Twenty-one years ago. That was the last time the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo was in Nashville, Tennessee, and the city has undergone a major transformation during that time, which is why SOT is now returning to Music City.

In 2013, Nashville opened its new convention center, Music City Center, in the heart of downtown Nashville—two blocks from the infamous Lower Broadway, aka Honky Tonk Highway. To support visitors to Music City Center, more than 10 hotels were built and opened in the last 10 years. SOT Council was impressed when it visited Nashville in January 2015 and signed contracts to hold the 2023 meeting there not long after that.

Early-bird registration is now open for the 2023 SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo, and Connections Housing, the official SOT housing provider, is ready to assist all members and attendees with securing hotel reservations. Throughout the coming months, we look forward to announcing additional information related to the meeting, such as the scientific program that our Committees are working hard to finalize.

In a message a few weeks ago, I expressed that the Society is attune to the concerns that some members may have about traveling to Tennessee. I encourage you to review some materials that SOT has gathered about how Nashville’s government and citizen groups are committed to Nashville remaining an inclusive environment for all individuals. We will continue to work with our partners in Nashville to ensure that the SOT meeting registrants are comfortable and safe in the Music City.

I look forward to having the SOT membership experience an SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo in the “new” Nashville and remember that you can contact me or any other member of Council at any time.

The Spanish Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (SEMA) invites you to participate in the 51st congress of the European Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EEMGS), that will take place with our 27th Scientific Meeting. The congress will be entitled «Back to the sunny seashore of genotoxicology: a dive into new developments and applications» and held in our beautiful city of Málaga (Spain) from May 15th to 18th, 2023.

The EEMGS/SEMA 2023 congress will be accompanied by a satellite workshop organised by HESI and focused on «Quantitative Interpretation of Genetic Toxicity Dose-response Data for Risk Assessment and Reg Decision-making«, that will take place on May 15th, just before the beginning of the congress.

After the many difficulties generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific committee is working hard to meet the challenge of returning to the normality of face-to-face meetings and the richness of direct contact with scientists of multiple nationalities. We are designing what we hope will be a very attractive scientific programme, both for academia and industry, that includes recent findings and current advances in mutagenesis and environmental genomics with a special dedication to applied and regulatory genotoxicity testing.

Join us in Málaga for a memorable and inspiring congress!

On behalf of the Organising Committee, we are glad to invite you to take part in the 12th International Symposium on Biological Monitoring in Occupational and Environmental Health (ISBM-12) which will be held on June 21-23, 2023, in Porto, Portugal.

This Congress is organised by the Portuguese National Institute of Health (INSA, I.P.), the Institute of Public Health of University of Porto (ISPUP), and the Scientific Committee of Occupational Toxicology (SCOT) of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), in collaboration with other ICOH’s Scientific Committees, namely the Scientific Committee on Nanomaterial Workers’ Health, the Scientific Committee of Rural Health: Agriculture, Pesticides and Organic Dusts and the Scientific Committee of Toxicology of Metals. ISBM-12: Next Generation Biomonitoring will continue the ISBM congress series with a multidisciplinary and holistic view of the latest developments in the Human Biomonitoring (HBM) sciences, bringing together world’s leading scientists, experts, and students. State of the art developments in different topics of HBM (e.g., biomarkers, risk assessment, and regulation), new methodologies and developing expertise will be covered in different presentation formats (keynote lectures, oral and poster sessions).

Porto is a World Heritage vibrant city whose 900-year-old history echoes around its characterful winding streets, tilled churches and seven bridges. The city offers many attractions and activities that are affordable and will make visiting the city a trip to remember. From traditional Portuguese activities like Port wine tasting to historical attractions, Porto offers great environment for ISBM-12 conference.

We look forward to welcoming you in Porto!

João Paulo Teixeira
ISBM-12 Congress Chair