James Barrett, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology and founding director of the Drug Discovery and Development Program at Drexel University College of Medicine and founding director of the Clinical and Translational Research Institute at Drexel University has been elected to serve as councilor on the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) executive committee.
Dr. Barrett 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 (USUHS) where he was professor in the Department of Psychiatry. Between academic positions, he held senior level positions for approximately 15 years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology area for companies such as Wyeth, Adolor Corporation, and Memory Pharmaceuticals.
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.
An ASPET member since 1978, Barrett served as ASPET president, chair of the Board of Publications Trustees, and as well as president of the Behavioral Pharmacology division of the society.
Dr. Barrett has served on the Board of Directors for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), 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 joined the board as 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's current research emphasis is in the area of pain, its co-morbid pathologies, and on basic mechanisms and new therapeutics.