Thursday, May 18
Friday, May 19
Saturday, May 20
Sunday, May 21
virtual event platform
Registrants can access the virtual event platform to see the full program and abstracts. Use your badge ID to log-in or the link in the reminder letters sent on May 15.
At ASPET’s first session of our newly designed Annual Meeting, you will receive a warm welcome to your home for pharmacology. Learn what’s been planned for our weekend together, celebrate our history and what’s ahead for the Society, meet someone new, find an old friend, and engage in a spirited discussion.
The COVID pandemic has brought a stark reminder of the difficulties in convincing the public of scientific facts that conflict with their ideology. An examination of the history of anti-science shows that the patterns obtained during the pandemic were the same as those that occurred during controversies around evolution, smoking, ozone, and climate change. These patterns are driven by politics but also by the dogma within science to remain objective. To prevent similar episodes in the past, the scientific enterprise needs a reckoning about how consensus within science is managed.
Experience the daily ASPET datablitz, a rapid-fire oral presentation of research. Ten poster presenters each day will present three minute short talks in the Pegram area of the poster hall. These brief snippets of research are an introduction to their full presentations that will take place at their poster boards afterwards. You won’t want to miss this fast-paced overview.
Enjoy a drink and snacks while exploring the latest science or presenting it yourself! Posters are grouped by divisional topic area and every night includes student and postdoc finalists competing for poster awards. Hear their presentations and discuss the latest research advances.
ASPET will be making a splash on Thursday night in St. Louis! The Aquarium will be reserved for our exclusive use. Connect with old friends, meet new ones, and journey into the deep.
Enjoy breakfast while learning about the latest updates on ASPET activities and initiatives.
This keynote address will describe new drugs emerging from studies of the VHL tumor suppressor protein (pVHL), which is usually defective in clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs). pVHL forms a ubiquitin ligase that targets the alpha subunits of the HIF transcription factor for proteasomal degradation provided they are prolyl hydroxylated by the oxygen-sensitive EglN (also called PHD) 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG)-dependent dioxygenases. HIF2α promotes ccRCC and HIF1α inhibits ccRCC in preclinical models. An allosteric HIF2α inhibitor has advanced to Phase 3 testing in sporadic ccRCC and was recently approved for the treatment of VHL Disease. Conversely, drugs that stabilize HIF are being developed for the treatment of anemia and ischemic diseases (e.g., heart attack and stroke). Dr. Kaelin's team also recently showed that GPR35 agonists are protective in ischemic models. He will describe their recent efforts to identify new cancer targets based on synthetic lethality and to find protein degraders for “undruggable” oncoproteins.
The “Guppy Tank” competition will showcase translational science pitches from four ASPET trainees who were coached by mentors with established experience in the biotech, pharma, and entrepreneurship realms. In addition, The Guppy Tank event will feature a keynote discussion by a seasoned scientific entrepreneur who will highlight the importance of a translational vision to scientific innovations and effective strategies for a successful science pitch. This session will be an exciting and essential educational opportunity for ASPET trainees to hone their translational scientific communication skills while getting publicly recognized for their talents.
CHAIRS
SPEAKERS
The symposium will highlight the current progress on cell-cell communications involved in the development of heart failure and preclinical treatment. Heart failure is a complicated process that is involved interactions among myocytes, fibroblasts, endothelia cells, pericytes, adipocytes, and marcophages, etc, and critical to understand the tissue remodeling underlying a variety of cardiac phenotypes, ranging from depressed ejection fraction, impaired cardiac relaxation, to cardiac arrhythmia. The symposium aims to deliver the important messengers to better understand non-traditional mechanisms of cell-cell communication in heart failure.
Psychedelics hold great promise for the treatment of several neuropsychiatric disorders. These compounds induce rapid and long-lasting neuroplastic effects in cortical neurons, effects which may play an important role in their therapeutic efficacy. The potential therapeutic impact of resetting neuroplasticity is linked to their affinity/efficacy for the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor (5-HT2AR). Unfortunately, hallucinogenic drugs may not be a viable option for many patients as even mild dementia or a history of psychosis may heighten risk for drug-associated adverse effects. There is a critical chemical gap in the development of molecules that maintain the neuroplasticity-promoting effects of psychedelics, but with a range of hallucinogenic-like effects. New classes of compounds have been synthesized that hold promise as non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2AR potentiators and therapeutics, and this panel presents distinct and innovative approaches in this regard.
Various transporters, expressed in the gut, liver, and kidney, are known to govern a drug's ADME, and their activities can be up- or down-regulated, and thus have significant consequences on the systemic and tissue exposures to drug substrates. However, transporter regulations are an emerging field with mechanisms that remain elusive. This symposium aims to highlight recent advances in our understanding of transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and post-translational modification mechanisms of transporter regulation, and their clinical relevance. Novel and translational tools, such as endogenous biomarkers and cynomolgus monkey models, have been utilized to investigate the regulatory effects on transporters in vivo.
The class of drugs called the protein degraders, or better known as the “PROTACs: Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras”, have gained significant momentum in the past decade with seminal work led by Crews et al. and other pioneering leaders to follow. Today, successful small molecule PROTAC interventional therapeutics have entered clinical trials for cancer treatment, with significant advancements occurring rapidly in the field to leverage this tool to investigate several undruggable targets for varied clinical indications. The objective of this symposium will be to introduce the emerging protein degrader tools (PROTACs and molecular glues) for drug discovery and highlight the successful application of these approaches to the innovation of novel therapeutics. The panel of world-leading speakers in this symposium will present on the evolution and emergence of the PROTACs, use cases of PROTACs across therapeutic areas of research. opportunities and challenges in the therapeutics application of this ground-breaking technology, and progress made, future expectations, and areas of growth in the field.
Although G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are successful therapeutic targets for 35% of FDA-approved medications, roughly 120 remain orphan receptors with poorly understood physiology and pharmacology. This session will bring together experts working on the structure, signaling, physiology and novel pharmacology of orphan GPCRs. Speakers will discuss their recent research on orphan receptors expressed in the nervous system including GPR158, GPR151, GPR52 and MRGPRX4. Research will include descriptions of high-resolution orphan receptor structures, unexpected receptor signaling mechanisms, novel agonist/antagonist modes-of-action, neurophysiology and drug discovery. These studies are providing new pharmacological tools to better define the function of these understudied GPCRs, and opening new directions for both basic and translational pharmacology.
Drug transport and metabolism are critical determinants of drug absorption, metabolism, distribution, elimination (ADME) as well as drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and toxicity. While significant progress has been made to utilize in vitro models to predict drug ADME and toxicity including physiologically-based pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic modeling, these models are either not sufficiently complex or require comprehensive physiological data. ADME and toxicity biomarkers that can be quantified using accessible biofluid such as urine and blood from patients, healthy volunteers or preclinical species are recognized as a relatively non-invasive approach to facilitate DDI and toxicity potential of drugs. Recent data on biomarkers of drug transporter, metabolism, and toxicity in human and preclinical species suggest their promising applications in drug development.
Metabolic impairment induces a state of low-grade inflammation triggering cardiovascular dysfunction. In parallel, western-type diets drive an imbalance of microorganisms in the gut known as dysbiosis. Recent research implicates localized inflammation in certain adipose depots in causing the earliest pathologies in cardiovascular tissues/organs. Dysbiosis was suggested to augment the inflammatory phenotype in adipose tissue, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Here, we describe the early molecular changes in these adipose depots, demonstrate the pathways through which microbiota alters the host mitochondria, causing the observed alterations, and highlight the sex-based differences in these cascades. Potential therapies modulating these processes are discussed.
Heart failure is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults, representing the main cause of hospitalization in this population. However, effective pharmacological intervention for this disease is lacking. This session will discuss recent advances in understanding molecular mechanisms of cardiac aging and their potential therapeutic implications for aged-related cardiac disease. Three leading investigators and two trainees will discuss how stress drives cardiac aging, how to target brown adipose tissue to treat cardiac senescence, and how to target aging hallmarks to treat heart failure with preserved ejection fration, the most common form of heart failure in older adults.
In addition to the well-documented increase in deaths involving opioids over the past two decades, overdose deaths involving stimulants have also increased sharply, and recent estimates indicate a high prevalence of polysubstance abuse involving opioids and stimulants. With speakers representing a broad spectrum of expertise, including epidemiology, human behavioral pharmacology and clinical trials, pre-clinical behavioral pharmacology, and medicinal chemistry, this symposium highlights current research on opioid and stimulant co-abuse and demonstrates contributions pharmacology research can make toward addressing this rapidly growing and evolving public health challenge.
Biological therapeutic drugs, including nucleic acids, such as mRNAs, antisense oligonucleotide (ASO), and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and proteins, for example antibodies and peptides, have very different ADME features than traditional small chemical medications, which can directly impact on their therapeutic efficacy and adverse reactions. The session will contain several presentations from pharmaceutical industry and academics to provide updated information on ADME studies covering nucleic acid and protein drugs as well as their nanocarrier delivery systems.
The Teaching Blitz session will discuss innovative teaching ideas that are readily transferable to your classroom. Speakers will present and demonstrate the implementation of novel approaches to rethinking approaches to classroom assessments, course designs, and instructions.
Decoding the neurobiological underpinnings of psychiatric disorders such as addiction is critically linked to expanding knowledge obtained from the human brain which can inform targeted treatments. The continued opioid epidemic highlights the important need for the development of novel non-addictive, non-opioid medications. The talk will provide molecular insights gained from post-mortem investigations of human opioid users and complementary mechanistic animal studies that identify specific neurobiological marks that offer druggable targets for opioid addiction including aspects of cannabinoid strategies.
Underrepresentation of people of color in STEM-related fields is a long-standing and serious problem that continues to worsen as we go up the ladder. As such, trainees of color see very few examples of individuals who belong to underrepresented/marginalized groups in successful scientific careers. This symposium will highlight scientists of color and provide a welcoming space for all scientists. It will further establish a forum for discussing issues critical to thriving as underrepresented groups in Pharmacology-related careers and create networking opportunities to support the continued growth of scientists of color at all career-levels.
PANELISTS
This session will feature oral presentations by young scientists selected from the submitted abstracts as well as a talk by the Division for Molecular Pharmacology Early Career Awardee.
This session will highlight oral presentations by young scientists chosen from abstracts. Additionally, the session will feature talks from the division’s two Early Career Awardees.
Over the past a couple of decades, it has become clear that there is a global obesity epidemic. While developed countries appear to be impacted more severely overall, there is a marked increase in obesity world-wide. The rise in obesity is accompanied by an increase in the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease in what has been termed the metabolic syndrome. The causes underlying the increase in body weight and adiposity remain controversial, however. Whereas changes in diet and exercise are thought to play an important role in the increased prevalence of obesity, there is considerable scientific evidence to suggest that environmental contaminants, drugs and other chemicals can also increase body weight. The evidence is derived from both animal experiments as well as epidemiological studies. The overall objective of this session is to provide a broad overview of research into obesogens, including some background, a brief history and current thinking in the field in the first presentation. The second presentation will focus on mechanisms by which endocrine-disrupting chemicals modulate cellular metabolism and thermogenesis. The third presentation will cover transgenerational effects of obesogen exposure.
Join this short talk to learn about how to explore different career options by trying out real job tasks in the comfort of your home or lab! Job simulations can help PhDs explore career paths in other sectors, narrow down options, and make informed career choices. The job sims are vetted by professionals with career expertise and the projects are true-to-task.
After completing graduate studies and postdoctoral training, many scientists find themselves seeking career opportunities that are rewarding, utilize their biomedical training and take them to the academic realm as well as private or government institutions or industry. The career opportunities for those trained in pharmacology are broad and not always obvious to those who have trained specifically for a career in academia. This symposium will bring together a panel of highly successful Biomedical Professionals who have utilized their biomedical training to pursue very different career paths. The speakers will briefly discuss their particular career path and how they arrived in the positions that they currently hold. Following the short presentations each speaker will lead/facilitate a small group discussion with members of the audience to discuss their particular pathways in greater detail. This will allow attendees the opportunity for an informational interview with the professionals to obtain targeted information in dialogue with the speaker about their particular careers, how they determined their career paths and how best to prepare and pursue such a career path. This will also serve as a networking opportunity for attendees.
PANELISTS / SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION LEADERS
The focus of this session is to provide a spotlight for the top scored abstracts submitted by undergraduate, post-bac and post-doctoral cancer pharmacologists. In addition, the prestigious Susan Band Horwitz award which is presented to a senior investigator who has established national and international recognition for cancer drug discovery or development will be discussed.
This session will feature a talk from the Richard Okita Early Career Award recipient, followed by two talks from the authors of the best papers of 2022 from the journal of Drug Metabolism and Disposition who received the James R. Gillette Awards in pharmacokinetics/transporters and drug metabolizing enzymes. The session will also include abstract-based oral presentations from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows focused on drug metabolism and disposition.
CNS therapeutics can alter reward-related behavioral processes through targeted or non-targeted actions and thereby affect motivated behavior. Rigorous characterization and interpretation of such changes in motivated behavior can help advance our understanding of pharmacological and behavioral mechanisms through which they may be mediated. This symposium will feature presentations on recent work from several laboratories demonstrating different approaches toward studying effects of drugs on reinforcement and reward-related processes in preclinical research.
This workshop is perfect for early career researchers, but we encourage all to attend what is sure to be a lively and interesting 90 minutes of information-packed discussion. Authors can learn about the scope of the journals and get tips to reduce the chances of their papers being rejected. Reviewers can hear from an editor ideas on how to write a review that is concise, informative, and balanced. Everyone can learn more about the various roles from what the editor-in-chief does to what the reviewers do, including how they make recommendations for revision and acceptance, with a look at what goes on in the decision-making process. This workshop is of interest for anyone who is thinking about submitting their work to an ASPET journal and who would be interested in a view from the inside from those in the know. Attendees should be prepared to break out into groups, ask questions, learn...and submit! Three ASPET editors-in-chief will speak to the benefits of choosing journals from ASPET, the home of pharmacology.
This session will feature the Trainee Showcase oral presentations by young scientists, featuring both graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. This showcase also features a keynote talk by the Benedict R. Lucchesi Young Scientist Awardee. The award was established to honor Dr. Lucchesi's lifelong scientific contributions to our better understanding and appreciation of the pharmacological treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease, and for his mentoring of countless prominent cardiovascular pharmacologists in translational approaches.
This session will showcase three notable abstract-based platform presentations by ASPET members followed by the division's Scientific Achievement Award Lecture in Drug Discovery and Development presented by the 2023 awardee.
This session will feature oral presentations from postdoc finalists selected from the submitted abstracts as well as a talk by the winners of the Division for Neuropharmacology 2023 Early Career Award and DEI Recognition Award.
Join this short talk to learn how to tailor your resume for a job. What do employers look for? How long do employers spend looking at your resume? Does it really need to be one page? Come hear tips to put together your resume, and how to change your CV mindset to a resume mindset. This is an informal talk with time for Q&A.
Scientific publications today are biased towards reporting positive results to tell a good story. Whereas, well controlled studies resulting in non-significant data are less likely to get published. This creates a publication bias which severely impacts the ability to accurately synthesize data and limits an appropriate description of complex research problems. This session will highlight the impact of research studies where results led to an independent finding through oral presentations from trainees that were selected from submitted abstracts. Additionally, this session will feature a keynote speaker presenting a translational science study on the delivery of mAbs.
COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the movement of courses from a face-to-face to an online content delivery. We are now in a position to adopt successful online strategies and use in any mode of teaching. The goal of such strategies is for students to develop critical thinking skills for solving problems. As we move forward, these new approaches for creating and delivering course content, and assessing student learning can be refined and shared. This symposium will present modalities of creating and delivering online content, and assessing student performance and learning. It will conclude with interactive activities.
The NIH Blueprint for Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN) was launched to enable neuroscientists in academia and biotechnology companies to develop new drugs for nervous system disorders. The BPN provides grant funding as well as free access to CROs (medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics/ADME, toxicology, drug manufacturing, drug formulation and phase I clinical trials) and consultants for small molecule drug discovery and development, from hit-to-lead chemistry through phase I clinical testing. A fundamental hallmark of the program is that the research institution retains the intellectual property rights. The goal is to generate the required data to de-risk further funding for subsequent clinical trials, partnership, or out-licensing. Attendees will hear not just from NIH staff but also grantees who have benefited from the program.
Given the rise in science denial and distrust across the US, it is more important than ever for pharmacologists to learn about the various ways they can become advocates for the field of pharmacology, and science in general. However, ASPET members may find it difficult to identify important policy areas, navigate the legislative process, engage stakeholders, or determine the right avenue for their advocacy work. Given these difficulties, the Science Policy Committee (SPC) wants to be a resource for ASPET members and to demonstrate how advocacy requires pharmacologists at all career levels to use their expertise to communicate the importance of science to their elected officials and greater community. This session will introduce attendees to the ASPET SPC, highlight the advocacy work of individual ASPET members, and provide a casual forum to learn more about getting involved in science policy.
SPEAKER
Join us for an inspiring panel interview featuring our major awardees. Hear about their personal career journeys and what advice they have for scientists at the beginning of their careers with ASPET. We’ll also get a peek at where their science is headed next. The invited panel includes the Abel Awardee, Carrie Ferrario; Axelrod Awardee, Walter Koch; Lehr Research Awardee, Lynette Daws; Pharmacia-ASPET Awardee, Ian Blair; Ruffolo Awardee, David Sibley; Spector Awardee, Kathleen Giacomini, and Weiner Award Lecture, Daniela Salvemini.
The Axelrod Symposium honors the memory and pioneer work by Dr. Julius Axelrod who made fundamental discoveries on the synthesis, signaling and neuroendocrine actions of melatonin, a molecule that signals darkness. The distinguished panel of speakers will address the molecular and neuropharmacological mechanisms of melatonin receptor function, and the potential of novel melatonin receptor ligands to treat circadian disorders, depression, cancer, and type 2 diabetes among other conditions and diseases.
Cyclic AMP serves as the volume control for physiological processes in nearly every organ system, from stress and contractility in heart, bronchodilation and remodeling in lung, to learning and memory and pain responses in the nervous system. The last two decades of research has made clear that compartmentalization of cAMP signaling is key to its physiological function. Yet the molecular details of how compartmentalization is achieved are still debated. This symposium will feature PI and trainee talks focused on new technologies to measure localized cAMP and novel mechanisms that drive downstream functional effects.
This session will compare and contrast the impact of selective modulation of muscarinic receptor subtypes across the addiction cycle of different addictive substances. Dr. Thomsen will discuss effects of M1 and M4 mAChR ligands on aspects of cocaine self-administration including choice, and cognitive disturbances. Dr. Banks’s findings will highlight how M1 mAChR effects on methamphetamine vs food choice compare to those cocaine effects. Ms. Teal will contrast the effect of M1 and M5 mAChR ligands on aspects of opioid drug taking and seeking. Dr. Walker will present M4 and M5 mAChR ligand effects on alcohol taking and seeking in different brain regions in rats and humans.
CHAIR
The goals of this symposium are to help participants identify and discuss the prevalence of DEI issues in pharmacology education curricula and assessments, to discuss best practices for addressing DEI issues in pharmacology education, and to discuss frameworks for guidance in promoting DEI and removing racial bias in pharmacology curricula. At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
PANELISTS AND DISCUSSION/ACTIVITY LEADERS
Many promising tools recently developed for biological research rely heavily on principles of pharmacology. This session will focus on novel tools that are being used to explore pharmacological and biological questions with unprecedented precision. Talks will focus on the development of novel optical sensors for monitoring peptide release in awake and behaving animals, Drugs Acutely Restricted by Tethering (DART) which allow for cell type-specific pharmacology in intact systems, and new tools for the control and modulation of GPCR signaling. Together, this session will demonstrate how the next generation of pharmacological tools is unlocking new frontiers for understanding biological functions.
This symposium will bring together leaders in the field to discuss the importance of microbial mediated drug metabolism in both health and disease. Topics will include: 1) reprogramming of the gut microbiome on the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of genes involved in drug metabolism and obesity, 2) establishing the feasibility of editing the human gut microbiome to improve treatment outcomes, 3) the pathobiomes’ contribution to drug metabolism and disposition, and 4) using rodent animal models to evaluate the microbiome and pathobiome as a mechanism of toxicity. Participants will gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the role of the microbiome and pathobiome in drug metabolism and disposition as well as the cutting-edge methodologies used to study these important phenomena. A student-led Q&A session with all the panel speakers will round out the session at the end.
In recent years, extensive studies implicated myeloid cells in tumor development, progression and metastasis. Myeloid cells is a complex network of different cells with different function. These cells are characterized by fascinating biology and biochemistry and focus of intensive studies by many research groups in academia and multiple pharmaceutical companies. Clinical studies support their role in tumor progression and limitation of the effect of various immune therapeutics. Because of this, there is an intensive effort to target this cells. The session will cover the role and targeting opportunities for myeloid-derived suppressor cells and macrophages in different types of cancer. The goal of this session is to discuss several topics focused on different aspects of myeloid cell biology and their targeting.
Co-Sponsored by the British Pharmacological Society
Throughout history plant extracts have had a considerable role in human health and even today plant-derived remedies are often used as alternative medicines. Many natural products have actions consistent with ion channel modulation and sophisticated electrophysiology, mutagenesis and molecular modelling has revealed how certain plant extracts modify ion channel activity. The work on temperature and mechanosensitive ion channels modulation by chilli extract, menthol or garlic derived pungents by the 2021 Nobel prize winners for Physiology/Medicine, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, brings considerable focus to this aspect of pharmacology. The proposed symposium features speakers who will describe different facets of ion channel modulation by plant-derived entities. Derivation of key molecular hot spots for plant derived products provides considerable insight into the workings of several ion channels with key physiological roles. The symposium will be of broad appeal for members with interests in ion channel modulation, pharmacophore modelling, pharmacological translation and drug targeting.
Celebrate our Scientific Achievement Awardees and see who has won Poster Awards!
Apr
20
Registration Discounts End
14-24
Division Town Halls
24
Housing Deadline
May
3-10
Online Award Lecture Series
18-21
ASPET 2023 Annual Meeting St. Louis Union Station, MO