Chapter News

Great Lakes Chapter Holds Annual Regional Meeting

Submitted by Takeshi Shimamura, PhD

Nearly 100 attendees from the greater Chicago area, Michigan and Arizona attended ASPET’s Great Lakes Chapter’s (GLC) annual meeting held recently. The inperson meeting took place at Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Ill. in June. Centered around this year’s theme “Metabolism: Emerging Target in Human Disease,” Dr. Navdeep S. Chandel, PhD, of the Northwestern University served as the keynote speaker.

The 2022 meeting highlighted recent advances in the roles of cellular metabolism in human diseases and pharmacological advances targeting metabolism to overcome the diseases. The GLC meeting has historically provided an opportunity for learning and exchanging ideas in all fields of pharmacological sciences. It has also served as a major networking event for biomedical scientists in the Great Lakes region of the Midwest.

The annual meeting included 32 poster presentations covering a range of pharmacological topics including pharmacokinetics, drug resistance, investigation of cancer drug targets, marine pharmacology, cannabinoid pharmacology, neuropharmacology including oxytocin, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s research; stress response; regulation of metabolism by immune system, nanotechnology, development of new assays for drug response studies, non-endocrine pharmacology, immunopharmacology and impact on metabolism, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology educational research.

Poster presentations were judged in graduate and undergraduate categories with up to five awards presented per category.

Poster prizes for the best posters were presented to the following:

■ Postdoctoral Level

• 1st: Ines Pulido, PhD (University of Illinois Chicago)

■ Graduate Level

• 1st: Emily Zaniker (Northwestern University) • 2nd: Sujin Seo (Midwestern University) • 3rd: Qiyue Luan (University of Illinois Chicago) • 4th: Marissa Gehr (Midwestern University)

■ Undergraduate level

• 1st: Biau H. Grimes & Ceylin K. Sahin (Lake Forest College) • 2nd: Laurel K. Robbins (Lake Forest College) • 3rd: Kamden T. Kuklinski (Lake Forest College) • 4th: Amanda Grassel (Lake Forest College) • 5th: Maria Jose Orozco Fuentes (Lake Forest College)

Scientists, graduate students and undergraduate students attended the one-day event.

The chapter also acknowledged councilors who have served in the GLC-ASPET Executive Committee and recognized those who have been elected for the next term. Service awards were presented to Ricardo Monzon, PhD, Saint Xavier University, who served as Treasurer and Rebecca Kohnken, D.V.M., PhD, DACVP, who served as a Councilor.

The following positions in the GLC-ASPET Executive Committee were approved.

■ GLC ASPET Treasurer, 2022-2025

• Adriana Caballero, PhD, University of Illinois Chicago

■ GLC ASPET Secretary, 2022-2025

• William Conrad, PhD, Lake Forest College

■ GLC ASPET Councilors, 2022-2024

• Yevgeniya E. Koshman, PhD, AbbVie, Inc. • Joanna Dabrowska, PhD, PharmD., Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

The 36th GLC-ASPET annual meeting will be held at University of Illinois Chicago. Further details will be forthcoming.

Currently, ASPET’s three regional chapters offer students and postdoctoral fellows opportunities to attend regional meetings to share and discuss their research through poster sessions. Regional chapters are ASPET-affiliated but operate separately from ASPET. Regional chapter members may or may not be members of ASPET.

Visit https://www.aspet.org/aspet/membershipcommunity/aspet-regional-chapters/great-lakeschapter to learn more about the Great Lakes Chapter or contact Chapter President Takeshi Shimamura, PhD at tshima2@uic.edu.