Invited speakers
Download ASCEPT Symposium speakers biographies here
Download MPGPCR Symposium speakers biographies here
Keynote speakers:
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Prof Daniel Hoyer, PhD, DSc, FBPharmacolS, Chair and Head, Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, The University of Melbourne Honorary Professorial Fellow, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne Adjunct Professor, Department of Chemical Physiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA Hoyer obtained his PhD in 1981 in Strasbourg and a DSc in 1986 (Pharmacology), on the discovery and development of two of the most widely used adrenoceptor radioligands, [125I] cyanopindolol and [125I] HEAT, work performed in collaboration with G. Engel at Sandoz, in Basel, Switzerland. After a post doc at the University of Pennsylvania, Hoyer joined Cardiovascular Research at Sandoz in Basel in 1983. He contributed to the discovery and characterization of new 5-HT (serotonin) receptors. He moved to CNS in 1989, and switched to peptide receptors (1992), largely somatostatin. Hoyer was involved in more basic aspects, such as the genomics of depression and schizophrenia with MPRC (Baltimore) and Scripps & GNF, (La Jolla), and peptide receptor chemistry within a European Consortium. His more recent interests are in Epilepsy, Sleep disorders, RNAi and Epigenetics. Hoyer is/was a member of learned societies, served at the council of the Institut Pasteur and was Director of the British Pharmacological Society. He is currently executive editor of Psychopharmacology, Naunyn Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology, the Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology and Pharmacology & Therapy. Hoyer was a member of the IUPHAR Nomenclature Committee and chaired the somatostatin and 5-HT receptor subcommittees. Hoyer was President of the European Neuropeptide Club and the Serotonin Club, and has been involved in the organisation of various conferences dedicated to Peptide or Serotonin receptors, Nomenclature and Receptor Mechanisms. Hoyer was in the top 10 most cited researchers in Pharmacology (http://www.in-cites.com/scientists/pha-10-aug2003.html) and is an ISI highly cited researcher. Elected Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society in 2005 and nominated Senior Editor of the British Journal of Pharmacology in 2012. In December 2012, Hoyer joined the University of Melbourne. |
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British Pharmacological Society Visitor Dr Anthony P. Davenport, Clinical Pharmacology Unit, University of Cambridge Anthony Davenport is Reader in Cardiovascular Pharmacology, directs the Human Receptor Research Group in the Clinical Pharmacology Unit, University of Cambridge and is Director of Studies in Pre-Clinical Medicine and Pharmacology, St Catharine’s College. He is also co-vice chair of the NC-IUPHAR Committee on Receptor Nomenclature and Drug Classification. His research concentrates on understanding the role of G-protein coupled receptors, together with their transmitters in the human cardiovascular system and how these are altered with disease. A major focus for over two decades has been on endothelin peptides and more recently the apelin signalling pathway and biased agonism. |
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Molecular Pharmacology of GPCRs (MPGPCR) Opening plenary speaker Prof Jonathan Javitch, Columbia University, NY, USA Jonathan A. Javitch obtained his B.S. and M.S. in Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He completed the M.D.-Ph.D. program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where as a graduate student with Solomon Snyder he demonstrated that a key step in the neurotoxicity of MPTP is the uptake of its metabolite MPP+ by the dopamine transporter. Dr. Javitch completed a medical internship and psychiatric residency at the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He did postdoctoral work on the structure of dopamine receptors with Dr. Arthur Karlin at Columbia University. Dr. Javitch is currently the Lieber Professor of Experimental Therapeutics in Psychiatry and Professor of Pharmacology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His research focuses on the structure, function and regulation of G protein-coupled receptors and neurotransmitter transporters. |
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ASCEPT Keynote speaker Prof Edith Sim, Kingston University and Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, UK Edith Sim gained her BSc in Biochemistry from Edinburgh and her DPhil from Oxford. After 2 years in Grenoble she returned to Oxford as a demonstrator before becoming a Wellcome Senior Lecturership in Pharmacology, where she remained for over 20 years becoming Head of Department. She became Dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing at Kingston University in 2011 and is now an Emeritus Professor. She has published widely including the first structure of an N-acetyltransferase protein and has a long standing collaboration with the Australian NAT group. More recently she has worked on enzymes involved in cholesterol metabolism in mycobacteria and on azoreductases. She was awarded the JR Vane Medal of the British Pharmacology Society in 2012. |
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ASCEPT Lecture Prof Patrick Sexton, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University Patrick Sexton is a leading international researcher in the field of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and in particular with respect to allosteric modulation of receptors, ligand-directed signal bias and in the structure/function of Class B GPCRs and accessory proteins. His research crosses industry and academic boundaries through elucidation of fundamental biology and the intersection of this with drug-receptor interactions. He has authored over 200 publications, with major contributions to understanding of the distribution of receptors, the structural interface between peptide ligands and receptors, modulation of receptors by accessory proteins, detection and quantification of small molecule allosteric drug effects and ligand-biased signalling. He is currently theme leader of Drug Discovery Biology at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, a NHMRC Principal Research fellow and 2014 Thomson Reuters highly cited researcher. |
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MPGPCR Keynote Presentation Prof Michael Cowley, Monash Obesity and Diabetes Institute Michael Cowley is the founding director of the Monash Obesity and Diabetes Institute and a physiologist with a focus on obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disorders. He received his science degree from the University of Melbourne, and did his PhD at Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research at Monash Medical Center, before a post-doctoral fellowship at The Vollum Institute in Oregon. He was later an Assistant then Associate Scientist at Oregon National Primate Research Center in the USA. In 2008 he returned to Australia to Monash University. His work has mapped the neural circuits in the brain that sense nutrients and fat, to control appetite and body weight. He has published more than 75 papers and chapters, is the inventor of 85 patents, and the co-founder of Orexigen Therapeutics, a publically listed (NASDAQ: OREX) San Diego biotech company where he served as the Chief Scientific Officer till December 2008. Michael is a Professor of Physiology at Monash University, and a director of an Australian diabetes drug development company, Verva Inc, and a primate contract research company. Michael is a fellow of The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a Veski Innovation Fellow, and in 2009 was awarded The Australian Science Ministers Prize for Australian Life Scientist of the Year. |