Ascept

ASCEPT July E-news 2009

In this issue:

ASCEPT 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting
ASCEPT International Travel Award Report - Jennifer Rivera
2009 Science Honours Dinner
ASCEPT Satellite Meeting: 28 - 29 Nov 09, Sydney
The BJCP Young Investigator Prize
News from other organisations
Forthcoming Conferences

July E-Newsletter
of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists

Welcome to the July edition of ASCEPT eNews.

If any would like to contribute any items to eNews, please send it along to Meetings First for consideration.

Roselyn Rose'Meyer
ASCEPT Newsletter Editor

ASCEPT 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting

The 43rd ASCEPT Annual Scientific Meeting will be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, November 29 - December 2, 2009.

The theme of the meeting is the "The Rights of Medicines", with sub-themes of "The Right Drug, The Right Patient, The Right Dose and the Right Result" woven into each of the symposia. Distinguished plenary speakers include Professor Shuh Narumiya, the Japanese Pharmacological Society Lecture, in addition to the Rand Anglo-Australian visitor, Professor Ann Daly and the Rand medallists Professors Phil Beart and Peter Mackenzie.

The program includes the following symposia and workshops.

• ADME/ PK and Development of Biopharmaceuticals and Natural Products
• Teaching Connects Research and Professional Practise
• Size, Maturation and Body Composition
• Drug Discovery for Diseases of the Brain
• Individualising Medicines: Drug Development for Older People sponsored by Faculty of Pharmacy University of Sydney
• Neuromodulatory Systems of the Gut as Drug Targets
• Understanding Drug Drug Interactions
• Protective Actions of cGMP in Cardiovascular Disease
• Translation of Pharmacogenomics into Clinical Practice
• Challenges and opportunities for Academic Drug Discovery and Development
• Debate: Academics don’t discover drugs
• Challenges and Opportunities for Functional Selectivity in Drug Discovery
• Cardiotoxicity of Prescription Drugs

To view the full program, please click here or copy and paste this link http://www.meetingsfirst.com.au/meetings/ASCEPT09/Images/Program.pdf into your web browser

Abstract submission deadline for poster and free communications is September 1, 2009
Early Bird Registration deadline October 20, 2009

Join us for the conference dinner, which will be Harbourside, at Casa di Nico, Tuesday 1st December

Abstracts and Registrations are now open please click here to register online or copy and paste this link http://www.meetingsfirst.com.au/login.asp into your web browser. You will require a password to log into the Meetings First website, if you have forgotten your PIN please contact Meetings First on 61 3 9739 7697 or ascept@meetingsfirst.com.au

Alternatively, you can register via paper form, please click here to download the paper form or copy and paste this link http://www.meetingsfirst.com.au/meetings/ASCEPT09/Images/ASCEPT09Regform.pdf into your browser.

Supervisors – ASCEPT offers travel support to student members- as well as student awards !
Make sure your students are eligible for these benefits by encouraging them to join ASCEPT

ASCEPT affiliated meetings

Drug Development of Diseases of the Brain Symposium
November 27-28, 2009 (prior to the ASCEPT Meeting)
Brain and Mind Institute, Camperdown
Further information: M.Kassiou@usyd.edu.au

Neuro and Molecular Pharmacology of Amino Acid Transmitters Symposium
November 28-29 (prior to the ASCEPT meeting)
University of Sydney

This Symposium will celebrate the contributions of Professor Graham Johnston to pharmacology.

Further information: phil.beart@florey.edu.au or maryc@pharm.usyd.edu.au

ASCEPT International Travel Award Report - Jennifer Rivera

I would firstly like to take this opportunity to thank the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT) for providing me with an International Travel Award. Their financial support has allowed me to attend the Experimental Biology 2009 conference in New Orleans, Louisiana USA and to visit Professor Caroline Genco and her laboratory at the University of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

The Experimental Biology conference, held between the 18th-22nd of April, is a broad meeting that encompasses a number of societies of various disciplines such as Pharmacology, Anatomy and Physiology. It was exciting to participate in such a large conference that consistently attracts well renowned scientists. In particular, a number of seminar presentations were presented by highly regarded experts from the cardiovascular field. Some of the sessions I attended covered various aspects of cardiovascular disease including the role of immune cells and inflammation in atherosclerosis and modulation of endothelial function by NADPH oxidase.

One presentation I found particularly interesting was by Professor Linda Curtiss titled ‘Toll-like receptors in atherosclerosis.’ Professor Curtiss presented a study which utilised bone marrow transplantation in Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) deficient mice to determine if the pro-atherogenic effects mediated by TLR2 were derived from immune cells or vascular cells. Interestingly, her findings demonstrate that the cell type involved is dependent on the source of the TLR2 agonist. TLR2 responses to exogenous agonists were shown to be mediated by immune cells while endogenous TLR2 agonists (e.g. oxidised LDL) induced pro-atherogenic responses that were derived from vascular cells.

In addition to the scientific sessions, the conference also held career development workshops that gave advice covering both the academic or industry pathways. One memorable seminar was ‘Fundamentals for managing the postdoctoral experience’ by the entertaining Howard G Adams, a well known author and motivational keynote speaker.

On the last day of the conference, I presented my poster titled ‘C.pneumoniae activates NADPH oxidase in vascular smooth muscle cells’ and I was pleased it gained some interest during the poster session.

On the 30th of April I went to the University of Boston where I visited the laboratory of Professor Genco, an expert in the field of bacteria and atherosclerosis. Professor Genco’s group have successfully shown that the periodontal bacterium P.gingivalis accelerates atherosclerosis and that TLR2 plays an important role in atherogenesis. It was a privilege to be given the opportunity to present some of my findings to her research group. My talk was well received and from this I was able to gain some invaluable feedback and ideas which I could utilise in my PhD studies. Dr Frank Gibson, a close collaborator of Professor Genco took the time to show and discuss his data concerning H.pylori infection and atherosclerosis which I found interesting and insightful as they were comparable to my own findings.

I would like to thank ASCEPT again for the International Travel Award. This trip was a rewarding experience and would not have been possible without their generous assistance. Thank you!

2009 Science Honours Dinner

The Royal Society of New Zealand has established the Science Honours Dinner as an annual prestigious event, celebrating excellence across all fields of science and technology.

We are now planning the 2009 event, which will be held at the Auckland Museum on 18 November.

Any organisation wishing to be considered to present an award at the evening must register interest by emailing Gill Sutherland (gill.sutherland@royalsociety.org.nz) by Friday 31 July at the latest.

It is not possible to present more than 15 awards during the evening and only one medal per organisation will be selected. Given the prestige of the Dinner, it is appropriate that this medal should be the most senior in any organisation's suite of awards. As a new group of medals is selected by the Royal Society each year, it is essential that you register your interest for the 2009 event. Once the list has been chosen, we will not be able to add any additional awards into the programme for the evening.

Again this year, the celebration will be a black-tie/business suit event with media coverage invited. Each organisation will be responsible for its own recipient's and presenter's dinner ticket, travel and accommodation costs, while the Royal Society will cover all venue costs.

The key dates for 2009

31 July: Closing date for expressions of interest to be included on award list
14 August: Announcement of award list
31 October: Closing date for submission of citations and photographs for list awards
18 November: Science Honours Dinner, Auckland Museum

Gill Sutherland
Manager, Corporate Affairs

ASCEPT Satellite Meeting: 28 - 29 Nov 09, Sydney

MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY OF AMINO ACID TRANSMITTERS: FROM CRYPTIC TO CONTEMPORARY DRUG TARGETS

November 28th & 29th, 2009
University of Sydney

This event will honour the contributions to Australian and international pharmacology by Professor Graham Johnston AM. Graham’s work has been instrumental in taking amino acid pharmacology from its infancy to a scenario where it is now a major area of activity for the international pharmaceutical industry.

Two distinguished international neuropharmacologists, David Lodge (University of Bristol, ex-Eli Lilly) and Bjarke Ebert (Lundbeck, Denmark), will speak on the neuropharmacology of L-glutamate and GABA, respectively.

Various local scientists will make contributions covering relevant areas of neuroscience, pharmacology, drug development and medicinal chemistry.

Information will be available shortly at www.ascept.org or contact Phil Beart (03-8344-1955, philip.beart@florey.edu.au) or Mary Collins (02-9351-8584, maryc@pharm.usyd.edu.au).

The BJCP Young Investigator Prize

The British Pharmacological Society (BPS) will award an annual prize of £1000, a certificate and 1-year honorary BPS membership for the best paper by a trainee published in the print version of BJCP during a calendar year. Those eligible will be clinical trainees (of whatever specialty), or basic scientists in training registered for a PhD (or equivalent).

On acceptance of a manuscript the authors will automatically, as part of the Manuscript Central system, be sent a reminder about the BJCP prize and will be invited to fill in an application form, giving information about the provenance of the work and the precise role played by the potential award-winner. The judges will be the editors of the Journal, but they may call for expert assistance in making their decision, which will be final.

Andrew Somogyi (BJCP- Australasian Editor)

News from other organisations

Please click on the relevant links for any news from other organisations that may be of interest to ASCEPT members.

National Prescribing Service
Member update: June 2009

Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS)
Inhibitors of research collaboration (22 June 2009)

Royal Society of New Zealand
Alert 579: 9 July 2009

BPS Pharmacology Matters e-Bulletin
July 2009

IUPHAR News

"Pharmacology International" newsletter release
24 June 2009

IUPHAR Database Announcement
The Curators of the IUPHAR Database are pleased to announce the introduction of ion channels data to its mammalian receptor database. For access to the entire receptor database visit http://www.iuphar-db.org/. It’s free to the public as a service of IUPHAR.

Forthcoming Conferences

ASMR National Scientific Conference 2009: Neurogenetics on the Apple Isle
15 – 17 July 2009
Hobart, Tasmania

Roselyn Rose'Meyer
ASCEPT Newsletter Editor