REPORT OF THE DIVISION FOR NEUROPHARMACOLOGY

OCTOBER 1, 2001 TO APRIL 15, 2002

During the past six months, the Division of Neuropharmacology maintained its high level of activity and followed up on a number of initiatives based on previously established goals.

Annual Meeting Programming:  For the third year in a row we hosted another successful reception at the San Diego meeting of the Society of Neuroscience, which was attended by over 120 members, students and friends.  We did not have a speaker, and focused on the social and networking aspect of the function.  Bud Cline attended and provided information about ASPET as well as applications for membership, in an effort to raise the visibility of ASPET among the neuropharmacologists and behavioral pharmacologists gathered.

Executive Committee: During the Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, the Executive Committee held a lunch meeting and discussed various programmatic and educational topics.   Specific issues that were addressed included:  management of our budget, mechanisms to advertise and promote the Division, efforts to involve more students and post doctoral fellows in the Division’s activities, and other miscellaneous items. 

At that time it was decided to hold a symposium at EB 2002 on “Career Opportunities in Neuropharmacology.”  The symposium will be moderated by Israel Hanin and Steve Holtzman.  Participants will represent a broad array of backgrounds from academia, industry, government, organizations and the private sector.  They are: Kathryn Cunningham (University of Texas, Galveston, TX), Robert Soltis (Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa); Darryle Schoepp (Lilly Research Labs, Indianapolis, IN); Raymond Bartus (Alkermes, Inc., Cambridge, MA); David Sibley (NINDS, NIH, Bethesda, MD); and Christine Carrico (ASPET, Bethesda, MD).

Additionally, we have established a website for the Division of Neuroparmacology (which is discussed more extensively below).

A Student Awards/Poster competition for the April meeting was discussed and planned.  Cynthia Kuhn accepted the responsibility to coordinate this event and to select judges.  We have 19 candidates who will be competing in this event at New Orleans.

We have added a postdoctoral fellow to the executive committee for a two-years term: David A. White (Emory University, Atlanta, GA).  We are considering the possibility of including a graduate student to the executive committee as well; this will be discussed further during EB 2002.

Another key issue that was covered was the solicitation of proposals for the EB/ASPET workshops in 2003.

We received a total of 9 proposals of which five were accepted by ASPET’s program committee for presentation at EB 2003.  They are:

1) “Animal Models of Neuropsychiatric Diseases”, by F.I. Tarazi and G. Berreta (Mailman Research Center, Belmont, MA)

2) “Molecular Substrates of Anxiety: What Have We Learned From GABA-A Receptor Heterogeneity?”, by P. Skolnick, (DOV Pharmaceuticals Inc., N.J.)

3) “Role of GABA-Enhancing Neurosteroids in Neuropharmacology”, by Olsen, (UCLA, CA)

4) “Activation is Hallucinogenic, Antagonism is Therapeutic: Molecular and Cellular Insights Into the Actions of Hallucinogens and Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs at 5HT2A and 5HT2C Serotonin Receptors”, by B.L. Roth (Case Western Reserve, Cleveland, OH) and D.R. Sibley (NIH/NINDS, Bethesda, MD)

5) “Trophic Effects of Estrogen in the Brain: Protection of Memory, Aging, and Neurodenerative Disease”, by C.M. Kuhn and R.D. Schwartz-Bloom (Duke University, Durham, N.C.).

Division Awards:  No awards were designated during this past report period as there were no competitions in the past six months.  We will provide predoctoral “Best Poster” awards at the EB 2002 meeting in New Orleans.  We are also considering the prospect of having a poster competition for postdoctoral fellows as well, in the coming years.

Nomination for Offices: A nominating committee under the guidance of Marie-Francoise Chesselet came up with an impressive slate of candidates for next year.  Election results include Michael Kuhar (Emory University, Atlanta, GA) as Chair-Elect, and George Breese (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC) as Secretary/Treasurer Elect.  Also, P. Jeffrey Conn (Merck, West Point, PA) joined the executive committee as representative of industry, in place of James Barrett, who has moved on to become a member of ASPET Council.

Non-ASPET Meetings Supported/Sponsored by the Division: The division is already planning events for the Neuroscience meeting in 2002.  One aspect will be a co-hosted mixer with the Division of Behavioral Pharmacology; the other is the exploration of the possibility of our Division sponsoring symposia at the Neuroscience meetings.

Web Based Activities:  David Sibley has done a remarkable job of setting up a web page for the Division of Neuropharmacology. It is to be found at http://flapweb.com/neuropharm. You can also access this website via the ASPET homepage, http://www.aspet.org. The site includes news; links for research resources; facility for individual posting of websites; available positions; upcoming meetings; etc.  Of course, the web site is in the process of constant evolution and the building process is fascinating to observe.

Financial Report-Status Report:  I am pleased to report that Expenses in 2001 did not exceed the allocated division funds, and therefore we are well in the black. With the new procedure of providing a budget based on membership numbers, we anticipate that we will be able to stay within our resources within the coming year as well.

Person Preparing Report:  Israel Hanin Ph. D.