Introduction
The Controlled Release Society (CRS) is an international organization with headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA and liaison offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Kawasaki, Japan. The Society serves more than 3,000 members from more than 45 countries. Two-thirds of the CRS membership represent industry, and one-third represents academia and government.
Mission
The mission of the CRS is to advance the science and technology of chemical and biological delivery systems.
Background
Efforts to use materials to regulate the spatial and temporal release of substances for agricultural, veterinary, cosmetic, medicinal and household applications are probably as old as mankind. The modern era of controlled release can be traced to the development of the first commercially successful oral sustained-release products in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and to the development of controlled release of marine antifoulants from rubber in the 1950s. It was in this latter field, and in other agrochemical applications, that the CRS was conceived in 1973. Five years later, the CRS was incorporated as a "not-for-profit organization", devoted to the advancement of the science and technology of controlled release. Interest in controlled release has grown and broadened in scope ever since, due to the realization of the economic, therapeutic, and social benefits that can be derived from controlled release technology. A clear understanding of the "added value" of controlled release is crucial for all parties involved in human and animal health care and other applications.
Science
Controlled release is the field of scientific activity concerned with the control, in time and space, of the biological effects of therapeutic agents in human and animal health, and of other active agents in environmental, consumer, and industrial applications. The objective may be to prolong the duration of action of an active agent, to minimize adverse reactions, or to maximize efficacy. This objective may be achieved by control of diffusion, reaction rates, or other physicochemical parameters through the use of rate-controlling materials, or manipulation of the fate of the agent once beyond these barriers. Controlled release draws upon the expertise of many disciplines: chemistry, chemical engineering, pharmaceutics, physics, materials science, as well as the biological sciences - biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, physiology, cell biology, medicine, etc. Newer approaches such as gene therapy are being addressed as other forms of controlled release.
The science of controlled release has become a research discipline whose future depends on a thorough understanding of the interactions between the delivery system and the biological barriers to delivery of active substances.
Activities
Awards
CRS has established several prestigious awards to recognize outstanding achievements in controlled release. They include:
Publications
The Journal of Controlled Release, published by Elsevier Science Publishers, is the official journal of the CRS and is available to members at a greatly reduced rate. The Society publishes the proceedings of the annual symposia, workshop notebooks, and the CRS Newsletter. Please contact the Administrative Headquarters for an order form listing the publications available for sale.
Annual Symposia
The annual symposium of CRS is held in late spring/early summer in various locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan.
The annual symposium provides an excellent opportunity for those interested in controlled release to meet colleagues, both academic and industrial, and exchange information. The meeting includes two or three plenary lectures and several topical symposia directed by invited speakers. Contributed papers on a broad range of topics are presented via simultaneous sessions in either podium or poster format. The scope of papers spans the fundamentals of controlled release technologies, new design concepts, clinical and biological effects, applications of controlled release, and mathematical modelling. All submissions are peer-reviewed.
Annual CRS Symposia Dates
Other CRS Meetings
Information on other conferences relevant to the field of controlled release may be found on the PharmWeb Conference pages
CRS Home Page - further information on the CRS and information on how to join
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