2002 Western Regional Meeting Highlights

The Western Section of the AFMR held its annual meeting on February 6-9, 2002 in Carmel, California. The meeting opened with a welcoming reception at the Carmel Weon's Club and allowed participants to meet and greet old and new friends and colleagues in a relaxing and social atmosphere.

The Scientific Program included invited guest lecturers, plenary sessions, concurrent programs, student scientific sessions, resident forums, state-of-the-art lectures, awards presentations, breakfast and luncheon programs.

Additional highlights included the Western AFMR Outstanding Investigator Award presented to A.I. Al-Aqeel from the Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital in Saudi Arabia for his work "Al-Aqeel Sewairi Syndrome, a New Autosomal Recessive Disorder with a Novel Mutation of Matrix Metallo-Proteinase 2 Gene (MMP-2)". The Mayo Soley Award was presented to Eng M. Tan from the Scripps Research Institute. Philip Eaton from the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center delivered the Kroc Foundation Distinguished Lectureship on "Clinical Research in the 21st Century - Linking Discovery to Healing".

In addition to WAFMR, participating societies include Western Association of Physicians, Western Society for Clinical Investigation, Western Society for Pediatric Research, and Western Student Medical Research Forum.