Welcome Message from TCP Chair, Dr. Felix Kim

Dear TCP members,

I hope that 2021 is off to a great start for you. While the pandemic has presented challenges for all of us, I am impressed by the dedication and positivity of the TCP community through the unprecedented difficulties of 2020. And I am proud of how my colleagues in the TCP Executive Committee have worked over the past year to build and improve our division.

In 2020, the TCP Executive Committee reorganized and streamlined our activities through three working groups/sub-committees: Awards (Co-chaired by Dr. Adam Lauver and myself), Programming (Co-chaired by Drs. Reheman Adili and Ross Corriden), and Communications (Chaired by Dr. Brandi Wynne). The Executive Committee now comprises 10 full members along with a new postdoctoral representative (Dr. Mohamed Ghonim), and we have recruited 7talented and enthusiastic new junior members to work with our leadership in these sub-committees (Drs. Deborah Luessen, Jia Nong, Robert Helsley, Shankar Munusamy, Christian Fernandez, Katharine Williams, and Michelle Nie).

Of note among our efforts, we have implemented a plan to replenish and rebuild the Ray Fuller Fund - the fund that was started to support the biennial Ray Fuller Lecture - over the next several years so that it will ultimately be a self-sustaining endowment. Our plan and strategy to accomplish this goal was endorsed by ASPET Council in late 2020. We believe that this is crucial to maintaining and growing the prominence of the Ray Fuller Lecture, both for ASPET as well as TCP.  

Connecting and supporting each other has never been more important. Please continue to communicate and collaborate with one another, and please do not hesitate to contact us. Let us know by email or via ASPETConnect whenever you have any questions, suggestions, announcement of accomplishments or other news, or would like to start any discussions, scientific or other. Best wishes for a safe, healthy, productive, and successful 2021. On behalf of your Executive Committee, we thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you at virtual EB 2021!

Sincerely,
Felix Kim, PhD
Chair, Translational & Clinical Pharmacology Division of ASPET

2020 TCP Awards/Spotlights

FASPET

Fellow of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (FASPET) is an honor bestowed to their most distinguished members in recognition of their meritorious efforts to advance pharmacology, through their scientific achievements, mentorship, and service to the Society. Dr. Scott Waldman, a TCP Division member, was inducted into FASPET in 2020.

Scott Waldman obtained his PhD degree from Thomas Jefferson University, and his MD degree from Stanford University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia and Stanford University in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology. He is the Samuel MV Hamilton Professor of Medicine, Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program of the Kimmel Cancer Center, and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics of Thomas Jefferson University.

He has authored more than 100 patents and patent applications and has established three biotechnology companies with diagnostic and therapeutic assets in clinical development. Dr. Waldman’s research, focusing on the development of novel diagnostic, prevention, and therapeutic strategies for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies, obesity, and neurodegenerative diseases, has yielded more than more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and $50M in research funding. Moreover, he has an abiding commitment to the development of the next generation of translational investigators. Thus, he is the founding director of the institutional programs for bench-to-bedside research training, including the MD-PhD Program, the NIH-sponsored Postdoctoral Training Program in Clinical Pharmacology, and the Master’s Program in Human Investigation. In that context, he has had the privilege of mentoring more than 40 postdoctoral fellows and more than 30 doctoral candidates in his laboratory.

Early Career Awards

The TCP Division would also like to recognize two outstanding early career scientists, Drs. Raghu Ganugula and Adam E. Snook, for their accomplishments in 2021. These prestigious awards will be presented during the ASPET Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2021 on Friday, April 30 where they both will host lectures on their research.

Dr. Raghu Ganugula is currently a research assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy at Texas A&M University and is starting his own laboratory at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in early 2021. After earning his PhD from Acharya Nagarjuna University in India, Dr. Ganugula completed his postdoctoral training at both the National Institute of Nutrition in India and at Texas A&M University. Dr. Ganugula’s expertise includes in vitro and in vivo pharmacology testing of novel bioactives and dosage forms.

He has developed various biochemical and cell-based functional assays and has used various in vivo models to further test the efficacy of the bioactives or their dosage forms, e.g., diabetes, retinopathy, cataract, nephropathy, lupus, cancer, obesity.

Dr. Adam E. Snook is an assistant professor in the department of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. He received his PhD in immunology and microbial pathogenesis from Thomas Jefferson University where he continued on to complete his postdoctoral training. He is receiving this award in recognition for his work in defining the events underlying colorectal cancer development to identify new strategies to prevent or treat gastrointestinal cancers across the tumorigenesis continuum.

Dr. Snook’s work has led to 7 investigator-initiated clinical trials examining chemoprevention, cancer vaccines, and, in the near future, CAR-T cell therapies. In addition to authoring over 80 research articles and book chapters, his work has also been featured in Nature, Forbes, Reuters, The New York Times, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.

For more details on past recipients of the TCP Early Career Award, please visit the TCP webpage. Additionally, our upcoming March Newsletter will feature the 2021 Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Ray Fuller Awardee, Dr. Michael J. Brownstein!

Upcoming TCP Announcements and Events

Call for TCP Accomplishments!

Let us feature the work and accomplishments of you and your team in the TCP Division newsletter! Each newsletter, we will be highlighting exciting new research from TCP Division members and their trainees. Please send Mohamed Ghonim a 1-2 sentence description of your research along with the link to the paper or accomplishment that you would like to be featured in the newsletter and on TCP Division social media platforms.

Upcoming Events

ASPET Annual Meeting at EB 2021: Last Chance Abstract submissions due by February 4, 2021

The annual ASPET meeting at EB 2021 will be held digitally! It’s not too late to share your work! Be sure to get your last-chance abstract submissions in by February 4th. We are looking forward to seeing all the exciting new work from the society and TCP Division members!

ASPET Annual Meeting at EB 2021: Tuesday, April 27 – Friday, April 30, 2021

We look forward to seeing all of the new and exciting work from TCP Division members and trainees and the upcoming virtually hosted, ASPET Annual Meeting at EB 2021!

Virtual GPCR Colloquium: May 10-11, 2021

This virtual GPCR Colloquium which will be held 2 weeks after the EB 2021 virtual meeting. This meeting is co-sponsored by ASPET, APS and ASBMB and features a stellar speaker lineup, including Nobel Laureate Brian Kobilka. For more details, visit the GPCR page.