The North American Society of Toxinology (NAST) is a North America-based, international, multidisciplinary organization dedicated to the advancement of the science of all things

venomous Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

. It was founded in 2012 and is a 501(c)(3) organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Origin

The progenitor meeting of Venom Week Symposiums, "Snakebites in the New Millennium," was held in 2005 in Omaha, NE. The first meeting named as Venom Week was held in 2007 in Tucson, AZ . and subsequent meetings were held on an ad hoc basis until 2012, when NAST was founded at the combined Venom Week IV/

International Society on Toxinology International Society on Toxinology (IST) is a global society of scientists and clinicians working for the advancement of venoms, poisons and toxins. It was founded in 1962 with an aim to advance knowledge on venoms, poisons and toxins of animal, pl ...

meeting in Honolulu to take on the organizing, and become the primary sponsor of, future Venom Week Symposiums.

Foundation

At the Venom Week VI meeting (Kingsville, TX, 2018), in recognition of their roles in the founding of NAST, the "Founder Award" was given to James Armitage, Leslie Boyer, Sean Bush, Dan Keyler,

Steven Seifert Steven A. Seifert was an American medical toxicologist. He was a professor of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico, as well as the medical director of the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center. Since 2017, he was the edit ...

and Carl-Wilhelm Vogel.

Organization and Membership

Members include medical clinicians, veterinarians, basic scientists, zoo and collection managers, animal scientists, herpetologists, antivenom researchers and developers, and others with an interest in venomous animals and their venoms. Additional information regarding membership can be found on the membership page of the Society's website. The officers of the Society are elected by the members.

Venom Week Meetings

Venom Week Symposiums have been held in 2005 (Omaha, NE), 2007 (Tucson, AZ), 2009 (Albuquerque, NM), 2012 (Honolulu, HI)), 2016 (Greenville, NC), 2018 (Kingsville, TX), and 2020 (Gainesville, FL). Venom Week 2022 will be held in Scottsdale, AZ, July 18 - 21, 2022.

Publication

Toxicon ''Toxicon'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of toxinology and the official journal of the International Society on Toxinology and the North American Society of Toxinology. It is published by Elsevier and the editor-in-chief is Ray Norton. I ...

'' is the official journal of the North American Society of Toxinology. The journal was started in 1963. It became the official journal of NAST in 2017 and is published monthly by

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

, NAST Home Page

, Toxicon Home Page International scientific organizations Organizations established in 2012 Toxicology organizations 2012 establishments in the United States