The Pharmacologist March 2022

the

A Publication by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Pharmacologist Vol. 64 • Number 1 • March 2022

SMALLPOX– Lessons from the past

INSIDE - ASPET Election Results - 2022 Award Winners - Annual Meeting Program

The Pharmacologist is published and distributed by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Contents 1 3 4 5 10 18 28 33 34 38 40 41 47 61

Message from the President Introducing our new Executive Officer Election Results Award Winners Annual Meeting Feature Story: Smallpox – Lessons from the past Science Policy News Education News Journal News Meeting News Members in the News Membership News Obituary: Wolfgang Vogel

Tsuneo Omura Division News Chapter News

THE PHARMACOLOGIST PRODUCTION TEAM Catherine L. Fry, PhD Dave Jackson, MBA, CPA Tyler Lamb, JD Maria Pasho COUNCIL President Margaret E. Gnegy, PhD President Elect Michael F. Jarvis, PhD, FBPhS Past President Charles P. France, PhD Secretary/Treasurer Carol L. Beck, PharmD, PhD Secretary/Treasurer Elect Kathryn A. Cunningham, PhD Past Secretary/Treasurer Mary-Ann Bjornsti, PhD Councilors Namandjé N. Bumpus, PhD Randy A. Hall, PhD John R. Traynor, PhD Chair, Publications Committee Vacant Chair, Program Committee Michael W. Wood, PhD FASEB Board Representative Catherine M. Davis, PhD DEI Representative Martha I. Dávila-Garcia, PhD Executive Officer Dave Jackson, MBA, CPA The Pharmacologist (ISSN 0031-7004) is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 1801 Rockville Pike, Suite 210, Rockville, MD 20852-1633. Annual subscription rates: $25.00 for ASPET members; $50.00 for U.S. nonmembers and institutions; $75.00 for nonmembers and institutions outside the U.S. Single copy: $25.00. Copyright © 2021 by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Inc. All rights reserved.

Periodicals postage paid at Rockville, MD. GST number for Canadian subscribers: BN:13489 2330 RT. ASPET assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors to The Pharmacologist.

Postmaster: Send address changes to: The Pharmacologist, ASPET, 1801 Rockville Pike, Suite 210, Rockville, MD 20852-1633.

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Message from

The President Dear ASPET members, Think spring! For those of us in the north, it may still seem far away, but it literally is around the corner. Tired of Omicron? Want to get out? This is the perfect time to come to the 2022 Experimental Biology (EB 2022) meeting in Philadelphia, April 2-5. As of this writing, the meeting is scheduled to be in person. You will be able to hear cutting-edge science, timely symposia and talks by award winners, as well as network with colleagues, visit exhibits, and introduce a wider audience to your research. You might want to stay an extra day and visit the wonderful historical sites in Philadelphia. The meeting organizers are doing everything possible to ensure that you are safe during your meeting experience (vaccinations required and masks strongly encouraged).

Many of you know that I feel deeply about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). ASPET takes this issue very seriously and is committed to promoting DEI in all its functions. I’m very pleased that there will be two ASPET symposia dedicated to this important topic presented at EB 2022. One concerns attaining diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical trials and is organized by Deborah Luessen and Pamela Hornby. Clinical trials have been notorious for their lack of diversity, and it will be most interesting to learn how leaders in the field of pharmacology from diverse fields are working to overcome these barriers. The other is the Presidential symposium organized by me and Jayne Reuben. This symposium will address the complex issues that impact clinical outcomes and research approaches in the development of pharmacological treatment for diverse populations. Three top scientists will explore the process of DEI in pharmacology using the construct of ‘signal transduction’, how the increased abuse of stimulants and opioids is fueling health disparities and, finally, clinical pharmacological management of trans and gender diverse adults. Both of these symposia are translational and unique; I hope that you can attend both.

Aligned with the topic of diversity, you recently voted for new officers for the ASPET Council and various divisions. I want to high-five the nominating committee and past-past president Wayne Backes, who chaired the committee this year, for a slate of candidates that was highly diverse and highly qualified.

Let’s congratulate the recent winners of ASPET elections both at the level of the divisions and Council (see pages 4 and 47). I welcome the new Council members: Dr. Namandjé N. Bumpus as President-Elect, Dr. Xinxin Ding as Secretary/Treasurer-Elect, and Dr. Nina Isoherranen as Councilor. I also welcome the new Division officers. Divisions are integral to ASPET and this is an important responsibility. Besides developing ways to promote the variety of research areas in pharmacology, divisions are a great way to start one’s involvement in ASPET. Congratulations are also in order for the Scientific Achievement Award winners (see page 5). We applaud them for their groundbreaking work in pharmacology research and their advancement of the discipline.

I am delighted to welcome the 10 new members of the 2022 class of Washington Fellows. It is inspiring to see so many young people interested in developing a career in science advocacy. I’m impressed by their passion and diligence. We certainly need dedicated scientists that can work with lawmakers to help them understand the importance of the science and the need to fund research. I also applaud Tyler Lamb, the staff member responsible for training the Fellows. Tyler does an impressive job heading the advocacy program at ASPET. In my last President’s message I related how impressed I was with ASPET staff. There have been some important changes in staff in the last few months. First and foremost, we have a new Executive Officer. We are

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2 thrilled to welcome David Jackson. Dave has garnered considerable experience in the workings of non-profits at the American Counseling Association and the American Association of Immunologists which, like ASPET, is a part of FASEB. Dave has experience in finances, publications, events planning, membership services, human resources, contract oversight, facilities management, and staff oversight. Dave is highly enthusiastic about his new job and we are delighted to have him. I want to thank Catherine Fry for her considerable help in assessing the many applications. Kudos to Mike Jarvis, our President-Elect, who led the recruitment process.

Finally, special thanks go to the Search Committee who donated many hours reading and critiquing the many applications and who conducted interviews with select applicants. Sadly, we have said good-bye to a few excellent staff; it seems to be a time for many Americans to reshuffle their work lives. Matt Hilliker, our Chief Financial Officer, and Suzie Thompson, our Marketing Director, have each expertly served ASPET for a number of years and will be sorely missed. The response to the postings has been excellent so we anticipate that these positions will be filled soon.

A very special thanks goes to Melissa Huston and Matt Hilliker for stepping up to the plate and serving as co-Interim Executive Officers for several months. After Matt left for his new job, Melissa took over and did the job herself. This means that for a while, Melissa was doing four different jobs at the same time. The dedication of staff like Melissa (and the other staff members) help make ASPET the special Society that it is. When you see Melissa in Philadelphia, approach her and say thank you.

Finally, I want to return to the subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion. There is a DEI Task Force at ASPET that is working diligently to be sure that ASPET increases equitable accessibility, representation, support, and opportunities for advancement for all members at all levels of the organization. A goal is to identify demographic communities that currently lack representation at ASPET and recommend ways that ASPET can be inclusive of these communities. A significant problem with this goal is that we currently don’t know the extent of the demographic communities within ASPET because there is no requirement for reporting. To better ascertain what these communities are, and their population within ASPET, we will be designing a climate survey and sending it out to members. I know that we are all exhausted with the constant surveys, but this survey is absolutely critical for our DEI mission and our goal of consistently improving ASPET to better serve its members. Please keep an eye open for the survey and please fill it out. We need a solid response to improve the climate at ASPET and to be accountable to all of our members.

I hope to see all of you at the 2022 EB meeting. As we bid farewell to the EB meeting, let’s look forward to the 2023 stand-alone meeting. There are many exciting things happening at ASPET. Stay tuned.

Respectfully yours,

Margaret E. Gnegy, PhD ASPET President

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ASPET Welcomes New Executive Officer On February 1st, ASPET welcomed Dave Jackson, CAE, MBA, CPA, as the Society’s new Executive Officer.

An experienced association executive, Dave was most recently the Chief Financial and Operations Officer at the American Counseling Association (ACA), where he served in various positions since 2016.

While at ACA, he led a major financial turnaround, and the association experienced record levels of membership, revenues, and assets. He also previously held positions with fellow FASEB member society the American Association of Immunologists, as well as Associated Builders and Contractors, National Geographic Society, and Johnson Lambert.

“I’m very excited to join ASPET as I believe so much opportunity lies ahead for the Society,” he said. “While the field of pharmacology has always been incredibly important, the pandemic has demonstrated that it is more important than ever to support and expand research that creates new knowledge about drug action and translates those discoveries into novel therapeutics.”

“The ASPET Council He plans to make sure that what our is very excited to members say they want and expect from ASPET drives the decision-making for have Dave Jackson, the Society. For ASPET to be the professional home for pharmacology, it must be CAE, join us,” said focused on responding to, and meeting the needs of, our members.

Dr. Michael Jarvis, In particular, he is looking forward to ASPET’s stand-alone Annual Meeting in ASPET’s President2023 and working with the staff to create an experience that connects people and Elect and chair of topics across the field, is inclusive to all participants, represents a diversity of voices, the Executive Officer and presents excellence in science. search committee.

Dave was born and raised in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, which is a small “Dave brings a beach town on the Jersey Shore. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business wealth of association arts in accounting from The College of William and Mary, and a master’s degree management in business administration from Duke University. He is a licensed certified public experience to the role, accountant and has earned the CAE (Certified Association Executive) designation. and we look forward He won several awards for his accomplishments in his prior role as a chief financial to working with him officer. Dave enjoys watching, playing, and coaching soccer and spending time with to advance ASPET’s his family. Based on his New Jersey upbringing, he’s a big Bruce Springsteen fan. mission and vision.”

He also enjoys watching the Duke University basketball team.

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2022 Election Results The 2022 ASPET election closed on February 9, 2022. Thank you to all the members who voted! Congratulations to newly-elected Council members Dr. Namandjé N. Bumpus, Dr. Xinxin Ding, and Dr. Nina Isoherranen, who will begin their terms on July 1, 2022.

President-Elect Namandjé N. Bumpus, PhD E.K. Marshall and Thomas H. Maren Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology & Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Secretary/Treasurer-Elect Xinxin Ding, PhD Professor and Head, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Arizona College of Pharmacy

Councilor Nina Isoherranen, PhD Professor and Chair, Milo Gibaldi Endowed Chair in Pharmaceutics, University of Washington

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2022 Award Winners ASPET awards recognize accomplishments in all areas of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. It is our honor to announce this distinguished group of Scientific Achievement Award winners for 2022.

ASPET will present the awards on Saturday, April 2, 2022, at the Business Meeting and Awards Presentation during the ASPET Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2022 in Philadelphia. Please join us to celebrate these inspirational awardees.

John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology The John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology is named after the founder of ASPET. It was established in 1946 to stimulate fundamental research in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics by young investigators.

Mikel Garcia-Marcos, PhD Boston University Dr. Mikel Garcia-Marcos is receiving this award in recognition of his high impact and innovative work in the area of cellular signaling.

He is a professor in the department of biochemistry at Boston University. He received PhD training at the University of the Basque Country in Spain and postdoctoral training with Marilyn Farquhar, a pioneer of modern cell biology and pharmacology.

Since he established an independent program at

Boston University, he has maintained an upward trajectory by consistently publishing high quality and innovative work in the area of heterotrimeric G protein signaling. His innovations have been achieved through an unusually large and diverse set of experimental systems (ranging from yeast and frogs to zebrafish and mammalian cells) and sophisticated approaches such as nuclear magnetic resonance, protein structure modeling, enzymatic assays, and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer. Dr. Garcia-Marcos has been a member of ASPET since 2010.

Dr. Garcia-Marcos will deliver the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology Lecture titled The Secret Life of G Proteins to open the 2022 annual meeting on Saturday, April 2, at 10:00 am in Philadelphia.

ASPET is dedicated to recognizing the best research in, contributions to, and accomplishments in all areas of pharmacology. We encourage members to nominate deserving scientists to raise awareness of the outstanding work being done in our field.

ASPET is strongly committed to diversity. Nominations for members of underrepresented groups, women, and persons with disabilities are particularly encouraged.

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Julius Axelrod Award in Pharmacology The Julius Axelrod Award in Pharmacology honors the memory of the eminent American pharmacologist who shaped the fields of neuroscience, drug metabolism, and biochemistry and who served as a mentor for numerous eminent pharmacologists around the world. This award is presented for significant contributions to understanding the biochemical mechanisms underlying the pharmacological actions of drugs and for contributions to mentoring other pharmacologists.

Margarita L. Dubocovich, PhD, FACNP, FASPET The State University of New York at Buffalo Dr. Margarita L. Dubocovich is receiving this award in recognition of her pioneering work in understanding the physiological role of melatonin and its receptors on neuroendocrine function and circadian rhythms, and extraordinary contributions to mentoring the next generation of pharmacologists.

Dr. Dubocovich first met Julius Axelrod when she was 25 years old and was inspired by this icon of pharmacology. She takes great pride in how her own work has contributed to the field of melatonin receptor pharmacology and physiology initiated by Julius Axelrod.

She is State University of New York Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology, and Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at the

University at Buffalo (UB) Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She is an international scholar on the brain hormone melatonin and its receptors. Her seminal work revealed melatonin’s impact on circadian rhythms, sleep disorders, depression, reproduction, body weight, and torpor. Building upon the early work of Julius Axelrod, she is credited with discovering and revolutionizing the field of functional melatonin receptors and pioneering the pharmacology of melatonin receptor agonists and antagonists. She is a passionate educator, has built culturally and intellectually diverse and academically inclusive communities of trainees, and instituted inaugural programs for trainee development at all levels.

Her trainees hold positions as neuropharmacologists, toxicologists, and neuroscientists. The impact of her teaching and mentoring has been honored with several local and national mentoring awards. Dr. Dubocovich has been an ASPET member since 1983 and was designated a Fellow of ASPET in 2020.

Dr. Dubocovich will present the Julius Axelrod Award in Pharmacology Lecture as part of the ASPET 2023 Annual Meeting.

Pharmacia-ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics The Pharmacia-ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics recognizes and stimulates outstanding research in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, basic laboratory or clinical research that has had, or potentially will have, a major impact on the pharmacological treatment of disease.

Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD Pfizer, Inc. Dr. Morris Birnbaum is receiving this award in recognition of his contributions to the discovery and development of drugs for metabolic disease and pathfinding studies on the cellular actions of hormones and regulation of metabolism that have led to new therapeutic approaches to human disease.

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He is the Senior Vice President & Chief Scientific Officer, Internal Medicine at Pfizer. He earned a PhD and a MD from Brown University, served his residency at Barnes Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis before his postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, and Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York. Dr. Birnbaum has held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

He is a physician-scientist whose contributions to diabetes mechanisms and treatments have spanned academics and industry. Dr. Birnbaum’s

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groundbreaking discoveries include cloning the insulin-responsive glucose transporter, and determining the role of Akt in insulin signaling, how insulin differentially regulates metabolism and growth, and the mechanism of action of metformin, the drug most frequently prescribed for Type 2 diabetes. This work has fundamentally influenced current thinking on systemic metabolism and the pathogenesis of

insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. Dr. Birnbaum’s renowned depth of thought and scientific rigor are informing the discovery and early clinical development of new treatments for some of the world’s most common metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cachexia. ASPET was pleased to welcome Dr. Birnbaum as a member in 2021.

Robert R. Ruffolo Career Achievement Award in Pharmacology The Ruffolo Award was established in 2011 in recognition of the contributions made to drug discovery and development by Dr. Robert R. Ruffolo. The award recognizes the scientific achievements of scientists who are at the height of their careers and who have made significant contributions to pharmacology.

Jin Zhang, PhD, FASPET University of California San Diego Dr. Jin Zhang is receiving this award in recognition of her pioneering work to understand the dynamic spatio-temporal regulation of cell signaling in living cells through the development of innovative molecular tools.

She is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Pharmacology, and affiliated Professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Chemistry & Biochemistry at University of California San Diego. She received her BS from Tsinghua University and her PhD in chemistry from the University of Chicago.

She pioneered a native biochemistry approach and developed general strategies as well as specific

fluorescent biosensors to track signaling activities in living systems, from living cells to live animals. Dr. Zhang also developed first-in-class technologies for imaging dynamic enzymatic activities in superresolution and innovative molecular tools to enable the precise interrogation of biochemical networks within living cells. Pioneering work in the Zhang lab has led to a breakthrough discovery of fundamental mechanisms underlying spatial compartmentation of a ubiquitous second messenger, cAMP, as well as revelation of the oncogenic mechanism of fibrolamellar carcinoma, an atypical liver cancer. This and other discoveries have begun to establish a new conceptual framework—cellular biochemical activities are spatially organized into an activity architecture to encode essential information that profoundly impacts cell physiology and disease.

Dr. Zhang has been a member of ASPET since 2011 and was designated a Fellow of ASPET in 2021.

Who can submit a nomination?

You must be an ASPET member to submit nominations.

Who is eligible to receive awards?

Scientists from all over the world and at all career stages are eligible for ASPET’s various awards. Learn more about the specific eligibility details for each award at http://www.aspet.org/awards.

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Goodman and Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology The Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology was established in 1980 to recognize and stimulate outstanding research in pharmacology of biological receptors. Such research might provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of biological processes and potentially provide the basis for the discovery of drugs useful in the treatment of diseases.

Krzysztof Palczewski, PhD University of California, Irvine Dr. Krzysztof Palczewski is receiving this award in recognition of his innovative and pathfinding studies on mechanisms of activation of G protein-coupled receptors that have advanced understanding of receptor structure, signaling mechanism, defects that lead to disease, and treatments that preserve vision.

He is a Donal Bren Professor and Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, holds the Irving H. Leopold Chair of Ophthalmology, and is the Director of the Center for Translational Vision Research at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute. He received his PhD in biochemistry at the Technical University of Wroclaw, Poland, and did postdoctoral training at the University of Florida.

Dr. Palczewski’s research utilizes a variety of multidisciplinary approaches to study phototransduction and the visual cycle to characterize the visual system in health and disease. Pursuit of such a comprehensive

understanding of vision, including gene expression and transcriptional regulation, is essential to combat genetic defects, metabolic aberrations, and environmental insults leading to blindness. He has identified elements of the signaling pathways of the visual system, through targeted structural biology at different levels of resolution, obtained with classical and time-resolved crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and cellular cryo-electron tomography. By studying a precise structural and functional account of the participating retinal cells and their intracellular organization with two-photon in vivo and ex vivo microscopy, his work has made groundbreaking advances to recognize biochemical perturbations for early diagnosis of ocular diseases and stratification of patients for the discovery and validation of pharmacological treatments and to prevent retinal degenerative diseases.

He has been a member of ASPET since 2015.

Dr. Palczewski will deliver the Goodman and Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology Lecture titled G Protein–coupled Receptor Signaling in Phototransduction as part of the 2022 annual meeting on Sunday, April 3, at 1:00 pm in Philadelphia.

Otto Krayer Award in Pharmacology The Krayer Award commemorates the enduring legacy of Otto Krayer’s personal qualities: his ethical behavior; his commitment to teaching; his high standards of scientific scholarship, publication, and editorship; his promotion of interdisciplinary research to reveal the actions of drugs or other chemicals; and his guidance and support of younger scientists.

Des R. Richardson, PhD, DSc Griffith University Dr. Des Richardson is receiving this award in recognition of his pioneering work in developing novel classes of anti-cancer drugs, dedication to excellence in mentoring, teaching, and ethics in research.

His primary appointment is the Alan Mackay-Sim Distinguished

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Chair of Cancer Cell Biology at Griffith University, Australia.

He has held a highly competitive National Career Fellowship for 20 years (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Senior Principal Research Fellowship) and is Director of the Centre for Cancer Cell Biology and Drug Discovery.

He is a multi-disciplinary career pharmacologist whose research integrates chemistry and biology to dissect mechanism for the pioneering design and development of cutting-edge anti-cancer drugs. He has published 460 articles/patents (H-index: 100;

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>43,000 cites; Google Scholar 1/09/2022) and is senior/first/co-corresponding author on 93%. He is an exceptional scholar, with editorship of 48 international journals and is a long-serving editorial board member of Molecular Pharmacology for 14 years.

Dr. Richardson’s program is a training hub for young local and international researchers. He fosters a caring/ respectful environment and encourages trainees to find a healthy balance between work/personal life and supports trainees during crises. He understands the

importance of family enabling flexible working hours.

He has been a member of ASPET since 2008.

Dr. Richardson will deliver the Otto Krayer Award in Pharmacology Lecture titled Tickling Tumor Cell Iron to Result in Surprising Pharmacology: Development of Innovative Anti-cancer Agents that Overcome P-Glycoprotein Resistance and Metastasis as part of the 2022 annual meeting on Tuesday, April 5, at 1:00 pm in Philadelphia.

E. Leong Way Emeritus Travel Award The E. Leong Way Emeritus Travel Award provides financial support to defray the expenses for an ASPET emeritus member to attend the ASPET Annual Meeting at EB. The award honors Edward Leong Way (1916-2017), a former president of ASPET remembered for his contributions to drug metabolism research, opioid pharmacology, and a western understanding of Chinese traditional medicine, as well as the numerous scientists he mentored over 75 years of his professional life.

Krishnaswami Ramabadran, PhD Dr. Krishnaswami Ramabadran is receiving this award in recognition of his interdisciplinary contributions to opiate pharmacology including work to understand pain perception and the effects of opiates on organ systems and physiological functions.

He received his PhD in opioid pharmacology in 1980 under Prof. J. Jacob in Pasteur Institute, Paris. After a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology, University of Alberta, he moved and worked in the Department of Pharmacology at the National University of Singapore for 3 years. Later, he worked as a Research Assistant Professor in Anesthesiology at New York University where he contributed to opioid pharmacology (34

research papers in international journals) and also served as an editorial reviewer for 8 international journals. Afterwards, he entered the pharmaceutical industry and contributed to drug development for 25 years at Abbott laboratories, AstraZeneca, Boiron, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer and Wyeth Research in multiple therapeutic areas including CNS, CVS, gastrointestinal system, endocrinology, oncology, and urology. He has worked in Phase I, II, III, and IV and contributed to several successful NDAs, sNDAs, and INDs. This award is especially meaningful to Dr. Ramabadran because of his interactions with Dr. Way on several occasions at international meetings. Dr. Way and Dr. Ramabadran’s PhD supervisor, Prof J. Jacob, were peers and had several areas of common interest in opioids including physical dependence and pain. Dr. Ramabadran has been a member of ASPET since 1991.

How do I submit a nomination?

To nominate someone, visit: http://www.aspet.org/awards.

Review the award criteria and nomination requirements.

Nomination forms can be accessed via the Awards Portal.

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ASPET Annual Meeting Program Register at www.aspet.org/eb2022/registration

The ASPET Annual Meeting is the place to discover and to present the highest quality, innovative science in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics.

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ASPET welcomes all scientists passionate about pharmacology to gather April 2-5 in Philadelphia as ASPET intersects with other experimental biologists in physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, pathology, and anatomy at the last Experimental Biology conference (EB).

Explore the full ASPET program at www.aspet.org/eb2022/program and the EB program at www.eventscribe.net/2022/EB2022/

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Friday, April 1, 2022

Give a Day of Service to Philadelphia at EB 2022 ASPET gives back! Arrive a day early in Philadelphia and give back to the local community.

Since 2009, ASPET attendees have given a day of volunteer service in the local communities where we convene. Volunteer activities have included home construction, building maintenance, painting, cleaning, stocking shelves, and food service.

At EB 2022 we will spend the day at Prevention Point (https://ppponline.org/) doing whatever is needed to help the citizens of Philly. Financial donations are not required but are always appreciated.

If you want to volunteer, please contact Dr. Charles P. France at france@uthscsa.edu or (210) 567 6969 at your earliest convenience. Space is limited and further details will be provided to those who volunteer.

ASPET would like to thank Dr. Charles France and the ASPET Behavioral Pharmacology division for organizing and leading this volunteer effort for us since 2009.

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Over 600 pharmacology posters! Where to start?

Spend a ½ hour at the ASPET Daily Datablitz at 10:30 am on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday for highlights of 10 exciting posters in quick 3-minute synopses.

Look for high-scoring posters designated with this blue ribbon as “Program Committee Picks”

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Saturday, April 2, 2022

All rooms are in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, except where indicated for the Marriott.

9:00 am - 10:00 am Meet the Experts: Biotech and Pharma at ASPET

Room 109 AB

10:00 am - 10:45 am John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology Lecture Keynote: Mikel Garcia-Marcos “The Secret Life of G Proteins”

Room 114

11:00 am - 12:30 pm Axelrod Symposium and Lecture: GPCRs and G-Protein Signaling: Insights into Disease

Room 114

Induction of Early Onset Cardiovascular Disease by Methamphetamine

Room 113 C

Targeting Autophagy in Cancer

Room 111 AB

Automating the Patient-Oriented Problem-Solving Sessions in Pharmacology

Room 109 AB

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm Break for lunch with a colleague Tip: Don’t miss the cheesesteaks at Reading Terminal Market 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm Pharmacology Perspectives on Attaining Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Clinical Trials

Room 114

Immunotherapies for Substance Use Disorders: State-of-the-Art Approaches

Room 111 AB

Novel Microphysiological and Microtissue Systems to Advance Transporter Research

Room 113 C

Student-Postdoc Colloquium: Elements of Feedback: Strategies to Nurture a Growth Mindset

Room 113 AB

3:15 pm - 4:00 pm David Lehr Research Award Lecture Keynote: Kathryn Meier “Lysophosphatidic Acid: Insights from a Lipid Mediator and its GPCRs”

Room 114

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm Networking Break Discuss today’s talks and plan out your schedule for tomorrow

Hallway/ Lounge

4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

ASPET Business Meeting and Award Presentations

Room 114

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm EB Welcome Reception

Exhibit Hall AB

A recording of the Tang Foundation Prize Lecture by Dr. Charles Dinarello is available online to meeting registrants.

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Sunday, April 3, 2022

All rooms are in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, except where indicated for the Marriott.

8:00 am - 9:30 am Targeting Gq Signaling in Disease

Room 113 C

Opioid Dependence and Non-Canonical Targets for Medication Development

Room 111 AB

COVID-19 Vaccines and the Virus: Impact on Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics

Room 113 A

Diversity & Inclusion Session: Responding to Microaggressions

Room 109 AB

9:30 am - 10:00 am Networking Break Discuss the morning sessions, visit with exhibitors, and plan your route for poster viewing 10:00 am - 12:00 pm ASPET Poster Presentations Discover the latest with more than 200 pharmacology poster presentations Don't miss the ASPET Daily Datablitz at 10:30 am in Booth #1418 Fast-paced, 3-minute poster talks

Exhibit Hall AB

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Networking in the Exhibit Hall Visit with exhibitors, grab lunch, explore Career Central

Exhibit Hall AB

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Undergraduate Networking and Career Development Session

Room 109 AB

1:00 pm - 1:45 pm Goodman and Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology Lecture Keynote: Krzysztof Palczewski “G protein–coupled Receptor Signaling in Phototransduction”

Room 114

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Taking Care of Business: Funding Drug Discovery through the SBIR/STTR Programs

Room 111 AB

Behavioral Paradigms to Model Substance Use Disorders in Animals

Room 113 C

Envisioning the Scope of Pharmacology Education for the Next Decade

Room 109 AB

COVID-19: Long Haul Symptoms, Testing and Impact of Environmental Exposures

Room 113 A

3:30 pm - 4:00 pm Networking Break Discuss today’s talks, visit with exhibitors, and plan out your schedule for tomorrow 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm

ASPET Student/Postdoc Poster Competition Poster competitors and judges to arrive at 4:00 pm for set-up.

Terrace Ballroom 1

8:30 pm - 10:00 pm ASPET Student/Postdoc Mixer

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Marriott, Liberty Ballroom C

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Stay up-to-date on the latest EB health and safety information at www.experimentalbiology.org/ healthandsafety

Step up to Experimental Biology Career Central and take the next step in your career!

Interactive Workshops and Symposia – Career building topics led by expert speakers Meet-the-Experts – Small group career-development discussions Short Talks – Power-packed tips for those with limited time between sessions Job Boards – Job openings across all areas of science

Explore full schedule at www.experimentalbiology.org/career-central

Thank you for being an ASPET member!

Be sure to stop in at the ASPET member lounge in Room 112 of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Relax, grab a cup of coffee, catch up with colleagues.

HOURS: Saturday 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Sunday 7:30 am – 4:00 pm Monday 7:30 am – 5:00 pm Tuesday 7:30 am – 3:30 pm

Not a member of ASPET? Join today in Booth #1405 or at www.aspet.org.

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Monday, April 4, 2022

All rooms are in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, except where indicated for the Marriott.

8:00 am - 10:00 am Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition Bernard B. Brodie Award, Gillette Awards, and Junior Investigator Platform Session

Room 113 C

Division for Toxicology Precision Medicine and Toxicology: Data Science for Environmental Contaminants and Drug Room 113 B Safety Prediction Division for Neuropharmacology Early Career Award Lecture and Postdoctoral Fellow Showcase

Room 113 A

Division for Molecular Pharmacology Early Career Award and Postdoc Competition

Room 111 AB

Division for Pharmacology Education Room 109 AB Are You Measuring What You Think You Are? Writing Board-Style Multiple Choice Questions 10:00 am - 12:00 pm ASPET Poster Presentations Discover the latest with more than 200 pharmacology poster presentations Don't miss the ASPET Daily Datablitz at 10:30 am in Booth #1418 Fast-paced, 3-minute poster talks

Exhibit Hall AB

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Networking in the Exhibit Hall Visit with exhibitors, grab lunch, explore Career Central

Exhibit Hall AB

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Trainee Showcase and the Paul M. Vanhoutte Distinguished Lectureship in Vascular Pharmacology

Room 113 C

Division for Cancer Pharmacology Young Investigators Symposium and Susan B. Horwitz Award Lecture in Cancer Pharmacology

Room 113 B

Division for Behavioral Pharmacology Postdoctoral Showcase and P.B. Dews Award Lecture

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Division for Drug Discovery and Development Scientific Achievement Award Lecture and Notable Abstracts Platform Presentations

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Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Young Investigator Awards Platform and Early Career Faculty Showcase

Room 109 AB

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Networking Break Discuss today’s talks, visit with exhibitors, and plan out your schedule for tomorrow

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

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All rooms are in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, except where indicated for the Marriott.

Monday, April 4, 2022 (continued) 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

ASPET Presidential Symposium: The Intersectionality of Health Disparities: Pharmacology, Prescribing Bias and Social Determinants of Health

Room 111 AB

Importance of Prodrug-activating Enzymes in Drug Development and Precision Pharmacotherapy

Room 113 C

GABA-A Receptor Subtypes as Targets for Fast-Acting Antidepressants

Room 113 A

Journals Workshop: An Interactive Guide to Publishing, Reviewing, and Decision Making

Room 109 AB

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm ASPET Meet-the-Editors

Room 109 AB

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5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Mixer: Division for Molecular Pharmacology

Marriott, Franklin Hall 1

Mixer: Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology

Marriott, Franklin Hall 2

Joint Mixer: Divisions for Drug Metabolism and Disposition, Pharmacology Education, and Toxicology

Marriott, Franklin Hall 3

Joint Mixer: Divisions for Cancer Pharmacology, Drug Discovery and Development, and Translational and Clinical Pharmacology

Marriott, Franklin Hall 4

Joint Mixer: Divisions for Behavioral Pharmacology and Neuropharmacology

Marriott, Franklin Hall 13

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ASPET Booth #1405 New Closing Event to Celebrate Achievements of our Young Scientists

Visit the ASPET booth in the Experimental Biology exhibit hall. Replenish your supply of ASPET t-shirts, plush donkeys, and other items from our store. Bring your friends to learn about the benefits of ASPET membership.

Don’t miss ASPET’s Closing Networking Event that will include announcement of all our 2022 Student-Postdoc Poster Competition winners and announcements about our new 2023 Annual Meeting. The event starts immediately after the conclusion of our last scientific sessions of the day at 3:30 pm on Tuesday, April 5.

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

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Tuesday, April 5, 2022

All rooms are in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, except where indicated for the Marriott.

8:00 am - 9:30 am Ectopically Expressed Olfactory Receptors: Promises and Challenges of the Understudied GPCR Family

Room 113 B

Developmental Neurotoxicity of Cannabinoids

Room 111 AB

The Importance of Pharmacology to Regenerative Medicine Innovation

Room 113 C

Evolution of Drug Resistance

Room 113 A

9:30 am - 10:00 am Networking Break Discuss the morning sessions, visit with exhibitors, and plan your route for poster viewing 10:00 am - 12:00 pm ASPET Poster Presentations Discover the latest with more than 200 pharmacology poster presentations Don't miss the ASPET Daily Datablitz at 10:30 am in Booth #1418 Fast-paced, 3-minute poster talks

Exhibit Hall AB

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Networking in the Exhibit Hall Visit with exhibitors, grab lunch, explore Career Central

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1:00 pm - 1:45 pm Otto Krayer Award in Pharmacology Lecture Keynote: Des Richardson “Tickling Tumor Cell Iron to Result in Surprising Pharmacology: Development of Innovative Anti-cancer Agents that Overcome P-Glycoprotein Resistance and Metastasis”

Room 114

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm ASPET “Guppy Tank” Translational Science Pitch Competition

Room 111 AB

G Protein Signaling in CNS Disorders

Room 113 A

Teaching Blitz

Room 113 B

ASPET Divisional Lightning Talks

Room 113 C

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Poster Awards and Closing Networking Event

Room 109 AB

Do you volunteer on an ASPET committee?

See committee meeting times and locations at www.aspet.org/eb2022-committees

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

17 1

EB 2022 BRAND GUIDELINES

DIVISION DAY Monday, April 4 Hear the hottest science in your division’s area from both young scientists and esteemed award winners.

Featured Talks at 8:00 am K. Thummel Brodie Awardee (DMDD)

E. Levitt Early Career Awardee (NEU)

A. Kanthasamy Career Awardee (TOX)

M. Torres Early Career Awardee (MP)

P. Stapleton Early Career Awardee (TOX)

C. Zhang Early Career Awardee (MP)

B. Henderson Early Career Awardee (NEU)

Workshop: Writing Board-Style Multiple Choice Questions (DPE)

Featured Talks at 1:00 pm S. Sonkusare Mid-Career Awardee (CVP)

L. Dykstra Dews Awardee (BEH)

F. Alshbool Early Career Awardee (CVP)

C. Niswender DDD Awardee (DDD)

J. Prokop Early Career Awardee (TCP)

J. Danser Vanhoutte Awardee (CVP)

K. Jackson Early Career Awardee (TCP)

EB 2022 BRAND GUIDELINES

S. Mooberry Horwitz Awardee (DCP)

Division Mixers at 5:30 pm Catch up with old friends, make new ones, and meet the awardees at the division mixers!

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

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BEH = Behavioral Pharmacology, CVP = Cardiovascular Pharmacology, DCP = Cancer Pharmacology, DDD = Drug Discovery and Development, DMDD = Drug Metabolism and Disposition, MP = Molecular Pharmacology, NEU = Neuropharmacology, DPE = Pharmacology Education, TCP = Translational and Clinical Pharmacology, TOX = Toxicology

18

SMALLPOX– Lessons from the past

In December 1715, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu fell ill with a splitting headache, backache, and high fever.

Sores lining her mouth and throat made swallowing unbearably painful. She developed a skin rash and was diagnosed with smallpox (1).

At first, the skin pustules were tiny, hard pellets. Then, they swelled and filled with thick, yellow pus. They also had a small dimple, which differentiates smallpox from all other disease rashes (2, 3). The pustules gave off a distinctive foul odor, and experienced doctors could diagnose smallpox from that odor alone (2, 3). The numerous pustules on Lady Mary’s skin converged (a confluent rash), and her face swelled so much that her eyelids were glued shut with pus (1).

Many people who developed a confluent rash, which oozes pus and blood, died when their skin sloughed off in sheets (1, 2, 5). But after 10 days of delirium and fever, Lady Mary began to recover. The rash dried to scabs, and she could swallow again.

The inflamed cornea tissue of many patients became dense and fibrous, resulting in blindness.

Fortunately, Lady Mary’s vision was spared, but her eyelashes never regrew. A woman widely admired for her beauty, she was left with hundreds of pockmarks on her leathery face and the rest of her body (1).

The Source Physicians practicing today have seen smallpox only in textbooks. But for centuries it was the most widespread and feared infectious disease—causing more harm than even the plague.

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

Everett Collection

Rebecca J. Anderson, PhD

The heavily pockmarked face, arms and hands of a smallpox victim Smallpox spread from person to person through tiny airborne droplets that were inhaled. Anyone within six to seven feet became infected. The incubation period was 10-14 days, and the early symptoms resembled a nasty case of influenza. The virus was remarkably resilient, and patients remained contagious until the last scab fell off. Even dried body secretions and the dried, sloughed-off scabs could transmit smallpox (2, 5).

19 The natural origin of smallpox is unknown. Scribes in Asia, Africa, and Europe all wrote accounts of people suffering from symptoms suggesting smallpox.

But it is difficult to distinguish between smallpox and other pustular rashes simply from descriptions in the ancient literature (3, 6-8).

The earliest physical evidence of skin lesions resembling smallpox was found on the faces of three Egyptian mummies. One of them, Pharoah Ramses V, died of an acute illness in his early 30s (1145 BC), which left pitted scars on his face (1, 6, 8-10).

In 569 AD, Bishop Marius of Avenches, Switzerland, coined the term “variola” (from the Latin varius, meaning “spotted”). Although Marius did not give a clinical description, variola came into common use as the medical term for smallpox, and it is now the scientific name for the virus that causes smallpox (1, 6, 9).

The English term “pockes” had long been used to describe any unpleasant skin eruption. In the late 15th century, “small pockes” was first used to distinguish the disease from syphilis, which was then known as the “great pockes” (1, 6).

The modern history of smallpox begins in the 17th century, when meticulous European recordkeepers documented that one in every ten deaths was caused by smallpox. Epidemics reappeared every 5-10 years, when a critical mass of susceptible people in densely packed communities were exposed to someone with smallpox (9). Migrations, trading, and religious crusades facilitated its spread worldwide (1, 6, 8).

The earliest sequenced and reconstructed genome of variola virus comes from a Lithuanian child who died between 1643 and 1665 (3). Variola belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus, which also includes cowpox, horsepox, camelpox, and monkeypox (8).

Unlike some of the other pox viruses, smallpox is a strictly human disease.

Mortality from smallpox was 20-60%—higher than all other infectious diseases combined (1, 4, 9, 10). For children under age 5, the mortality rate was 80-98% (5, 9).

By the late 18th century, 400,000 Europeans died from smallpox each year, and 30% of survivors were blinded (1, 6, 9, 11). It killed the rich and poor alike.

Some of the more notable fatalities were China’s Shunzi Emperor Fulin (1661), England’s Queen Mary II (1694), Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I (1711), Spain’s King Louis I (1724), Russia’s Czar Peter II (1730), Sweden’s Queen Ulrika Eleonora (1741), and France’s King Louis XV (1774) (8-10).

Variolation From ancient times, survivors of smallpox were deployed as caregivers, because they were known to be immune to reinfection. The Chinese first applied this knowledge to deliberately infect susceptible people (1, 2, 6, 12).

Dried scabs from a recovering smallpox patient were ground into a fine powder, which was then blown into the nostrils of a susceptible recipient. The recipient experienced mild symptoms, was considered infectious (the same as a person who acquired smallpox naturally), and after recovery was immune to reinfection (1, 2, 5, 9).

By the mid-17th century, a slightly different inoculation procedure was practiced in Africa, India, Western Asia, and the Turkish Empire. This method, which became known as variolation, involved collecting fluid from a smallpox pustule and rubbing it into a cut or scratch in the recipient’s skin (1, 3, 6, 9).

After a short incubation period, the variolated subject exhibited a few pustules, which rapidly dried up. The procedure left a scar only at the inoculation site, and fatalities were tenfold lower than from naturally acquired smallpox. Like natural smallpox, variolation produced lifelong immunity to smallpox (1, 2, 5, 6).

Two doctors working in Turkey, Emanuel Timoni and Giacomo Pylarini, reported on variolation in the British Royal Society’s official journal, Philosophical Transactions, in 1714 and 1717, respectively (1, 6).

Unfortunately, their reports had no impact on conservative English physicians. It would take a strongwilled and persistent woman to change their minds.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Although smallpox had taken her beauty, Lady Mary Montagu was determined to live a full life despite her appearance. As a child, she had immersed herself in her father’s well-stocked library and taught herself Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. The woman was fearless, outspoken, and startlingly intelligent (1, 7).

In 1716, her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, was appointed British Ambassador to Turkey (1, 7, 9). Lady Mary fully embraced the Turkish culture and learned the local language. She befriended Turkish women, who explained that they lacked smallpox scars because they practiced variolation (1, 7). Enthusiastic about this discovery, Lady Mary was determined to protect her 5-year-old son, Edward (6).

On March 18, 1718, without her husband’s knowledge, Edward Jr. was variolated by an elderly

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20

te Pe

Greek woman who was a highly regarded local daughters, the kings of Denmark, Sweden, and France, practitioner. The family’s personal physician, Dr. and Catherine the Great of Russia (6, 7).

Charles Maitland, observed the procedure (1, 6, 9).

Cotton Mather Young Edward developed a fever and a mild case of At the same time Lady Mary was advocating smallpox, but the rash cleared and left no scars. variolation in England, a clergyman in Boston began When the Montagus returned to London, Lady Mary his own campaign. quickly reestablished herself among the social elite.

Cotton Mather came from a distinguished New In 1721, a smallpox epidemic struck England, and Lady England family. He was ferociously intelligent, fluent Mary asked Dr. Maitland (now retired) to variolate her in Greek and Latin, and convinced he could never 3-year-old daughter (1, 6, 9). be wrong. At Harvard, he studied the classics and Like her brother, the girl completely recovered with divinity (1, 2, 6, 7). no scars. Physicians, who were invited to monitor Young Cotton became a Puritan preacher like his the girl’s progress, presented the case to the Royal father and gained fame as an inquisitor at the Salem College of Physicians, and word quickly spread (1, 9). witch trials. Rev. Mather was a prolific writer with a Lady Mary and her friend, the widely admired and keen interest in science. He peppered the Royal influential Princess of Wales, persuaded a group of Society with correspondence, describing New World senior physicians to seek the King’s approval for a clinical oddities, some of which he greatly exaggerated. experiment. After royal assent, the president of the Royal Nevertheless, because of this “scientific” work, he College of Physicians designed a protocol to determine became the first native-born American elected as a whether variolation was feasible and safe (1, 6, 9).

Fellow of the Royal Society (1, 9).

Three men and three women at Newgate prison Mather had acquired a North African manservant, “volunteered” for the clinical trial. These condemned whom he christened Onesimus. One day, Onesimus prisoners were promised a royal pardon if they told Mather that he had undergone an operation that survived (1, 6, 9). protected him from ever acquiring smallpox, and he On August 9, 1721, Maitland variolated the prisoners, showed his variolation scar to prove the point (1, 5). with 25 eminent physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries In 1714, Mather saw Timoni’s letter in Philosophical observing. Five of the prisoners developed the Transactions. In 1716, he wrote to London, typical mild rash and recovered with a passing along the information he had scar at the inoculation site (1, 6, 9). The gathered from Onesimus and others unaffected subject was a man who regarding African variolation (5). admitted after the experiment that Unfortunately, like the reports from he had already had smallpox. All Timoni and Pylarini, the British of the prisoners were released medical establishment ignored on September 6, 1721, with Mather’s account. great fanfare (9).

In the spring of 1721, One of the women, smallpox broke out in Boston.

19-year-old Elizabeth Rev. Mather invited local Harrison, was sent to doctors to a meeting on Hertford, where a severe June 6, 1721, to discuss the smallpox outbreak was in variolation procedure. Only one progress. For 6 weeks, she responded: Zabdiel Boylston, a nursed and slept in the same highly respected practitioner in bed with a 10-year-old boy Brookline (1, 5, 9). with smallpox. She remained Boylston variolated a few disease-free, proving that subjects, including his son (following variolation had, indeed, conferred Timoni and Pylorini’s descriptions), immunity (1, 6, 9). and convinced himself that the procedure Influential, high-profile individuals was, at least, safe. By mid-September, he had Cotton Mather took note and requested variolation, variolated 35 people with no mishaps, and he (1663-1726) including the Princess of Wales’s two r Pe

lham

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

21 continued variolating Bostonians until the smallpox epidemic waned in 1722 (1, 6, 9).

Thoughtful and methodical, Boylston kept detailed records. About one-half of Boston’s population had contracted smallpox, and 844 of them died, a mortality rate of 15%. Of Boylston’s 281 variolated subjects, only 6 died, a mortality rate of 2% (1, 5, 6, 9). None of the variolated people later contracted smallpox through natural exposure.

Mather described these findings in a letter that was published in Philosophical Transactions in April 1722. In 1724, Boylston visited England and was invited to present his data. He had already variolated more people than any English physician (1, 9).

preparation steps. Sutton’s new method involved no blood-letting, purges, starvation, or sweating (1, 5).

By 1770, Sutton and his three sons had performed 300,000 successful variolations. Few experienced complications, and very few died. Suttonian variolation dropped the price, made the procedure more accessible, and reduced the spread of smallpox (1, 5).

Washington’s Dilemma

On July 2, 1775, George Washington arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to take command of the Continental army. Boston was already under siege by the American militia, having pushed the British back to the city after the battles of Lexington and Concord (5).

At the same time, smallpox broke out in Boston, An Ordeal and hunger and filth (due to the siege) facilitated In the early 18th century, doctors made a good transmission (5, 13). There were 10-30 funerals a day (5). living from their traditional treatments of blood-letting, Washington had first-hand experience with smallpox. purges, and vomits. Variolation threatened that In 1751, he accompanied his half-brother to Barbados, revenue stream because it was where Lawrence sought a better so simple almost anyone could climate for his tuberculosis (5). do it. So, they devised elaborate George, then 19 years old, contracted "Jenner drew preparation steps, to ensure that smallpox. After severe illness, he from 'vacca,' the Latin variolation remained beyond folk was left with light scars on his nose healers’ skills (1, 5).

(5, 14). Some speculate the reason word for cow, and Depending on a doctor’s never had children was called his procedure Washington preferences, the patient could be this near-fatal bout of smallpox (15). 'variolae vaccinae' fed or starved, heated or chilled, Most British soldiers had been bled or exercised, or locked in exposed to smallpox as children, (literally, 'smallpox the dark (1). For example, in 1757, and the British Army in Boston was of the cow')."

8-year-old Edward Jenner and his largely unaffected (5, 13). British boarding school classmates were surgeons identified and variolated sequestered, put on a starvation the few soldiers who had never had diet, and given frequent doses of purgatives to induce smallpox. Maintaining a quarantine while they were diarrhea. Every few days for about a month, Edward infectious was easy, as was finding orderlies with was bled until he was emaciated and so weak he immunity to attend them (5). could barely stand. The actual variolation was trivial The situation was much different in the Continental by comparison. He experienced the typical mild army. Most of the militiamen came from sparsely symptoms, and 7 weeks after the process began, he populated rural areas and had not acquired smallpox went back to school, fully recovered (1). in childhood. Washington knew that a smallpox In 1764, John Adams underwent a similar ordeal outbreak would devastate his troops, but variolation in Boston (5). was impractical. His troops would be incapacitated for This complexity not only gave doctors a monopoly weeks, and if they were not properly quarantined, they on variolation but also inflated the bill and divided could trigger a full-blown smallpox epidemic (5). society into the haves and have-nots (1). Wealthy Faced with this dilemma, Washington focused on families sought variolation, but manual laborers could prevention. Just two days after arriving, he ordered all not afford a month away from their work and families (5). people suspected of smallpox away from the American In 1757, Robert Sutton, a British surgeon, began lines (5, 14). Symptomatic civilians were quarantined searching for a milder method, after one of his sons in nearby Brookline. Symptomatic soldiers went to a suffered serious adverse effects from the harsh smallpox hospital near Cambridge, and Washington

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22 posted a guard at the hospital’s entrance. These measures contained the disease (5).

A Strategic Decision

to susceptible people and often triggered a smallpox epidemic. Also, about 2% of variolated subjects suffered a serious case of smallpox and died (6, 7, 12, 16).

Finally, because recipients were given pustule fluid from another person (arm-to-arm inoculation), the procedure was not sanitary. Some recipients acquired diseases from the donor, such as syphilis and tuberculosis (2, 6).

In January 1777, when Washington’s exhausted army set up winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey, smallpox accompanied them. The constant influx of new soldiers kept the army at risk, and Washington concluded that quarantine alone would not contain smallpox.

Udderly Better Yet, variolating the whole army was an enormous They needed something better, and dairy farmers in undertaking and had significant strategic risks (6).

England found one. Farm workers who recovered from After waffling on the issue for a month, Washington finally decided to move forward with mass variolation (5, a cowpox infection seemed to be protected against 14). He made a strong case to the Continental Congress smallpox (1, 6, 9).

Cowpox produces firm ulcers on the cow’s udders.

Medical Committee, and the committee chairman, Dr. Humans became infected when the ulcer fluid entered Benjamin Rush, quickly gave the go-ahead (5). their body through a scratch or cut in the skin. They All new recruits were screened by army medics at developed a fever and a few pustules, but cowpox was enlistment centers from Virginia to Connecticut (5). not fatal (1).

Recruits who had never had smallpox were variolated, A few people intentionally quarantined, and nursed by infected themselves with cowpox, immune attendants. After they which they hoped would fend recovered and were judged to be "Viruses were unknown, off smallpox. Country doctors in non-infectious, they proceeded Gloucestershire knew about this to the main army in Morristown but Jenner’s data but chose not to pursue it (1, 6). All, (2, 5). All of this was carried out indicated that cowpox except Edward Jenner. under utmost secrecy, because was somehow related Around 1768, a milkmaid told if the British knew, they could take advantage of thousands to smallpox and could, Jenner that she would keep her unblemished complexion, because of temporarily incapacitated in some way, protect a previous cowpox infection American soldiers (5). By the end against variola." prevented her from getting of 1777, the army medics had smallpox. At that time, young Jenner variolated 40,000 soldiers (14). was serving an apprenticeship to a In March 1778, during the winter country surgeon and apothecary (1, 4, 6, 7, 9). encampment at Valley Forge, Washington revised his In 1770, Jenner went to St. George’s Hospital in policy. All new recruits now went directly to Valley London to study under John Hunter, a prominent Forge, where they were systematically variolated on arrival. By the summer of 1778, Washington’s army was surgeon and well-respected biologist, anatomist, and experimental scientist (1, 6, 9). The two formed a essentially smallpox-free (5).

This was the first large-scale, mandatory immunization collegial friendship that lasted the rest of Hunter’s life.

One day, Jenner mentioned the dairymaid’s remark. campaign in American history (5). Some say it was the Hunter’s reply was characteristic: “Don’t think, try! Why most important strategic decision Washington made not try the experiment?” (9). during the Revolutionary War (2, 5, 13, 14).

After 2 years with Hunter, Jenner returned to The Hazards Gloucestershire, where he set up his practice (1, 6, At the end of the 18th century, there were only two 9). He joined local medical societies and published choices for smallpox immunity: contract smallpox detailed papers on various medical conditions (6, 7). naturally or through variolation. Although variolation His wide-ranging interests also included ornithology, was a major medical advance, it had risks (1, 2, 5, 6, 16). geology, and lighter-than-air balloons. Groundbreaking Variolated people were infectious until the last scab research on cuckoos earned him election as a Fellow of fell off. But because their illness was mild, they felt well the Royal Society in 1789 (1, 6, 7, 9). enough to walk the streets. They spread the disease

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Blossom’s Gift

Everett Collection

After 2 decades of medical practice and diversions on many topics, Jenner revived his interest in the apparent protective effect of cowpox. But even in dairy-dominant Gloucestershire, cowpox was uncommon, and his progress was slow (1).

For 6 years, Jenner carefully documented patients with previous cowpox infections and whether that had protected them from smallpox. Based on those cases, he devised a protocol to directly test the protective effect of cowpox (9).

In 1796, Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who lived nearby, scratched her hand on a thorn (17). After milking an infected cow named Blossom, Sarah contracted cowpox (1, 9). On May 14, 1796, Jenner collected some fluid from Sarah’s cowpox pustules and scratched it into the arm of James Phipps, the 8-year-old son of Jenner’s gardener (1, 17). Phipps developed a mild fever and some blisters at the inoculation site. The lesions healed within 2 weeks, and he fully recovered (17).

The next step in Jenner’s protocol proved his hypothesis. On July 1, 1796, he took pustule material from a smallpox patient and inoculated Phipps. But unlike susceptible subjects, Phipps developed no lesion or smallpox symptoms (17). Over the years, Jenner variolated Phipps 20 more times—always

Edward Jenner (1749-1823) vaccinating 8-yearold James Phipps with cowpox to provide immunity against smallpox, 1796.

without symptoms—and Phipps lived to a ripe old age, never catching smallpox (9, 17).

Jenner drew from “vacca,” the Latin word for cow, and called his procedure “variolae vaccinae” (literally, “smallpox of the cow”), from which comes “vaccine” (4, 11, 16).

The Inquiry Jenner compiled detailed case histories of 13 people who had contracted either horsepox or cowpox, all of whom exhibited immunity when they were later exposed to natural smallpox or were variolated (1, 9, 12).

He added his Phipps experiment and hoped that these observations collectively proved his hypothesis. Viruses were unknown, but his data indicated that cowpox was somehow related to smallpox and could, in some way, protect against variola (16).

In 1797, Jenner sent his findings to the Royal Society.

As a member, he assumed his work would be published in Philosophical Transactions, but the Society rejected it (1, 6, 9, 12). With only one direct test case (on James Phipps), the editors said Jenner’s observations were preliminary and required more proof (1).

Through the end of 1797 and spring of 1798, Jenner tracked down more cowpox-recovered people and variolated them. He also vaccinated another dozen people (mostly children) with matter from cowpoxinfected cows (1, 17).

Jenner used cowpox fluid from one of the children, William Summers, to vaccinate another subject. This inoculation was the first in a chain of five human-tohuman vaccinations and proved that cowpox could be transmitted from one person to another without losing its protective effect (16, 17).

In 1798, Jenner compiled his accumulated case histories and published a 64-page monograph at his own expense: An Inquiry into the causes and effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of the Cow Pox (9, 17). It was an immediate success.

Jenner claimed that vaccination was safer than variolation. No one had ever died from cowpox, and it was not contagious. Pustules broke out only at the inoculation site, so facial scarring never happened.

Jenner also assumed that, like variolation, vaccination would confer lifetime immunity to smallpox (1, 9).

The word “vaccine” came into general use, and “vaccination” was coined in 1800 by a London surgeon, Richard Dunning. When Louis Pasteur developed his anthrax inoculation in 1881, he

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

24 adopted “vaccination” as a general term to describe often contained bacterial contamination. In addition, immunization against any infectious disease (9, 16). the source of the material used in production varied Jenner’s arm-to-arm experiment demonstrated that widely (1, 16, 18). his vaccine was durable and did not rely on obtaining In 1939, Allan Downie, a bacteriologist at the University fresh fluid from an infected cow. Subjects could be of Liverpool, showed that the vaccine produced by those sequentially vaccinated on ships, passing the vaccine manufacturers was not the same as the vaccine Jenner from person to person. When they reached their had used (1, 11, 16, 18). Apparently, the cowpox virus destination, the most recently vaccinated subjects had been passed along from arm to arm and factory to provided source material for vaccinating people in that factory so long that its genome had changed (2, 18). distant land (16).

The virus used to manufacture smallpox vaccine was Jenner and his colleagues also showed that dried labeled “vaccinia,” and it appears to have no natural host pustule material remained viable when reconstituted.

(16). Genetically and biologically, vaccinia is related to In 1801, for example, Jenner sent some of the dried cowpox but may have DNA contributions from horsepox material and a copy of his Inquiry to Benjamin (now extinct), variola, and other ancestral poxviruses (1, Waterhouse, professor of medicine at Harvard.

11, 9, 16, 18). Fortunately, the coat proteins that confer Waterhouse used it successfully and sent some to immunity against smallpox are the same in both cowpox President Thomas Jefferson, who and vaccinia (1). vaccinated his family, his neighbors, A Minor Change and some local Native Americans.

Thanks to vaccination, smallpox "Jenner claimed Through Jefferson’s advocacy, steadily declined. By 1900, it caused vaccinations were performed that vaccination fewer deaths than measles or throughout the eastern seaboard (1). was safer than scarlet fever (1, 9). In the United Others besides Jenner knew States, a further decline in smallpoxvariolation. No one cowpox infections protected against related deaths was due to the smallpox, and some had attempted had ever died from appearance of variola minor (1, 5). cowpox inoculations. But Jenner cowpox, and it was In 1896, variola minor arrived in was the first to conduct systematic Florida, probably from the Caribbean. not contagious." experiments, publish his results, and It rapidly spread across all of the US then tirelessly promote vaccination as and reached Canada in 1900 (1, 5). a safer alternative to variolation (1, 6).

The symptoms of variola minor Vaccine Evolution were much milder than the original smallpox, which Through the first decades of the 19th century, was re-labeled “variola major” (1, 5). Patients rarely died variolation steadily faded away in favor of vaccination from variola minor and had no permanent scars. Most of (1). But as with variolation, arm-to-arm vaccinations them never consulted a doctor or isolated themselves. carried the danger of transmitting human diseases, This favored rapid spread, and variola minor soon such as syphilis (16). became the dominant strain in North America (1, 2).

In the 1860s, vaccine production in animals Both variola major and minor infected only humans, replaced arm-to-arm vaccination. Cowpox matter and variola minor conferred immunity to both variola from humans was placed in slits on the skin of calves. major and minor. So, in the 20th century, variola major Alternatively, an “animal vaccine” method took cowpox outbreaks in the US were rare and quickly contained (1). One of those outbreaks occurred in 1947. directly from one cow and used it to inoculate and serially transfer the vaccine from cow to cow. Material The Break Out was collected from the animals’ ripe lesions and On March 1, 1947, Eugene Le Bar and his wife arrived ground in a mortar. When suspended in a diluent, it in New York City on a Greyhound bus from Mexico was called vaccine “lymph” (16).

City. Eugene felt ill, but he did some sightseeing and Commercial “vaccination farms” were established browsed through a department store before entering to meet demand, and by the turn of the 20th century, the hospital on March 5 with a rash (19, 20). vaccine revenues reached $20 million annually. With The doctors considered smallpox, but Le Bar had no manufacturing regulations, the harvested lymph a vaccination scar, and his atypical rash was diagnosed

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25 instead as an allergic drug reaction. On March 8, and city officials, the outbreak was limited to just 12 he was transferred to Willard Parker Hospital smallpox cases, including two deaths (20).

(Manhattan’s communicable disease hospital).

Le Bar’s infection, despite vaccination, confirmed He died on March 10 (20). something that doctors had known since the 1860s, A few weeks later, two patients who were in namely, that vaccination does not confer lifetime the hospital at the same time as Le Bar developed immunity, contrary to Jenner’s original claim (1). classical smallpox. Neither had been vaccinated (20).

Israel Weinstein, the New York health commissioner, Doctors re-examined Le Bar’s autopsy, and careful reminded everyone that vaccinated children should analysis of his skin lesions showed that he, in fact, receive a booster around age 10 and again if smallpox had smallpox, probably contracted in Mexico (19, breaks out in the community (20).

20). Investigators meticulously traced all of the three Anti-vaxxers smallpox patients’ contacts. A handful of those contacts Not everyone embraced the notion of causing an also contracted smallpox, and they were immediately infection to control smallpox. Clergymen claimed that quarantined. Most of them had not been vaccinated (20). deliberately infecting people with smallpox was a sin All of the employees and guests at the Manhattan (5). Doctors expressed outrage and hatred against hotel where the Le Bars had stayed were immediately Rev. Mather, whom they felt was vaccinated. Guests who had meddlesome and unqualified as checked out were located and also a physician. In November 1721, his instructed to be vaccinated. The US house in Boston was firebombed Public Health Service traced the bus "The cowpox virus had (1, 5, 6). Both Mather and Boylston been passed along route from Mexico City to New York, faced a barrage of abuse and threats looking for other smallpox cases from arm to arm and when they ventured outdoors (1, 9).

(20). Fortunately, none were found.

Townspeople so feared catching factory to factory so But because Le Bar had roamed the smallpox from variolated recipients city prior to hospitalization, he had long that its genome that they often rioted against potentially transmitted smallpox to had changed." the doctors who performed the thousands of New Yorkers. procedure (5, 15). Virginia, South Health officials quickly mounted Carolina, New York, and most a vaccination campaign, which of New England imposed laws, was announced to all city residents via radio and the fines, or restrictions on those who gave or received newspapers. Vaccination stations operated around the variolation (5, 13). clock and free of charge at clinics, hospitals, factories, Likewise, Jenner’s Inquiry polarized public opinion. offices, union headquarters, community centers, American Some said that inoculating people with cow pus Red Cross facilities, and private doctors’ offices (20).

In addition to the vaccine supplies already available was dangerous and unnatural. Cartoons showed vaccinated people growing cow horns (9). in the city, the US Army and Navy donated all of their When states passed laws in the late 1800s making vaccine stockpiles. Vaccine manufacturers shifted to vaccination compulsory, anti-vaccinationists (including a 24-hour schedule to package and divert all of their clergy, politicians, and some doctors) protested, saying available supplies to New York, as well (20). those laws violated their freedom and right to choose.

Panicky New Yorkers flocked to the vaccination Sentiment shifted so much that in the early 20th century, centers. Among them were 6-year-old Anthony Fauci compulsory vaccination laws were repealed. By the and his family in Brooklyn (19). He vividly remembers his 1930s, some states introduced laws actually banning parents explaining the procedure: “Somebody would get compulsory vaccination. Also, variola minor (the dominant a little needle and prick it multiple times in your arm” (19). strain in the US) was no worse than chickenpox, and The procedure had changed little from Jenner’s original many saw no need to get vaccinated (1). experiments (12). A drop of vaccine lymph was placed on the skin and rubbed into a scratch or punctures in the Eradication skin. Excess liquid was then wiped away (12).

As early as 1801, Jenner himself envisioned that In less than a month, 6.35 million New Yorkers were smallpox could be eradicated (9). Although by the vaccinated. Thanks to the quick action of healthcare

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James Gathany

mid-20th century smallpox had largely been controlled, it was still endemic in dozens of countries, and many doubted eradication (1, 6, 12). An aide to the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General promised to eat a tire if it was (1).

The US and Soviet Union provided funding and donated 150 million vaccine doses, which prompted WHO to launch a smallpox eradication campaign in 1966 (8, 9, 12). Donald A. Henderson, a young public health physician from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was appointed to head the effort.

Public health workers around the world went door to door, sometimes under extraordinary conditions, to track down and eliminate variola. They rode mules through the Afghan mountains, elephants in India, and boats in the Amazon and Bangladesh floodplain. A WHO helicopter pilot was captured by Ethiopian rebels and vaccinated his captors while he awaited rescue (1).

Despite the intense Cold War, there was extraordinary international cooperation (5).

Technical advances also helped. The Lister Institute developed a freeze-dried vaccine that was stable in the tropical heat, and Wyeth Laboratories devised a bifurcated needle. A drop of vaccine clung between the tines, and the vaccinator made 15 quick skin punctures (1, 9). The bifurcated needle minimized vaccine waste and improved the vaccination speed and success rate (1, 12).

Workers administered an estimated 2.4 billion doses of vaccine, which was largely harvested from the skin lesions on animals (calves, sheep, buffaloes, and rabbits) in the endemic countries (18). One by one, those countries saw their last cases of smallpox (1, 9).

Magnified view of the tip of a bifurcated needle, with some vaccine solution

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

On October 16, 1977, 23-year-old Ali Maow Maalin of Somalia was the last person to acquire natural smallpox (5, 8, 12). He was isolated, and his 91 contacts were traced. Investigators waited two years to ensure that no further cases of smallpox emerged.

On December 9, 1979, WHO announced that smallpox had been eradicated globally and called it an “unprecedented achievement in the history of public health” (9, 21). It was the first disease ever eradicated by human efforts. WHO had allotted $112 million and 687 workers. The endemic countries supplied $200 million and more than 200,000 workers (9).

To punctuate the achievement, Henderson sent a tire to the WHO official who had sworn to eat one if smallpox was ever wiped out (1).

The Stockpiles Routine vaccination was discontinued, but WHO retained vaccina seed virus and 500,000 doses of vaccine at its Collaborating Center in the Netherlands, in case of a lab accident or a biological warfare attack (6, 9).

WHO asked all labs with smallpox virus samples either to destroy their stocks or submit them to one of two repositories: the CDC in Atlanta or the Research Institute for Viral Preparation in Moscow (9, 12). The Russians later moved their samples to the State Center for Research on Virology and Biotechnology at Koltsovo in Novosibirsk Region (1).

Those who favor keeping the two repositories argue the virus is valuable for immunology research.

Many others, including Henderson, have argued that key strains of variola major have now been DNAsequenced. Novel compounds designed to treat smallpox can be tested in the lab without the need for the intact virus (1).

Furthermore, even without access to the official repositories, a sufficiently motivated scientist could construct a lethal variola duplicate from scratch (11). So, the threat of bioterrorism remains, and countermeasures continue to be an active area of research (11).

Lab methods are now employed to produce novel attenuated smallpox vaccines without the need for calves (18). Since 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration has also approved two drugs that appear to be effective in treating smallpox infections (22). They are stored in the US Strategic National Stockpile, along with the attenuated smallpox vaccines, just in case (22).

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References: 1. Williams G (2011) Angel of death: The story of smallpox, Macmillan, New York.

2. Thomas LE (2015) No more measles! The truth about vaccines and your health, pp 231-242, Kermit Press, Chatham, NJ. 3. Duggan AT, Perdomo MF, Piombino-Mascali D, Marciniak S, Poinar D, Emery MV, Buchmann JP, Duchêne S, Jankauskas R, Humphreys M, et al. (2016) 17th Century variola virus reveals the recent history of smallpox. Curr Biol 26:3407-3412.

4. Offit PA (2007) Vaccinated: one man’s quest to defeat the world’s deadliest diseases. Harper, New York.

5. Fenn EA (2001) Pox Americana: the great smallpox epidemic of 1775-1782. Hill & Wang, New York.

6. Riedel S (2005) Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent) 18(1):21-5.

7. Arreseigor JJ (February 21, 2019) Smallpox killed 3 in 10, until the first vaccines conquered it. National Geographic History Magazine; available from: https://www. nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/vaccines.

8. Thèves C, Crubézy E, and Baigini P (2016) History of smallpox and its spread in human populations. Microbiol Spectr 4(4):PoH-0004-2014.

9. Radetsky M (1999) Smallpox: a history of its rise and fall. Pediatr Infect Dis J 18(2):85-93.

10. Guynup S (October 6, 2021) ‘Spillover’ diseases are emerging faster than ever before—thanks to humans. National Geographic; available from: https://www. nationalgeographic.com/science/article/spillover-diseases-are-emerging-faster-thanever-beforethanks-to-humans#:~:text=%27Spillover%27%20diseases%20are%20 emerging%20faster,and%20half%20of%20the%20population.

11. Wu KJ (September 4, 2018) The mysterious origins of smallpox vaccine. Smithsonian Magazine; available from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ mysterious-origins-smallpox-vaccine-180970069/.

12. Belongia EA and Naleway AL (2003) Smallpox vaccine: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Clin MedRes 1(2):87-92.

13. Thursfield H (1940) Smallpox in the American war of independence. AnnMed Hist, 3rd series, 2:312-318.

14. Lawler A (April 16, 2020) How a public health crisis nearly derailed the American Revolution. National Geographic; available from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ history/article/george-washington-beat-smallpox-epidemic-with-controversial-inoculations.

15. Holton W (October 6, 2021) As American independence rang, a sweeping lockdown and mass inoculations fought off a smallpox outbreak. The Conversation; available from: https://theconversation.com/as-american-independence-rang-a-sweepinglockdown-and-mass-inoculations-fought-off-a-smallpox-outbreak-169082.

16. Esparza J, Schrick L, Damaso CR, and Nitsche A (2017) Equination (inoculation of horsepox): An early alternative to vaccination (inoculation of cowpox) and the potential role of horsepox virus in the origin of the smallpox vaccine. Vaccine 35:7222-7230.

17. Jenner E (1802) An inquiry into the causes and effects of the variolae vaccinae, a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of the cow pox. Ashley & Brewer, Springfield, England.

18. Jacobs BL, Langland JO, Kibler KV, Denzler KL, White SD, Holechek SA, Wong S, Huynh T, and Baskin CR (2009) Vaccinia virus vaccines: past, present and future.

Antiviral Res 84(1):1-13.

19. Cunningham A (October 27, 2021) Epidemics have happened before and they’ll happen again. What will we remember? ScienceNews; available from: https://www. sciencenews.org/article/epidemics-infectious-disease-polio-flu-vaccine-aftermath-race.

20. Weinstein I (1947) An outbreak of smallpox in New York City. Am J Public Health Nations Health 37:1376-1384.

21. WHO (May 8, 1980) Declaration of global eradication of smallpox, 33rd World Health Assembly; available from: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/155528/ WHA33_R3_eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

22. FDA (July 19, 2021) Smallpox preparedness and response updates from ; available from: https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-issues/ smallpox-preparedness-and-response-updates-fda.

Biosketch:

Rebecca J. Anderson holds a bachelor’s in chemistry from Coe College and earned her doctorate in pharmacology from Georgetown University. She has 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development and now works as a technical writer.

Her most recent book is Nevirapine and the Quest to End Pediatric AIDS. Email rebeccanderson@msn.com.

In the next issue of The Pharmacologist…

Dr. Anderson will share the story of Lithium in Psychiatry

Don't miss the June 2022 issue.

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

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Science Policy News Meet the 2022 Washington Fellows ASPET is proud to announce the selection of ten awardees to participate in the 2022 Washington Fellows program. This year’s class of Fellows comprises eight graduate students and two postdocs from across the country with sterling credentials and a demonstrated interest in how legislation and policy affects the pharmacology profession and the larger biomedical sciences community.

The mission of the Washington Fellows program is to enable developing and early career scientists interested in science policy to learn about and become more engaged in public policy issues. Through participating in the program, Fellows will develop an understanding of how public policy decisions made in Washington, D.C. shape and impact science policy, including funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. At the program’s conclusion, Fellows will be equipped with the skills necessary to be lifelong advocates for biomedical research.

Due to restrictions arising from COVID-19, the Fellows will participate in virtual advocacy training in preparation for virtual Capitol Hill meetings with their congressional representatives and staff. Following their hill day, the Fellows will gather for an in-person awards dinner at the start of EB 2022 in Philadelphia, PA.

Santo Anto North Dakota State University Santo was born and raised in Kerala, India. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trivandrum, India. He also holds a master’s degree in Regulatory Toxicology from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali, India. He is currently pursuing a PhD in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at North Dakota State University. Under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen T. O’ Rourke, his research is focused on the understanding of blood pressure regulation by the novel peptide apelin in coronary arteries under hypertensive conditions and thereby better understand the safety profile of apelin-based therapies, as well as developing new therapeutic strategies in cardiovascular diseases. As an ASPET fellow, he hopes to learn and inculcate the way to effectively communicate with officials that have the power to make science-based policies and thereby

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

make a better impact of scientific research on the well-being of the community.

Keti Bardhi Washington State University Keti was born and raised in Albania. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Rochester Institute of Technology. She became involved in research as a freshman and developed her passion for science through participation in numerous research opportunities. After finishing her undergraduate degree, she worked for three years as a laboratory technician at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). While at UMB, she assisted with studies examining the effects of perinatal hypoxia-ischemia on the developing cerebellum with and without prior inflammation under the mentorship of Drs. Mary McKenna and Jaylyn Waddell.

Currently, Keti is pursuing her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Medicine at Washington State University. Working under the mentorship of

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Dr. Philip Lazarus, she is investigating the potential drug-drug interactions between cannabis and commonly prescribed drugs. In addition to research, Keti is actively engaged in outreach and advocacy.

She serves as the President of the International Student Association and as the President-Elect of the Association for Women in Science, two student-led organizations that advocate for international students and women in STEM. As an ASPET Washington Fellow, Keti hopes to learn more about policy-making and to encourage fellow scientists to advocate for themselves and engage with lawmakers.

Morgan Carson-Marino Vanderbilt University Morgan was born in Orlando, Florida, in the United States. He received a bachelor of science degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida (UCF), a master of science degree in Medical Sciences with a focus in translational research in neurodegenerative disease at the University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine (COM), and is anticipated to complete his doctor of pharmacy degree in May 2022. At UF-COM, Morgan became an American Heart Association (AHA) Scholar by earning an AHA Stroke Council Student Scholarship in Cerebrovascular Disease and Stroke.

He was then admitted to the UF College of Pharmacy (COP) and continued his research initiatives in the Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy.

Morgan’s early policy engagement efforts include local, state, national, and international activities such as serving on the UF-COP Policy and Advocacy Committee, on the Student Assembly in the American Public Health Association (APHA), on the Florida Society of Health-system Pharmacists (FSHP) Legal and Regulatory Affairs Council, and as a United Nations (UN) Global Health Fellow. He was also a certified vaccinator during the coronavirus pandemic.

As an ASPET Washington Fellow, Morgan hopes to promote evidence-based policies and practices to legislators, delve deeper into healthcare policy decision-making, and respond to the ever-changing needs of public health and disease prevention.

Shelby Coates Washington State University Shelby was born in The Woodlands, Texas, and raised in Olympia, Washington. She received her bachelor of science degrees in Biology and Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry from Pacific Lutheran University. While at Pacific Lutheran University, she cultivated her love of science through multiple academic research opportunities both in the United States and abroad. Following her undergraduate education, she moved to Spokane, Washington, to pursue a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Medicine in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Washington State University (WSU). Under the mentorship of Dr. Philip Lazarus, her research is focused on characterizing the potential drug-drug interactions between cannabis and commonly prescribed drugs. In addition to research, she has remained active and involved in her campus community through her role as President of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) WSU Virtual Chapter, her role as Treasurer of the Graduate Research Student Association (GRSA), and her role as a Graduate Student Liaison. As an ASPET fellow, Shelby hopes to utilize her personal experiences as a researcher to advocate for increased STEM education and increased funding of biomedical research.

Dylan Eiger Duke University School of Medicine Dylan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in North Wales, Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry from Duke University in 2016. As an undergraduate student, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Craig, where he focused on polymer chemistry and material science, studying mechanically reactive molecular units called mechanophores.

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During this time, he also developed a passion for medicine by working with patients domestically and internationally. He spent three months living in the Philippines where he helped restructure the health education curriculum at an orphanage in Metro Manila.

Following his undergraduate education, he decided to stay at Duke and join the MD/PhD program at Duke University School of Medicine. He has completed two-thirds of his medical training and is currently in the final year of his PhD in the Department of Biochemistry. Underneath the mentorship of Dr. Sudarshan Rajagopal, he researches the signaling mechanisms of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR), the largest receptor family in humans and the target of approximately one-third of US Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs. Specifically, he focuses on the phenomenon of biased agonism which describes how different drugs can bind to the same GPCR but generate unique biochemical and cellular responses. Outside of the lab, Dylan serves as a tutor for high school, undergraduate, and medical students, plays soccer in the local community, and is a passionate enthusiast of food and wine. After finishing his MD/PhD, Dylan plans on completing his residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in cardiology. As an ASPET fellow, Dylan hopes to learn how he can use his background in research and clinical medicine to advocate for young scientists and physician-scientists conducting basic and translational biomedical research.

Kelsey Kochan University of Michigan Kelsey is from Taylor, Michigan, and received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Michigan. Participating in pharmacological research at the University of Michigan fostered Kelsey’s interest in research and the biomedical sciences. Here Kelsey also became involved in several student advocacy and community outreach groups focusing on mental health and drugs of abuse. Namely, Kelsey became President of Scientists for Outreach on Addiction Research (SOAR). This student-run organization creates a communication channel between addiction research

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experts and the surrounding community. Additionally, SOAR hosts community Narcan training sessions for intervention in the event of opioid overdose. To merge these interests in research and advocacy, Kelsey is currently pursuing a PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Michigan. Under the mentorship of Dr. John Traynor, Kelsey’s thesis characterizes a safer alternative approach for pain therapeutics in an effort to replace traditional opioid use. In addition to research, Kelsey enrolled in the Science, Technology, and Public Policy certificate program at the University of Michigan. This program provides the opportunity to learn the foundations of science and health policy while teaching us how to communicate in the policy field and analyze and develop political strategies. As an ASPET Washington Fellow, Kelsey hopes to learn how to effectively advocate for biomedical research and increase the accessibility of its findings.

Saranya Radhakrishnan, PhD National Institute of Mental Health Saranya Radhakrishnan was born and raised in Chennai, India. She received her bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from India, and during a semester abroad program, she got the opportunity to explore life sciences research. Following her undergraduate education, she gained research experience in diverse fields ranging from cancer genomics to developmental neurobiology. This brought her to an interdisciplinary life sciences graduate program at Purdue University, where she continued her research in neurobiology under the mentorship of Dr. Mathew Tantama. Her graduate research focused on developing genetically encoded fluorescent tools to study changes in neuronal redox and applying these tools to study neurodegenerative disorders. After graduation, she joined the National Institute of Mental Health as a visiting postdoctoral fellow, where she is currently working with Dr. Susan Amara on understanding the redox regulation of glutamate transporters. In addition to research, Saranya has been a member of Purdue’s Women in Science Program leadership team and has actively engaged in outreach and advocacy events.

She has also been passionate about being able to

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communicate science in an accessible manner to all audiences. As an ASPET fellow, she hopes to leverage her communication skills and leadership experience to advocate for biomedical research and address the issue of diversity in STEM, specifically the lack of representation of women and minorities in science.

Mason Rodriguez Vanderbilt University Mason was born and raised in Pegram, a small rural town west of Nashville, Tennessee. A first-generation college student, he received a bachelor of science degree in Neuroscience after three years of study at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

While at UT, Mason found his passion for research as an assistant in a behavioral neuroscience lab, where he presented his research at eight different conferences, including Posters On The Hill 2021 in which he presented to interested members of Congress in DC. Mason also participated as a volunteer for an afterschool program for underprivileged youth in Knoxville in his last year. His experience as a volunteer gave him insight into the extreme need that exists for myriad populations within the US and reinforced his desire to make a meaningful impact in communities that are plagued by various neuropsychiatric diseases and addiction.

Currently, Mason is a research assistant in a behavioral neuroscience lab within the Warren Drug Discovery Center at Vanderbilt University. Under the auspices of Dr. Daniel Foster, he is studying the effects of novel compounds on the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in regulating chemical and electrical signaling in various neurodegenerative diseases. Mason also participates in the Big Brother Big Sister program in Nashville that caters to helping underprivileged youth have an outlet for sports and physical activity-related needs in conjunction with a friend/mentor.

As an ASPET Washington Fellow, Mason hopes to cultivate a better understanding of science and healthcare-related public policy decision-making at the local, regional, and national levels, so that ultimately, he can learn how to advocate for disparate communities at all levels. Specifically, he hopes to better understand

the underlying issues behind the economics of research and healthcare including affordability, predatory practices, and misallocation of resources.

Khairunnisa Semesta Duke University Khairunnisa (Nisa) was born and raised in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from New York University Abu Dhabi. While at NYU Abu Dhabi, she studied in five different countries and sharpened her academic research skills, investigating genome organization in the nucleus and developing a portable device to detect pathogenic E. coli food contamination. Following her undergraduate education, she moved to Durham, North Carolina, to begin her doctoral research. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Pharmacology and Cell & Molecular Biology at Duke University. Under the mentorship of Dr. Nikoleta Tsvetanova, her research aims to discover novel factors that regulate Gprotein-coupled receptor signaling, a target of one-third of clinically available drugs. Specifically, she is uncovering the role of a novel GPCR repressor in a neuropsychiatric disorder. Her research work won first place in the ASPET Molecular Pharmacology poster competition at Experimental Biology 2021 and has been recognized by predoctoral fellowships from the American Association of University Women and American Heart Association. In addition to research, she is pursuing a concurrent master’s degree in Bioethics and Science Policy at Duke University, serves as Technology Transfer Fellow in Duke University’s Office of Translation and Commercialization, and regularly volunteers her time to mentor prospective applicants of STEM graduate programs in the United States. As an ASPET fellow, Nisa hopes to gain an understanding of the complex legal and regulatory environments of the scientific innovation enterprise. Through this effort, she hopes to enable effective, ethical, and equitable biomedical research translation into tangible solutions that address unmet medical needs.

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Cora Smiley, PhD University of South Carolina School of Medicine Dr. Smiley was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, and received her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Carolina (UofSC). As an undergraduate, her classes in neuroscience inspired a passion for research, and she was able to start her career in behavioral neuropharmacology at the UofSC School of Medicine.

Following graduation, she received her doctorate in Neuroscience from the Medical University of South Carolina, where her research was focused on testing treatments for comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

and substance use disorder, specifically targeting the prefrontal cortex to alleviate stress-induced relapse for alcohol and marijuana. Currently, Dr. Smiley is pursuing her postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Susan Wood at the UofSC School of Medicine. Her research is focused on identifying the underlying mechanism responsible for the increased prevalence of mental health conditions in the female population. Specifically, she is examining the intersection of ovarian hormones and neuroinflammation and their impact on anxiety-like symptoms and opioid-seeking behavior after stress exposure. As an ASPET Washington Fellow, Dr. Smiley hopes to learn how scientists can be involved in the policy-making process, with her main goals of impacting policy regarding treatment for mental health conditions and addressing the current opioid epidemic.

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Education News ASPET Mentoring Network Enters its Seventh Year at EB 2022 After two years of running our program virtually, we are excited to launch our seventh cohort in person in Philadelphia in April. The ASPET Mentoring Network: Coaching for Career Development program was established by the BIG IDEAS initiative in 2015 to promote diversity and inclusion in the scientific workforce and within ASPET through career coaching.

This program follows a coaching model that matches established scientists with cohorts of young scientists to help guide them in their professional development and career advancement. The activities of the program are designed to complement, but not replace, scientific mentors at participants’ home institutions. The ASPET Mentoring Network will begin at EB 2022 with inperson programming on Friday, April 1, and Saturday, April 2, followed by virtual interactions throughout the year. Activities at EB 2022 will encourage relationship building across coaching groups, near-peer mentoring between graduate students and postdoctoral scientists, career planning, and networking. The program will lay the groundwork for the rest of the year’s activities, with a special emphasis on deconstructing success skills for a variety of career paths.

The program has adapted a coaching model developed by Rick McGee and his colleagues at Northwestern University. The program will be facilitated this year by three former coaches and current members of the Mentoring and Career

Development Committee: Jan Clark, Susan Ingram, and Dave Jewett. We congratulate the following young scientists who were chosen to participate in the ASPET Mentoring Network: Deepak Ahire, Washington State University Keti Bardhi, Washington State University Arthur Chow, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Nikki Clauss, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Shelby Coates, Washington State University Tinslee Dilday, Indiana University School of Medicine Ubong Ekperikpe, University of Mississippi Medical Center Lindsey Galbo, Wake Forest University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Rifat Ara Islam, University of the Pacific Abbas Kabir, St. John’s University, New York Clara Posner, University of California, San Diego Dianicha Santana, University of Illinois at Chicago Sheena Sharma, Washington State University Spokane Shubham Soni, University of Alberta Aarzoo Thakur, Washington State University Jing Wang, Washington State University Zeyuan Wang, Temple University Abdalla Wedn, University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine Yuting Yuan, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

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Journals News ASPET Announces Molecular Pharmacology Editor Search ASPET’s Publications Committee is seeking the next editor of Molecular Pharmacology. Dr. Kathryn E. Meier, Editor of Molecular Pharmacology, will step down from her position at the end of 2022, having completed the maximum two-term limit as Editor. The deadline for nominations is 5:00 PM EDT on June 1, 2022. Self-nominations are welcome.

ASPET editors serve for a three-year term that can be renewed for one additional three-year term. The position includes an honorarium. The peer-review process is managed at the ASPET office using an online manuscript submission and peer review system. Editors are members of ASPET’s Publications Committee.

Nominees must be an ASPET member in good standing and should have served on an editorial board.

Before nominating a candidate, please make sure the person is willing to serve. Self-nominations and nominations should include a CV and a brief letter from the nominator (on their own behalf if self-nominating) expressing why this person would be a good candidate.

A lengthier vision statement will be requested for candidates advancing to the interview stage.

The selection process will include telephone or online interviews with the top candidates and is expected to be completed no later than midSeptember 2022. The incoming editor will begin working with the outgoing editor and ASPET staff during the fall and will assume all responsibilities of the Editor effective January 1, 2023.

Nominations, including a brief supporting statement and the candidate’s CV, should be sent to Maria Pasho, ASPET Publications Director, at mpasho@aspet.org.

Receipt of confirmation will be forthcoming.

DMD Special Issue on ADME Databases Factual scientific data are irreplaceable resources for the creation of new knowledge. This DMD special section of “Databases” includes two featured review articles with a focus on current existing databases.

One article introduced a collection of well-established databases to drug transporters and provided a comprehensive review on these databases as useful resources for transporter-mediated pharmacokinetics of drugs. The other one focuses on herb-drug

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interaction databases. The article provides the author’s evaluation on the information available in the existing databases for herb-drug interactions, and professional evaluation of information for database development.

The special section on ADME Databases found in the Drug Metabolism and Disposition January 2022 (50/1) issue focuses on current existing databases. All content in the special section is freely accessible through June 1, 2022, at https://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/50/1.

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New DMD Editorial Board Members The Publications Committee recently approved the following new Drug Metabolism and Disposition Editorial Board members: Dr. Julia Cui, Assoc. Prof., Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA

Dr. Baitang Ning, Sr. Scientist/FDA, Full Prof. equivalent, NCTR/FDA

Dr. Kerry Goralski, Prof., Dalhousie Univ., Halifax, NS, Canada

Dr. Micheline Piquette‐Miller, Prof., Univ. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dr. Raj Govindarajan, Prof. & Vice Chair, Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH

Dr. Brad Urquhart, Assoc. Prof., Univ. of Western Ontario, London, Canada

Dr. Elaine Leslie, Prof., Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Dr. Fang Xie, Investig. & Assoc. Fellow, GlaxoSmithKline

Dr. Xiaochao Ma, Prof., Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Dr. Jiang Zheng, Prof., Shenyang Pharmaceutical Univ., Shenyang, China and Prof., Guizhou Medical Univ., Guiyang, China

Julia Cui

Kerry Goralski

Raj Govindarajan

Elaine Leslie

Xiaochao Ma

Baitang Ning

Micheline Piquette-Miller

Brad Urquhart

Fang Xie

Jiang Zheng

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Pharmacology Research & Perspectives introduces: Pharmacology Education and Innovation Series PR&P has recently launched a new series with the title “Pharmacology Education and Innovation.”

Articles published so far as part of this series can be found here: https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)2052-1707.pharm-ed Pharmacology education is an essential element of biomedical science and practice. Knowledge of drug action on biological systems, patient outcomes, and how the body responds to pharmacological interventions are key curricular competencies in schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, physiotherapy, and veterinary medicine, particularly in the context of disease and variable physiological and clinical parameters.

In addition, emerging biomedical scientific developments require the continual evolution of pharmacology educational methodology and practices.

Assessing the downstream utility and practice of such training in the research and clinical settings, by way of clinical efficacy, toxicity, and adverse prescribing behaviors provides valuable opportunities to evaluate the quality of educational outcomes in pharmacology.

Call for Papers – Now Open Educational research-related papers have been a key component of the content published in PR&P in recent years. To build on this important feature of the journal and to further the advancement of pharmacology education, PR&P has opened a call for papers on all aspects of current and future pharmacology education including:

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Curriculum development Learning strategies New pedagogical models Approaches to the delivery of pharmacology content More information about this call for papers can be found on the call for papers page (found at https:// bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/20521707/ cfp_pharmacology_education) and in the Editorial (found at https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ full/10.1002/prp2.772) by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Mike Jarvis, and Deputy Editor, Dr. Jennifer Martin.

Submission Requirements As part of this series, we encourage submissions of all article types (e.g., Original Articles, Reviews, Commentaries). The PR&P Author Guidelines provide further information about submission requirements for manuscripts submitted as part of the series, and can be reviewed here: https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley. com/hub/journal/20521707/author-guidelines.html

APC Discount Articles accepted as part of the Pharmacology Education and Innovation Series are also eligible for a 20% discount on the Article Publication Charge, the details of which can be reviewed at: https://bpspubs. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/20521707/articlepublication-charges.html.

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Highlighted Trainee Authors Congratulations to the latest Highlighted Trainee Authors selected for Drug Metabolism and Disposition, The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and Molecular Pharmacology:

Drug Metabolism and Disposition ■ Shamema Nasrin (Washington State Univ.) – December ■ Jiayi Yin (Zhejiang Univ.) – January ■ Erin Berthold (Univ. of Florida) – February Shamema Nasrin

Jiayi Yin

Erin Berthold

Surabhi Madhukar Talele

Jessica I. Griffith

Chitra Saran

JPET ■ Surabhi Madhukar Talele (Univ. of Minnesota) – December ■ Jessica I. Griffith (Univ. of Minnesota) – January ■ Chitra Saran (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) – February

Molecular Pharmacology ■ Jace Jones-Tabah (Montreal Neurological Institute) – December

Jace Jones-Tabah A brief description of their areas of research, current projects, the anticipated impact of their work, and what they enjoy when not in the lab is online at https://bit.ly/2yX1YeH. We congratulate all of them for being selected.

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Meeting News Proceedings of the Annual Pharmacology Chairs meeting Pharmacology as an ‘endangered’ term in current medical education in the United States Bina Joe1 and Kent E. Vrana2 The 2022 meeting of the Association of Medical School Pharmacology Chairs (AMSPC) was held as a virtual event from January 25-26. It was a wellattended event with 55 Chairs representing US and international universities. The meeting served as a forum to introduce 4 new chairs of pharmacology, Dr. Sara Jones from Wake Forest School of Medicine, Dr. John Mantsch from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Koren Mann from McGill University and Dr. Silvio Gutkind from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. The new Chairs shared their scientific pursuits and visions for their departments.

We also paid our respects and shared fond memories of dearly departed colleagues: William Cooke (Eastern Virginia Medical School); Louis Harris (Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine); Joseph Moerschbaecher III (Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center); and Wolfgang Vogel (Thomas Jefferson University Kimmel Medical College).

Among the many topics that the Chairs discussed, four highlighted sessions were focused on the current state of affairs related to (1) federal funding for research and science policy, (2) rigor and reproducibility in research, (3) the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), and (4) pharmacology education in medical school curricula. Discussions on these topics were ignited by invited presentations from Dr. Michael S. Lauer, Deputy Director for Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Jennifer Zeitzer, 1

Director of the Office of Public Affairs, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), Dr. Timothy Errington, Director of Research, Center for Open Science, Melissa Huston, Interim Executive Officer of ASPET and Dr. Robert Theobald, Professor at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, A. T. Still University of Health Sciences.

The current state of pharmacology education in medical school curricula was recognized as an area that needs considerable attention. Chairs acknowledged that medical education, since the transition to integrated, systems-based curricula in which pharmacology has no concrete course and has left many 4th year medical students bewildered when they are asked to rate their education in pharmacology (Fig. 1). Another force to reckon with is that the meaning of the term pharmacology has changed in the post-genomic era. The disparity is evident in the discrepancy between the classic definition of pharmacology by Merriam-Webster as ‘the science of drugs including their origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, therapeutic use, and toxicology’, compared to more recent definitions. For instance, Wikipedia defines it as ‘Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous molecule which exerts a biochemical or physiological effect on the cell, tissue, organ, or

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences, 2Department of Pharmacology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.

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organism’. As an example of this notable change in definition, RNA-based vaccines for COVID-19 or monoclonal antibody-based therapies for cancer are ‘drugs’, but not immediately recognized as such because of the perceptions that linger that drugs are exogenous chemicals. Thus, although genomebased therapeutics and xenobiotics are both drugs and belong to the science of pharmacology, their integration into ‘pharmacology’ is lacking.

Consequently, medical students who are currently engaged in the new curriculum do not recognize that they have indeed studied pharmacology - albeit in a camouflaged manner. This becomes evident in their 4th year when they are specifically asked to fill in their Graduation Questionnaire (GQ), wherein they find it difficult to identify specific classes or professors who taught them pharmacology (Fig. 1). Chairs of pharmacology are often held accountable by Deans for students’ performance on and perceptions of pharmacology. Shifting sands as experienced by Chairs with the Deans creating new Departments of

Medical Education add to the conundrum (Fig. 1).

At this meeting, we discussed this matter at length and recognized that one of the problems lies with the teaching faculty who may not be aware of resources to inculcate the knowledge required for medical students to appreciate their training in pharmacology. As a potential solution, we recommend that the AMSPC Knowledge Objectives serves as an important guide to educators of pharmacology. The AMSPC is committed to revisiting the Knowledge Objectives in a partnership with the Division for Pharmacology Education (DPE) at ASPET with the goal of updating the drug lists and preparing a succinct summary list that might be employed by students in preparing their board review.

These efforts will be undertaken with the leadership of DPE members Bob Theobald, Katharina Brandl, Gagani Athauda, and Rob Rockhold with assistance from the AMSPC membership. We welcome anyone interested in participating in this important task to send a note to rtheobald@atsu.edu.

Figure 1 The Pharmacologist • March 2022

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Members in the News Achievements, Awards, Promotions, and Scientific Breakthroughs Lindsey Galbo Wake Forest University Lindsey Galbo is a doctoral candidate in the Integrative Physiology and Pharmacology program at Wake Forest University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Before starting her PhD, Lindsey received her BS from Allegheny College and then was a Research Biologist at Charles River Laboratories before obtaining her MS at Northern Michigan University, training with Adam Prus, PhD. Lindsey

Morgane Thomsen University of Copenhagen Morgane Thomsen is a senior researcher and group leader at Region Hovedstaden Psychiatry, Denmark. Dr. Thomsen was also recently appointed as an Associate Professor at University of Copenhagen. Trained as a behavioral pharmacologist at McLean Hospital Harvard Medical School, Dr. Thomsen is interested in understanding mechanisms underlying addiction disorders and identifying targets for medications development, such as muscarinic cholinergic systems and gutbrain systems. In October 2021, Dr. Thomsen was

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recently received notice that her Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship application was awarded. Her project is entitled “Cognitive Consequences of EtOH Consumption in GroupHouse Nonhuman Primates.”

This project is the basis for her dissertation work in the laboratory of Paul Czoty, PhD. the recipient of the Lundbeck Foundation Ascending Investigator award of 5 million Danish kroner (~760,000 USD). The award supports the project entitled “Muscarinic M1 ligands as cocaine addiction treatment: elucidating unusual long-acting mechanisms,” which will allow Dr. Thomsen to push forward on an important line of investigation that originated as a PhD project; Dr. Thomsen is “excited as ever” about continuing to advance the project in new directions.

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Membership News Congratulations Congratulations to Dr. Eugene W. Shek on winning the $100 gift card as part of ASPET’s 2021 Renew-to-win raffle. Thank you for renewing early.

New Members

Heli Xu, Temple Univ, PA Chantapol Yimnual, Mahidol Univ, Thailand

Affiliate Members

Regular Members

Sean Eckley, Epizym, MA Xavier Ligneau, Bioprojet-Biotech, France Scott D. Ochs, Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, NM Osarumese Kelvin Osagiede, Forman Pharmaceutical Company, Nigeria

Postdoc Members Kevin Agostinucci, Univ of Minnesota Carly A. Baehr, Univ of Minnesota Brandon Baer, Vanderbilt Univ Med Ctr, TN Sanjay Das, Drexel Univ, PA Francesco De Pascali, Thomas Jefferson Univ, PA Shalini Dogra, Vanderbilt Univ, TN Yannick Fotio, Univ of California Irvine Luca Franchini, Univ of Rochester, NY Gaizun Hu, Virginia Commonwealth Univ G. Aditya Kumar, Univ of Michigan Mayank Kumar, Univ of Florida Jonghwa Lee, Univ of North Carolina Xia Lei, Vanderbilt Univ, TN Yujia Liu, TriSalus Life Sciences, CO Stephanie Matt, Drexel Univ College of Medicine, PA Binod Nepal, Drexel Univ College of Medicine, PA Gustavo H. Oliveira de Paula, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY Milankumar Prajapati, Brown Univ, RI Nilufar Rahimova, Univ of Pennsylvania Arun S, Govt Medical College Idukki, India Shanshan Wang, Univ of California San Diego/ VASDHS, CA

Muhammad Y. Al-Shorbagy, Cairo Univ, Faculty of Pharmacy, Egypt Nektarios Barabutis, Univ of Louisiana at Monroe, LA Ji Bihl, Marshall Univ, WV W. Nathaniel Brennen, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, MD Darren D. Browning, Augusta Univ Paul Burkat, Crozzer Chester Med Ctr, PA Joya Chandra, MD Anderson Cancer Ctr, TX Yeo Jin Choi, CHA Univ, Korea Jose O. Colon Saez, Univ of Puerto Rico Deepak A. Deshpande, Thomas Jefferson Univ, PA Xingxing Diao, Shanghai Inst of Materia Medica, Chinese Acad of Sci Julius O. Enoru, Abbvie Inc, CA Joy Feng, Gilead Sciences, CA Dinesh G. Goswami, Michigan State Univ Angela Henderson-Redmond, Marshall Univ, WV Joshua L. Hood, Univ of Louisville, KY Dennis Hu, Genentech Inc, CA Gangqing Hu, West Virginia Univ Kazuya Ishida, Gilead Sciences, CA Tharindunee Jayakody, Univ of Colombo, Sri Lanka Chun Li, Chun ADME-PKPD Consulting LLC, CA Zhihui Li, Univ of Maryland-Baltimore Kazuya Maeda, Kitasato Univ, Japan Tarek M. Mahfouz, Ohio Northern Univ Bruce J. Melancon, Vanderbilt Univ, TN Todd M. Myers, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, MD

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Elena-Raluca Nicoli, NIH, MD Martha N. Ofokansi, Univ of Nigeria Christopher Olsen, Medical College of Wisconsin Kenneth E. Palmer, Univ of Louisville, KY Dipak N. Patil, The Scripps Research Institute, FL Diane Peters, Johns Hopkins Univ Sch of Med, MD Mia Phillipson, Uppsala Univ, Sweden Muhammed A. Saad, Cairo Univ - Fac of Pharmacy, Egypt Scott Scarneo, EydisBio Inc, NC William F. Simonds, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, MD Desuo Wang, PCOM, GA Jinju Wang, Marshall Univ, WV Lei Wang, Univ of Pittsburgh, PA Lauren Wendt, Griffith Univ, Australia Boyang Wu, Washington State Univ Zhousheng Xiao, Univ of Tennessee HSC Wei Xu, Drexel Univ College of Medicine, PA Eric Zorrilla, The Scripps Research Inst, CA

Graduate Student Members Alexis E. Adrian, Univ of Wisconsin-Madison Omnia A. Ahmed, Univ of the Western Cape, South Africa Mohammed Alshagawi, Tufts Univ, MA Christopher M. Arian, Univ of Washington Carl T. Ash, NIH, MD Evans O. Ayieng’a, Ministry of Health, Nairobi Kenya Christopher J. Babigian, Univ of Connecticut Britton R. Barbee, Emory Univ, GA Sarah Bayne, Drake Univ, IL Baron Bechtold, Washington State Univ Jacob A. Beierle, Boston Univ, MA Shraddha Bhutkar, St. John’s Univ, NY Samantha J. Bouknight, Univ of South Carolina Kathryn Braden-McInerney, Saint Louis Univ, MO Chelsea Brown, Univ of California Santa Barbara

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Christina Brust, The Scripps Research Institute, FL Kathleen G. Bryant, Drexel Univ, PA Jessika J. Carvajal-Moreno, Ohio State Univ Kasturee Chakraborty, Indian Inst of Sci Educ and Res Kolkata, India Chaoling Chen, Virginia Commonwealth Univ Xin Chen, Univ of Washington Yueyi Chen, Purdue Univ Lib TSS, IN Rameswari Chilamakuri, St Johns Univ, NY Arthur Chow, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai, NY Kristan H. Cleveland, Univ of Arizona Cindy Cohen, Univ of Cincinnati College of Medicine, OH Ashley Cox, Marshall Univ School of Medicine, KY Christina Curran-Alfaro, Drexel Univ, PA Wanying Dai, Univ of Toronto, Canada Ila Dwivedi, Univ of California-San Diego Sebastian A. Dziadowicz, West Virginia Univ Jeanette M. Einspahr, Temple Univ, PA Amany ElNaggar, Univ of Alexandria, Egypt Yasmin Elsobky, Alexandria Univ, Egypt Maria Esteban-Lopez, Florida International Univ Sneha S. Ghosh, Univ Of Georgia Ilinca M. Giosan, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai, NY Dayn R. Godinez, Univ of California-Davis Miaomiao He, Stony Brook Univ, NY Chung Man J. Hui, The Chinese Univ of Hong Kong Brianna Hurysz, Univ of California San Diego Naiya Jackson, Rochester Inst of Technology, NY Anuj S. Jamenis, Duquesne Univ, PA Somnath Jan, Indian Inst of Sci Educ and Res Kolkata Remi Janicot, Boston Univ, MA Donald K. Jessup, Virginia Commonwealth Univ Jing Jin, Univ of Connecticut Ryan Kerin, Michigan State Univ Dimosthenis Koinas, Univ of Illinois at Chicago

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Naomi E. Kramer, Univ of Georgia Aditya Kumar, Univ of Washington Yujin Kwon, Brigham Young Univ, UT Behnaz Lahooti, Texas Tech Univ HSC Alyssa Lauer, Utah State Univ Jiapeng Li, Univ of Michigan Jordan Logue, Florida State Univ Xuan Luo, Drexel Univ, PA Omid Madadgar, Michigan State Univ Argha M. Mallick, IISER Kolkata, India Vitoria Mattos Pereira, Univ of Wyoming Nicholas D. Maxwell, Univ of South Carolina Madison K. McGraw, Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Shelby A. McGriff, NIDA/IRP, MD Sreelakshmi N. Menon, Mercer Univ Atlanta, GA Susmit Mhatre, Creighton Univ, NE Julia Migliorati, Univ of Connecticut Kristin M. Miner, Duquesne Univ, PA Shail Rakesh Modi, MCPHS Univ, MA Pasquale Mone, Albert Einstein Coll of Medicine – Vanvitelli Univ, NY Siavosh Naji-Talakar, Washington State Univ Libr Nina Nauwelaerts, KU Leuven Research and Development, Belgium Huong T. Nguyen, Monash Univ, Australia Kelsey C. North, Univ of Tennessee Health Science Center Soumiya Pal, Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Michelle Palumbo, Oregon Health & Science Univ Richa Pande, Drexel Univ, PA Brian J. Parks, Univ of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Hannah E. Pearlstein, NIH Lib/Acq Unit, MD Uyen Pham, Duke Univ, NC Clara Posner, Univ of California-San Diego Manisha Pradhan, Johns Hopkins Univ, MD Emily Prantzalos, Univ of Kentucky Sabrina Rahman Archie, Texas Tech Univ Hlth Sci Ctr Jeffrey Rappaport, Thomas Jefferson University, PA Abirami Ravichandran, Pennsylvania State Univ Abdul Mudabbir Rehan, D G Khan Medical College, Pakistan Alaina M. Richard, Univ of Michigan Cristina M. Rivera Quiles, Michigan State Univ Jonte B. Roberts, Wake Forest Univ, NC Olga M. Rodriguez, Univ of Puerto Rico Mayaguez Campus Gabriel O. Rodriguez-Vazquez, Universidad Central del Caribe, PR

Chittaranjan Sahu, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, S.A.S. NAGAR, India Abneet Sangha, California Northstate Univ Sushrut Shah, Thomas Jefferson Univ, PA Yi Shi, Auburn Univ, AL Igor M. Silva, Univ of Southern Denmark Hudson R. Smith, The Univ of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Logan Smith, Univ of Michigan Theresa Smith, Brigham Young Univ, UT Shubham Soni, Univ of Alberta, Canada Philip E. Stauffer, Vanderbilt Univ, TN Sydney Stern, Univ of Maryland-Baltimore Emily R. Stevenson, Rutgers, The State Univ of New Jersey Lea Stitzlein, Univ of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UT Health GSBS Xinya Su, Georgia Tech Rasheed Sule, Univ of California-Davis Leila Takahashi-Ruiz, Univ of Texas Health San Antonio Marta Telatin, Nova Southeastern Univ, FL Aarzoo Thakur, Washington State Univ Gabrielle Thomas, Univ of Texas at Tyler Hadassha M. Tofilau, Univ of Nebraska at Kearney Quoc-Anh Tran, California Northstate Univ Kathleen Tuite, UT Health San Antonio, TX Robert Valencia, Univ of Alberta, Canada Victoria Vernail, Penn State Coll of Med Deborah Walter, Univ Antwerp, Italy Jing Wang, Washington State Univ Xiaofei Wang, Zhengzhou Univ, China Xinyi Wang, Ohio State Univ Jason Wickman, Drexel Univ, PA Qiaowei Xie, Drexel Univ, PA Xiaotong Yang, Univ of Illinois at Chicago Mengyue Yin, Univ of Washington Sajad Yousuf, Maharishi Univ of Information Technology, India Farzana Zerin, Mercer Univ Atlanta, GA Cindy X. Zhang, Univ of Washington

Post-baccalaureate Student Members Emily E. Anderson, NIH, MD Aditi Buch, Vanderbilt Univ, TN Robert Folk, Midwestern Univ, AZ Nora Madaras, National Institutes of Health, MD Fisayo N. Ogunleye, Univ of Ibadan, Nigeria Alexis M. Perez, NYIT - Coll Osteopathic Med, NY The Pharmacologist • March 2022

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Undergraduate Student Members Francesca Asmus, Univ of New England, ME Erika K. Cedarbloom, Univ of Wisconsin Christopher Y. Chin, California State Univ East Bay Sophia Chou, Vanderbilt Univ, CA Carolina Colon, Univ of Puerto Rico Paula Costa, Univ at Buffalo, NY Suzannah De Almeida, Univ of Connecticut Emma Dixon, Univ of Michigan, MI Andrew C. England, Wake Forest Univ, NC Camilla Fermanian-Mejia, Univ at Buffalo, NY Mary M. Fiala, Univ of Nebraska at Kearney Chloe N. Hicks, Duke Univ, NC Alec Horton, Tulane Univ, LA Deborah Ipinmoroti, Ohio State Univ

Valentin Kliebe, Presbyterian College, SC Taylor Kohlmann, Duke University, CA Sarah LoCurto, Duke Univ, NC Alexander D. Maitland, Univ of Michigan Sierra C. Moore, Univ of Michigan Andrea M. Mosquera, Rutgers, NJ Kennedy Outlaw, Purdue Univ, IN Suyasha O. Pradhanang, Univ of Wyoming Natalie Printy, Ohio Northern Univ Adrian S. Romero, Univ of Texas at Tyler Katiana Ron, California State Univ Stephanie Sanchez, California State Univ East Bay Conor Strumberger, Creighton Univ, NE Juanita M. Velasco, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia Christine Wan, Univ of California Berkeley

In Memoriam: Wolfgang Helmut Vogel, 1930-2021 Submitted by Walter C. Prozialeck, Wade H. Berrettini, Thomas N. Ferraro, and Marion Siegman It is with extreme sadness, but also many fond memories, that we inform the ASPET community of the recent passing of Dr. Wolfgang Helmut Vogel. Wolfgang, who had been a long-time member of ASPET and a highly respected leader in the field of Pharmacology, died suddenly at his home in Florida on October 15, 2021. Wolfgang was born in Dresden, Germany, in 1930 and lived through the fire bombing of the city late in World War II. As Wolfgang noted in a recent interview “After the fire bombing, I was 15 years old and I was drafted into the paramilitary. Fortunately, we had a very understanding captain and before we saw action, he said ‘Boys, go home.’ And by sending us home, he probably saved our lives.” After the war, his life gradually returned to normal, but as the son of a capitalist in communist-controlled East Germany, he knew he would not be permitted to go to university, so at the age of eighteen, Wolfgang accepted a job as an elementary school teacher. During a year of teaching, he made secret trips to West Berlin to visit friends, and he used their addresses to apply to West German universities. He was accepted at the University of Bonn, but he needed official permission from East Germany to attend. In the end, he was able to secure a passport by bribing the passport officer with two pounds of butter, which cost about 100 dollars in the black market at the time.

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Wolfgang arrived at the university without financial support. Thankfully, the university gave him a free meal ticket and paid his tuition after he passed his exams “at the superior level.” For housing, he lived in an abandoned World War II bunker built into a nearby mountain, which he shared with a fellow student.

Outside of school, he worked as a mail messenger for the University of Bonn and as a security guard at a local department store. He transferred to the University of Tubingen two years later, and then completed his graduate degrees at the Institute of Technology in Stuttgart. After earning his PhD, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York, doing research in biochemistry.

With only a temporary visa, he returned to Germany in 1959 to work at a pharmaceutical company in Frankfort.

In 1961, shortly after his marriage to Ursula, Wolfgang moved to the United States where he had accepted a pharmacology research associate position at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. After learning that he loved pharmacology more than biochemistry, he spent a year as a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and then two years as a research scientist at Elgin (Illinois) State Hospital studying the pharmacology of schizophrenia.

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In 1967, Wolfgang joined the faculty of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia as an Associate Professor of Pharmacology. While he was confident and comfortable doing research, he was apprehensive about teaching and public speaking. Nevertheless, he worked diligently to overcome his trepidations and soon became a skilled and effective educator.

His lectures were well organized and delivered with clarity, enthusiasm, and a touch of engaging humor.

He ultimately became one of the most popular professors at Jefferson, revered by dozens of classes of medical students. In 1972, he was awarded the prestigious Christian R. and Mary Lindback Award for distinguished teaching. In 1976, he was elected by the class to be the Parent’s Day speaker, and in 1982, he was selected for the Senior Class Portrait by the graduating class. Over the next 20 years, he received numerous “teacher of the year awards” from various medical school classes at Jefferson. Dr. Vogel’s teaching skills extended to the laboratory where he mentored numerous graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, medical student researchers, and even undergraduates and a few high schoolers. As a research mentor, he had a unique talent for allowing trainees to develop their own ideas, and even make occasional mistakes, while keeping them on track to complete their projects and graduate in a timely manner. From his own experience he was also very good at teaching students how to present their work clearly and with confidence.

With regard to research, Wolfgang had a long and highly productive career. He published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in the areas of neuropsychopharmacology, drug abuse, and stress. He was ahead of his time in many regards, and this was exemplified in the experimental designs of his projects. For example, he was an early proponent of studying individual differences in responsiveness to drugs and employed strategies in which subjects served as their own controls.

These and other forward-thinking perspectives were hallmarks of Wolfgang’s research. In addition to laboratory

studies, he authored several notable books on research methods and ocular pharmacology.

Along with his outstanding career as a teacher, mentor, and researcher, Wolfgang also served several terms as interim/acting chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Jefferson, demonstrating an impressive administrative acumen. Even in these temporary roles, Wolfgang was highly motivated to serve the department and create a high-quality academic environment for his fellow faculty and graduate students. His habit of making a quick run through the halls of the department just before the weekly noon seminar, poking his head into every lab and announcing in a booming voice “SEMI-NAR! SEMINAR!” will be remembered fondly by those who had the good fortune to work in the Jefferson Department of Pharmacology with Dr. Wolfgang Vogel.

After retiring from Jefferson in 2002, Wolfgang’s passion for medical education and scholarly activity remained unbridled. He taught various topics in pharmacology, particularly autonomic pharmacology, on a part-time basis at several institutions both in the greater Philadelphia area and in his new home state of Florida. In his later years, he continued to write and publish important scientific papers, mostly on topics related to the ongoing opioid crisis. At the time of his death, he was working on a manuscript discussing the potential value of heroin-assisted therapy for the treatment of opioid use disorder in the United States. This important perspective serves as another example of Wolfgang’s progressive views with regards to research and its potential for advancing the human condition.

Despite the many challenges he faced in his youth, Wolfgang approached each aspect of life and work with energy, enthusiasm, humor, and compassion.

He was a devoted family man and is survived by his wife Ursula and their two daughters Britta and Carla.

He had a positive influence on almost everyone who knew him. He will be missed and never forgotten by his friends, students, and colleagues.

In Sympathy John D. Fitzgerald, MD

Tsuneo Omura, DSc

Wolfgang H. Vogel, PhD

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In Memoriam: Tsuneo Omura, DSc, 1930-2022 Submitted by F. Peter Guengerich, Bettie Sue S. Masters, Ken-Ichirou Morohashi, Masahiko Negishi, and Hiroshi Yamazaki The biochemical community, especially his colleagues in the field of cytochrome P450, lost one of its true pioneers with the death of Prof. Tsuneo Omura on January 29, 2022. He discovered cytochrome P450 in his work with the late Prof. Ryo Sato at Osaka University, and a Clarivate search indicates that a JBC paper (J. Biol.

Chem. 239, 2370-2378, 1964) describing the work has been cited at least 12,700 times. Tsuneo Omura was an Honorary Member of ASBMB, a distinct honor.

Tsuneo Omura was born July 29, 1930, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo with a BS in Chemistry and then worked as an instructor and lecturer in Chemistry at Shizuoka University. The course of his doctoral work and advancement was rather unique compared with our current systems, but in 1960 he joined Prof. Ryo Sato’s laboratory at the Osaka University Institute for Protein Research as an Associate Professor. In 1961, he was awarded a DSc in Biochemistry from the University of Tokyo, based on the work he had performed at Shizuoka University. It was during the early 1960s in Osaka that Omura and Sato published three major papers about the discovery of P450 (including the very highly cited one in the JBC), plus seven others in related areas. From 1964-1966, Omura was a visiting scientist at the Johnson Foundation of the University of Pennsylvania (with Ronald W. Estabrook) and then Rockefeller University (with Philip Siekevitz). He returned to the Osaka Institute for Protein Research and then moved in 1970 to the position of Professor of Biology and Molecular Biology at Kyushu University, a position he held throughout his career until he assumed Emeritus status in 1994. From 1995-1997, he was a Visiting Professor of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University (with Michael R. Waterman and others).

Prof. Omura made many contributions to the field of P450 research throughout his career. These include studies on the regulation of P450s, and, in particular, trafficking of P450s in both the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. His studies with mitochondrial P450s, specifically the cholesterol side chain cleavage

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enzyme, led to an enhanced understanding of the regulation of these P450s by proteins such as Ad4BP/ SF-1, a steroidogenic transcription factor.

Not surprisingly, Prof. Omura was a leading figure in Biochemistry in Japan, and many of his students went on to very productive careers. Along with Honorary ASBMB Membership, Omura received the first R. T. Williams Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics in 2001, and he was also honored at the 1994 International Microsomes and Drug Oxidations (MDO) meeting. Omura continued to attend and actively participate in meetings many years after his retirement. He presented a plenary lecture at the 2018 MDO meeting in Kanazawa. Tributes were also made to him at a special 2012 meeting in Fukuoka, commemorating 50 years since his discovery of cytochrome P450.

Tsuneo Omura will be remembered as a humble and very thoughtful man. He was very friendly, communicative, and always very anxious to help young scientists and lend his advice. His laboratory was always open to visitors from abroad, and he was very happy to help people throughout the 91-plus years of his life. Many visitors recall his joy in driving his guests all around Kyushu with many stops at potterymaking artisans and notable sites, including the active volcano, Mt. Aso. Due to his warm personality and erudite knowledge, many students were attracted to him. During 24 years of his tenure in Kyushu University, 112 undergraduate students and 42 graduate students joined his laboratory, and 33 of them took PhD degrees under his thoughtful and persistent guidance.

All the students spent meaningful and valuable time in his laboratory, and he created an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual respect. He was a true sensei in every sense of this Japanese title of honor.

Prof. Omura was preceded in death by his wife, Yone (December 9, 2000), and is survived by their three children. Obviously, he was loved by many scientists in the field, and he will be missed.

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Division News 2022 Division Elections

The following Divisions held elections for 2022 and received an enthusiastic response from ASPET members: ■ Division for Cancer Pharmacology ■ Division for Drug Discovery and Development ■ Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition ■ Division for Molecular Pharmacology ■ Division for Neuropharmacology ■ Division for Toxicology ■ Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Please join us in welcoming all newly elected chairs and secretary/treasurers to their respective division’s executive committee. The new officers will begin their terms on July 1, 2022.

Division for Cancer Pharmacology Secretary/Treasurer-Elect

Chair-Elect William J. Placzek, PhD

Lawrence Boise, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham

R. Randall Rollins Chair in Oncology and Professor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine and Associate Director of Education and Training, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University

Division for Drug Discovery and Development Secretary/Treasurer-Elect

Chair-Elect Xiaodong Cheng, PhD

Francis S. Willard, PhD

Walter and Mary Mischer Distinguished Professor in Molecular Medicine, Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Research Advisor and Group Leader, Eli Lilly and Company

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Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition Secretary/Treasurer-Elect

Chair-Elect

Julie M. Lade, PhD

Hyunyoung (Young) Jeong, PhD, PharmD

Principal Scientist, Pharmacokinetics & Drug Metabolism, Amgen Inc.

Professor, Departments of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy (IPPH) and Pharmacy Practice (PHPR), College of Pharmacy, Purdue University

Division for Molecular Pharmacology Secretary/Treasurer-Elect

Chair-Elect Maurine E. Linder, PhD

Roshanak Irannejad, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular Medicine, Cornell University

Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco

Division for Neuropharmacology Secretary/Treasurer-Elect

Chair-Elect Venetia Zachariou, PhD Professor, Nash Family Department of Neurosciences, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn school of Medicine, Mount Sinai

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Erin Bobeck, PhD Assistant Professor, Utah State University

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Division for Toxicology Secretary/Treasurer-Elect

Chair-Elect Qing Ma, PharmD, PhD

Julia Cui, PhD, DABT

Associate Professor, Director of Translational Neuropharmacology Group, Department of Pharmacy Practice, University at Buffalo

Associate Professor, University of Washington

Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Secretary/Treasurer-Elect

Chair-Elect D. Adam Lauver, PhD

Traci Czyzyk, PhD, MBA

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University

Principal Scientist, Merck Research Laboratories

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ASPET Division Sponsored Awards Division for Behavioral Pharmacology JH Woods Early Career Award in Behavioral Pharmacology The ASPET Division for Behavioral Pharmacology established this award in 2019 to recognize outstanding original research by early career investigators in the area of behavioral pharmacology.

Catherine M. Davis-Takacs, PhD Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Dr. Davis-Takacs is receiving this award in recognition of her innovative studies showing the risks of exposure to radiation using behavioral models. The results of her studies are relevant to diverse areas of science, including space flight, military defense, and cancer treatment. In addition, Dr. Davis-Takacs has an outstanding record of service to ASPET. She is an assistant professor of pharmacology and molecular therapeutics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She received her PhD from the Behavior, Cognition and Neuroscience program at American University and completed her postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Davis-Takacs’ career trajectory combines behavioral pharmacology, neuroscience, and radiation biology, with funding support from NASA. From her undergraduate days she has published on the effects of psychoactive

drugs on behavior, but while a postdoc at JHU she developed her major interest in behavioral and functional consequences of radiation exposure. She has established that exposure of rats to X-rays, protons, and heavy ion radiation at dose levels similar to those received by astronauts results in radiation-dose-related impairments in memory and performance in visual discrimination tasks, associated with alterations in the function of dopamine systems in the brain. An additional area of her research includes investigating cognitive decline following therapeutic use of radiation in oncology.

Dr. Davis-Takacs is very active in ASPET, holding positions as ASPET Council’s representative on the FASEB Board of Directors and as the Chair of the Science Policy Committee. She is also very active in developing programming related to mentorship, career development, and recruitment through ASPET workshops and undergraduate events. And she is a very active member of the Division for Behavioral Pharmacology.. She has been a member of ASPET since 2008.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting in Philadelphia on Monday, April 4.

Division for Cancer Pharmacology Susan Band Horwitz Award Lecture in Cancer Pharmacology The ASPET Division for Cancer Pharmacology launched this new award in 2022 to recognize excellent original research by established investigators in cancer pharmacology.

The award is named in honor of Dr. Horwitz who is a pioneer in discovering the mechanisms of action of cancer chemotherapy drugs, many of which have been and remain mainstays of cancer therapy, and whose work has changed the nature of cancer treatment.

Susan L. Mooberry, PhD University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Dr. Susan Mooberry is receiving this award in recognition for her innovative research related to the identification, mechanism of action, and development of The Pharmacologist • March 2022

natural products for the treatment of cancer and her strong track record mentoring younger scientists.

She is a Professor of Pharmacology and Interim Department Chair at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio where she also holds the Greehey Distinguished Chair in Molecular Therapeutics.

She received her PhD in pharmacology from the Medical University of South Carolina and conducted her postdoctoral studies on natural product drug discovery at

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the University of Hawaii where she continued as faculty and discovered three novel classes of natural productderived microtubule targeting agents. Her laboratory has expertise in the discovery of natural products with anticancer potential and identifying the mechanisms of action of microtubule targeting agents where she has conducted foundational studies on the non-mitotic effects of these drugs. She has published extensively,

holds 11 patents on new classes of anticancer drug leads, and was elected as a Fellow of the AAAS in 2020. She has been a member of ASPET since 2010.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting in Philadelphia on Monday, April 4 where Dr. Mooberry will deliver a lecture on her research titled Microtubule Targeting Drugs: So Much More Than Antimitotics.

Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Early Career Award The ASPET Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Early Career Award recognizes and honors early career independent investigators working in cardiovascular science.

Fatima Z. Alshbool, PharmD, PhD Texas A&M University Dr. Fatima Alshbool is receiving this award in recognition of her pioneering research to establish the impact of novel tobacco products including e-cigarette exposure on platelet function and thrombosis, and her quest to facilitate new therapeutic approaches to manage occlusive disorders.

She is an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Texas A&M University Rangel College of Pharmacy.

She received a PhD in pharmacology at Loma Linda University and a PharmD from Jordan University of Science and Technology.

Dr. Alshbool was recruited to establish a research program that is focused on understanding the role

of platelets in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease, specifically those that are thrombotic in nature and are triggered by tobacco exposure.

Her research should serve as the foundation for defining new therapeutic targets and facilitating the design of new drugs/approaches to manage many environmentally-related/induced occlusive disorders.

Furthermore, her work should also guide and inform policy for regulating exposure and access to several novel tobacco products. Dr. Alshbool is currently funded by the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health. She has been a member of ASPET since 2015.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Alshbool will deliver a lecture on her research titled The Impact of E-cigarette Exposure on Platelet Function and Cardiovascular Health.

Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Mid-Career Award The ASPET Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Mid-Career Award was established in 2022 to recognize and honor mid-career stage independent investigators working in cardiovascular science.

Swapnil K. Sonkusare, PhD University of Virginia Dr. Swapnil Sonkusare is receiving this award in recognition of his discoveries of abnormalities in vascular calcium signaling during systemic and pulmonary hypertension that may lead

to the development of new therapeutics, and commitment to training young scientists and serving the scientific community.

He is a tenured associate professor of molecular physiology and biological physics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He received his PhD in pharmacology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Vermont.

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Dr. Sonkusare explores the contribution of vascular ion channels and calcium signaling to the regulation of systemic and pulmonary tone and blood pressure.

He has identified abnormalities in vascular calcium signaling mechanisms in hypertension and novel proteins that can be targeted for therapeutic benefit.

His research has been continuously funded by the NIH, including a K99/R00 award and four R01 awards.

Dr. Sonkusare has mentored six postdoctoral fellows and three doctoral students. Most of his trainees have obtained extramural funding and co-authored high-profile publications with him. During his career,

Dr. Sonkusare has been a prolific contributor to the scientific community, organizing multiple symposia, chairing the ASPET CVP Division Competition Committee, reviewing for the AHA and the NIH, and acting as a Director of Graduate Studies in Physiology at UVA. He has been a member of ASPET since 2005.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Sonkusare will present a lecture on his research titled Regulation of Blood Pressure by Vascular TRPV4 Channels.

Division for Drug Discovery and Development Scientific Achievement Award in Drug Discovery and Development The ASPET Division for Drug Discovery and Development established this award in 2019 to recognize outstanding investigators that have made significant contributions in drug discovery, translational, and/or drug development science.

Colleen M. Niswender, PhD Vanderbilt University Dr. Colleen Niswender is receiving this award in recognition of her innovative and highly influential academicbased drug discovery research in GPCR molecular pharmacology and translational approaches. Dr. Niswender has made profoundly important contributions across a broad range of topics such as the pathophysiology underlying Rett syndrome and novel approaches for Rett syndrome treatments, context-dependent pharmacology of GPCR antagonists, new modes of efficacy for GPCR allosteric modulators, roles of GPCR heterodimers in regulating brain function, and validation of specific GPCRs as novel targets for treatment of brain disorders.

She is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and the Warren Director of Molecular Pharmacology for the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (WCNDD) at Vanderbilt University. She received her PhD in pharmacology at Vanderbilt and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Washington.

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Dr. Niswender has worked with WCNDD, a teambased scientific drug discovery group, since 2004.

She has extensive experience with molecular pharmacology, cell signaling, and drug discovery.

She is the author of over 250 publications, has contributed to numerous patents, and has been involved in multiple drug discovery teams to advance small molecules for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia. Two candidates are now in Phase I clinical trials and others are in preclinical development. Most recently, she has assembled a team of scientists focused on drug development and target validation for neurodevelopmental disorders, including Rett syndrome, Pitt Hopkins syndrome, and Neurofibromatosis Type 1.

She has been an ASPET member since 2007.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Niswender will deliver a lecture titled Perseverance in Academic Drug Discovery: Development of Positive Allosteric Modulators of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 4 for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease.

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Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Metabolism and Disposition The ASPET Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition established the Brodie Award to honor the fundamental contributions of Bernard B. Brodie to the field. The award recognizes outstanding original research contributions in drug metabolism and disposition, particularly those having a major impact on future research in the field.

Kenneth E. Thummel, PhD, FASPET University of Washington Dr. Kenneth Thummel is receiving this award in recognition for his pioneering research elucidating genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors that contribute to interindividual differences in xenobiotic biotransformation. He pioneered research on first-pass metabolism in the intestine and co-discovered vitamin D-dependent regulation of CYP3A4. He established midazolam as the preferred in vivo probe for CYP3A4 and played a pivotal role in elucidating the genetic basis for CYP3A5 poor metabolizers.

He is a professor of pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Washington. He received his PhD in pharmaceutical science from the University

of Washington and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Connecticut Health Sciences Center.

In addition to Dr. Thummel’s research described above, his work also focuses on the gene x diet modifiers of drug response in Alaska Native and American Indian people. With colleagues at the University of Washington and other northwest and Alaska institutions, he established the first center of pharmacogenetic research for Native Americans.

Dr. Thummel is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of ASPET. He is a Past-President of ASPET and a member since 1998.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Thummel will deliver a lecture titled Elucidating the Function of Intestinal CYP3A: A Journey of Discovery and Clinical Importance.

Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition James R. Gillette Awards The James R. Gillette Awards are presented each year by the ASPET Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition for two outstanding papers published in the previous year’s Drug Metabolism and Disposition.

The award recipient in the Pharmacokinetics/Drug Transporters category for 2021 is Sara Shum from the University of Washington for the paper titled “Predicting Maternal-Fetal Disposition of Fentanyl Following Intravenous and Epidural Administration Using Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling” The award recipients in the Drug Metabolism category for 2021 are co-first authors Shida Qiao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Sisi Feng from Shanghai Hexaell Biotech Co., Ltd. for the paper titled “Functional Proliferating Human Hepatocytes: In Vitro Hepatocyte Model for Drug Metabolism, Excretion, and Toxicity.”

The Gillette Awards will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where the awardees will present short talks on their research.

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Division for Molecular Pharmacology Early Career Awards The ASPET Division for Molecular Pharmacology Early Career Awards recognize scholarly achievements of junior investigators early in their independent careers.

Matthew P. Torres, PhD Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Matthew Torres is receiving this award in recognition of his innovative research that combines genetics, mass spectrometry, and cutting-edge bioinformatics to understand how posttranslational modifications impact protein function and cell physiology, and also in recognition of his strong commitment to teaching, mentoring and service.

He is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in biochemistry and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The primary focus of Dr. Torres’s lab is to combine yeast genetics, mass spectrometry (MS), and

Cheng Zhang, PhD University of Pittsburgh Dr. Cheng Zhang is receiving this award in recognition of his pioneering work using protein X-ray crystallography and cryoelectron microscopy (cryoEM) to solve the structures of drug-bound G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and GPCR signaling complexes and pave the way for future therapeutic discoveries.

He is an associate professor of pharmacology and chemical biology at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. He received his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at University of Science and Technology of China and completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University.

Dr. Zhang studies structure and pharmacology of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). His group

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bioinformatics to understand how post-translational modifications (PTMs) impact protein structure, function, and cell behavior. His group studies how PTMs regulate G protein signaling pathways, with a current emphasis on the G protein gamma subunit. His lab also developed SAPH-ire (“Systematic Analysis of PTM Hotspots”), a bioinformatics tool that employs machine learning to prioritize PTMs important for protein function and provide recommendations for experimental analysis. Dr. Torres has been a member of ASPET since 2017.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Torres will deliver a lecture on his research titled From m/z to G: Accessing the Collective Wisdom in Proteomics to Reveal Posttranslational Governors of G protein Signaling.

uses protein X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM to determine structures of GPCRs and GPCR signaling complexes with drugs and important tool compounds.

Major research achievements of Dr. Zhang include the structural characterization of chemotactic GPCRs for peptide and lipid mediators, neuropeptide receptors for vasopressin and ghrelin, and dopamine receptors.

His research is aimed to provide a comprehensive molecular understanding of GPCR signaling and pharmacology and use the structural information to develop novel therapeutics targeting GPCRs. ASPET welcomed Dr. Zhang as a member in 2021.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Zhang will deliver a lecture on his research titled GPCR Structures Reveal New Insights into Receptor Pharmacology and Drug Development.

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Division for Neuropharmacology Early Career Awards The ASPET Division for Neuropharmacology sponsors the Early Career Awards to honor young independent investigators working in neuropharmacology.

Brandon Henderson, PhD Marshall University Dr. Brandon Henderson is receiving this award in recognition of his highly innovative studies on the impact of flavorants on nicotine reward and fundamental scientific scholarship on nicotinic receptor pharmacology/drug discovery as well as his strong commitment to mentoring and public outreach.

He is a tenure-track assistant professor at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in Huntington, West Virginia. He received his PhD in pharmacology at the Ohio State University and completed his postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology.

Erica S. Levitt, PharmD, PhD University of Florida Dr. Erica Levitt is receiving this award in recognition of her highly impactful research on the mechanisms of opioid-induced respiratory depression in the Kölliker-Fuse nucleus as well as her outstanding record of opioid receptor scholarship and strong commitment to mentoring and service.

She is an assistant professor of pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

She received her PhD in pharmacology at the University of Michigan and completed her postdoctoral training at Oregon Health and Science University.

In less than 5 years since starting his own independent research group at Marshall, he has successfully published 10 papers and one book chapter including 3 senior last-author papers from his laboratory. Dr. Henderson has obtained 3 NIH grants thus far in his career including a R00, R21, and his first R01. He is a reviewer for more than 20 journals and has also been a member of 7 NIH study sections.

His work on how flavorants in electronic cigarettes enhance reward for vaporized nicotine is both seminal and timely. Dr. Henderson has been a member of ASPET since 2016.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Henderson will deliver a lecture on his research titled Chemical Flavorants of E-cigarettes Alter Neurobiology to Promote Vaping-related Behaviors.

The primary research of Dr. Levitt’s laboratory uses electrophysiology and in vivo measurements of breathing to understand the neurophysiology underlying the control of breathing, especially in opioid-induced respiratory depression, which is the cause of death from opioid overdose. Her lab has discovered that respiratory controlling neurons in the pons are particularly important in opioid overdose and is currently investigating circuit-based mechanisms. Dr. Levitt has been a member of ASPET since 2017.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Levitt will deliver a lecture on her research titled Brainstem Circuits Involved in Opioid-induced Respiratory Depression.

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Division for Pharmacology Education Pharmacology Educators Awards The ASPET Division for Pharmacology Education sponsors these awards to promote participation in the ASPET Annual Meeting by pharmacology educators and to foster career development in pharmacology education.

Lauren Aleksunes, PharmD, PhD, DABT Rutgers University Dr. Lauren Aleksunes is receiving this award in recognition of her outstanding research in pharmacology education and her superb teaching performance in the classroom. She is a Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Rutgers University.

She received her PharmD and PhD in pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Connecticut and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Dr. Aleksunes is a board-certified toxicologist and registered pharmacist with expertise in translational pharmacology and toxicology. She joined

Sarah Lerchenfeldt, PharmD, BCPS Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (OUWB) Dr. Sarah Lerchenfeldt is receiving this award in recognition of her outstanding abstract in pharmacology educational research and her creative aspects in pharmacology education. She is an associate professor at OUWB. She received her PharmD at Ohio Northern University and completed her residency training at Harper University Hospital and Karmanos Cancer Center in Michigan.

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Rutgers University in 2009 where her lab studies mechanisms of toxicity with a focus on how membrane transporters influence cellular responses to drugs and environmental chemicals. Their research addresses the impact of variation in transporter expression and function, due to life stage, genetics/epigenetics, diet, environment, and pre-existing disease, on susceptibility to chemical toxicity. Her research is currently funded by 3 R01 grants from NIEHS and NIGMS. Lauren is committed to the development of the next generation of pharmacologists and toxicologists where she teaches PharmD and PhD students. She serves as Director of the NIH T32 and R25 Toxicology training programs at Rutgers. As a clinician scientist, Lauren is also the Lead of Workforce Development for the NJ CTSA Program. She has been a member of ASPET since 2010.

In her previous career as a clinical pharmacy specialist, she worked closely with a multidisciplinary team to optimize patient care. In her current position at OUWB, Dr. Lerchenfeldt provides instruction in pharmacology throughout the curriculum and serves as co-director of the hematology and oncology course for first-year medical students. She is a Team-Based Learning Collaborative Trainer-Consultant and is actively involved with many of the team-based learning activities throughout the program. Her scholarly interest is focused primarily on the theme of teamwork in health education, in which she has considerable interest in researching the value, impact, and effectiveness of the different components of team-based learning. She has been a member of ASPET since 2015.

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Monzurul Roni, PhD University of Illinois at Chicago Dr. Monzurul Roni is receiving this award in recognition of his outstanding abstract in pharmacology educational research and his exceptional teaching performance in the classroom.

He is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his PhD

in pharmaceutical sciences (neuropharmacology) at South Dakota State University.

Dr. Roni has been teaching pharmacology to pharmacy and medical students since 2014 and he has significantly contributed to the curriculum development and assessment. He serves as one of the college-wide block leaders in the college of medicine.

Dr. Roni has received multiple ‘Professor of the Year’ awards and an ‘Academic Excellence Award’ in recognition of his contribution. He has been a member of ASPET since 2010.

Division for Toxicology Career Award The ASPET Division for Toxicology annually sponsors the Career Award to recognize outstanding original research contributions to toxicology by an established investigator.

Anumantha G. Kanthasamy, PhD University of Georgia Dr. Anumantha Kanthasamy is receiving this award in recognition of his long history of leadership and expertise in neurodegeneration, neuroinflammation, cell signaling, molecular neurotoxicology, protein aggregation and translational discovery.

He recently moved to the University of Georgia where he is a Professor and John H. “Johnny” Isakson Endowed Chair in Parkinson’s Disease and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology as well as the Director of the Center for Brain Sciences and Neurodegenerative Disease. He received his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Madras, India, and completed his postdoctoral training at Purdue University and a junior faculty position at the University of California, Irvine.

He then spent 22 years on the faculty at Iowa State University, including 8 years as department chair.

Dr. Kanthasamy has been working in neurotoxicology for over 25 years. His research program has been continuously supported by NIH for more than 20 years, and he has authored more than 175 peer-reviewed research papers and book chapters. He has nurtured several multidisciplinary research collaborations, has been appointed to the

editorial boards of several major journals, and has served on many NIH review panels. Dr. Kanthasamy held numerous program leadership roles at ISU including as the founding director of the Iowa Center for Advanced Neurotoxicology (ICAN). Dr. Kanthasamy is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (ATS), and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Dr. Kanthasamy is not only a great researcher, but also a great mentor. His ability to motivate young scientists by encouraging them to attend national and international meetings and giving them independence to think on their own has produced multiple students who have been successful after their graduate life.

His students have won awards at national meetings for their presentations and work. Many of his former students are successful PIs at places like Tufts and UC Irvine and in industries like Charles Rivers, Covance, and Johnson & Johnson. His recent graduate students were able to secure postdoctoral positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Medical School, and Johns Hopkins.

He has been a member of ASPET since 2004.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Kanthasamy will deliver a lecture on his research titled Novel Mechanism-Derived Translational Discovery in Environmentally Linked Neurodegenerative Diseases.

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Division for Toxicology Early Career Award The ASPET Division for Toxicology annually sponsors the Early Career Award to recognize excellent original research by early career investigators in the area of toxicology.

Phoebe Stapleton, PhD Rutgers University Dr. Phoebe Stapleton is receiving this award in recognition of her innovative and impactful contributions to the field of reproductive and developmental toxicology and her commitment to excellence in toxicology research.

She is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Pharmacology and Toxicology Department of the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University.

She completed both her graduate and postdoctoral training at West Virginia University.

Her laboratory focuses on the cardiovascular implications of maternal exposure to nanomaterials

during pregnancy, identifying the maternal, fetal, and offspring outcomes associated with these exposures. Most of her work has focused on inhalation of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, but recently her laboratory has begun to investigate toxicological outcomes associated with nanosized plastic particles.

Dr. Stapleton has published over 40 peer reviewed manuscripts and was recently awarded a NIEHS Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award. She has been a member of ASPET since 2016.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Stapleton will deliver a lecture on her research titled Can a Fetus be Affected by Aerosolized Particulates?

Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Early Career Awards The ASPET Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology sponsors Early Career Awards to recognize excellence in translational and clinical pharmacology research that comes from early career scientists.

Klarissa D. Jackson, PhD University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy Dr. Klarissa Jackson is receiving this award in recognition of her translational research in drug metabolism/toxicology, focused specifically on individual variations in cytochrome P450 enzymes, that aims to elucidate the mechanisms of and risk factors for adverse drug reactions.

She is an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her PhD in pharmacology at Vanderbilt University and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Washington.

Dr. Jackson’s research interests focus on drug metabolism and toxicology to better understand the

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mechanisms of and risk factors for adverse drug reactions and improve drug safety. Her laboratory is currently investigating the roles of cytochrome P450 and non-P450 enzymes in the metabolism and toxicity of small molecule drugs used in targeted cancer therapy. She is interested in understanding the impact of variability in drug metabolism and disposition on individual risk for drug toxicity. The long-term goals of this research are to better predict and prevent serious adverse drug reactions and optimize drug therapy in diverse patient populations. Dr. Jackson has been a member of ASPET since 2013.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Jackson will deliver a lecture on her research tentatively titled Studies on the Role of Metabolic Activation in Tyrosine Kinase InhibitorDependent Hepatotoxicity.

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Jeremy W. Prokop, PhD Michigan State University Dr. Jeremy Prokop is receiving this award in recognition of his work in integrative biosciences and precision medicine that uses computation tools to gain mechanistic insights from genomic data.

He is an assistant professor at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. He received his PhD in integrated bioscience at the University of Akron and completed his postdoctoral training at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology.

The primary goal of Dr. Prokop’s laboratory is to develop a precision genomics program in West Michigan. This program integrates advanced sequencing, bioinformatics, and human iPSCs to

decipher mechanisms of genomic variants, using the data to optimize precision treatments for patients.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic his group pivoted their bioinformatics tools to expand precision medicine insights into the SARS-CoV-2 virus, how to optimize targeting of the viral proteins, and developing a precision blood transcriptome workflow that deconvolutes blood RNA-seq for gene, isoform, foreign RNA, cell free RNA, eQTLs, and the immune repertoire insights. Dr. Prokop has received funding from the American Heart Association, National Institutes of Health, Gerber Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. ASPET welcomed Dr. Prokop as a member in 2021.

The award will be presented by the division during the annual meeting on Monday, April 4 in Philadelphia where Dr. Prokop will deliver a lecture titled Precision Transcriptomics and Genomics to Inform Patient Treatment Options.

Focus on Pharmacology: Current Advances in Drug Metabolism Submitted by Lindsay C. Czuba, PhD and Andrew Rowland, PhD The Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition (DMDD) launched a new quarterly webinar series in Winter 2021 to highlight outstanding research being conducted by the division’s Early Career Researchers (ECRs). Through this platform, DMDD aims to present advanced knowledge in drug metabolism and disposition, stimulate ideas and communication between division members, and promote the development of DMDD ECRs. Each quarterly webinar will feature a junior principal investigator (PI) and a trainee (postdoc or graduate student). Both participants will receive a certificate of “DMDD Featured Researcher” in recognition of their contribution.

The first webinar was held on December 16th, 2021, and was moderated by Dr. Xiaobo Zhong (Chair of

DMDD) and Dr. Kerry Goralski (Secretary/Treasurer of DMDD). The inaugural talks were presented by Dr. Baojin Wu, a professor from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine entitled “Circadian Rhythms in Pharmacokinetics and Diseases” and Dr. Sumit Bansal, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington entitled “In vivo Evaluation of CYP-mediated Cannabinoid Drug Interactions in Humans”. Both talks stimulated some great discussion with a highly interactive Q&A session. Over 40 DMDD members were in attendance and the recorded talks are available in the ASPETConnect community for ASPET members.

Our next planned webinar will take place on March 23rd, 2022, from 12 - 1 PM ET and will feature talks from Dr. Thomas Velenosi, an assistant

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professor from the University of British Columbia and PhD candidate Nayiar Shahid from the University of Alberta. The featured junior scientists will discuss recent advancements in the pharmacology of equilibrative nucleoside transporters 1 and 2 and the analysis of metabolic biomarkers to assess drug responses in cancer treatment. Dr. Kerry Goralski and Dr. Haojie Zhu will be moderating and leading a stimulating Q&A session! Future quarterly webinars are planned for June 2022 and September 2022.

The organizing committee welcomes all nominations for junior PIs, postdoc fellows, and graduate student speakers and has outlined the following selection criteria for speakers: Selection criteria for junior PIs: ■ The junior PIs should be an ASPET member in good standing.

■ The junior PIs should be within 15 years of having received their final degree, as of December 31 of the year.

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■ The junior PIs should have a position in academia, industry, or government leading a research team. Balance from different professions will be considered.

Selection criteria for postdoc fellows and graduate students ■ Priority of consideration may be given to poster award recipients in previous ASPET meetings ■ Priority of consideration may be given to monthly highlighted trainee authors in DMD, Molecular Pharmacology, and JPET.

Registration is now open for the March 2022 Webinar! The DMDD Executive Committee acknowledges the ASPET Program Committee for supporting the webinar series and Yolan John for coordinating the session. The division looks forward to seeing many of our members in attendance and hopes to showcase the exciting work of junior scientists in the field of drug metabolism and disposition.

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Chapter News Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (CSPT) Pharmacology in Canada: Looking Back, Looking Further Back, Looking Forward Submitted by Dylan Burger, PhD Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Chair, Publications Committee 2021 was a year of substantial activity for our society. Our Scientific Meeting “Not on Mute: Let’s Talk Contemporary Pharmacology” (highlighted in the September issue of The Pharmacologist) featured an engaging platform and outstanding science that was well received by the membership. Abstracts from the meeting can be found published in The Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology. Notably, Dr. Brad Urquhart (Western University) was elected as the President-Elect and Dr. Donald Miller (University of Manitoba) as the Society Treasurer at the meeting.

Ensuring outlets for scientific discourse throughout the year, our education committee organized a total of 5 virtual webinars on a range of topics: “Medical Cannabis”, “Use of Technology to Teach Pharmacology in Professional Programs”, “Studying Rare Disease Therapeutics in Children”, “The Core Concepts of Pharmacology Education - An International Call to Action”, and “A Conversation on Pharmacogenomics and Drug Regulation”. As always, recordings of the webinars are available to CSPT members through our online portal. On January 20th our first webinar of 2022 focused on “The History of Pharmacology in Canada” with Dr. Michael Rieder (Western University) leading the discussion. At the end of this update

you will find a detailed feature on the history of pharmacology in Canada written by Dr. Rieder.

Looking forward to 2022 the major news is that our Scientific Meeting will be held in conjunction with the Safety Pharmacology Society in September. Stay tuned for updates on what promises to be a very exciting program. In addition, 2022 will mark the launch of a new mentorship program for trainee members as well as regularly scheduled virtual town halls aimed at engaging members between annual meetings and ensuring that the society continues to meet the needs of its members.

I wish you a successful 2022 and hope that you enjoy the following history of our society written by Dr. Michael Rieder, CSPT Past-President.

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The Voice of Canadian Pharmacology: The Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics Celebrates Its Roots Submitted by Michael Rieder, CSPT Past-President, MD, PhD A lot can happen when people get together.

In 1953, some 1,700 people from 40 different countries attended the XIXth International Physiological Congress in Montreal, Canada. It was at this meeting that several members of the various departments of pharmacology in Canada with a primary interest in basic pharmacology got together and raised the idea of establishing a Canadian pharmacology society. By October 1954 a meeting in Toronto was held, a constitution discussed, and a title proposed: Pharmacological Society of Canada (PSC).

In October 1956, at a gathering of 31 pharmacologists in Montreal, the PSC was officially founded.

The roots of the PSC go back much farther, however -- as far back as 1824, when the first department of pharmacology in Canada was founded at McGill as the Discipline of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Materia Medica, assuming the name Department of Pharmacology in 1887. Over the following years a number of departments of materia medica/ pharmacology were created at other Canadian medical schools inducing Queen’s, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Toronto.

The PSC was active for many years, holding annual meetings from 1957 onward. A particular highlight was in 1994 when PSC hosted the IUPHAR World Congress of Pharmacology in Montreal. PSC also granted a number of awards recognizing achievements in research in pharmacology.

Roughly two decades after the PSC was founded, in 1978, researchers and scientists gathered at another international meeting, this one in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Supported by Astra Pharmaceuticals, the meeting brought together, among others, a number of prominent Canadian clinical investigators. Conversations ensued and here the seeds were planted for the founding of another notable Canadian pharmacological society.

Following the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation in Ottawa, the idea was

The Pharmacologist • March 2022

pursued in earnest and in February 1983 the Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology was formally established and incorporated.

The discussions in Gothenburg were driven in large part by the evolution of therapeutic research in Canada. In 1964, the Canadian Foundation for the Advancement of Therapeutics held a workshop at Ste. Adèle-en-Haut to promote drug research and the development of clinical pharmacology. Developments following this workshop included the creation of the Clinical Pharmacology Oenophile Society in 1974 at a meeting in Montreal and the establishment of a clinical pharmacology unit by Dr. John Ruedy at the Montreal General Hospital. The culmination of these efforts was the proposal by the attendees of the meeting in Gothenburg to create a new society.

Over the course of 1979, the founders of the new society were busy finding potential members and gathering organizational support. CSCP was informally founded with Dr. Dick Ogilvie as President, Dr. Stuart MacLeod as Secretary Treasurer, and Drs. Bill Mahon, Fred Aoki and George Carruthers as Councilors.

After the formal founding of CSCP in 1983 the society continued to evolve. One early major achievement of the organization was the recognition in 1986 of clinical pharmacology as a formal sub-speciality by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Canada was one of the first countries to formalize and certify training in clinical pharmacology as a model cross-cutting bridging discipline.

Over the next several decades CSCP further developed, setting up a permanent society office and creating several awards that recognized achievements in research and service spanning the career path from trainee to senior investigator. CSCP also organized an annual meeting that, for years, was held concurrently with the September annual meeting of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. A decision by the Royal College to change the direction

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of their annual meeting to focus almost entirely on education meant that, beginning in 2000, CSCP had to reconsider with whom and when it met annually.

Independent annual meetings were held as well as meetings in partnership with other societies, including the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, the Canadian College of Clinical Pharmacy, and the Canadian Association for Population Therapeutics. The latter two partnerships realized the organization of several joint Canadian Therapeutic Congresses.

As both the PSC and the CSCP evolved, it became increasingly clear that there were potential advantages to bringing basic and clinical pharmacology together.

Following international precedence, most notably by the British Pharmacological Society, conversations ensued in Quebec City between the then-presidents Drs. Stuart MacLeod (CSCP) and Kanji Nakatsu (PSC).

It was recognized that many academic investigators were, in fact, members of both societies. Further, given the size of each society, it was suggested that key events, such as the annual meetings, would be more successful and effective if the two societies merged.

Finally, at the time of the discussions, the evolution of drug discovery, investigation and evaluation was increasingly recognized to be a multi-disciplinary enterprise best suited to an organization with broad-based membership encompassing a range of expertise in basic and clinical pharmacology.

As the discussions with both societies proceeded, it was clear that many benefits would result from a merger. The final agreement was made in Quebec City at the CPT 2008 IX World Conference on Clinical

Pharmacology and Therapeutics, both organized and hosted by CSCP and NSERC under the auspices of the IUPHAR. Final preparations for the merger proceeded smoothly, including developing a suite of awards that recognized the traditions of both societies and the drafting of a new set of bylaws by Dr. James Hammond, the inaugural President of the Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (CSPT).

CSPT has been recognized by ASPET and IUPHAR as the “Voice of Canadian Pharmacology,” fostering the application of educational and research excellence to drug discovery and therapeutic choice by bringing together as a society a multidisciplinary group of individuals with broad interests in optimally safe and effective drug therapy.

Since the creation of the CSPT the tradition of joint meetings with partner societies has continued and indeed grown. CSPT has held joint meetings with a number of groups including the Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Science and the Canadian Chapter of the Controlled Release Society. In 2022, CSPT will hold a joint meeting with the Safety Pharmacology Society for the second time.

CSPT has evolved alongside the developments that have taken place within both regulatory and research environments. As one example, CSPT is becoming increasingly involved in education in pharmacology and therapeutics. As the therapeutic revolution in biological, cellular and protein therapy evolves CSPT will continue to advocate for and work with outstanding teams of investigators pushing the frontiers of pharmacology and therapeutics. We understand that a lot can happen when people get together.

Further Reading Abbott, E.C. The Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology. In Medical specialty societies of Canada, TP Morley (Ed.). Associated Medical Services: Toronto, Ontario 1991.

Levine, M. The Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology in the post-Royal College era. Can J Clin Pharmacol 2000; 7: 20–21.

Marks, G.S. The history of pharmacology in Canada. Trends in Pharm Sci 1994; 15: 205–10.

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