. Clarke

Fraser chaired the last session and the meeting ended

at noon on Friday after 3 days.

One of the delightful aspects of the meeting at Buck-

hill Falls was the manner in which guests were seated

for their meals. Most tables were set up for eight peo-

ple. The seating was based on your position in the

dining room waiting line, so there was a great oppor-

tunity for the students, the middle-aged faculty mem-

bers, and the senior faculty members to sit together on

a random basis at every meal, which was a very bene-

ﬁcial situation. At many meetings, everybody departs

from the meeting site in order to dine, and one never

has an opportunity to sit with the likes of Dr. Warkany,

Dr. Wilson, or Dr. Fraser, unless the meeting site has a

dining room seating arrangement similar to that of the

Inn at Buckhill Falls.

One of the momentous occurrences during the year

was the fact that the journal Teratology was created. In

fact, the meeting of the Teratology Society was the ﬁrst

meeting at which the program was recorded for perpe-

tuity in the Journal. Harold Kalter, the ﬁrst editor is

probably one of the most meticulous writers that we

have in the Society. He is a stickler for accuracy and

clarity and brought those qualities of good writing and

good grammar to the Journal that started it on a high

road.

From the standpoint of research activities of the

membership, it was not difﬁcult to obtain support from

the National Institutes of Health. We jested about the

fact that in the early days, all you had to do was drop

your pen on an National Institutes of Health research

application blank, and you had a reasonable chance to

have the application approved and funded, a slight

exaggeration, of course. Many projects were funded

that would not be approved during the 1990s but that

resulted in interesting and important ﬁndings. Obvi-

ously, times have changed drastically, and it is now

extremely difﬁcult to obtain funding for research, es-

pecially in the area of teratology. We experienced ups

and downs of funding for research. Teratology research

suffered during the periods of limited funding, but it

was very important to develop a feeling of optimism,

namely, that one had to persist in the attempt to obtain

research support.

The president, Robert L. Brent, is the distinguished

Louis and Bess Stein Professor and Chairman-Emeri-

tus of the Department of Pediatrics at Jefferson Med-

ical College and head of the Laboratory of Clinical and

Environmental Teratology at the du Pont Hospital for

Children. Among many honors, he was recently elected

as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the Na-

tional Academy of Science.

1968 –1969

The annual meeting was held at Crystal Mountain,

Washington, a ski resort near Mt. Rainier. The most

memorable event of the meeting was a salmon barbe-

cue at the top of the ski lift with Mt. Rainier in its full

glory. The after-dinner speaker was the famous salmon

biologist, Loren Donaldson. The disadvantages of the

site were the travel distance from the airport and me-

diocre food services.

The program was highlighted by Dennis New’s

presentation of a whole-embryo culture technique

that was eventually taken up by many teratology

laboratories (Table 5). J.D. Biggers gave another lec-

ture on isoenzymes. Symposia on thalidomide and

cleft lip and palate were held. It is of interest that the

same graduate student (Alan Fantel) projected every

slide. The council decided to add a second meeting to

its activities.

The president, Thomas H. Shepard, is a teratologist

in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of

Washington. In addition to training many teratolo-

gists, his primary research interests are on the effects

of nutrients on development, including deﬁciency of

riboﬂavin, pyridoxine, and iron, as well as retinoic acid

excess. The metabolism of glucose by the embryo has

also been a subject of his studies with associates. His

book “A Catalog of Teratogenic Agents” (Johns Hopkins

University Press, 1998) is in its ninth edition.

TABLE 5. Total submitted abstracts and percentage of different types of four periods

Period 1961–1969 1970–1979 1980–1989 1990–1999

Abstract total number 38.1 ⫾ 3.0 81.8 ⫾ 8.3 175 ⫾ 6.7 171 ⫾ 10.8

Mammalian studies 61.1 ⫾ 4.8 73.8 ⫾ 3.2 64.0 ⫾ 3.0 64.1 ⫾ 1.9

Epidemiology (%) 3.7 ⫾ 1.1 3.2 ⫾ 1.0 5.0 ⫾ 0.9 10.8 ⫾ 2.1

Dysmorphology (%) 4.8 ⫾ 1.0 3.7 ⫾ 0.8 4.0 ⫾ 0.4 3.9 ⫾ 0.6

Developmental biology (%) 3.6 ⫾ 1.3 1.3 ⫾ 0.5 1.5 ⫾ 0.5 13.3 ⫾ 2.7

Embryo culture (%) 0.9 ⫾ 0.6 3.1 ⫾ 0.8 8.1 ⫾ 0.6 11.2 ⫾ 0.7

A HISTORY OF THE TERATOLOGY SOCIETY 305

1969 –1970

The meeting was held in late May at the Statler-

Hilton Hotel on the bank of the Severn River in An-

napolis, Maryland. Room charges were $16–18 per

night, and the facilities were excellent. A small prob-

lem developed when we attempted to turn on the slide

projector, and “elevator music” ﬁlled the meeting room.

One of the restaurants in Annapolis featured deli sand-

wiches named for famous people. The least appetizing

was a corned beef on rye called the Spiro Agnew. In-

vited speakers were Victor McKusick, Philip Fialkow,

George Todaro, and Charles Lowe. Bruce Beckwith

described what is now known as the Di George syn-

drome; another paper reported limb defects in the chick

after exposure to Texas sand.

The Society hired a lawyer to incorporate the Society

to give tax exemption to donors. The key feature of the

meeting was the spirit generated by Joe Warkany and

Virginia Apgar. They gave a sparkle to the meeting

and, as Robert Warwick Miller, the president that year,

points out, Virginia Apgar now appears on a postage

stamp.

Robert Miller, the president, is a pediatrician who

has contributed signiﬁcant information on the associa-

tion between congenital defects and various forms of

cancer. He works at the National Cancer Institute in

Bethesda, Maryland.

1970 –1971

The annual meeting was held in historic Williams-

burg, Virginia, at the Williamsburg Conference Center.

The time of year was early May, which allowed the

members to explore the old building and houses with-

out much of a crowd. A symposium was organized by

Chester Swinyard on the subject of environmental in-

ﬂuences on the development of the central nervous

system. Two sessions were devoted to the pathogenesis

of cleft palate in animals and humans. Fifty-eight pa-

pers were presented from the platform. There were no

concurrent meetings and it was necessary to present 10

papers by title only.

Jan Langman, the president, was professor and

chairman of anatomy at the University of Virginia, and

he died in 1981. His textbook “Medical Embryology”

(Williams & Wilkins) is now in its seventh edition,

authored by Thomas W. Sadler.

1971–1972

The annual meeting was held at Brown’s Lake Re-

sort in Burlington, Wisconsin. The best remembered

aspect of the services was the farmer-sized meals of-

fered. Samuel Pruzansky gave the presidential address

on interdisciplinary research, drawing on his experi-

ence, using a multifaceted approach to the treatment of

craniofacial anomalies at the University of Illinois. The

Brown’s Lake Resort was very close to a Playboy Club

Resort, but the two facilities could not have been more

different. Brown’s Lake was run like a children’s sum-

mer camp. Lots of high-starch food and a milk and

cookies snack before bedtime.

Dr. Pruzansky died in 1984 (Slavkin, ’84). David W.

Smith organized a symposium on osteochondrodyspla-

sia. Invited speakers were Albert Dorfman, Depart-

ment of Pediatrics, Pritzer School of Medicine, and

J.M. Rice from the National Cancer Institute, Be-

thesda, Maryland. Fifty-ﬁve papers were presented

from the platform, and 19 papers were read by title.

Only two papers dealt with epidemiology of congenital

defects.

1972–1973

The meeting took place at Grey Rocks, St. Jovite,

Quebec, with more than 400 attending. One sympo-

sium addressed the possible role of potato blight as a

cause of neural tube defects (a hypothesis well dis-

proved later). A lecture was given on male sexual de-

velopment. A new rule designating a nonsmoking sec-

tion in the meeting hall was put into order. An amusing

event occurred when the hotel management laid out

female nightgowns in the rooms of male members with

double gender names. Eugene (Jean) Perrin was disap-

pointed.

Daphne Trasler, the president, is well known for her

work in mouse genetics particularly in studying the

pathogenesis of inherited defects. She has worked at

McGill University until her retirement in 1995.

1973–1974

The annual meeting was held on the campus of the

University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The ac-

commodations in dormitories provided a spectacular

view of the Strait of Georgia. Many of the tennis play-

ers and bathers were disappointed because it rained

every day—and we mean rained. Fifty-two papers were

presented from the platform and 48 were read by title.

There were no concurrent or poster sessions. Guest

speakers were Kenneth Jones and Louis Honore, who

spoke, respectively, on fetal alcohol syndrome and on

placental morphology with spontaneous abortions. A

symposium entitled “Have We Forgotten Thalido-

mide?” was presented.

James Miller, the president, was a geneticist at the

University of British Columbia. He contributed sub-

stantially to the ﬁeld of mouse genetic abnormalities.

He was retired and died on November 27, 1999, in

Vancouver.

1974 –1975

The meeting was held in Pocono Manor, Pennsylva-

nia, in a rustic setting. The opening lecture by Joe

Warkany was on the ﬁrst 15 years of the Society. Sym-

posia included developmental pharmacology, organized

by Tom Shellenberger, and preclinical testing for ter-

atogenicity, organized by James G. Wilson. The prac-

tice of concurrent meeting sessions was initiated.

E. Marshall Johnson, the president, was head of the

Department of Anatomy at Jefferson Medical College

and has trained many teratologists who are active in

the Society. He is especially interested in development

of simple teratogen test systems.

306 SHEPARD ET AL.

1975–1976

The meeting was held at the Highlands Inn, Carmel,

California. The location was beautiful but somewhat

distant from large airports. Symposia were on the sub-

jects of immunologic aspects of teratology and postna-

tal manifestations of prenatal or perinatal insult. Pa-

pers on facial clefts in domestic animals, the quaking

gene and copper, and the parental age of Down syn-

drome patients were given, among others. The use of

poster sessions was initiated. No major changes in the

function of the Society were recorded.

Lucille S. Hurley, the president, brought a number of

her graduate students, who wore T-shirts, announcing

that they were the Hurley’s Raiders. Dr. Hurley, who

died in 1989, was an internationally known nutrition-

ist, who among other activities was editor of Journal of

Nutrition (Keen and Finley, ’89).

1976 –1977

The annual meeting was held at Reston, Virginia,

close to the Washington, D.C., airport. Symposia were

given on teratogens, perspectives in teratology, and

postnatal defects, chaired by Robert W. Miller, Josef

Warkany, and Richard Hoar, respectively. Joe War-

kany lectured on “terathanasia,” the “natural” elimina-

tion of congenital defects during prenatal life. An

amusing banquet speaker was Father Brian, a Fran-

ciscan monk, and there had never been, nor has there

been since, such hilarious laughter at a teratology

meeting. An art show was held, showing etchings by

Joe Warkany and woodcarvings by James Wilson. Rob-

ert L. Brent was appointed the second editor-in-chief of

the journal Teratology.

The president, John L. Sever, was chief, Infectious

Disease Branch, National Institutes of Neurological

Diseases and Stroke, National Institutes of Health. He

is currently professor of pediatrics at the Children’s

National Medical Center, George Washington Univer-

sity Medical Center, Washington, D.C. He has contrib-

uted signiﬁcantly to the ﬁeld of infectious diseases,

especially during prenatal life and, for the past 10

years, has concentrated on research on human immu-

nodeﬁciency virus in pregnant women and children.

1977–1978

The annual meeting was held on Mackinac Island,

Michigan, in the venerable Grand Hotel. There were

many interesting aspects to this meeting. The hotel,

which is of wood construction, has the longest veranda

in the world—the full width of the hotel. There are two

presidential suites, where presidents of the United

States have vacationed. You could reach the hotel by

several routes, but the most interesting was by hydro-

plane. It was the only teratology meeting that had a

unique odor because there were no motorized vehicles

and the horses pulling the carriages were not house-

broken. The food delivery was true pageantry with

fully uniformed waiters marching into the dining hall

in grand style. One hundred and twenty three papers

were presented, including 19 by title. Symposia were

given on ethical issues in teratology, molecular teratol-

ogy, and polybrominated biphenyls. These were among

the ﬁrst symposia, if not the ﬁrst, on ethics and molec-

ular biology.

Eugene V. Perrin, the president, is a professor of

pathology at Wayne State University; his interests lie

mainly in the descriptive aspects of human congenital

defects and environmental and pharmacological care of

families in which there are such damaged children.

Among his many interests are birdwatching and un-

usual hats. The birdwatching has contributed to many

early awakenings of other recruited members. His

other interests are civil liberties and choral singing and

conducting.

1978 –1979

The meeting was held at the Sugar Loaf Mountain

Resort in Cedar, Michigan. The setting was delightful

but difﬁcult to reach. The registration fee was $15. One

hundred twenty-four abstracts were submitted. Four

invited speakers were Bruce M. Carlson, University of

Michigan (limb anomalies from the perspective of a

developmental biologist); Lynnwood B. Clemens, Mich-

igan State University (sex differentiation of behavior in

laboratory animals: dysfunction in the absence of con-

genital malformation); David W. Smith, University of

Washington (biomechanical effects in morphogenesis);

and K. Lemone Yielding, University of Alabama (DNA

repair and co-teratogenic mechanisms). James V. Neel

gave an address at the banquet entitled “Is it possible

to monitor for changing mutation rates?” The council

initiated the Young Investigator Awards.

Allan R. Beaudoin, the president, is now professor

emeritus in the Department of Cell and Developmental

Biology at the University of Michigan. His major re-

search focus is the study of mechanisms of action of

chemical teratogens.

1979 –1980

The twentieth annual meeting was held at Went-

worth-by-the-Sea in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. One

hundred eighty-one papers were submitted, of which

24 were read by title. Four poster sessions were held. A

joint session on fetal alcohol syndrome was given by

our Society with the Behavioral Teratology Society.

Four guest speakers included Paul D. McClean (evolu-

tion of brain patterns), John H. Grossman (infections

as teratogens), Allen Mitchell (epidemiology), and Pe-

ter S. Spencer (neurocellular response to toxins). A

New England clam bake was held on the beach.

Richard M. Hoar, the president, trained as an anat-

omist and has worked in the Department of Anatomy

at the University of Cincinnati and at Roche Pharma-

ceuticals. His research has involved endocrines, preg-

nancy, and birth defects in guinea pigs, as well as

developing the care, maintenance, and reproductive

data surrounding the use of ferrets in reproductive

toxicology.

A HISTORY OF THE TERATOLOGY SOCIETY 307

1980 –1981

The annual meeting took place on the campus of

Stanford University. The dormitories proved to be very

hot and somewhat inconvenient to the older members,

especially at night in the common bathrooms. How-

ever, ample ice-cold wine and soft drinks were made

available to assuage the discomfort. One hundred sev-

enty papers were given, and 28 were given by title.

Four colloquia were given covering the subjects of eth-

anol, women in the workplace, radiation, and the reg-

ulatory aspects of teratology. An interesting visit to the

Stanford Linear Accelerator was arranged. A famous

lawyer, Mr. Butler presented a ringing accusation of

Bendectin as a human teratogen, using his courtroom

style. His presentation was followed by stunned si-

lence, with the exception of one commenter, Tom Shep-

ard, who announced that he did not believe a word of it.

His comment was encouraged by a jab in the ribs by Joe

Warkany who, under his breath, said get up there and

say something.

Chester Swinyard, the president, was trained as an

anatomist but was noted especially for his major con-

tributions to physical rehabilitation of children with

congenital musculoskeletal defects. He formed the ﬁrst

Public Affairs Committee. Dr. Swinyard died in 1997

(Fraser, ’98).

1981–1982

The annual meeting was held at the resort in French

Lick, Indiana, a long bus ride from the airport in Lou-

isville or Indianapolis. Highlights of the meeting in-

cluded a symposium chaired by Harold Kalter honoring

the eightieth birthday of Dr. Warkany. Speakers in-

cluded Drs. Wilson, Benirschke, Miller, and a former

colleague, Eberhard Passarge, from Essen, Germany. A

second symposium, entitled Prevention of Congenital

Malformations. How Are We Doing?, was chaired by

Dr. Warkany. This symposium included a presentation

by Richard Smithells of England, describing the pre-

ventive effects of maternal vitamin supplementation

for neural tube defects, the forerunner of folic acid

supplementation to rescue susceptible embryos from

this fate. A total of 157 abstracts were submitted. At

this meeting, there was a change in the manner of

electing ofﬁcers, with the choice of one candidate from

two nominees suggested by a nomination committee.

The president, William J. Scott, Jr., is a professor of

pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital Research Founda-

tion, Cincinnati, Ohio. He continues a longstanding

interest in the mechanisms of limb malformations. He

has helped train many of the Society’s active members.

1982–1983

The twenty-third annual meeting was held at the

Sands Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The facilities

for scientiﬁc proceedings and social gathering were

elegant and ample. The boardwalk and the casinos

provided excellent opportunities for leisure activities,

even though a few members found them somewhat

distracting. About 100 papers were presented in con-

current sessions, and there were 91 additional presen-

tations as posters; some of those were sponsored by the

Behavioral Teratology Society. A symposium on ad-

vances in prenatal diagnosis was chaired by Laird

Jackson, and another on the role of expert witness

chaired by Marshall Johnson. An outstanding talk by

Ralph Brinster introduced the members to the rela-

tively new method of inserting foreign genes into mice

to generate transgenic animals. For the ﬁrst time, the

Society explored the feasibility of starting a series of

educational symposia (courses) under the direction of

an Education Committee.

Devendra M. Kochhar is an embryologist at Jeffer-

son Medical College, who initiated and popularized the

use of retinoic acid as a teratogen, and has devoted his

efforts to understand biological and pharmacological

mechanisms of action of retinoids and their nuclear

receptors in producing birth defects.

1983–1984

The annual meeting was held at the Boca Raton

Hotel in Boca Raton, Florida. A symposium honoring

James Wilson was presented by his students. Bob

Brent, Jim Wilson’s ﬁrst graduate student, gave Dr.

Wilson’s biography introducing the symposium. A sym-

posium on postnatal function after prenatal insult was

chaired by Casimer Grabowski. A joint symposium

sponsored by the Teratology Society and the David

Smith Workshop on Malformations and Morphogene-

sis, chaired by Godfrey Oakley, reviewed the safety of

Bendectin. Elements in hazard and risk estimation for

Bendectin were given in a session chaired by John L.

Sever. The facilities at the Boca Raton Club were su-

perb. It was the last bargain meeting that we had. A

room cost $75 for both occupants. So for $37.50 you had

a room and two banquet-type meals a day.

It is of interest that although the Society sponsored a

Bendectin Symposium, and there was no controversy

over of the lack of teratogenicity Bendectin, the Society

has never published a position paper on Bendectin.

Robert E. Staples, the president, has been very ac-

tive in animal testing of chemicals for teratogenicity

and was associated with Merck and the du Pont Com-

pany. He also was the ﬁrst head of teratology at the

National Institute of Environmental Health. He now

does private consulting.

1984 –1985

The annual meeting was held at Callaway Gardens,

a country club in Pine Mountain, Georgia, with a hu-

midity of 100%. Callaway Gardens is the United States

answer to Puerto Rico’s rain forest. Abstracts submit-

ted numbered 142. The ﬁrst Warkany Lecture was

given by Bengt Ka¨lle´n, who talked about malformation

registries. Dr. Warkany was there to award one of his

etchings to the speaker. The structure for the public

affairs committee was revised, and vitamin A and reti-

noic acid were chosen for the ﬁrst topic and statement.

308 SHEPARD ET AL.

A symposium was held on potential developmental tox-

icants, with a new focus on providing clinical teratology

information.

Godfrey Oakley, who trained in pediatrics and epi-

demiology, played a major role in establishing a con-

genital defects center at the Centers for Disease Con-

trol. He is currently in the Department of Epidemiology

at Emory University and is a leading advocate for the

consumption of folic acid by women to prevent the

occurrence of neural tube defects.

1985–1986

The annual meeting was held at the Boston Park

Plaza Hotel. There were several symposia, including

one on models of abnormal morphogenesis in honor of

Clarke Fraser. Another was held on thalidomide in

honor of the twenty-ﬁfth anniversary of the discovery

of this tragic human teratogen. The speakers included

Joseph Warkany, Widikund Lenz, Frances Kelsey, and

a graduate student from McGill who was considered to

have limb defects caused by thalidomide. The Public

Affairs Committee held a workshop on the new Tera-

tology Information Services in honor of the late Sergio

Fabro, who had established the Reprotox information

system. A total of 190 abstracts were submitted.

The second annual Warkany Lecture was given on

the subject of insertional mutagenesis, by Philip Leder,

M.D., chairman of the Department of Genetics at Har-

vard Medical School.

A harbor cruise was the entertainment one evening.

This was the ﬁrst meeting for which an independent

broker had negotiated room rates for the Society. Un-

fortunately, it was also clear that the apparently “low”

rates were higher because of his fee. A full-time fund-

raiser helped signiﬁcantly to increase donations.

Lewis B. Holmes, the president that year, is a tera-

tologist and geneticist in the Pediatric Service at the

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His inter-

ests are in the epidemiology of congenital malforma-

tions, limb defects, and identifying human teratogens.

He is the current Editor of Teratology.

1986 –1987

The annual meeting was held at Las Palmas Resort,

Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, California. The

weather was warm even in the evenings, and the sup-

port facilities were excellent. The symposia were on

diabetic embryopathy, the yolk sac, and the inﬂuence

on chemical disposition on developmental toxicity. Also

addressed was the subject of the inﬂuence of scientiﬁc

societies on regulatory and legislative process. The

Warkany Lecture was given on the placenta by Kurt

Benirschke, using the title, “You Need a Sympathetic

Pathologist, the Borderland of Embryology and Pathol-

ogy Revisited.” No major changes in policy or proce-

dures were recorded. One member “lost” his trunks in

the spa and was awarded them the next day by several

ladies as he was presenting a paper from the platform.

The Behavioral Teratology Society held its eleventh

annual meeting concurrently and put on a symposium

entitled “Social Behavior as an Endpoint of Toxic In-

sult.” Carole Kimmel gave an update on federal regu-

lation, and Ken Jones gave a talk on craniofacial mal-

formations as a window to prenatal brain development.

The president, Andrew Hendrickx, is an expert in sub-

human primate embryology at the University of Cali-

fornia at Davis. His laboratory has published many

important teratology studies, using subhuman pri-

mates as subjects.

1987–1988

The annual meeting was held at the Breakers, Palm

Beach, Florida. The hotel staff provided excellent ser-

vice, and the food was tasty. A total of 201 abstracts

were submitted, of which three were read by title.

Symposia were held on teratology of the 1990s, devel-

opmental biology and teratology, and educational per-

spectives in clinical teratology.

Casimer T. Grabowski has been a professor emeritus

of biology since 1992 at the University of Miami. His

work on the physiologic changes in chick embryos after

teratogenic exposure led to important concepts of ter-

atogenesis in mammals. Cas is an excellent wood

craftsman, and he presented the Society with a gavel,

which is handed down each year to the next president.

1988 –1989

The annual meeting was held at the Jefferson Sher-

aton Hotel in Richmond, Virginia. This site was a last-

minute choice after plans in Philadelphia were can-

celed because the costs were too high. The hotel

facilities and service were of good quality. An excursion

on a dinner boat was memorable for the ferocious thun-

derstorm that occurred during this trip. The staircase

in the hotel had inspired the one featured in the ﬁlm

“Gone with the Wind,” and our president decoratively

descended these stairs into the reception meeting.

The International Federation of Teratology Societies

presented a draft of the International Conference on

Harmonization for Teratology Testing in Animals,

which was a benchmark for interaction of regulators,

scientists, and the pharmaceuticals industry. Sympo-

sia were held on assisted reproduction, regulatory is-

sues, valproic acid, low lead exposure, computer use,

biostatistics of segment II studies, threshold concepts

in risk evaluation, and regulation of therapeutically

useful human teratogens. The Public Affairs Commit-

tee presented a draft of a position paper on two retin-

oids, etretinate and isotretinoin.

The Wilson lunch for students was initiated, and a

line item of budget $10,000 was approved for Student

Travel Awards. The Student Affairs Committee was

made a standing committee. An agreement was signed

by the president, Mildred Christian, for archiving and

preserving the Society’s records at the College of Phy-

sicians of Philadelphia. A new position, vice-president-

elect, was approved in order to give the president a

2-year experience before holding ofﬁce as president.

A HISTORY OF THE TERATOLOGY SOCIETY 309

Mildred S. Christian, an ofﬁcer in Primedical-Argus

in Horsham, Pennsylvania, has contributed widely to

the ﬁeld of animal testing of drugs and other chemicals.

1989 –1990

The annual meeting was held at the majestic Em-

press Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. Members

were able to whale watch or tour the city in off-hours,

but the travel expenses were high for those from the

East of the United States. Dave Kochhar gave the

Warkany Lecture on the role of retinoic acid as a mor-

phogen and teratogen. Symposia included the role of

homeobox genes in normal development and the mim-

icking of homeobox mutations to produce congenital

limb and spinal cord defects. Another subject was the

gene regulation of programmed cell death. A review of

the effect of cocaine as a human teratogen was pre-

sented. The after-dinner speaker was a professional

comedian who posed as a soviet bureaucrat with a

background in developmental toxicology. The Council

met twice at 6-month intervals, and a newsletter was

initiated.

Ernest F. Zimmerman, the president, is a pharma-

cologist at the University of Cincinnati, with special

interests in the genesis of facial clefts.

1990 –1991

The annual meeting was held in Boca Raton, Florida,

and it rained every day. The Wiley-Liss symposium,

“Organizational Control in the Embryo: Potential Tar-

gets for Developmental Toxicants,” gave excellent ex-

amples of the importance of molecular and cellular

biology to the understanding of birth defects. Two other

symposia, sponsored by the Teratology Society, Neu-

robehavioral Teratology Society, and the International

Federation of Teratology Societies, were on improving

approaches to the characterization of developmental

neurotoxicity and international regulatory concerns.

Another symposium was entitled “Where Is the War to

Prevent Birth Defects?” Preimplantation factors that

lead to birth defects were also addressed. A record

number of abstracts (220) was submitted.

During Carole A. Kimmel’s presidency, the practice

of appointing a separate program chairman and as well

as election of both a vice-president and president-elect

was initiated. The meeting was held in conjunction

with the International Federation of Teratology Soci-

eties under the chairmanship of Takashi Tanimura.

Society members were active in public meetings re-

garding Accutane and a campaign to reduce neural

tube defects by the use of folic acid was beginning.

Richard Miller chaired a group to help make a long-

range plan for the Society during the next 10 years.

Dr. Kimmel has had a leadership role in improving

regulatory aspects in the government and is a senior

scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency.

1991–1992

The annual meeting was held at the Boca Raton

Hotel and Club in Florida. The services and hospitality

were appreciated. Symposia were held on newer tech-

niques for measuring development, cardiac develop-

ment, and Food and Drug Administration classiﬁcation

of drugs. Nicolas Wald from London gave a keynote

address on the sentinel study demonstrating that folic

acid administration reduced the recurrence of neural

tube defects. Mason Barr detailed the syndrome asso-

ciated with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) in-

hibitor fetopathology. Keynote speakers were given by

Arthur A. Levin and by Robert Areci on retinoid recep-

tors and embryonic signaling, respectively.

Richard K. Miller, the president that year, is a toxi-

cologist at the University of Rochester. His special in-

terest is the role of the placenta in teratogenesis.

1992–1993

The annual meeting was held under bright sun in

Tucson, Arizona. You could only use the tennis courts

from 5:00 to 6:00

AM or from 9:00 to 11:00 PM; other-

wise, you could fry an egg on the court surface. The

president, Dr. Barr, introduced the meeting with a

short slide show pointing out that teratology is not the

study of turtles, terrorists, pterodactyls, or terra ﬁrma,

but is the study of birth defects, which is also done by

the National Enquirer. Use of the word teratology is

still being debated by the Society. Symposia were held

on women’s rights in teratology and genetics, environ-

mental risks, and folic acid in the prevention of neural

tube defects. There were 187 (24% of members) ab-

stracts offered by 785 members of the Society.

Mason Barr, Jr., is a pediatrician and perinatal pa-

thologist at the University of Michigan. He continues a

long productive experience in detecting, describing,

and treating human fetal and infant congenital defects.

1993–1994

The annual meeting was held at the Hotel El Con-

quistador in Puerto Rico, and the site had spectacular

view of the Caribbean. A near-record number of ab-

stracts (204) were submitted. Symposia were held on

antisense DNA techniques, endocrine endpoints, dys-

morphology and deafness, morphogenesis of the face

and brain, the pregastrulation embryo, reproductive

testing of biochemical agents, animal care and use,

public affairs and the American Medical Association,

and an update on hereditary malformations. The ban-

quet was addressed by the Honorable Pedro Rossello,

M.D., governor of Puerto Rico. The president, James W.

Hanson, a pediatric geneticist with special training in

dysmorphology and epidemiology, is active in Washing-

ton, D.C., at the clinical epidemiology branch of the

National Cancer Institute.

1994 –1995

The annual meeting was held at the Marriott Hotel

in Newport Beach, California. The support facilities

were excellent, and 176 abstracts were submitted. The

membership numbered 816. Symposia were held on

advances in imaging, interface between research and

public education with acquired immunodeﬁciency syn-

310 SHEPARD ET AL.

drome as a model and limb dysmorphogenesis.

Through the use of concurrent sessions and poster pre-

sentation, all abstracts were presented. During this

year, a continuing increase in abstracts (24) drawing

on molecular genetics was evident.

John DeSesso, the president, works for Mitretek Cor-

poration of McLean, Virginia. His main interests are in

the areas of animal models and mechanisms of terato-

genicity.

1995–1996

The annual meeting was held at Keystone, Colorado,

at more than 10,000 feet in the Rockies, west of Den-

ver. The surroundings were spectacular, but some

members had mild altitude illness, while one or two

had severe symptoms. Our quota of occupied rooms was

missed, and as a result the Society developed a debt

that could be paid off only by a return visit, which

occurred in 1999. The number of abstracts dropped by

25% to 151. Symposia were held on brain development,

molecular teratology, and the therapeutics of terato-

gens and hormonal effects on development. The Wilson

Award dinner was held at Timber Ridge, a gondola ride

up from the meeting level.

Kathleen Sulik, the president that year, is a profes-

sor in anatomy at the University of North Carolina.

She is known especially for her effective scanning elec-

tron microscopy to explain pathogenesis of teratogenic

events.

1996 –1997

The thirty-seventh annual meeting was held in con-

junction with the Neurobehavioral Teratology Society,

Behavioral Toxicology Society, and the tenth meeting

of the Organization of Teratology Information Services

at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. The hotel lived

up to its expected elegant services and hospitality.

Symposia were held on molecular mechanisms of de-

velopment, heart development, congenital infections

and teratogenesis, teratogenic hazards, and risks and

dietary prevention of birth defects. Godfrey Oakley

gave the Warkany Lecture on preventing birth defects,

“Rubella, Alcohol and Folic Acid are Better Models

Than Thalidomide, Valproic Acid and Accutane.” Of

the 145 abstracts submitted, 14 were on epidemiology

and 13 dealt with molecular genetics of development.

Membership was 798.

Jose F. Cordero, the president, is a pediatrician-

epidemiologist who works for the Centers for Disease

Control. He is currently leading the program for vari-

cella vaccination in the United States.

1997–1998

The meeting was held on a peninsula projecting into

Mission Bay, California, adjacent to San Diego. The

site was a virtual botanical garden with numerous

lagoons and a variety of birds. The Princess Resort

provided excellent meeting facilities. The palm trees

wrapped with lights looked like giant banded chromo-

somes at night. A symposium on thalidomide examined

the pros and cons of its reintroduction for treatment of

certain desperate disorders. Other symposia were on

genetic susceptibility, gene mapping, arsenic, and the

teratologist’s role in legal matters.

The Society hired a new professional management

group, the Associated Development Group. Twenty

members representing different segments of the Soci-

ety drew up a strategic planning initiative at a sepa-

rate 3-day meeting. A new mission statement was for-

mulated. The discussion about changing the name of

the Society was tabled and referred back to a commit-

tee chaired by David Beckman. Topics addressed by the

long-range group included ﬁnancial management, cost

of attending the meetings and partnering with other

societies. The Clarke Fraser Young Investigator Award

was initiated and presented by Clarke to Edward Lam-

mer.

Philip E. Mirkes, the president, was trained in de-

velopmental biology and is research professor of pedi-

atrics at the University of Washington, Seattle. His

work has been with the metabolism of cyclophospha-

mide, heat shock proteins, and the cascade of events

leading to cell death.

1998 –1999

The last years of the century saw the Teratology

Society become more modern in the conduct of its busi-

ness. The 1999 meeting in Keystone, for example, was

the ﬁrst annual meeting for which electronic abstract

submission was the norm.

Nancy Dieter, the ﬁrst executive secretary of the

Society under the management with Associated Devel-

opment Group, left for another position. Nancy had

done much of the initial work in transferring the Soci-

ety from its old self-run business ofﬁce to a more efﬁ-

cient arrangement at Associated Development Group.

Among Nancy’s most visible accomplishments was the

publication of the newsletter in a more professional

format. While this format was very popular, it was

costly, due in part to frequent last minute changes and

additions. Nancy was replaced by Tonia Masson, who

recognized that the Society needed to get costs under

control. Tonia put in place a ﬁrm schedule for the

newsletter, with no tolerance for late submissions or

later changes.

In addition, Tonia and the Secretary, Bob Seeg-

miller, worked on an electronic version of the newslet-

ter, which was planned to replace some or all of the

printed newsletters.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for the Society this

year was the annual meeting at Keystone Resort in

Colorado. The site for the meeting had been forced on

the Society in order to fulﬁll a ﬁnancial obligation. That

ﬁnancial obligation had been incurred 3 years earlier,

when attendance fell short of a guarantee. Some mem-

bers did not plan to attend because they had been

uncomfortable or ill at altitude at the previous Key-

stone meeting. Finally, the timing of the meeting in-

cluded the July 4 holiday weekend, another condition

forced on the Society. Some members found it unac-

A HISTORY OF THE TERATOLOGY SOCIETY 311

ceptable to be away from home on the holiday. Because

the Society still needed to make a guarantee to the

resort, there was a possibility of another ﬁnancial

shortfall.

The ending was happy, however. Although the total

number of abstracts was 40% lower than usual, skillful

management by the program chair, George Daston,

and by the meeting planner, Clarissa Russel Wilson,

resulted in the meeting at least breaking even and

perhaps making a little money. Symposia were held on

oxidative stress, apoptosis and abnormal development,

skeletal development, and postmarketing surveillance

of drugs for teratogenic effects. Of more importance,

the scientiﬁc sessions were of high quality, and attend-

ees were more than satisﬁed with their decisions to

come to the meeting. As an added bonus, the annual

business meeting, for which 90 minutes had been al-

lowed, took only 50 minutes, thanks to the efﬁcient use

of time by committee chairs and ofﬁcers who gave re-

ports. It is likely that this year was the ﬁrst time in the

history of the Society than an Annual Business Meet-

ing took less time than allotted. At the banquet, a slide

show of baby pictures of various members entertained

the guests.

At the meeting, Mineo Yasuda, co-president of the

International Federation of Teratology Societies an-

nounced that the 6th meeting of the Organization

would be held in Shimane, Japan, from July 12–14,

2000.

The president, Anthony Scialli, is an obstetrician

trained in pharmacology. He is editor-in-chief of Repro-

ductive Toxicology and an author of Reproductive Ef-

fects of Chemical, Physical and Biologic Agents, Rep-

rotox (Johns Hopkins Press, 1995). The above book is

maintained on an updated database along with TERIS

(Teratogenic Information Service) and Shepard’s Cat-

alog of Teratogenic Agents by Micromedex, Denver,

Colorado.

NUMBER AND TYPE OF ABSTRACTS

SUBMITTED TO THE ANNUAL MEETING

A review and classiﬁcation of all the abstracts sub-

mitted to the annual meetings was carried out. The

type of abstract for each of 39 years was expressed as

the percentage of total annual submissions. In some

cases, an abstract was placed in two categories. For

instance, an animal study with a null mutation would

appear under animal studies and developmental biol-

ogy and, in the case of an epidemiology paper studying

a mutation, it would appear under both epidemiology

and developmental biology.

The main body of work, including effects of agents on

animals, mechanism studies, and neurobehavioral pa-

pers, deﬁed classiﬁcation. There were many excellent

pharmacologic papers. During the early periods, a

large number of papers dealing with cleft lip and palate

were noted that may have reﬂected the inﬂuence of

Clarke Fraser had on his students and associates.

Table 5 gives the mean and standard error for the

total number of abstracts and the percentage of types of

abstracts. The average total abstracts increased signif-

icantly from 1961–1969 to 1970 –1979 and from 1971–

1979 to 1980 –1989 but remained much the same in

1990–1999 (Table 5). The ratio between abstracts sub-

mitted and the total membership ranged between 0.18

to 0.24, with no obvious change over time. Joe Warkany

and Clarke Fraser used to tell us that if you have good

results you did not need statistics.

The animal studies included mammalian species,

while chick and whole-embryo culture studies were

excluded in the tabulation. No signiﬁcant differences

were found. The epidemiology studies did not change

much until the last period, when a signiﬁcant increase

to 10% was noted. This increase may be explained in

part by participation from members of the Organiza-

tion for Teratology Information Services group, espe-

cially the San Diego and Toronto groups. Active partic-

ipation from the surveillance groups at the Centers for

Disease Control and State of California continued to be

important. Charlotte Ferencz and her group in Balti-

more, contributed valuable papers on the epidemiology

of congenital heart disease. The dysmorphology ab-

stracts included new syndromes and case reports with

descriptive aspects important for generating epidemi-

ologic studies. No signiﬁcant changes were noted over

the four periods.

The developmental biology abstracts were difﬁcult to

count because of changes in the ﬁeld and especially

with increased identiﬁcation of developmental genes

and other products of molecular genetics. What might

have been developmental biology during the 1960s

could perhaps now be described as descriptive biology,

which laid the basics for later discoveries. One might

say that the new agents we study now are developmen-

tal genes and growth factors, somewhat replacing the

prior emphasis on drugs, chemicals, and other environ-

mental agents. The marked increase to 13% for devel-

opmental abstracts was seen during the 1990–1999

period; in fact, at the 1998 and 1999 meetings, the

percentage of such abstracts was 35% and 20%, respec-

tively,.

Whole-embryo culture was introduced during the

late 1960s by Dennis New of Cambridge University.

Within several years after he developed a method for

culturing embryos in rotating gassed bottles (’67), sev-

eral laboratories began using it to study isolated mouse

and rat embryos during active embryogenesis from pre-

somite to late somite stages. The main use has been for

study of mechanisms including determination of toxic

dose levels. Table 5 shows that the percentage of ab-

stracts using the whole embryo culture averaged 3%

during the 1970s, rising to 8% in the 1980s and 10%

during the 1990s.

DIVERSITY OF MEMBERS

One of the many factors for the success, important

contributions, and perpetuation of the Teratology Soci-

ety is the result of the professional diversity of the

membership. The Society could not have achieved a

312 SHEPARD ET AL.

more perfect balance than the credentials held by the

three senior founding members of the Society (Fig. 1).

Josef Warkany was an M.D. He was a superb clinician

and a very good basic scientist. James Wilson was an

embryologist with a Ph.D. degree, who was an impec-

cable investigator with unquestionable integrity.

Clarke Fraser was a geneticist with both an M.D. and

a Ph.D. degree. So, thanks to Clarke, the founding

members had two Ph.D. degrees and two M.D. degrees

among them.

We were in perfect balance from the inception of the

Society, at least with regard to the degrees held by the

three senior founding members.

Is this diversity an important part of our Society?

Our membership consists of the following:

1. Basic scientists at universities, research institutes,

and government laboratories working in the ﬁelds of

experimental teratology, embryology, toxicology,

pharmacology, anatomy, cell biology, physiology,

psychology, and molecular biology

2. Basic scientists in industry working in the above-

mentioned ﬁelds

3. Basic scientists and clinicians working in research,

regulatory affairs, or administration at the National

Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection

Agency, OSHA, Food and Drug Administration, or

Centers for Disease Control

4. Physician-scientists, physician-clinicians and ad-

junct clinicians, which includes pediatricians, obste-

tricians, pathologists, clinical geneticists, clinical

teratologists or dysmorphologists, genetic counsel-

ors, and teratology counselors

5. Epidemiologists and statisticians who may be basic

scientists or clinically trained. Have we maintained

this diversity? It is difﬁcult to say, based on the

original earned degree of the members, since medi-

cal trainees frequently take up basic science, and

sometimes a Ph.D.-trained person deals largely with

clinical analysis such as epidemiology. In terms of

the interests of the presidents, 23 have been from

the basic sciences (Ph.D.), 12 have had medical

training; 4 have had MD-Ph.D. degrees, and one had

dental training. The total number of disciplines and

main research areas of the presidents are given in

Table 6.

6. Twenty of the 40 presidents were primarily involved

in embryology, which is taken to include experimen-

tal teratology. Thought has been given to rotating

the type of members of the council and ofﬁcers in

hope of increasing versatility. We suggest that this

idea be studied. However, classiﬁcation of individu-

als may be indistinct and the availability of good

candidates in each category might be limited at

times.

We doubt that anyone would argue against diversity,

which provides a wide range of expertise necessary to

carry out the responsibilities of the Teratology Society

to the scientiﬁc community, and to the public. The

interchange between disciplines has been highly edu-

cational to the membership. One of the greatest assets

of the Teratology Society is the scientiﬁc and clinical

diversity of its membership. It is in the best interests of

the Society to perpetuate this diversity.

ANTHROPOMORPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE

SOCIETY

Comparing the progression of the Teratology Society

to human developmental stages may be derided by a

few members, but it does serve as a framework for

discussion. If this section produces controversy, we

hope the result will turn into a constructive inﬂuence

on the Society. Other societies seem to have a birth,

childhood, adolescence, young and middle age and old

age and senescence. Since we are a society based on the

study of growth and development, there is some merit

to this approach. Table 5 charts our membership out-

put of abstracts as well as the types of scientiﬁc tech-

niques used in the annual meeting abstracts. Concep-

tion of the Teratology Society occurred in 1959 during

a walk on the beach in Florida. The discussion followed

a number of birth defects meetings (?courtship) which

were sponsored by the National Institutes of Health,

National Foundation (March of Dimes), Association for

Fig. 1. Founders in the late 1950s. From left to right: James Wilson,

F. Clarke Fraser, and Josef Warkany.

TABLE 6. Discipline and main field of research of

Teratology Society presidents

Discipline Field of research

Anatomy, 16 Embryology, 20

Pediatrics, 11 Genetics, 3

Genetics, 2 Epidemiology, 3

Biology, 4 Dysmorphology, 2

Medicine, 2 Carcinogenicity, 2

Nutrition, 1 Toxicology, 2

Dentistry, 1 Pharmacology, 2

Obstetrics, 1 Pathology, 2

Pathology, 1 Radiation, 1

Toxicology, 1 Biology, 1

Virology, 1

Nutrition, 1

Physical medicine, 1

A HISTORY OF THE TERATOLOGY SOCIETY 313

Aid to Crippled Children, and Oak Ridge National Lab-

oratory; these are detailed by Wilson and Warkany

(’85). The Society founders were Joseph Warkany, a

pediatrician trained in Vienna; James G. Wilson, a

reproductive biologist and anatomist; and F. Clarke

Fraser, a geneticist trained in medicine (Fig. 1). These

three young scientists decided that a more organized

approach to birth defects was needed and that the best

course was to have a society with annual meetings. The

ﬁrst meeting (birth) occurred in 1961 in Cincinnati,

Ohio. The ﬁrst seven meetings have been fully detailed

by Wilson and Warkany (’85). Rapid growth and a

relatively low proﬁle in facing societal challenges char-

acterized the early years. Guidelines for teratology

testing were developed during this time. During the

adolescent years, some rebellion was registered such as

initiation of a membership vote for ofﬁcers rather than

appointment and some members suggesting that the

decision on Bendectin teratogenicity was still in ques-

tion (Brent, ’85; Brown et al., ’85; Holmes, ’85).

The college or early adult years might be illustrated

by the postgraduate educational courses. These began

in 1984 and were expansions of earlier workshops that

concentrated on animal drug testing (Wilson and War-

kany, ’85). The courses were organized by the Educa-

tion Committee and Narsingh Agnish and Hoffman-La

Roche were strong supporters. The list of titles and

organizers is given in Table 4.

The early years of adulthood were characterized by

the birth of new societies, which might be interpreted

as offspring. These afﬁliated groups include the Neu-

robehavioral Teratology Society and Organization for

Teratology Information Services and, more loosely, the

David Smith (Dysmorphology) Workshops. The dates of

birth for these three groups were 1977, 1983, and 1987,

respectively. One might extend this analogy to include

subsequent societies of teratology in Japan, Europe,

Australia, and South Korea as cousins to our Society.

The Japanese Teratology Society held its ﬁrst meet-

ing in 1961 under the management of Hideo Nishimura

whose extensive career included many contributions to

teratology and our Society. Dr. Nishimura was

awarded high honors from the Japanese government,

including the Purple Ribbon Prize and the Second Or-

der of Merit with the Sacred Treasure. F. Clarke

Fraser, one of the founders of our Society, is an Ofﬁcer

of the Order of Canada, and Marshall Edwards, the

ﬁrst president of the Australian Teratology Society, in

1980, is an ofﬁcer of the Order of Australia. Both Jim

Wilson and Joe Warkany received awards from various

societies, but the United States does not bother with

very many similar national honors for scientiﬁc

Fig. 2. Twenty-one presidents, 1991. Meredith Runner commented that the Society “collects presidents.”

Back row from left: Scott, Hendrickx, Beaudoin, Kochhar, Johnson, Grabowski, Hoar, Swinyard, and

Barr. Middle row: Zimmerman, Rich Miller, Sever, Shepard, and Holmes. Front row: Staples, Christian,

Trasler, Fraser, Kimmel, Brent, and Runner. (Photograph by Dr. Fred Biddle.)

314 SHEPARD ET AL.

achievements. Joe Warkany received the Howland

Award, the highest award in Pediatrics. Full details of

the accomplishments of Warkany and Wilson have

been detailed (Brent, ’89, ’92). Tuchmann-Duplessis

was the ﬁrst president of the European Teratology

Society in 1971 and among other awards is a member of

Le College de France. Three members of the Teratology

Society have been elected to the Institute of Medicine of

the National Academy of Sciences (Drs. M. Bernﬁeld,

R.L. Brent, and B.A. Schwetz).

With maturation, our Society took more responsibil-

ity for a societal role by formation in 1981 of a public

affairs committee which produced statements that had

an effect outside the Society itself. This includes repu-

diation of the Delany Clause, which excluded agents

producing animal cancer from human consumption; we

voted that no similar application be applied to animal

teratogens (Staples, ’74). We took stands on vitamin A

and retinoic acid (Teratology Society, ’87), folic acid

(Oakley et al., ’83, ’95) and on the reintroduction of

thalidomide (Friedman, ’99). These position papers

have been used by other scientiﬁc societies and regu-

latory branches of government. The membership con-

tinued to play important roles in federal agencies such

as the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Dis-

ease Control, National Institutes of Child and Human

Development, Environmental Protection Agency, and

National Institute of Environmental Health. Some of

the presidents who played an important role in mold-

ing the Society are shown in Figure 2.

Over the last several years, the Society has adopted

a code of ethics as well as guidelines for ethical publi-

cation and presentation of scientiﬁc information and

data (Teratology Society, ’99a). The criteria for mem-

bership are also available (Teratology Society, ’99b).

Now we face the difﬁcult part of this comparison

(Table 7). Are we beyond middle age into old age or,

even worse, into senescence? Are we still growing, or is

the increase in number of members only an accumula-

tion of middle age fat? Do we have arteriosclerosis of

our systems? Ineffective committees? Are we looking

(staring) backward as in these very printed words or

are we evolving into the future (electronic communica-

tions, unraveling the interplay of teratogens on the

developmental genome, advanced epidemiology using

genetic markers and other techniques). To address

these examples, we are communicating by electronic

means including web site (URL http://landaus.com/

teratology) managed by David Wise at Merck and sub-

mission of manuscripts to the Journal (Scialli, ’99).

Birth defects (errors in prenatal human develop-

ment) are the leading cause of mortality and a major

cause of disabilities in children. We as teratologists, no

matter how we practice our discipline, can be proud of

our calling and of the progress that has been made

toward improving the health of children throughout

the world. We have learned that birth defects can be

prevented. We have the scientiﬁc basis to completely

prevent birth defects caused by rubella virus, by in

utero exposure to alcohol and by folate deﬁciency. Con-

sider the mortality, morbidity, and disability that just

these three etiologic agents have caused mankind. It is

a remarkable scientiﬁc achievement to have developed,

since 1941, the tools by which we can prevent such

important and serious defects.

We should not sit on our laurels. We need to be at the

forefront in leading the War on Birth Defects. The War

on Birth Defects will seek to identify the causes of birth

defects and to provide excellent care for persons with

birth defects including reducing discrimination against

them. We must proceed with wise maturity until this

job is done.

We must engage in the political battle to obtain the

resources needed to conduct the research, and then to

implement the prevention programs and to provide

care for persons with birth defects.

In the same way as teratologists, years ago, showed

that the mammalian uterus did not protect from envi-

ronmental insults, we must ﬁnd ways to use new kinds

of information, especially the avalanche of information

from the Human Genome Project, to identify the fac-

tors that cause birth defects and then to design and

implement prevention programs. The ﬁrst 40 years of

modern teratology and the Teratology Society provide

us with strong shoulders to stand upon. We, as past

presidents of the Society have many mature years be-

fore old age and senescence set in. During these years,

remarkable improvement will be made for human be-

ings because we worked to solve the birth defects chal-

lenge.

TABLE 7. Life of Teratology Society:

anthromorphic comparison

Human Society

Conception Walk on Beach, 1959

Wilson, Warkany, Fraser

Birth First Meeting, 1961

62 charter members

Infancy and

childhood Small meetings 1961–1970

⬍ 200 members

Adolescence Voting for ofﬁcers

Bendectin controversy, 1985

College years Postgraduate courses; more symposia

Young life Offspring

Neurobehavioral Teratology Society

Organization of Teratogen Information

Services

Dave Smith Workshops?

Cousin societies

Japanese Teratology Society, 1961

European Teratology Society, 1971

Australian Teratology Society, 1980

Middle age Societal activities

Delaney clause

Retinoic acid

Folic acid

Thalidomide reintroduction

More committees

Membership ⬎ 800

Old age and

senescence For discussion, year 2000

A HISTORY OF THE TERATOLOGY SOCIETY 315

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Mr. John Rajan ably helped in the preparation of the

manuscript and in communication among the seven

authors.

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316 SHEPARD ET AL.