Background and Mission | Chapter Bylaws | Officers and Councilors for 2024-2025 | Chapter Annual Meeting | Past Meetings | Past Presidents

Background and Mission 

The formation of the local Midwest affiliate of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) was spearheaded on June 10, 1987 by Dr. William K. Riker, past president of ASPET, Dr. Seymour Ehrenpreis of the Chicago Medical School, Dr. Toshio Narahashi of Northwestern Medical School, and Dr. Israel Hanin of Loyola University Chicago. Key individuals in the Chicago area were then contacted to establish a voluntary executive working group that ultimately organized the first Scientific Day at the University of Chicago on Thursday, May 12, 1988.

Since the first scientific program, annual meetings have been held each spring to foster the goals of ASPET to promote scientific communication among research workers interested in pharmacology. The chapter has consistently met the ASPET requirements of a chapter affiliate throughout its existence by holding a least one annual meeting, maintaining a membership roster of at least 20 ASPET members in good standing.

Officers and Councilors (2024–2025)

• President – James J. O’Donnell, PhD – Associate Professor
  Department of Foundational Sciences and Humanities, Discipline of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Chicago Medical School; Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy; Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, IL
  
  
• Vice President – Marsha Pierce, PhD – Associate Professor
  Department of Pharmacology, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, IL

• Treasurer – Adriana Caballero, PhD – Research Assistant Professor
  Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL
  
  
• Secretary – William Conrad, PhD – Assistant Professor of Chemistry
  Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL
  
  
• Councilor – Brinda Desai Bradaric, PhD - Assistant Professor, Program Director BS in Health Sciences Program
  

  Department of Undergraduate Studies, RUSH University Medical Center, Chicago, IL
  
  

• Councilor – Minoli Perera, PhD – Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Center for Pharmacogenomics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL.
  
  
• Councilor – Cai M. Roberts, PhD – Assistant Professor
  Department of Pharmacology, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, IL
  
  
• Councilor – Mohd Shahid, PhD – Associate Professor of Pharmacology
  

  Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy (COP),
  Department of Graduate Studies, School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS)
  Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, IL
  
  

• Councilor / Past President – Takeshi Shimamura, PhD – Associate Professor
  Department of Surgery, UI Cancer Center, College of Medicine, University Illinois, Chicago, IL
  
  

• Past President – Eric AG Blomme, DVM, PhD – VP and Senior Research Fellow
  Development Biological Sciences, AbbVie Inc., North Chicago, IL

Chapter Annual Meeting

The Great Lakes Chapter's annual meetings have consistently drawn a wide representation of the mid-western pharmacology community. The chapter's 2025 annual meeting on "AI, Big Data, and Beyond: Computational Approaches to Drug Discovery and Pharmacology" will be held on June 13, 2025. For more information, visit 2025 GLC ASPET Annual Meeting.