The Association of Scientists of Indian Origin in America (ASIOA) was established in 1981. The purpose of this Association is to promote fellowship among scientists of Indian Origin living in America, to act as a scientific and educational society, to establish open channels of communication among all scientists and to act as a fraternal organization and a charitable association. ASIOA is an outcome of the aspirations of hundreds of scientists of Indian origin who attend professional meetings, yet have had no mechanisms to exchange matters of mutual interest or extend fellowship while in attendance at these meetings. 

ASIOA initiated bi-annual meetings to provide a forum for interactions of Indian scientists from different disciplines and to stimulate scientific discussions on a national scale. Since 2005, three meetings have been held: one at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas (2005) and two meetings at the University of North Texas at Denton, Texas (2007 and 2009). 

This year, ASIOA brought the Fourth National Meeting to Georgia, which was held under the leadership of Dr. Avadhesh C. Sharma, President of ASIOA, and hosted at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine – School of Pharmacy in Suwanee, Georgia. Despite the week-long Atlanta winter storm, the meeting remained successful with nearly 100% attendance. Over 50 academic professionals, scientists, and graduate students from across the United States congregated in scholarly pursuit. 

ASIOA felicitated Dr. George Chandy as the guest inaugural speaker during this meeting. Dr. Chandy is a Professor at UC Irvine and the Director and Founder of Airmid Incorporated. As an authority on the roles of potassium ion-channels in disease, Dr. Chandy delivered an informative presentation on “A Journey from Patient’s Bed to Bedside: Targeting Potassium Channels in T Cells as Therapy for Autoimmune Diseases”. Dr. Chandy provided the data and brief updates on his new interventions that could be therapeutically useful for multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type-1 diabetes mellitus, psoriasis, autoimmune glomerulonephritis, and contact dermatitis. 
ASIOA was also privileged to have Dr. Muthu Periasamy as the Oration Speaker. Dr. Periasamy is Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at Ohio State University and is the Associate Director of the Davis Heart & Lung Research Institute. Renowned in the field of cardiac physiology, Dr. Periasamy delivered an insightful presentation on “Sarcolipin: A Novel Target for Thermogenesis and Metabolism in Muscle”. 

Dr. Chandy’s and Dr. Periasamy’s presentations were met with great enthusiasm and were honored with plaques presented by Dr. Avadhesh Sharma and senior members of the ASIOA. 

The scientific sessions were initiated by Dr. Sudhir Gupta who presented on “Aging: A Model for Human Autoimmune Disease”. The fourth national meeting was comprised of a diverse selection of scientific sessions this year including: Cardiovascular Biology, Cancer Biology, Biomedical Research, Platelet Biology, GI Biology and Drug Development. In addition to the senior researchers at the meeting, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students were able to present their research in the Junior Scientist Competition. Candidates presented their respective talks and posters in front of a panel of referees and were judged on the basis of scientific rigor, presentation style, and question/answer round. 

Dr. John Fleicshmann, Campus Executive Officer of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine – Georgia Campus and Chief Guest for the meeting, and Dr. Avadhesh Sharma, presented the awards to the Junior Scientist Competition winners listed below. We congratulate these Junior Scientists for their exceptional presentations and participation in the 4th national meeting. During the Business meeting of the National Meetings of ASIOA, Dr. Satya Kunapuli was unanimously elected as President for the Fifth National Meeting, tentatively scheduled to be held in Houston, Texas. 

Junior Scientist awards were presented during the occasion.

The Fourth National Meeting of ASIOA was a great success due to the active contribution and participation of all who attended, the hard work of the ASIOA board members and organizing committee, and the help of our volunteers during the procession of the meeting. 

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