Testimonials

I would like to express my gratitude to ASPET for giving me the wonderful opportunity of attending WCP this year. During the meeting, I particularly enjoyed the plenary lectures delivered by top scientists in the field of pharmacology. I also found the sessions focusing on neurodegeneration very helpful for my research project and inspired me with few ideas that I am planning to test in the laboratory. Moreover, I interacted with a lot of researchers in the field of GPCR signaling and established few collaborations that will help introduce novel techniques/expertise to our laboratory. I was also able to support Canada’s bid for hosting WCP2026 in Montreal. Although Canada’s bid was not successful, I enjoyed meeting members from different pharmacological societies around the world. I am really grateful for the generous support from ASPET and for the wonderful experience of attending the meeting and visiting Japan.

-Khaled S. Abdelrahman, PhD

Attending and presenting my research on the World Congress of Pharmacology (WCP 2018) was indeed a great experience for me. ASPET travel award not only gave the opportunity to attend the conference but also it allowed me to share my research with such a wide variety of innovative scientists and leaders from across the globe. In the conference I attended several sessions among them, “ Recent Progress in iPS Cell Research and Application” was very appealing. It was great to know that Induced pluripotent stem cell-based research is moving forward for delivering advanced therapeutic options to the patients with intractable diseases. WCP 2018 offered a breadth of knowledge covering updated research and sciences in the pharmacology field which allowed me to obtain valuable feedback about my work from a global network of inter-disciplinary scientists and professionals that will undoubtedly help shaping the future of my research.

-Farjana Akther

It is my great pleasure to attend the 18th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (WCP2018). As Prof. Shuh Narumiya said, such scientific interactions facilitated interdisciplinary studies among life sciences and medicine that will revolutionize and promote advancement in human health. Indeed, with over 200 cutting-edge lectures, opportunities to network and learn from other experienced researchers, which provided me new technologies in my interested research area but also open my mind, expand my horizon on how to start a project and "inform my colleagues" with my findings in a scientific way. During this scientific meeting, I was also able to present my research work, “Unexpected role of the telomere-associated protein Rap1 in protecting against mitochondrial defects and cardiac dysfunction during aging” and got valuable insights from fellow scientists in the same field. I hope what I have done can contribute to the advancement of medicine and thus, help humanity.

-Yin Cai, PhD

Although ASPET has presented many opportunities during my career, I believe that attending the World Congress of Pharmacology in Kyoto was the highlight of my postdoctoral career. I enjoyed listening to lectures about cutting-edge advances in pharmacological research, especially Prof. Yamanaka’s work with induced pluripotent stem cells.  I am also grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the British Pharmacological Society, our sister organization, to discuss strategies to encourage manuscript submissions from trainee researchers to ASPET journals. However, the experience that I am the most thankful for was exploring Kyoto with my fellow members of ASPET. Not only did this travel award allow me to reconnect with familiar faces from the Mentoring Network and Young Scientist Committee, but I returned from WCP2018 with several new friendships. I highly recommend that trainee members of ASPET apply for travel awards to international meetings. It really is an amazing adventure!

 

-Stephanie Davis, PhD

It was an honor to receive this award and be granted the opportunity to learn at the World Congress of Pharmacology. As a pharmacist, I was excited to see many clinicians representing healthcare institutions around the world at this meeting. My favorite sessions provided new insight into the perspective of clinical pharmacists from other countries and the differences in our scopes of practice. I learned, for instance, that hospitals in Europe may often only employ a few pharmacists per institution, whereas many hospitals in the U.S. have pharmacists working in each unit.  I particularly enjoyed presentations regarding issues in pediatric drug development, including pharmacogenomics, pharmacometrics, and formulations. The unique setting of this meeting encouraged discussion of how regulatory changes were occurring worldwide to address the growing demand for safety and efficacy data in pediatric patients and other special populations. This experience will benefit me in my career as a scientist as I continue to work with a global community of clinicians.

-Jessica L. Murray, PharmD

To start with, I would like to thank ASPET for selecting me as one of the 2018 Young Scientist travel awardees to the 18th World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (WCP2018).  This travel award provided an excellent opportunity for me as a graduate student to present my work to an international scientific community. Also, as I prepare to finish school and embark on my career, I used this opportunity to network with/seek professional advice from different people including well established and renowned scientists within the medical field, fellow graduate students and those who are just getting started with their careers.  I attended several seminars, plenary sessions and symposiums but my favorite one was the plenary session on “Recent Progress in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) Research and Application” by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka. This lecture was not only very enlightening in terms of the role iPSC plays in developing patient-specific therapies but also provided breadth of knowledge on the potential medical applications of iPSC-based research/technology especially in regenerative medicine.  It was such an honor to meet ASPET’s president-elect, Dr. Edward Morgan.

-Angelique Nyinawabera

I had the pleasure to travel to Kyoto, Japan thanks to one of the travel awards given by ASPET. During that week, I had the pleasure to meet colleagues, attend interesting talks and present my latest work at the poster session. One of my favorite symposiums was held the very last day of the conference during a very rainy morning where emergency alerts wouldn’t stop going off in people’s phones. The title of the talk was “Biased agonism at G protein-coupled receptors: The promise and the challenges”.  During that session I could learn about new technologies to study biased signaling as well as discuss how it can be improved. In addition, I was able to do some sight-seeing and enjoy the beautiful city of Kyoto, eat amazing food and meet very friendly locals.

-Marta Sanchez Soto, PhD

Attending WCP2018, as a graduate student, will be cherished by me lifelong. It was only because of the graduate student travel award from APSET that made it possible for me to travel all the way to Kyoto (Japan), to be a part of this unique meeting. Presenting my research on an international platform was an incredible experience as I got to talk to professors and peers from across the globe. I was also thrilled to be at the WCP2018 as I got the rare opportunity to listen to talks from Nobel laureates and several other renowned scientists. Kyoto felt like home because of friends from ASPET as well as other international graduate students that I met there. Not only is the meeting an unforgettable experience but the beautiful Kyoto and the welcoming and extremely helpful people will remain in my heart for a long time.

-Priyanka Swami

This year I was fortunate to be supported by an ASPET trainee travel award to attend WCP2018 in Kyoto, Japan. This was an exceptional meeting during which I had the opportunity to deliver an oral presentation on my thesis work, hear from many exceptional presenters, and network with other labs from around the world. I was amazed at how many incredible presentations I could attend during the conference. The opportunity to hear the latest findings from some of my personal science heroes in the plenary sessions and award lectures was incredible. I incorrectly surmised that a conference of this size would make it difficult to network and connect with new people – in fact this was exactly opposite my experience! I made new friends from labs around the world and even managed to discuss potential collaborations and post-doctoral fellowships. ASPET’s support was key to my attendance so I cannot say thank you enough for this opportunity!

-Pierre Thibeault

I am very thankful to have been selected as an ASPET travel award recipient. Without this award, I definitely would not have been able to attend and present at WCP2018. This conference was great! I learned so much, and I met great scientists, including the other fellow travel awardees. My research focus is on the development of more efficacious therapies for treatment-resistant epilepsy. As such, the most appreciated sessions at WCP2018 were the sessions on behavioral abnormalities, such as depression and autism, as these are often comorbid with epilepsy. I found these sessions incredibly valuable. I introduced myself to one of the speakers of a session, and it turns out that she is a former postdoc of the current Chair of my department! It was great to be able to discuss with her some of my ideas. I left this conference inspired and ready to tackle more research ideas!

-Jennifer Wong, PhD