Tracing the growth of ICAAC highlights changes in this area of science during this same period. For instance, reviewing how clinical trials were conducted during the early years of ICAAC is sobering. One such trial from 1964 entailed inoculating volunteers with a highly virulent strain of Neisseria gonorrhoeae-yes, making subjects sick with gonorrhea-to assess what blood and urine levels of penicillin correlate with curing those infections. Similarly, according to a 1971 ICAAC report, prison volunteers were infected with pathogens to develop shigellosis, salmonellosis, cholera, and viral agents to assess changes in fecal leukocytes for their diagnostic value when dealing with diarrheal diseases. ICAAC history has much to teach us, including in the realm of bioethics and clinical trial procedures.  

ICAAC, the First 10 Years  

In 1961, ASM announced that it would sponsor an annual conference on antimicrobial agents, promising "to bring together individuals who are interested in all phases of chemical treatment of disease, including the nature and action of antimicrobial agents whether of biological origin or synthetic." The inaugural meeting was held at the Hotel Commodore in New York City later that year.  

Of course, ICAAC was not the first to focus on antibiotics. Earlier meetings included a conference devoted to penicillin in 1946 under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), which later became the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Research Council. From 1953 through 1959, the FDA sponsored annual symposia about antibiotics, while in 1960 the Society for Industrial Microbiology sponsored a similar meeting. ICAAC was established following a scandal involving Henry Welch, who chaired the FDA-sponsored meeting (Henry Welch, FDA, and the Origins of ICAAC ).  

George M. Savage from Upjohn, a pharmaceutical company based in Kalamazoo, Mich., chaired the first ICAAC. It lasted three days and attracted 880 scientists, who presented 157 papers three days in 12 different sessions, including one devoted to cancer chemotherapy. During that period, the ASM general meeting attracted more than 3,600 scientists, who presented 500 papers in total. The ASM Secretary commented, "High quality of papers, a broad program, and absence of commercialism characterized the meeting. It was self-supporting financially and self-contained scientifically. It would have made the framers of [ASM's] constitution proud."  

John C. Sylvester of Abbott Laboratories chaired the next ICAAC, which was held in Chicago and attended by about 650 scientists. One evening session, "International Integration of Antibiotic Sensitivity Tests," proved contentious then, and for years to come. The third ICAAC brought participants to Washington, D.C., with Nestor Bohonos of Lederle Laboratories as chair. Attendance reached 825, including participants from 20 countries. Exhibits were added as part of the meeting, with 18 companies showing their wares.  

A few days before the 3rd ICAAC, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) held its first meeting in nearby Virginia. The IDSA format differed from ICAAC by offering a number of scholarly lectures that were organized around common themes. IDSA attendance grew from 125 in 1963 to 400 by 1968. ASM and IDSA coordinated these two meetings for many years, arranging one overlapping day each year for a combined session on infectious disease topics of special interest to both groups. Eventually ICAAC and IDSA grew so large that finding suitable facilities became difficult. Additionally, other conflicts surfaced, and the meetings separated after 1996, except once in 2008.  

Meanwhile, the fourth ICAAC was held again in New York, with 1,045 scientists from 17 countries attending. The fifth ICAAC, back in Washington, was sponsored by both ASM and the International Society for Chemotherapy (ISC), and its 1,422 attendees included 228 scientists from 26 other countries. During the next two years, David Perlman from the Squibb Institute for Medical Research chaired ICAAC. Then the Society for Industrial Microbiology plus IDSA participated in the 6th ICAAC in Philadelphia, and it attracted 1,245 registrants, who presented 172 papers. One symposium addressed drug resistance for the first time at ICAAC, while other topics included the management of infections in immunosuppressed patients and also the use of antibiotics to promote growth in animals and to control plant pathogens.  

The 7th ICAAC met in Chicago, while the 8th returned to New York City, with C.W. Pettinga from Lilly Research Laboratories as chair. It marked the first occasion when ICAAC broke into simultaneous sessions to accommodate the high number of presentations, many of them devoted to viruses and antiviral drugs. The 9th conference, again in Washington, drew more than 1,300 scientists, including nearly 100 from 18 other countries. G. B. Whitfield from Upjohn chaired the 10th ICAAC in Chicago, which drew 1,115 registrants.  

ICAAC Meeting Dates and Locations

ICAAC Continues Growing, Finding Other Venues and Formats  

During the past half-century, ICAAC met in various cities: in Chicago and Washington nine times, New York City and San Francisco five times, in New Orleans four times, and only once previously in Boston before this year's 50th ICAAC. The meeting was held outside the United States twice, in Toronto. The record for highest attendance-16,216-came in 1999 in San Francisco.  

In the early years, chairs of the ICAAC Program Committee came from industry, but for the past 15, they came from universities (see table online). During the past 50 years, more than 200 individuals helped to plan programs and review submitted abstracts (see table online). Like the meeting itself, this committee grew, and now includes 35 members who this year were asked to evaluate more than 2,600 abstracts. Jumps in volume during 1979 and again in 2008 reflect joint meetings with the International Congress of Chemotherapy and with IDSA, respectively. More than half of the presentations come from non-U.S. scientists (Fig. 1).  

 ICAAC Program Committee Members - 1961-2010

 

The planning committee began poster sessions during the 17th ICAAC (1978), and they quickly became a popular feature. Also, for the first time, small group workshops preceded the conference itself, allowing for the exchange of ideas in a less formal atmosphere. More generally, social events continued to expand at ICAAC, as ASM sponsored mixers for meeting participants and various companies sponsored receptions, which for a while became lavish. Company-sponsored satellite symposia with invited speakers and meals have been another familiar feature.  

From the beginning, ICAAC had a chairman of publicity as well as a pressroom for formal and informal sessions in which meeting participants could speak with members of the news media. Meeting participants routinely received a full volume containing abstracts of papers presented at ICAAC. Moreover, until 1970, ASM published longer versions of ICAAC presentations each year as a monograph, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Although useful, the circulation for the monograph was limited. Thus, in January 1972, the monograph format was dropped in favor of a monthly journal with the same title; Gladys Hobby was its first editor-in-chief. A few authors who found its review process more rigorous were unhappy with this change in format.  

Early on, ICAAC scheduled special lectures, which have included at least 10 Nobel Laureates. The ICAAC lectureship, established in 1976, brings distinguished scientists to speak each year on broad subjects and has included Hugh Fudenberg, Rene´ Dubos, and Lewis Thomas. The Hoescht-Roussel Award and Lecture, established in 1982, honored outstanding accomplishments in antimicrobial research. Subsequently, the name for that award was changed to reflect that of the supporting pharmaceutical company. Hence, since 2000, it has been known as the sanofi-aventis ICAAC Award.

 

The planning committee began poster sessions during the 17th ICAAC (1978), and they quickly became a popular feature. Also, for the first time, small group workshops preceded the conference itself, allowing for the exchange of ideas in a less formal atmosphere. More generally, social events continued to expand at ICAAC, as ASM sponsored mixers for meeting participants and various companies sponsored receptions, which for a while became lavish. Company-sponsored satellite symposia with invited speakers and meals have been another familiar feature.  

From the beginning, ICAAC had a chairman of publicity as well as a pressroom for formal and informal sessions in which meeting participants could speak with members of the news media. Meeting participants routinely received a full volume containing abstracts of papers presented at ICAAC. Moreover, until 1970, ASM published longer versions of ICAAC presentations each year as a monograph, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Although useful, the circulation for the monograph was limited. Thus, in January 1972, the monograph format was dropped in favor of a monthly journal with the same title; Gladys Hobby was its first editor-in-chief. A few authors who found its review process more rigorous were unhappy with this change in format.  

Early on, ICAAC scheduled special lectures, which have included at least 10 Nobel Laureates. The ICAAC lectureship, established in 1976, brings distinguished scientists to speak each year on broad subjects and has included Hugh Fudenberg, Rene´ Dubos, and Lewis Thomas. The Hoescht-Roussel Award and Lecture, established in 1982, honored outstanding accomplishments in antimicrobial research. Subsequently, the name for that award was changed to reflect that of the supporting pharmaceutical company. Hence, since 2000, it has been known as the sanofi-aventis ICAAC Award.

The planning committee began poster sessions during the 17th ICAAC (1978), and they quickly became a popular feature. Also, for the first time, small group workshops preceded the conference itself, allowing for the exchange of ideas in a less formal atmosphere. More generally, social events continued to expand at ICAAC, as ASM sponsored mixers for meeting participants and various companies sponsored receptions, which for a while became lavish. Company-sponsored satellite symposia with invited speakers and meals have been another familiar feature.  

From the beginning, ICAAC had a chairman of publicity as well as a pressroom for formal and informal sessions in which meeting participants could speak with members of the news media. Meeting participants routinely received a full volume containing abstracts of papers presented at ICAAC. Moreover, until 1970, ASM published longer versions of ICAAC presentations each year as a monograph, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Although useful, the circulation for the monograph was limited. Thus, in January 1972, the monograph format was dropped in

favor of a monthly journal with the same title; Gladys Hobby was its first editor-in-chief. A few authors who found its review process more rigorous were unhappy with this change in format.  

Early on, ICAAC scheduled special lectures, which have included at least 10 Nobel Laureates. The ICAAC lectureship, established in 1976, brings distinguished scientists to speak each year on broad subjects and has included Hugh Fudenberg, Rene´ Dubos, and Lewis Thomas. The Hoescht-Roussel Award and Lecture, established in 1982, honored outstanding accomplishments in antimicrobial research. Subsequently, the name for that award was changed to reflect that of the supporting pharmaceutical company. Hence, since 2000, it has been known as the sanofi-aventis ICAAC Award.

ICAAC Lectures and Special Award Lectures 1976 - 2010

Memorable ICAAC-Associated Moments  

Although each ICAAC has had memorable moments, some were not science related. In 1979, for example, a Boston hotel housing meeting participants caught fire. "The hotel fire was in Copley Square," recalls Bill Craig. "There was no alarm, and people found out about it by smelling smoke or by looking out their windows and seeing fire trucks or hearing about the fire on TV. The next day you could tell which [attendees] were staying at the hotel by the absence of socks in the lectures and poster sessions."  

During the 1985 ICAAC in Minneapolis, participants were snowed in, creating chaos. In 1997, ICAAC was scheduled for Las Vegas, but moved to Toronto at a late juncture. "Infectious disease people are not good gamblers," noted officials in Las Vegas when they explained why they cancelled contracts to host the meeting.  

Weightier events disrupted ICAAC planning twice during the past decade. Immediately after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, federal officials suspended commercial air traffic-one of several factors that led ASM to postpone ICAAC until mid-December, while retaining Chicago as the venue. Then in 2005, hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans days before ICAAC was to begin, leading ASM again to postpone the meeting to December but also to move it to Washington.  

Despite such challenges, ICAAC has convened every year since 1961, and enjoys strong support from microbiologists and other scientists working on infectious diseases and agents with which to combat those diseases. Based on its resilient history, ICAAC is likely to remain a major meeting for those who are studying or otherwise interested in antimicrobial agents and their use in treating infectious diseases.

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