Summary of Minutes of Division Committee Meeting at IUPAC General
Assembly, Berlin, Germany, 10 August 1999
Division President Prof. Camille-Georges Wermuth chaired the meeting
and welcomed the 13 participants, comprising members of the Sections
of Medicinal Chemistry and Clinical Chemistry and their commissions.
Recent discussions and decisions that had taken place during the General
Assembly (GA) meetings in Berlin- especially the strategic plan to restructure
IUPAC-were discussed, including the new project evaluation process.
Main criteria of the evaluation will be usefulness according to the
strategic plan, improvement of the image of IUPAC, and maintenance of
a high scientific standard.
Deliberations during the GA yielded several new projects within the
Division, which should be submitted at the earliest convenience and
completed within the next two years.
The Section on Medicinal Chemistry presented the following projects:
- "Natural and unnatural substances". This publication addresses scientists,
laymen, and the press. It is intended to make the public more aware
of the similarities between natural and synthetic compounds and the
health risks associated with natural and herbal remedies, vitamins,
nutrients, etc.
- "Database of drug metabolites for individualized drug treatment".
This project involves cooperation with ICSU and coordination by IUPHAR.
- "Compendium of glossaries" and "Compendium of nutraceuticals" (Coordinator,
Dr. Mukund S. Chorghade).
The Section on Clinical Chemistry discussed the following proposals:
- "Recommendation on nanotechnology in the clinical laboratory".
- "Recommendations on quality management, practices, and procedures
for decentralized clinical measurements".
- "Database on chemical disasters and hazards. Measurements and markers
in exposed people as part of a global network". This database shall
serve as an ongoing reporting system for detection, identification,
and monitoring of the effects of industrial chemical waste on human
health. The project is to provide recommendations for procedures to
be used for collection and analysis of samples and reporting of the
impact of studies. It should be developed in association with WHO.
The Commission on Nomenclature, Properties, and Units (VII.C.1) has
eight ongoing projects to be finished before 2001 and proposed three
new projects. The Commission on Toxicology (VII C.2) will continue with
three ongoing projects and presented proposals for seven new projects,
which have been generated during this GA, partly through interdivisional
discussions. President Prof. Wermuth called for early distribution of
project applications and emphasized the need for new input and activities
and projects directed toward chemistry and human health. According to
the IUPAC strategic plan, most of the commissions will be dissolved
and the work will be done by project teams, with extra input and expertise
from outside of IUPAC. Some commissions, however, may continue; the
Commission on Nomenclature, Properties, and Units might be a candidate.
Decisions will be made in 2001; until then, ongoing projects will continue
under the old system, and new ones will be initiated under the new system.
It was agreed to maintain the working structure of the Division, with
two sections and the existing commissions, but to integrate the disciplines
more into the future global structure of the Division of Chemistry and
Human Health. The positions of president and secretary for the Sections
and Commissions were filled, but four positions for Titular Members
(TM) were left open for new members in order to broaden the aspects
of chemistry and human health beyond medicinal and clinical chemistry
and to encourage input from other fields related to human health.
A subsequent Division Meeting was held in Brussels, 10-11 March 2000.
Birger Heinzow
Secretary, IUPAC Chemistry and Human Health Division Committee
> Published in Chem.
Int.
22(6), 2000