the Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics...

t h ePharmacologist

A Publication by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Vol. 57 • Number 1 • March 2015

Inside:ASPET Annual Meeting at EB 2015

2015 Election Results

2015 Award Winners

How Paul Janssen’s Drugs Saved the Chinese Terracotta Warriors

Message from the President

New in 2015

2015 Election Results

2015 Award Winners

We Are ASPET

Meeting News

Feature Article: How Paul Janssen’s Drugs Saved the Chinese Terracotta Warriors

Science Policy

Education News

Journal News

Members in the News

Membership News

Division News

Chapter News

Meetings and Congresses

Contents...3456

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

The Pharmacologist • March 2015

THE PHARMACOLOGIST PRODUCTION TEAMPrateeksha NagarSuzie Thompson Rich DodenhoffJudith A. Siuciak, PhD

COUNCIL

President Annette E. Fleckenstein, PhD

President-Elect Kenneth E. Thummel, PhD

Past President Richard R. Neubig, MD, PhD

Secretary/Treasurer Paul A. Insel, MD

Secretary/Treasurer-Elect Dennis C. Marshall, PhD

Past Secretary/Treasurer Sandra P. Welch, PhD

Councilors Charles P. France, PhD

John D. Schuetz, PhD

Margaret E. Gnegy, PhD

Chair, Board of Publications Trustees Mary E. Vore, PhD

Chair, Program Committee Scott Waldman, MD, PhD

FASEB Board Representative Brian M. Cox, PhD

Executive Officer Judith A. Siuciak, PhD

The Pharmacologist (ISSN 0031-7004) is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814-3995. Annual subscription rates: $20.00 for ASPET members; $45.00 for U.S. nonmembers and institutions; $70.00 for nonmembers and institutions outside the U.S. Single copy: $20.00. Copyright © 2015 by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Inc. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at Bethesda, 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 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814-3995.

3

March 2015 • The Pharmacologist

Message from

The PresidentMy Fellow Pharmacologists:

We are fast approaching the ASPET Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2015, which will be held

in Boston from March 28–April 1. As pharmacologists, we are energized by exploring new discoveries and

transforming these into therapies. To foster this mission, I encourage you to join us at Experimental Biology

2015 (EB 2015).

ASPET has planned an exciting program for our portion of EB 2015, including lectures from renowned

scientists Jeffrey Benovic, Andre Terzic, Scott Waldman, Pieter Dorrestein, Namandjé Bumpus, and William

Catterall. The program will not only include a wide variety of scientific symposia, but also education and

career development sessions, a student and postdoctoral best abstract competition, and numerous mixers

and networking events. The single EB 2015 registration fee gains you access to the programs of all six

participating societies, as well as over thirty guest societies.

I strongly recommend members to connect with ASPET staff in Booth 1154. Our enthusiastic team looks

forward to meeting you and learning how to better serve the needs of the Society.

Earlier this year, ASPET had the pleasure of announcing our 2015 Scientific Achievement Award winners.

These awards are given to recognize accomplishments and contributions in specific areas of pharmacology

or to the discipline in general. This year’s winners will be presented with their awards on Saturday, March 28,

2015 at 6:00 pm at the Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony at the Boston Convention and Exhibition

Center in Room 107AB. The inaugural presentations of the David Lehr Research Award and the Reynold

Spector Award in Clinical Pharmacology will also be held at the awards ceremony, so please remember to

join us!

Since 2009, ASPET members attending EB have given a day of volunteer service in local communities

including New Orleans, Pasadena, San Diego, and Washington, DC. This year, ASPET’s Division for Behavioral

Pharmacology is again sponsoring a volunteer opportunity involving Cradles to Crayons, an organization that

provides children from birth through age twelve living in homeless or low-income situations with the essential

items they need to thrive at home, at school, and at play. I hope you can all find time in your schedule to

volunteer for this highly worthwhile event!

I highly recommend that early career scientists join us and get involved in activities such as the Annual

Division Meetings. These meetings present an important opportunity to have a voice in the future activities

and directions of the division, introduce yourselves to the division leadership, and volunteer to get involved.

I’m looking forward to seeing you in Boston!

Annette E. Fleckenstein

http://www.aspet.org/eb2015/http://www.aspet.org/eb2015/http://www.aspet.org/eb2015/http://www.cradlestocrayons.org/boston

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New in 2015Gearing Up for an Exciting 2015

It’s been a whole year since the launch of The Pharmacologist’s new look

and we’ve accomplished a lot this past year, but get ready for an even more

exciting 2015! As we move into the second year of publishing your re-vamped

ASPET membership magazine, we’ve honed our articles and content to provide

only the most interesting and important information for our members. Each issue

provides you with upcoming deadlines, new initiatives and programs, and up-to-

date information from our membership, journals, science policy, education, and

meetings departments.

By now, you should be familiar with our feature stories in The Pharmacologist.

These articles, by science writer Dr. Rebecca J. Anderson, focus on science

stories with historical significance. This March issue features a story about the

2,200 year old Chinese Terracotta Warriors – one of China’s most famous cultural

treasures – that began to face an increasingly serious mold problem and how Dr.

Paul Janssen, a prestigious scientist and the founder of Janssen Pharmaceutical

of Belgium, was able to save the ancient relics from the threat of decay. You won’t

want to miss this article as well as the other feature stories due for publication later

this year: “Blue bloods: How the lowly horseshoe crab is essential to injectable

drug manufacturing;” “The ’sleepy’ sickness, Oliver Sacks, and the early days of

L-DOPA;” and “Methotrexate, Sydney Farber, and the Jimmy Fund: The birth of

modern cancer chemotherapy.”

We are debuting a new e-flip reader format for The Pharmacologist with this

issue. In addition to a downloadable PDF format, we are providing an easy-to-

read, user-friendly, e-flip format. Readers can flip through the pages of the issue

– similar to flipping through a magazine – on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet;

zoom in to read your favorite articles; crop articles for easy printing; and much

more. We’d love to hear your feedback on this format for the online version of The

Pharmacologist and whether you think it is useful and easy to read. Please email

us your thoughts and ideas at [email protected].

The March issue also features profiles of ASPET’s 2015 scientific award winners.

Read about their research efforts and why they were chosen for our prestigious

awards this year. Also important for this issue, you’ll find ASPET’s annual meeting

program broken out by day, division meetings and activities, activities of interest for

students and postdocs, social events, business meetings, and ancillary functions.

Make your plans for EB this year using this highly informative programming section.

In education news, students and young scientists will benefit from reading an

article that focusses on how to make the most out of their EB experience. The

article, contributed by our postdoctoral representative Uyen Chu, and members

of the Mentoring and Career Development Committee, offers informative tips and

techniques to prepare for the conference, present your research, attend various

talks and events, and follow up with professional contacts after the meeting.

We hope you enjoy this issue and all there is to come in 2015!

mailto:pnagar%40aspet.org?subject=

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2015 Election ResultsThe 2015 ASPET election closed on January 15, 2015 with a promising turnout. Over 18% of our regular,

postdoctoral, and retired members participated in the election to vote for the Society’s new leadership.

The newly elected president-elect, secretary/treasurer-elect, and councilor will begin their terms on July 1,

2015. Congratulations to newly elected Council members Dr. David R. Sibley, Dr. Charles France, and

Dr. Wayne Backes.

David R. Sibley, PhDChief, Section on Molecular Neuropharmacology, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health

President-Elect Secretary/Treasurer-Elect Councilor

Charles France, PhD Professor, Departments of Pharmacology & Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center

Wayne Backes, PhDAssociate Dean for Research & Professor, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

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2015 Award Winners

ASPET presents several major awards on either an annual or a biennial basis. These awards are given

to recognize accomplishments either in specific areas of pharmacology or contributions to the discipline in

general. We are pleased to announce our 2015 Scientific Achievement Award winners. ASPET will present

these awards on Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 6:00 pm at the Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony at the

ASPET Annual Meeting during Experimental Biology 2015 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in

Room 107AB.

Pieter Dorrestein, PhDUniversity of California, San Diego, CA

Pieter Dorrestein, PhD,

an associate professor at

the University of California,

San Diego, director of the

Therapeutic Discovery Mass

Spectrometry Center, and

a co-director of the Institute for Metabolomics

Medicine in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy &

Pharmaceutical Sciences, is the 2015 recipient of

the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology.

Dr. Dorrestein was trained by Tadgh Begley

in the chemical biology of enzymes involved in

vitamin biosynthesis and by Neil Kelleher and

Christopher Walsh, who were co-sponsors of his

NRSA postdoctoral fellowship, in top and middle

down mass spectrometry on proteins that made

small molecules of therapeutic value. Since his

arrival at UCSD in 2006, Dr. Dorrestein has been

pioneering the development of mass spectrometry

methods to study the chemical ecological crosstalk

between populations of organisms for agricultural,

diagnostic, and therapeutic applications.

In general, Dr. Dorrestein thinks about the

application of the tools his lab develops and

new functions of molecules that they discover.

In the academic branch of his lab, he works on

understanding the functional roles of specialized

molecules and applies this information toward

disease intervention such as the evaluation of

newly discovered molecules as anti-infective

strategies. Many of his tools and methodologies

are also impacting industry. For example, his

molecular networking tool is being used by

industry to discover new pharmacologically

related molecules. Molecular networking has led

to the first crowd-sourced and social molecular

analysis infrastructure at gnps.ucsd.edu, which

is used by thousands of researchers from over

60 countries. His team and industry have jointly

developed and implemented an assay that

monitors the inflammatory status and potential

of patients and how they respond to therapies

using just a small amount of blood. This is being

evaluated as a way to stratify patients in clinical

trials. Similarly, he has a joint project with industry

that aims to answer the question of how healthy

commensal bacteria alter the immune system.

John Jacob Abel Award in PharmacologyThe John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology, named after the founder of ASPET, was

established in 1946 to stimulate fundamental research in pharmacology and experimental

therapeutics by young investigators. The award is presented annually.

http://gnps.ucsd.edu/ProteoSAFe/static/gnps-splash.jsp

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Dr. Dorrestein has published over 140 articles

and is the recipient of several awards, including

the Beckman Foundation Young Investigators

Award, The National Institutes of Health

Exceptional and Unconventional Research Award

(EUREKA), the Lilly Award in Analytical Chemistry,

the Hearst Foundation Award, the Pharmaceutical

Research and Manufacturers of America Award,

and the Matt Suffness Award. He was named

a V-Foundation Scholar. In addition, he is a

technological and research advisor/consultant for

INDICASET, Janssen, Agraquest, Bayer, CUBIST,

and Sirenas Marine Discovery.

Dr. Dorrestein will deliver the John J. Abel

Lecture on Monday, March 30, 2015 from 8:30

am–9:20 am in Room 107AB of the Boston

Convention & Exhibition Center.

Julius Axelrod Award in PharmacologyThe Julius Axelrod Award in Pharmacology was established in 1991 to honor 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. ASPET assumed responsibility of the Julius

Axelrod Award in Pharmacology from the Catecholamine Club in 2007. The award is presented annually.

Jean Rossier, MD, PhD Hôpital Sainte Anne, Paris, France

Dr. Jean Rossier has been

named the recipient of the

2015 Julius Axelrod Award in

Pharmacology. From 1994 to

2012, Dr. Rossier was professor

and chairman of the Department

of Biology at ESPCI Paris Tech, a famous graduate

school where Pierre and Marie Curie discovered

radioactivity. Since 2012, he has worked at Hôpital

Sainte Anne in Paris on translational research on

imaging the brain in action.

Dr. Rossier has made several major discoveries

in neuropharmacology including his work on

neuropeptides with Bloom, Guillemin, and

Udenfriend of multiple opioïd peptides delineating

several distinct neuronal systems involved in

pain and reward. Turning his interests on GABAA

receptors, he made the seminal observation that

several inverse agonists facilitate performance

in learning and memory tasks. This has led to

the present development by the pharmaceutical

industry of specific inverse agonists that are

candidates for promnesic drugs. His most widely

technical contribution in neuroscience is the

invention of single-cell RT-PCR after patch-

clamp. This unexpected marriage of molecular

biology and physiology led to several discoveries.

With single-cell RT-PCR, he has deciphered

the molecular organization of various synaptic

receptors. These key molecules are located at the

contacts between neurons. He is now using RT-

PCR and a multidisciplinary approach combining

electrophysiology, pharmacology, and imaging to

characterize the diversity of neocortical interneurons

and their roles in local blood flow control. This recent

discovery of the role played by interneurons in

controlling cerebral blood flow has shed light on the

physiological mechanisms involved in functional NMR

brain imaging, a technique widely used in the study

of human brain function.

Dr. Rossier will present the Axelrod Lecture at the

2016 ASPET Annual Meeting during Experimental

Biology in San Diego, California, April 2–6, 2016.

The 2015 Axelrod Lecture will be given by last

year’s recipient, Jeffrey L. Benovic of Thomas Jefferson

University, who will deliver a lecture titled “Arresting

Developments in Receptor Signaling” on Sunday,

March 29, 2015 from 2:00 pm–2:50 pm in Room 107AB

at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

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Pharmacia-ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics

The Pharmacia ASPET Award in 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. This award was originally established in 1969 as the

ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics, but was renamed in 2002, when supported in

perpetuity by an endowment from Pharmacia (now Pfizer). The award is presented annually.

Robert R. Ruffolo Career Achievement Award in Pharmacology

The Robert R. Ruffolo Career Achievement Award in Pharmacology was established in 2011

in recognition of the contributions made to drug discovery and development by Dr. Ruffolo.

The award recognizes the scientific achievements of scientists who are at the height of their

careers (typically mid- to late-career) and who have made significant contributions to any area of

pharmacology. The award is presented annually.

Heidi Hamm, PhDVanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN

Dr. Heidi E. Hamm has

been named the recipient of

the 2015 Robert R. Ruffolo

Career Achievement Award

in Pharmacology. Dr. Hamm

is the Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle chair

in Cardiovascular Research and professor of

Pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University Medical

Center. She served as the chair of the Department of

Pharmacology at Vanderbilt from 2000–2013 where

she oversaw an increase in the size of the department,

as well as a quintupling of its funding from the

National Institutes of Health (NIH) during her tenure.

L. Jackson Roberts, PhDVanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN

Dr. L. Jackson Roberts has

been named the recipient of

the 2015 Pharmacia-ASPET

Award for Experimental

Therapeutics. Dr. Roberts

is a professor of Pharmacology and Medicine

at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in

Nashville, Tennessee. He received his bachelor’s

degree from Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa,

and his MD degree from the University of Iowa. He

did an internal medicine residency at Washington

University in St. Louis, moved to Vanderbilt

University where he did a postdoctoral fellowship

in clinical pharmacology, and then joined the

Vanderbilt faculty in 1977.

His initial research focus at Vanderbilt was on

prostaglandins. However, his discovery, along with

Jason Morrow, that prostaglandin-like compounds

(isoprostanes) could be formed by a non-enzymatic

free radical mechanism in 1990 led him to change his

area of research to the field of free radical biology

and medicine. His research emphasis is largely

translational in nature, taking basic discoveries

related to lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress/

injury in the laboratory and exploring their role in the

pathogenesis of human disease.

9


Her research focuses on the structure and function

of GTP binding proteins and the molecular mechanisms

of signal transduction. Her laboratory has been at

the forefront of developing our understanding of G

protein coupled signal transduction for many years.

Early studies in Dr. Hamm’s lab concentrated on visual

signaling; she defined sites of rhodopsin interaction

with transducin using synthetic peptides from Gα and went on to characterize G protein effector interactions

in the same way. She then collaborated with Paul

Sigler to determine the three-dimensional structures

of heterotrimeric G protein αβγ subunits in their active and inactive conformations and in complex with the

Gα subunit. She has extensively used peptides and minigenes, encoding small peptides or domains of

signaling proteins to define protein-protein interaction

and Gα and βγ dependent signaling pathways in cells. Minigenes that turn off one G protein pathway at a time

in transfected cells showed that receptors that couple

to multiple G proteins drive cell-specific responses

via non-redundant interactions of multiple G protein

pathways. Thus she has pioneered studies of functions

of G protein subunits within the context of integrated

physiological systems and is applying mathematical

modeling approaches to understand these networks of

G protein signaling pathways.

Dr. Hamm has organized a number of meetings

including Keystone, the Federation of American

Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), American

Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB),

and the Gordon Conference on Cyclic Nucleotides

and Protein Phosphorylation. She was president of

the ASBMB from 2006–2008. Dr. Hamm has served

on the NIH Visual Sciences C study section, the NIH

Reviewers Reserve, the Board of Scientific Counselors,

NHLBI, and the NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee;

she currently sits on the CSR Advisory Committee. She

is on the Board of Directors of the Keystone Symposia

on Molecular and Cellular Biology. She has served

on the editorial boards of The Journal of Biological

Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular Pharmacology,

and Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

She is currently a member of the editorial board of

The Journal Chemical Biology & Drug Design. She

holds the Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. Endowed Chair of

Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Doo-Sup Choi, PhDMayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN

Dr. Doo-Sup Choi has been

named the recipient of the first

David Lehr Research Award.

Dr. Choi is professor of

Pharmacology and Psychiatry

at the Mayo Clinic College

of Medicine. He serves as the director of the

Samuel C. Johnson Genomics of Addiction

Program at Mayo Clinic. He received his bachelor’s

and master’s degrees in biochemistry at Yonsei

University in Korea. He went on to receive a

PhD in cellular and molecular biology at the

Université L. Pasteur, IGBMC in Strasbourg, France.

His postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology of

addiction was completed in the Department of

Biopharmaceutical Sciences at the University of

California, San Francisco.

He is a member of the Neurotoxicology and

Alcohol Study Section of the National Institutes

of Health (2012–2016). He is on the editorial

board of Addiction Genetics, Journal of Addictive

Behaviors Therapy & Rehabilitation, Journal of

Medical Research and Practice, and PLOS ONE. He

David Lehr Research AwardThe David Lehr Research Award is intended to extend funding for preclinical or

clinical research directed toward improving human health. This award is made possible

by an endowment to ASPET in 2014 from Mrs. Lisa Lehr in honor of her husband, the late

Dr. David Lehr, former chair of the Department of Pharmacology for New York Medical

College. The award is presented biennially.

10


Reynold Spector Award in Clinical PharmacologyThe Reynold Spector Award in Clinical Pharmacology was established in 2014 by ASPET

in recognition of Dr. Spector’s dedication and contributions to clinical pharmacology. The

award recognizes excellence in research and/or teaching in clinical pharmacology. It is made

possible by an endowment to ASPET from Dr. Reynold and Mrs. Michiko Spector. The award is

presented biennially.

Scott A. Waldman, MD, PhD, FCP, FAHAThomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA

Scott A. Waldman has been

named the first recipient of

the Reynold Spector Award in

Clinical Pharmacology.

Dr. Waldman obtained his

PhD from Thomas Jefferson University and his MD

from Stanford University. He was a postdoctoral fellow

at the University of Virginia and Stanford University in

the Division of Clinical Pharmacology in the laboratory

of Ferid Murad, MD, PhD (Nobel 1998).

He currently holds the endowed chair as

Samuel MV Hamilton Professor of Medicine

and is director of the Delaware Valley Institute

for Clinical and Translational Research, director

of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program of the

Kimmel Cancer Center, director of the Institute

for Individualized Medicine, and chairman of the

Department of Pharmacology and Experimental

Therapeutics of Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. Waldman also directs the MD-PhD Program,

the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored

Postdoctoral Training Program in Clinical

Pharmacology, and the Training Program in Human

Investigation (former NIH K30 Program) at Jefferson.

He is a past member of the American Board of Clinical

Pharmacology, a past Regent of the American College

of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP), a past-president of

ASCPT, and chair of the Scientific Program Committee

and a council member of ASPET. He is a Fellow of the

ACCP (FCP) and American Heart Association (FAHA).

He is the editor-in-chief for Clinical Pharmacology

and Therapeutics and Biomarkers in Medicine, the

deputy editor-in-chief for Clinical and Translational

Science, and co-editor for Waldman and Terzic’s

Pharmacology and Therapeutics: Principles to

Practice. Dr. Waldman’s research interests focus on

clinical pharmacology and translational medicine in the

context of gastrointestinal malignancies and obesity.

Dr. Waldman will present the Spector Lecture

titled “Bench-to-Bedside Translation in Clinical

Pharmacology: From Knowledge Generation to

Healthcare Delivery” on Tuesday, March 31 from 8:30

am–9:20 am in Room 107C of the Boston Convention

& Exhibition Center.

received a Young Investigator Travel Award from

the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics

Society (IBANGS) in 2009 and the Outstanding

Young Investigator Award from IBANGS in 2005.

Dr. Choi has extensive experience in

molecular and neuropharmacology of alcohol

use disorders (AUD) and psychiatric disorders.

He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed

articles including many high impact papers in

journals such as Nature Neuroscience, Journal of

Clinical Investigation, Molecular Psychiatry, PNAS,

Biological Psychiatry, Development, Journal of

Neuroscience, and Neuropsychopharmacology.

He will use the award to research adenosine-

mediated glutamate signaling in neuro-glial

interaction and alcoholism. The purpose will be

to study molecular mechanisms of adenosine-

regulated glutamate signaling, which is an essential

component of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)-

striatal circuit and ethanol seeking behaviors.

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Torald Sollmann Award in PharmacologyThe Torald Sollmann Award in Pharmacology was established in 1960 to

commemorate the pioneering work of Dr. Torald Sollmann in the fields of pharmacological

investigation and education. This award is presented biennially in odd-numbered years

for significant contributions over many years to the advancement and extension of

knowledge in the field of pharmacology.

James E. Barrett, PhDDrexel University, Philadelphia, PA

Dr. James E. Barrett has

been named the recipient

of the 2015 Torald Sollmann

Award in Pharmacology.

Dr. Barrett is professor and

chair of the Department of

Pharmacology and Physiology and founding director

of the Drug Discovery and Development Program

at Drexel University College of Medicine and of the

Clinical and Translational Research Institute, Drexel

University. He received his PhD from Pennsylvania

State University followed by postdoctoral training

in neuropsychopharmacology at the Worcester

Foundation for Experimental Biology.

He has served on the faculty at the University

of Maryland and at the Uniformed Services

University of the Health Sciences where he was

a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry,

Pharmacology, and Medical Psychology. Dr. Barrett

joined Wyeth as vice president of Neuroscience

Discovery Research following the merger with

Lederle Laboratories where he had been director

of Central Nervous System Research. Prior to

his current position at Drexel University College

of Medicine, he was senior vice president, chief

scientific officer, and president of research at

Adolor Corporation, a company focused on pain

pharmaceuticals. He moved to Adolor after serving

as president of research and development at

Memory Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical

company dedicated to the development of drugs

for the treatment of debilitating central nervous

system disorders.

He has published more than 275 scientific

articles, books, and abstracts in the areas of

neuropharmacology, neurobiology, behavioral

pharmacology, translational research, and

neuroscience and serves on several editorial

boards. He has served as president of the

Behavioral Pharmacology Society and of ASPET.

He served as the chair of the ASPET Board of

Publication Trustees and has served on the

Board of Directors for the Federation of American

Societies for Experimental Biology, where he was

a member of the Science Policy Committee and

the Public Affairs Committee as well as chair of

the Breakthrough Series in Science and Horizons

in Bioscience series. Dr. Barrett recently became

series editor for the Handbook of Experimental

Pharmacology. He has received the Solvay-Duphar

Award for Research on Affective Disorders, the

George B. Koelle Award from the Mid-Atlantic

Pharmacology Society for contributions to teaching

and research, and, most recently, the P.B. Dews

Lifetime Achievement Award for Research in

Behavioral Pharmacology. Dr. Barrett is currently a

member of the External Scientific Advisory Board,

Preclinical Autism Consortium for Therapeutics.

He is also the president of the Association of

Medical School Pharmacology Chairs and was

recently elected to the Executive Committee

of the International Union of Basic and Clinical

Pharmacology. His current research emphasis is in

the area of pain, its comorbid pathologies, and on

basic mechanisms and new therapeutics.

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Division for Drug Metabolism Early Career Achievement Award

The ASPET Division for Drug Metabolism Early Career Achievement Award was established to recognize

excellent original research by early career investigators in the area of drug metabolism and disposition and is

presented biennially.

Namandjé N. Bumpus, PhDThe Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

Dr. Namandjé N.

Bumpus has been named

the recipient of the

2015 Division for Drug

Metabolism Early Career

Achievement.

Dr. Bumpus received a PhD in pharmacology

from the University of Michigan and performed

thesis research in the laboratory of Dr. Paul F.

Hollenberg where she investigated the effect of

a naturally occurring cytochrome P450 (CYP)

2B6 mutation on the ability of the enzyme to

become inactivated by known inactivators of the

wild-type enzyme.

As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Eric F.

Johnson at The Scripps Research Institute,

Dr. Bumpus studied the regulation of CYP4A

and CYP4F genes in mice. She is currently

an assistant professor in the Department of

Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences and

the Department of Medicine – Division on

Clinical Pharmacology at The Johns Hopkins

University School of Medicine. Her research

program is focused on defining the contribution

of drug metabolism to the pharmacology and

toxicology of drugs used to treat and prevent HIV

infection. She serves on the Drug Metabolism

and Disposition editorial board and is a regular

member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Xenobiotic and Nutrient Disposition and Action

Study Section.

Dr. Bumpus will present the Drug Metabolism

Early Career Achievement Award Lecture on

Monday, March 30 from 2:00 pm–2:50 pm

in Room 109A at the Boston Convention &

Exhibition Center. The award will be presented to

her at that time.

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We Are ASPET

Have you wondered what types of science professionals make up our Society? Take this word search

puzzle to find out! Word search puzzles are fun and easy to play. Just look for the words hidden in the

puzzle. You can find them up, down, diagonally, forward, or backward. And remember – a letter can be part

of two or more words.

Neuroscientist

Pharmacologist

Toxicologist

Behavioral Pharmacologist

Biochemist

Biomedical Scientist

Chemical Biologist

Life Scientist

Medicinal Chemist

Molecular Biologist

Neuropharmacologist

Pharmaceutical Scientist

PharmD

Pharmacist

Physiologist

Psychologist

Educator

Nobel Laureate

Professor

Researcher

Government Worker

Student

Solved puzzle is on page 14

V T K L X I M Z P V B C X I F X B M E Z G Q M Y

W Q D F N L T C H E M I C A L B I O L O G I S T

W G W F U A S I A Q H H P X P D Q D D E Z S S N

V O T E O Y I H R Q P D T G W C W B H T L I X R

E V Z T K B G L M T X X J Z K X B T V X G P B O

B E H A V I O R A L P H A R M A C O L O G I S T

Y R C E R O L M C T S P I R X T P K L D O H N A

O N I R G C O H E N S X S Q O H C O O M J E Q C

H M S U C H I B U D F I I Y A S C K E F U Y T U

U E G A D E B E T P I N T R C I S D E R M N N D

L N Y L Z M R X I A H C M N X H I E O W E O D E

R T Q L S I A Q C S G A I O E C O S F D A Q B P

H W G E J S L K A W C M T N A I C L U O T E Y I

I O L B M T U D L I Z H S L A I C T O J R O C B

J R A O Q S C N S F H G S S E L S S P G O P S Y

H K T N P D E T C L E C Q N K Y C H E I I X E Z

S E E L J J L G I D I N T I G A T H E F I S D O

S R D M I Y O X E E E I P H A R M D E N I Z T D

N P S J S P M H N I S M X Y C D A H Y M Y L Z T

Y J R X C E N T T T R P H Y S I O L O G I S T U

F P L D S O I E I B X L J D B V E S C T M S O I

F B H Z S S I I S R E H C R A E S E R O E S T H

R Z B J T J J O T S I G O L O C A M R A H P U L

T S I G O L O C A M R A H P O R U E N G U R H V

14


We Are ASPET, puzzle from page 13

P T C H E M I C A L B I O L O G I S T G S A S O E I R I R V T B G M G B O B E H A V I O R A L P H A R M A C O L O G I S T R E O L M C T P R P L O N A N R C O E S S O H O M E C M U H I U D I Y A S C E U T U E A E B T I T R C I S D R N D N L M R I C M N X H I E O E E T L I A C A I O E C O S F D W E S L A C T N A I C L U O O B T U L I L A I C T O R R O S C S S E L S S G P K N E T C C N C E I E L I I T H F S R O E E I P H A R M D E I T M N S M L T T T P H Y S I O L O G I S T I I S S S R E H C R A E S E R T T T S I G O L O C A M R A H P T S I G O L O C A M R A H P O R U E N

Answers:

15


Meeting News

Business Meeting and Opening Events

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Meeting/Event Room Time

ASPET Business Meeting and Awards Presentation 107AB 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

ASPET Opening and Awards Reception SW Pre-Function Area 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

Pharmacology Programming


Session Room Time

Speed Networking for Careers Beyond the Academic Bench

Chairs: J.E. Clark and P. McGonigle106 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

2015 Teaching Institute:

Training Students for Teaching Careers

Chairs: K. Karpa and K. Hardy

108 12:00 PM – 2:30 PM

Graduate Student-Postdoctoral Colloquium: How to Get Started

Chairs: A.T. Hanna-Mitchell and H. Gottlieb 109AB 2:45 PM – 5:15 PM

■ Lectures ■ Divisional Programming

Schedule subject to change. Check the EB 2015 program book and mobile app for final schedule.

All locations at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC) unless otherwise noted.

16



Session Room Time

ASPET Presidential Symposium:

Navigating the Future of Biomedical Research

Chair: A.E. Fleckenstein

107AB 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Bile Acids and Liver Disease in Pregnant Women and Neonates

Chairs: L.M. Aleksunes and G.L. Guo106 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Emerging Regenerative Therapies in Pulmonary Disease

Chairs: Y. Liu and J. Rehman109A 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Emerging Roles of Trace Amine Associated Receptor 1 (TAAR1) in Drug

Abuse and Mental Disorders

Chairs: J. Li and G.M. Miller

108 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Ion Channel Drug Discovery – Advancements and Current Challenges

Chairs: S.V. Kharade and M.F. Jarvis107C 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

The Role of Protein-Protein and Protein-Membrane Interactions on

P450 Function

Chairs: W.L. Backes and J.P. Jones

109B 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

ASPET Poster Presentations Exhibit Hall 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Julius Axelrod Award In Pharmacology Lecture:

Arresting Developments in Receptor Signaling

Lecturer: J.L. Benovic

107AB 2:00 PM – 2:50 PM

Julius Axelrod Symposium: The Ins and Outs of G Protein-Coupled

Receptor Signaling

Chair: J.L. Benovic

107AB 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Pharmacology Education Programming:

Active Learning: What’s Up with That Flipping Classroom

Chair: J.L. Szarek

Westin-Grand Ballroom D

3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Elucidating the Molecular Underpinnings of Behavior Using

Pharmacological Knock-In Mouse Models

Chair: R.D. Blakely

108 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Interindividual Variability in CYP-Mediated Drug Metabolism

Chairs: H. Jeong and T.S. Tracy109B 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Nanotoxicology: Small Particles, Big Concern

Chairs: J.S. Fedan and D.W. Porter106 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Vascular Stiffness, A Novel Therapeutic Approach for Hypertension

Chair: S.F. Vatner109A 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Sunday, March 29, 2015

17



Monday, March 30, 2015

Session Room Time

John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology Lecture:

Creating the Facebook for Molecular Analysis

Lecturer: P.C. Dorrestein

107AB 8:30 AM – 9:20 AM

Membrane Transporters at the Interface of Drug Interactions, Biomarker

Monitoring, and Toxicity

Chairs: L.M. Aleksunes and Y. Lai

109A 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Monoamines and Neurotrophins in Inflammatory Bowel Disease/

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Chairs: H.I. Akbarali and S. Szabo

109B 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

New Therapies for an Old Problem: The NINDS-Sponsored

Anticonvulsant Screening Program

Chairs: J.H. Kehne and K.S. Wilcox

107C 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Pharmacology of Neuronal Regeneration and Repair

Chairs: J.S. Marchant and B. Grill106 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Protein Trafficking and Drug Development

Chair: P.M. Conn108 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Psychomotor Stimulant Addiction: Lessons from Methamphetamine

Chairs: R.I. Desai and M.A. Nader107AB 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM


Division for Drug Metabolism Early Career Achievement Award Lecture:

Drug Metabolism Considerations in HIV Treatment and Prevention

Lecturer: N.N. Bumpus

109A 2:00 PM – 2:50 PM

Division for Drug Discovery and Development Symposium:

Drug Development in Academic Centers

Chairs: R.J. Leadley and R.W. Caldwell

107C 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

New Roles of Mitochondria in Vascular Function

Chairs: D.W. Busija and P. Katakam109B 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

ASPET Journal Symposium: Reproducibility in the Pharmacological

Sciences: Moving the Discussion Forward

Chair: D.R. Abernethy

107AB 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Drug Metabolism James Gillette Award and Platform Session:

Biotransformation and Drug Transport

Chairs: E.E. Scott and L.C. Wienkers

109A 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Molecular Pharmacology Postdoctoral Scientist

Award Finalists

Keynote: J.L Benovic

108 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Neuropharmacology Postdoctoral Scientist Award Finalists

Keynote: B. Kieffer106 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

18


Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Session Room Time

Reynold Spector Award in Clinical Pharmacology Lecture:

Bench-to-Bedside Translation in Clinical Pharmacology: From Knowledge

Generation to Healthcare Delivery

Lecturer: S.A. Waldman

107C 8:30 AM – 9:20 AM

“Can We Talk?” Strategies for Collaborative Pharmacology Education

A.L. Gorman, J.S. Reuben and J.L. SzarekWestin-Grand

Ballroom C9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Biased GPCR Signaling in Drug Development: From Theory to Physiology

Chairs: S. Rajagopal and A. Christopoulos106 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Cardiac Fibroblasts: Fair-Weather Friends in Myocardial Fibrosis and Repair

Chairs: P.A. Insel and U. Meade107AB 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

New Technologies to Measure Mitochondrial Changes

Chairs: C.C. Beeson and B.S. Cummings108 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Novel Therapeutic Targets and Preclinical Models of Post-Traumatic Stress DisorderChairs: C.K. Jones and M. Nedelcovych

109B 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Systems Pharmacology: Enhancing Translational Research by Network and Pharmacodynamic ModelingChairs: D.E. Mager and D.R. Abernethy

109A 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

The Human Microbiome: Systems Pharmacology Insights and the Potential for New Drug DiscoveryChairs: R. Corriden and C. LaRock

107C 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM


Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Trainee Showcase

Chairs: L.E. See Hoe and J.M Schilling107AB 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Division for Behavioral Pharmacology Symposium: Sigma Receptors In Health and DiseaseChair: H. Khoshbouei

109A 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Presynaptic Autoreceptors and Improved Treatments of Major

Psychiatric Disorders

Chair: S.Z. Langer

109B 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Structural and Dynamic Basis of Receptor-Ligand Interactions

Chairs: E. Ortlund and S.F. Traynelis106 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Toxicology Symposium: Pharmacogenetics and Drug Toxicity

Chair: G.O. Rankin108 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Young Investigator Awards Platform SessionChair: M.A. Holinstat

107C 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Benedict R. Lucchesi Distinguished Lectureship in Cardiac Pharmacology: Regenerative Therapy for the Failing HeartLecturer: A. Terzic

107AB 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM

■ Lectures ■ Divisional Programming Note: As of January 2015, the Division for Integrative Systems, Traslational and Clinical Pharmacology (ISTCP) changed its name to the Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology (TCP).

19



Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Session Room Time

Norman Weiner Lecture: Structural Basis for Function and Pharmacology of

Voltage-Gated Sodium and Calcium Channels

Lecturer: W.A. Catterall

107AB 8:30 AM – 9:20 AM

Structural Basis for Ion Channel Pharmacology

Chair: W.A. Catterall107AB 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Common Pathways and Mechanisms of Chronic Pain and Opioid Addiction

Chair: S.L. Ingram106 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Crossing the Line: Exploring the Borders between Physiological Redox

Signaling and Oxidative Stress

Chairs: T. Michel and M. Haigis

109A 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Moving Beyond Traditional Stimulants: Emerging Characteristics and

Therapeutic Applications of Atypical Reuptake Inhibitors

Chairs: L.P. Carter and B.E. Blough

107C 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Natural Products: Bioactive Molecules from Nature

Chairs: B.T. Green, B.E. Blough and M.A. Holinstat108 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Transporter-Mediated Drug Interactions: Clinical Significance

and Predictions

Chairs: M.J. Zamek-Gliszczynski and C. Lee

109B 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

ASPET Poster PresentationsExhibit

Hall12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

ASPET Booth #1154Visit the ASPET booth in the Experimental Biology exhibit hall! Items for sale at “Shop ASPET” include scarves, ties, plush donkeys, and much more. Plus, pick up some free giveaways!

20


All Division Meetings and ActivitiesSchedule subject to change. Check the EB 2015 program book and mobile app for final schedule.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Division Meeting / Event Room Time

ASPET Council of Division Chairs (By invitation only)Westin- Revere

1:00 PM – 5:00 PM



Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology

Executive Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin- Adams

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Division for Drug Metabolism

Executive Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin-Executive

Boardroom 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Division for Drug Discovery and Development

Executive Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin-Bulfinch 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM



Chair: J.L. Szarek


3:00 PM – 5:30 PM



Division for Behavioral Pharmacology

Executive Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin- Adams

7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

Division for Neuropharmacology

Executive Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin- Bulfinch

7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

Division for Pharmacology Education

Executive Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin-Executive

Boardroom7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Executive

Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin- Adams

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Division for Molecular Pharmacology

Executive Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin- Douglas

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Division for Toxicology

Executive Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin-Frost Boardroom

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Division for Drug Discovery and Development Symposium:

Drug Development in Academic Centers

Chairs: R.J. Leadley and R.W. Caldwell

107C 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

21


Division for Drug Metabolism James Gillette Award and Platform

Session: Biotransformation and Drug Transport109A 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Molecular Pharmacology Postdoctoral Scientist Award

Finalists


108 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Neuropharmacology Postdoctoral Scientist Award Finalists

Keynote: B. Kieffer106 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Neuropharmacology Annual Meeting

(Open to all division members)106 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Division for Drug Discovery and Development

Annual Meeting (Open to all division members)107C 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Division for Molecular Pharmacology

Annual Meeting (Open to all division members)108 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Division for Drug Metabolism

Annual Meeting (Open to all division members)109A 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Division for Pharmacology Education

Annual Meeting (Open to all division members)109B 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Divisions for Behavioral Pharmacology and Neuropharmacology

Joint MixerWestin-Lewis

Room6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Divisions for Drug Discovery and Development; Translational and

Clinical Pharmacology; and Pharmacology Education Joint MixerWestin-Carlton

Room6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Division for Molecular Pharmacology MixerWestin-

Burroughs Room6:30 PM – 8:00 PM



ASPET Division for Cancer Pharmacology Discussion

(By invitation only)Westin- Bulfinch

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology:

Meet the Experts Lunch: Benchside-to-Bedside Research

(By invitation only)

Westin- Douglas

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Division Communications Officer’s Meeting


Westin- Executive

Boardroom12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Trainee Showcase 107AB 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM

22


Division for Behavioral Pharmacology Symposium:

Sigma Receptors In Health and Disease

Chair: H. Khoshbouei

109A 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Toxicology Symposium:

Pharmacogenetics and Drug Toxicity

Chair: G.O. Rankin

108 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology

Young Investigator Awards Platform Session107C 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology

Annual Meeting (Open to all division members)107AB 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology

Annual Meeting (Open to all division members)107C 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Division for Toxicology

Annual Meeting

(Open to all division members)

108 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Division for Behavioral Pharmacology

Annual Meeting (Open to all division members)109A 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology MixerWestin-

Commonwealth Ballroom B

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Divisions for Drug Metabolism and Toxicology Joint MixerWestin-

Commonwealth Ballroom A

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Activities of Interest for Students and PostdocsSchedule subject to change. Check the EB 2015 program book and mobile app for final schedule.


Session / Event Location Time

Give a Day of Service to Boston at EB 2015 Cradles to Crayons 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM


Session / Event Room Time

Speed Networking for Careers Beyond the Academic Bench

Chairs: J.E. Clark and P. McGonigle106 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Graduate Student-Postdoctoral Colloquium: How to Get Started

Chairs: A.T. Hanna-Mitchell and H. Gottlieb 109AB 2:45 PM – 5:15 PM

23




ASPET Diversity Mentoring Breakfast (By invitation only)

Keynote: J.S. ReubenWestin-Faneuil

Room 7:30 AM – 9:30 AM



Chair: J.L. Szarek


3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

ASPET Student/Postdoc Best Abstract CompetitionWestin-Galleria

Room6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

ASPET Student & Postdoc MixerWestin-Harbor

Ballroom III8:30 PM – 11:00 PM



Division for Drug Metabolism James Gillette Award and

Platform Session109A 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Molecular Pharmacology Postdoctoral Scientists

Award Finalists


108 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Neuropharmacology Postdoctoral Scientist

Award Finalists

Keynote: B. Kieffer

106 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM



Room6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Divisions for Drug Discovery and Development;

Translational and Clinical Pharmacology; and Pharmacology

Education Joint Mixer

Westin-Carlton Room

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Division for Molecular Pharmacology MixerWestin-Burroughs

Room6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Young Experimental Scientists Y.E.S. Mixer Westin-Galleria 9:00 PM – 11:30 PM

Don’t forget to attend your Division’s Annual Meeting!

24




ASPET Networking Walk

Weather permittingWestin-Alcott

Room7:00 AM – 9:00 AM

“Can We Talk?” Strategies for Collaborative Pharmacology Education

Chairs: A. Laurel Gorman, Jayne S. Reuben, and John L. SzarekWestin-Grand

Ballroom C9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology Trainee Showcase 107AB 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology:

Young Investigator Awards Platform Session107C 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology MixerWestin-

Commonwealth Ballroom B

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Divisions for Drug Metabolism and Toxicology Joint MixerWestin-

Commonwealth Ballroom A

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Social EventsSchedule subject to change. Check the EB 2015 program book and mobile app for final schedule.


Event Location Time

Give a Day of Service to Boston at EB 2015 Cradles to Crayons 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM


Event Room Time

ASPET Opening and Awards Reception SW Pre-Function Area 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM


Event Room Time

ASPET Diversity Mentoring Breakfast (By invitation only)

Keynote: J.S. ReubenWestin-Faneuil

Room7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

ASPET Student/Postdoc Best Abstract Competition Westin-Galleria 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Board of Publications Trustees Joint Editorial Boards

Dinner (By invitation only)Westin-Commonwealth

Ballroom B/C7:30 PM – 11:00 PM

ASPET Student & Postdoc MixerWestin-Harbor

Ballroom III8:30 PM – 11:00 PM

25



Event Room Time

ASPET Past Presidents’ Dinner

(By invitation only)Westin-Faneuil

Room6:00 PM – 9:00 PM



Room6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Divisions for Drug Discovery and Development; Translational and

Clinical Pharmacology; and Pharmacology Education Joint MixerWestin-Carlton

Room6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Division for Molecular Pharmacology MixerWestin-Burroughs

Room6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Young Experimental Scientists Y.E.S. Mixer Westin-Galleria 9:00 PM – 11:30 PM


Event Room Time

ASPET Networking Walk

Weather permittingWestin – Meet at the

Concierge Desk in Lobby7:00 AM – 9:00 AM

Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology MixerWestin-Commonwealth

Ballroom B6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Divisions for Drug Metabolism and Toxicology Joint MixerWestin-Commonwealth

Ballroom A6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

ASPET MeetingsSchedule subject to change. Check the EB 2015 program book and mobile app for final schedule.


ASPET Meeting Room Time

ASPET Council Meeting (By invitation only)Westin-Douglas

Room12:00 PM – 6:00 PM

ASPET Council of Division Chairs (By invitation only) Westin-Revere 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM



ASPET Business Meeting and Awards Presentation 107AB 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

26




The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Associate Editors Meeting


Westin-Douglas Room

7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

ASPET Board of Publications Trustees Meeting

(By invitation only)Westin-Douglas

Room12:30 PM – 2:30 PM



Molecular Pharmacology Editorial Board Meeting


Room7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

ASPET/BPS Pharmacology Research & Perspectives

Editorial Board Meeting (By invitation only)Westin-Executive

Boardroom11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Pharmacological Reviews Editorial Board Meeting

(By invitation only)Westin- Bulfinch

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Mentoring and Career Development Committee Meeting

(By invitation only) Westin-Executive


Did You Know?In 2014 ASPET awarded…• Over $35,000 in support of ASPET Scientific Achievement and

Best Abstract Awards

• Over $180,000 in support of ASPET symposium speakers at

EB 2014

• Over $200,000 in individual and institutional summer

undergraduate fellowships

• Over $230,000 in travel awards for members to attend EB 2014

and IUPHAR WCP 2014 meetings

In total ASPET gave back over $640,000 to support our members who have advanced the field of pharmacology.

To learn about all our membership benefits, visit:

www.aspet.org/membership/benefits/

http://www.aspet.org/membership/benefits/

27




Drug Metabolism and Disposition Editorial Board Meeting


Room7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

ASPET Nominating Committee Meeting

(By invitation only)Westin-Frost 7:30 AM – 9:30 AM

ASPET Science Policy Committee Meeting

(By invitation only)Westin-Bulfinch 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

ASPET/BPS Pharmacology Research & Perspectives

Management Committee Meeting (By invitation only)Westin-Executive


ASPET Program Committee Meeting

(By invitation only)Westin-Adams 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM

Ancillary Functions at EB 2015

AMSPC Reception Westin-Hale RoomSunday, March 29

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Catecholamine Club Dinner Private Event – See

invitation for locationTuesday, March 31

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Michigan State University Pharmacology and

Toxicology ReceptionWestin-Commonwealth

Ballroom CTuesday, March 31

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

PhRMA Foundation ReceptionPrivate Event – See

invitation for locationMonday, March 30 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

University of Michigan Department of Pharmacology and

Department of Biological Chemistry Social HourWestin-Marina

Ballroom IISaturday, March 289:00 PM – 11:30 PM

ASPET Guest Societies Participating at EB 2015

Behavioral Pharmacology Society (BPS) Separate registration

required. See BPS confirmation for location

Friday, March 27 – Saturday, March 28

Global GI Club Business and

Scientific MeetingWestin-Faneuil Room

Sunday, March 29

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Follow ASPET’s Official Meeting BloggersKatieSci: sicknessisfascinating.blogspot.com

Elizabeth Sandquist: everydaybiochemistry.wordpress.com Don’t forget to also follow ASPET’s tweets and Facebook posts. Use #expbio and #ASPET.

http://sicknessisfascinating.blogspot.comhttp://everydaybiochemistry.wordpress.com


28

The Chinese Terracotta Army, dating from approximately the late third century BCE, was discovered on March 29, 1974 to the east of Xi’an in Shaanxi Province, China.Photo: Shutterstock

How Paul Janssen’s Drugs Saved the

Rebecca J. Anderson

28

29

Chinese museum officials gazed with dismay

at their priceless army of ancient statues. For 22

centuries, the terracotta warriors had been protected

and preserved in the soil of China’s Yellow River

valley (1). Now, less than 20 years after these

old soldiers emerged from their subterranean

fortress, many of them had become infected and

were suffering from a mysterious rash (2). Local

archeologists suspected the warriors’ moldy rash was

due to fungi, but they lacked specialized laboratory

equipment and had only limited expertise to diagnose

and treat the ailment.

The detective who stepped forward to solve this

mystery and thwart an archeological catastrophe

was an unlikely hero: a businessman, physician,

and scientist who made and sold drugs. And most

unlikely of all, he was Belgian.

Next to Hercule Poirot, Paul Janssen was

probably the most famous Belgian of the 20th

century, and the two compatriots had much in

common. Poirot and Janssen both regularly

exercised their little grey cells, saw clues that others

missed, and pragmatically followed the trail of

evidence. They traveled widely, often downplayed

their own expertise in deference to colleagues, and

chalked up a consistent record of success.

But there was one big difference. Whereas Hercule

Poirot existed only in the fertile imagination of Agatha

Christie, Paul Janssen was real. A little boy who grew

up in war-torn Belgium, Paul had many interests, but

his journey leading to the ancient Chinese warriors

was anything but direct.

A Pharmaceutical HeritagePaul Janssen was raised in a family whose

business was drugs. His father, Constant Janssen,

had given up a successful medical practice in

1938 to devote full time to developing his own

pharmaceutical business in the small Belgian

town of Turnhout (2-4). Constant was the Belgian

distributor of medicinal products from the Hungarian

company, Richter. The product line consisted mainly

of tonics, stimulants, vitamin preparations, and

organic extracts.

German occupation of Belgium during World War

II and the murder of Gedeon Richter (the Hungarian

company’s owner) by the Nazis forced Constant to

increase production of his own products under the

Janssen label (3). These included repackaging and

distributing generic penicillin and sulfonamides, which

were increasingly in demand after the war. Paul’s

mother, Margriet Fleerakers, served as office manager

and also supervised the production line, including

quality control (3).

Paul finished high school in 1943. To avoid forced

labor in the German factories, he secretly enrolled

in college (at the age of 16) with the help of his

uncle, Emiel Janssen (3). The 12 Jesuit teachers

at the Faculté Notre-Dame de la Paix in Namur,

Belgium, offered intensive courses in physics,

biology, philosophy, and chemistry to a handful of

students, including Paul, without the knowledge

of the German occupiers (2, 3). Paul received his

Bachelor of Natural Sciences degree in 1945 and

began studying medicine at Catholic University in

Leuven, Belgium (2-4). His medical studies and a

visit to the Dutch pharmaceutical company Organon

strengthened his interest in drug research and

introduced him to the concept of structure-activity

relationships (2).

Around the Janssen dinner table, the drug

business was a frequent topic of conversation. Paul

was impressed by the European pharmaceutical

giants Roche and Organon and urged his reluctant

father to innovate and modernize the family’s

Richter-Janssen product line (2). To gain a better

understanding of world-class pharmaceutical

research, Paul took a six-month leave during his

second year of medical school and visited medicinal

chemistry and pharmacology laboratories in the

United States (2-4). He covered his expenses, in part,

by playing competitive chess in “pick-up” matches as

he traveled across the country (3).

Paul first visited Harry Gold, the well-known

pharmacologist at Cornell Medical School, and then

Edwin Cohn at Harvard. He also attended lectures


The detective who stepped forward

to solve this mystery and thwart an

archeological catastrophe was an

unlikely hero: a businessman, physician,

and scientist who made and sold drugs.

30

The Pharmacologist • March 2015The Pharmacologist • March 2015

30

by Carl Pfeiffer, a well-known pharmacologist at

the University of Chicago, and took a summer

biochemistry course at the California Institute of

Technology in Pasadena (2, 3). He rounded out the

summer by visiting Searle, Upjohn, and Lederle to

observe commercial pharmacology research and

returned to Belgium in time to take his academic

examinations, which he passed with honors (3).

Paul completed his clinical training at Ghent

University and received his MD in 1951, graduating

magna cum laude (3). He also stayed engaged with

his family’s business. One Sunday afternoon in

1951, he used his knowledge of pharmacology and

pharmaceutics to concoct his first drug product.

Using a popular German analgesic as a reference,

he combined acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine

to create Perdolan. His father marketed the product,

which became the most widely used analgesic

in Belgium (2).

Paul fulfilled his compulsory military service

at a base near Cologne, where the Belgian army

formed part of the post-war allied forces (2-4). His

duties as an army physician were light, and he

continued his studies at the University of Cologne’s

Pharmacological Institute, where he synthesized his

first molecules: simple chemical reactions to produce

amines (2). From 1951 to 1954, he gained additional

medical training in Paris, Vienna, and Heidelberg,

made a number of trips to Oxford, London, and

Stockholm, and visited the United States for the

second time (3).

After his military service, Paul became a part-

time research assistant at the Pharmacological and

Therapeutic Institute in Ghent under the supervision

of Nobel Laureate Prof. Corneille Heymans. In 1956,

Paul was awarded his teaching certificate and a PhD

in chemical pharmacology from the University of

Ghent, defending a thesis on the pharmacology of

propylamines (2-4).

Joining the Family Business, With a TwistInstead of pursuing an academic career, Paul

wanted to establish an independent research facility

dedicated to developing new drugs (3, 4). Constant

Janssen was not interested in research himself, but

he wisely did not discourage his son’s ambitions. In

1953, he gave Paul 50,000 Belgian francs ($1000) in

start-up funds, and Paul set up a laboratory on the

third floor of the Richter-Janssen company’s building

in Turnhout. Paul was 27 years old.

As Paul later recalled, he started his research

“with a small group of researchers and an equally

small budget, to make new compounds that could be

synthesized and purified with simple methods and

equipment and which could be pharmacologically

tested at minimal expense” (5). His goal from the

beginning was to make his research self-sustaining:

to quickly produce medically important compounds

on which he could secure patents, license them to

large drug companies, and use the income to recruit

new associates and expand the scope of his research

(2, 3). “Things had to succeed. I did what I thought

had to be done: finding something that could be

patented. And things had to be simple, otherwise they

would get too big and take too long, and become too

expensive…It was all very primitive, but…from day one,

we lived off our income” (2).

30

Dr. Paul Janssen in his lab.

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For pharmacological assessment that was beyond

their simple in vitro and in vivo assays, Paul and his

team sent their compounds to David K. de Jongh, a

physician in Amsterdam who, like Paul, had studied

with Prof. Heymans at Ghent. To distinguish those

compounds from the compounds generated in his

own laboratory, De Jongh assigned Paul’s compounds

an R number (for Richter) (2, 3). The Janssen company

subsequently adopted this nomenclature, Paul later

explaining that the R stood for research (5).

Paul’s small laboratory initially investigated

treatments for painful muscle spasms. The fifth

compound he synthesized was ambucetamide (R5),

which relaxed uterine smooth muscle. His father’s

company combined R5 with Perdolan and in 1955

marketed the combination product as Neomeritine for

menstrual pain (2, 3).

Success Comes Rapidly In 1954, the laboratory produced isopropamide

(R79), a long-acting anticholinergic drug that

inhibited stomach and intestinal smooth muscle

spasms and blocked gastric secretion. Following his

business plan, Paul licensed the drug to Smith, Kline,

and French (now GlaxoSmithKline). The royalties

enabled Paul to expand his laboratory and carry out

more research.

Paul noted with interest the popular opiate drug

meperidine, a synthetic morphine analog that was

prescribed for moderate pain and for diarrhea (3).

After synthesizing and testing several hundred

meperidine analogs, Paul’s team noted a lack of

correlation between the compounds’ analgesic and

constipating properties (5). In 1956, his chemists

succeeded in synthesizing diphenoxylate (R1132), a

potent antidiarrheal compound that had low abuse

potential, and Paul sought a licensing partner.

G. D. Searle & Company was initially hesitant to

license the product. Despite the recommendation of I.

C. Winter, Searle’s highly respected medical director,

the company’s business leaders were skeptical. Paul

was a young, unknown doctor from a small European

country (2). During the negotiations, a cousin of Jack

Searle, the company’s vice president and general

manager, coincidently suffered a bout of severe

diarrhea. Dr. Winter administered diphenoxylate, and

Jack’s cousin made a speedy recovery. Searle (now

part of Pfizer) soon licensed the Belgian “wonder

drug” and marketed it in the US as Lomotil®. In the

1960s, Lomotil was included in the drug supplies that

accompanied the Apollo astronauts to the moon (2, 3).

By 1957, Paul had assembled a staff of 70

coworkers, and they had outgrown the lab space

in his father’s Turnhout factory. They moved to new

laboratory quarters in Beerse, Belgium, a campus

that could accommodate long-term expansion.

The following year, Paul’s research laboratories

merged with his father’s company to form Janssen

Pharmaceutica, and Paul became president and

director of research (3, 4). He was 32 years old.

Velvet Glove, Steely FistPaul built the company’s research reputation

by tapping the strengths of his people (2, 3). He

had both a natural authority and a deep respect

for his coworkers – scientists, lab technicians, and

administrative staff alike. He kept the organizational

structure flat, directly stimulating, encouraging, and

nurturing each person’s creativity and innovative

skills. Under his guidance, the younger scientists

grew into well-known experts in the pharmacological

treatment of a wide variety of diseases. Everyone

called him Dr. Paul (2).

A journalist for the industry publication Scrip

Magazine (reporting in a 1985 article) described the

Janssen organization as a collective of equals. “If

a researcher wants to do something new, then all

he or she needs to do is send a note to Dr. Janssen

describing his or her intentions and motivations. Paul

Janssen nearly always agrees. And if he doesn’t, he

just talks to the researcher directly to discuss things

further” (2).

During his daily walkabouts, Dr. Paul engaged

in lively discussions of chemistry, pharmacology,

and clinical medicine. He wanted to know what the

researchers were doing, the details of their results

– good and bad – and their strategies for solving

problems (2). Everywhere he went and of everyone

he met, he asked the same question, “Anything new?”

31

...he could sense opportunity

where others might see only a failed

experiment.


32

He had an insatiable curiosity, but whether intentional

or not, this simple question prompted extraordinary

responses. His researchers knew they would be

asked every day and stretched for fresh ideas – or at

least thought hard about what they were doing. Dr.

Paul’s simple question constantly reminded them that

research was all about finding something new (2).

Dr. Paul had an uncanny ability to amalgamate

in his head all the fragments of chemistry,

pharmacology, and clinical results spewing from his

laboratories, and he could sense opportunity where

others might see only a failed experiment. As director

of research, he personally set the direction of each

research project. Those projects always started with

two things: a carefully reasoned concept – often

inspired by unexpected laboratory observations –

and a compound whose chemical structure served as

a reference for targeted synthesis.

Cyclists and PsychosisDr. Paul’s observations and inspiration were not

limited to the laboratory (6). One day while walking

along a street in Belgium, his scientific curiosity

was piqued by a group of competitive cyclists.

Racing cyclists at that time often used high doses

of amphetamine to gain a competitive advantage.

However, with chronic amphetamine use, the cyclists

developed taut facial expressions that progressed to

grimaces. They also exhibited agitated behavior that

resembled the signs and symptoms of patients with

paranoid schizophrenia (2, 4).

The similarity between the cyclists’ behaviors

and clinical psychosis led Dr. Paul to speculate that

an amphetamine antagonist might be useful to

treat psychotic symptoms (2). His battery of simple

laboratory tests included an assessment of drug-

induced changes in animal behavior associated with

tranquilizers (such as catatonia and sedation).

After the success of Lomotil, the Janssen

chemists sought even greater separation between

the neurological and constipating effects of opiates.

They synthesized a series of meperidine analogs

with larger and larger chemical substituents.

“However,” Paul admitted, “we pushed our luck too

far” (5). Mice injected with these bulky molecules

exhibited less of the typical opiate-like behavior

(e.g., morphine-induced excitement, mydriasis, and

insensitivity to pain). Instead, the mice appeared

tranquilized; they became progressively calm,

sedated, and slightly catatonic.

Up to this time, reserpine, chlorpromazine,

and their analogs were the only compounds that

produced “tranquilizing” effects in Janssen’s

pharmacological screening tests (5). The bulky

meperidine analogs were an anomaly: compounds

with tranquilizing properties but chemically unrelated

to either reserpine or chlorpromazine. Dr. Paul

directed his researchers to pursue this interesting

series of compounds further. After synthesizing 438

analogs, the Janssen chemists produced R1625 in

1958. Better known as haloperidol, R1625 was devoid

of morphine-like properties and was several times

more potent than chlorpromazine as a tranquilizer. It

was also faster and longer acting and had almost no

antiadrenergic or other autonomic effects associated

with chlorpromazine (5). Haloperidol was the most

active neuroleptic yet discovered and became the

prototype for a new class of psychoactive agents,

the butyrophenones.

Janssen Pharmaceutica subsequently introduced

10 butyrophenone neuroleptics (including droperidol,

R4749, and spiperone, R5147) for human or veterinary

use (3, 5). Through further modifications of the

chemical structure, the Janssen chemists also

produced the long-acting neuroleptic, pimozide

(R6238) (2, 4).

Despite the side-tracked research prompted by

the butyrophenones, Dr. Paul continued his search for

analgesics that were more potent than meperidine.

Meperidine is hydrophilic and does not easily cross

the blood–brain barrier. The Janssen chemists

increased the lipophilicity of the molecule, and

after a series of additional chemical modifications,

they synthesized fentanyl (R4263) in 1960. It was

100 times more potent than morphine. Because of

its rapid onset, short half-life, and minimal effect in

32

Dr. Paul was skilled at recognizing

core chemical structures that were

biologically active and exploiting them

to create a wide variety of therapeutic

products.


depressing the heart, fentanyl was widely used by

anesthesiologists (2, 3).

At the other end of the meperidine spectrum, the

Janssen chemists produced loperamide (R18553),

which was devoid of analgesic activity because it

does not cross the blood–brain barrier. Screening

assays showed that loperamide was highly effective

in inhibiting gut motility. Marketed as an antidiarrheal

drug, loperamide (Imodium®) became one of

Janssen’s most well-known products (2, 6).

Janssen Pharmaceutica continued to grow: 377

employees and affiliated companies in Germany,

Holland, the Belgian Congo, Jordan, and Egypt. But

the corporate headquarters in Beerse, Belgium,

needed support for the company’s growing global

operations. Paul explained, “A drug that doesn’t

make it in America will never become an international

blockbuster” (3). In 1961, Janssen joined forces with

US-based Johnson & Johnson in a mutually beneficial

merger. For J&J, the consumer products company

best known for Band-Aids and baby shampoo now

included medical research and pharmaceutical

products. For Paul, the merger was a sort of insurance

policy (2). Janssen Pharmaceutica expanded its global

reach and acquired financial security but retained its

company identity.

Worms, Bugs, and Mold In 1960, the Belgian Congo gained its

independence, and many Belgian expatriates were

forced to return to Belgium by the leaders of the

new country, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of

the Congo). Many of the expatriates were scientists:

pharmacologists, neurologists, veterinarians, and

other specialists with extensive knowledge about

parasites, fungi, and protozoa (2). Dr. Paul recruited

more than two dozen of them, the first in a long line

of distinguished scientists who came out of Africa

and developed Janssen Pharmaceutica’s expertise in

tropical medicine (2, 3).

Dr. Paul’s new parasitology team concentrated

on finding broad-spectrum anthelmintics because

various species of worms affect about half of the

world’s population (2). Newly synthesized compounds

were assessed in a simple animal model using

chickens, which by nature are often infected with

worms. After four years of optimizing the structure-

activity of various compounds and their metabolites,

the Janssen chemists produced levamisole (R12564),

which was considered a major breakthrough in

parasitology (2, 6).

Similarly, the expatriate microbiologists developed

a huge library of fungi and fungal spores to screen

compounds for anti-mycotic activity, leading to the

discovery of miconazole (R14889) in 1967 (2, 6).

Miconazole was effective against a broad spectrum

of fungi, molds, and some bacterial strains, including

Candida albicans, which is responsible for vaginal

yeast infections.

Dr. Paul was skilled at recognizing core chemical

structures that were biologically active and exploiting

them to create a wide variety of therapeutic products.

Lomotil, Imodium, and fentanyl were all generated

from the phenylpiperidine backbone of meperidine.

Similarly, levamisole and miconazole both contain

an imidazole ring, which became another workhorse

of Janssen chemistry. Further modifications of the

imidazole series produced mebendazole (R17635)

in 1968, another anthelmintic with broad-spectrum

activity against roundworm, hookworm, and

whipworm (2, 6).

The Janssen research initiatives to eradicate

fungal, parasitic, and bacterial infections in patients

evolved to include products that could also be used in

veterinary medicine and for plant protection. In 1969,

the Janssen chemists produced imazalil (R23979),

another imidazole analog. It proved to be effective

against a number of molds and fungi and was

developed as an agrochemical product to prevent

fungal decay in grain crops, fruits, and vegetables and

to treat mildew on roses (2).

The success of these efforts led to construction

of a greenhouse on Janssen’s Beerse campus in

1972 to do in vivo research on fruit trees, wheat,

and sugar beets and to facilitate development of

antifungal products to protect them. The following

year – the 20th anniversary of Dr. Paul’s laboratory

– Plant Protection was established as a separate

division within the Janssen research organization.

33

Ketoconazole (R41400) was the first

orally active antifungal drug, a major

breakthrough


34

Dr. Paul’s staff had grown to 1,246 people, of whom

389 were researchers. They had synthesized

27,975 compounds, held 50 patents, had launched

37 commercial drugs, and were in the midst of

developing 17 more drugs (2).

In 1976, the Janssen chemists synthesized another

analog of miconazole with broad activity against

fungi and yeasts. Ketoconazole (R41400) was the first

orally active antifungal drug, a major breakthrough

(2, 6). It was widely prescribed to AIDS and cancer

chemotherapy patients who suffered from systemic

fungal infections.

In 1979, the Plant Protection division developed

propiconazole (R49362), an analog of imazalil, as an

agricultural product. Propiconazole is absorbed by

plants and protects them from the inside out – a more

efficient antifungal delivery than topical spraying. The

product is widely used to protect turf grasses, fruit

and nut trees, and grain

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