Department of Pharmacology
Overview 2007-2008
Heidi E. Hamm, Ph.D.
Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. Professor of
Pharmacology
Chair, Department of Pharmacology
Pharmacology Faculty
PHARMACOLOGY
Receptors &
Signal
Transduction
Hamm
Sanders-Bush
Conn
Gurevich
Brown
Barnett
Wadzinski
Neuroscience
Blakely
Emeson
Levitt
Gurevich
Shieh
Stanwood
Konradi
Current search
Synaptic
electrophysiologist
Clinical
Pharmacology
Roberts
Brash
Roden
Oates
Brown
Schneider
Knollman
Mundy
Davies
Drug
Discovery
Conn
Forster
Weaver
Lindsley
Future search
DMPK with
Clin Pharm
Structural
Biology
Gurevich
Hamm
Iverson
Spiller
Systems
Biology
Chung
Brown
Hamm
Forster
Pharmacology Recruitment
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2007
2008
Sean Davies
Christine Konradi
Current Recruitment: neuroscience – synaptic electrophysiologist
Targets of opportunity: Jon Schoenecker
Ana Carneiro
Carrie Jones
Future Recruitments:
signal transduction
cancer pharmacology
drug disposition
systems biology
Our New Faculty Recruits
• Sean Davies studies the lipid
products of oxidative stress, the
isoketals
• He is a joint recruit with Clinical
Pharmacology
• He recently received the 2007 NIH
Director’s New Innovator Award
to develop better long-term treatment
strategies for chronic diseases using
probiotic bacteria engineered to produce
therapeutic compounds.
Our New Faculty Recruits
• Christine Konradi is a new Faculty
Member in Pharmacology – she
joined us from the Psychiatry
Department
• She trained in the Univ. of Vienna,
the Univ. of Wurzburg, Univ. of
Medicine and Dentistry of New
Jersey, and the Mass General
Hospital, Harvard Med. School.
• Christine works on the role of psychostimulants in
gene regulation in psychiatric disorders
• She has two R01 grants
How are we doing?
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Reputation
Citations
NIH funding
National Responsibilities & Honors
Leadership roles
We’ve had an incredible year!
Pharmacology Funding
1998 - 2008
Pending ApprovedFY09
Other Funding
NIH Funding to Pharm
35,000,000
30,000,000
25,000,000
20,000,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000
0
1998
#2 1999
#1 2000
#6
2001
#15
2002
#2 2003
#4 2004
#6 2005
#4
2006
2007
2008
2009 est
Pharmacology Funding with
Drug Discovery Highlighted
Drug Discovery Funding
"Pharm Funding"
35,000,000
30,000,000
25,000,000
20,000,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000
0
1998
#2 1999
#1 2000
#6
2001
#15
2002
#2 2003
#4 2004
#6 2005
#4
2006
2007
2008
2009 est
Ratio of $ Awarded to
Development $ Spent
(Average ROI is $8 awarded to every $1 spent in development)
30,000,000
25,000,000
20,000,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000
0
FY01
FY02
FY03
FY04
FY05
FY06
FY07
-5,000,000
Development $ Spent
Awards Growth from Base
FY08
FY09 Est
New Grants
2007-8: Our Faculty Have
Obtained National Grants
and Awards
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Craig Lindsley is PI on a
MLPCN Chemistry Center
Grant for $18M! This is one
of only two in the country.
•
He also has 2 new R01s
National Grants and Awards
• Jeff Conn has received large grants
from the Michael J. Fox Foundation
for Parkinson’s Research and from
Seaside Therapeutics for studies of
Fragile-X Syndrome
• He also has 5 R01 grants
National Grants and Awards
• Randy Blakely received a NIMH Conte
Center grant on Genes Controlling
Assembly and Function of Serotonin
Systems. Participants include Elaine
Sanders-Bush, Pat Levitt, Ron Emeson,
Doug McMahon and Evan Deneris
• Randy also has a R37 MERIT award, a R01
grant, and a PPG on Presynaptic Choline
Transporters, as well as a training grant
National Grants and Awards
• Heidi Hamm is part of a Specialized
Center of Clinically Oriented Research
(SCCOR) on Thrombosis from NHLBI
to study Thrombin Signaling in
Platelets
• She also has 3 R01s
National Grants and Awards
• Alex Brown received a new “Systems
Biology of Infectious Disease” Grant to
study influenza virus interaction with
its host, with Alan Aderem of the
Institute for Systems Biology
• He also received the renewal of the
Lipid MAPS Glue Grant
National Grants and Awards
• Vsevolod Gurevich received a new
grant from NIGMS entitled
“Conformational regulation of
arrestin-mediated signaling”
• He also has two other R01 grants
National Grants and Awards
• Joey Barnett is a part of the Systems-based
Consortium for Organ Design and
Engineering (SysCODE)
• He also has an R01 and an AHA grant, as
well as two training grants
National Grants and Awards
• Brian Wadzinski – renewed his NIGMS R01
grant on protein kinase/PP2A complexes
• He also has another R01 grant
• Eugenia Gurevich received a Michael J. Fox
Foundation Grant
National Grants and Awards
• Tony Forster received a Pilot Grant
from the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center
• He also has an R01 and an ACS
Research Scholar grant
National Grants and Awards
• Tina Iverson received a NARSAD award on
“Allosteric Nucleotide Exchange in G protein
a subunits”
• She also has an R01 grant and a VICB pilot
grant
National Awards
• Randy Blakely – 2008 ASPET Julius
Axelrod Award; 2008 ASPETAstellas Award in Translational
Pharmacology
•Jeff Conn -- PhARMA
Foundation Award for Excellence
in Pharmacology and Toxicology
National Awards
• Dan Roden -- 2008 Rawls
Palmer Award for Progress in
Medicine, American Society for
Clinical Pharmacology and
Therapeutics
•Joey Barnett -- AHA Southeast
Affiliate Science Integration Award
Our Faculty are Distinguished
Leaders Nationally
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MERIT awards: Randy Blakely, Elaine Sanders-Bush,
Jack Roberts
Editor of Molecular Pharmacology, Jeff Conn
Associate Editors of Molecular Pharmacology, Alex
Brown, Randy Blakely, Al George
NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee, Heidi Hamm
HHMI Review Board, Heidi Hamm
President, American Society for Biochemistry &
Molecular Biology Heidi Hamm
Our Faculty are Distinguished
Leaders Nationally, cont’d
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Pat Levitt – NINDS Strategic Plan Committee; Chair, High
Risk/High Impact Program Committee, Autism Speaks
Foundation; NIMH Blue Ribbon Panel on Intramural
Research Programs
Joey Barnett -- co-chair April 2008: Pharmacology Education
for the Next 100 Years, San Diego, CA; Chair, American Heart
Association Greater Southeast Affiliate Research Committee
Alex Brown, Organizer/Chair for FASEB meeting on
Phospholipases, July 2008
Our Faculty are Distinguished
Leaders Nationally, cont’d
• Heidi Hamm -- Member, FASEB Science Policy
Committee Peer Review Subcommittee; Board
Advisor, FASEB Excellence in Science Awards
Committee, 2007-08; Member, AAMC Panel on
Safe and Effective Prescribing Practices
• Jeff Conn: Chair, Division of Neuropharmacology,
ASPET; Scientific advisory board member,
Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad
Institute; Technical Evaluation Panel, NIMH
Program Review
Our Faculty Receive Kudos
at home
• Jeff Conn – named Lee
E. Limbird Professor of
Pharmacology
•Nancy Brown - 2008 Elaine
Sanders-Bush Faculty Award
for Mentoring
Our Faculty Receive Kudos
at Home
• Joey Barnett was elected to
the Vanderbilt Academy for
Excellence in Teaching
Our Faculty are Campus
Leaders
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Randy Blakely - Director, Center for Molecular
Neuroscience, Director, Vanderbilt/NIMH Silvio O. Conte
Center for Neuroscience Research
Pat Levitt – Director, Kennedy Center
Jeff Conn - Director, Program in Drug Discovery,
Director, Program in Translational Neuropharmacology
Dan Roden - Director, Oates Institute of Therapeutic
Discovery, Asst. Vice-Chancellor for Personalized
Medicine, Principal Investigator, Vanderbilt DNA
Database
Jack Roberts – Faculty Senate Vice Chair-Elect
Our Faculty are Campus
Leaders, Continued
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Nancy Brown - Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist
Development, Director, Vanderbilt (K12) Clinical Research Scholars
Program
Heidi Hamm - Internal Advisory Board, Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, CTSA;
Medical Scientist Training Program Faculty Advisory Committee
Ron Emeson – Chair, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee;
University Faculty Senate Academic Programs and Services
Committee
Tina Iverson serves on the Center for Structural Biology Executive
Committee, as well as the Chemical Biology Interface Training Grant
Executive Committee
Gregg Stanwood is Associate Director, Vanderbilt Mouse
Neurobehavioral Core
Study Section Members
• Full Members
Joey Barnett
Randy Blakely
Alex Brown
Chang Chung
Seva Gurevich
Ron Emeson
Craig Lindsley
Christine Konradi
• Ad-hoc Members
Tony Forster
We are Highly Cited
• Vanderbilt ranks # 5 in The MostCited Institutions in Pharmacology &
Toxicology, 1996-2006
A New Faculty Scholarly
Productivity Index
• The index uses only objective criteria to calculate
the scholarly productivity of individual faculty.
• It rates faculty members' scholarly output at nearly
7,300 doctoral programs around the country.
• The index was devised by Lawrence B. Martin,
graduate dean at the State University of New York
at Stony Brook.
• It uses faculty publications, citations, awards and
grants which it obtains from the web.
In 2007, Vanderbilt Pharmacology
Ranks # 6 in the Country
• Use of the objective criteria of faculty
publications, citations, awards and grants
makes clear how strong our faculty are.
• Main difference this year is # of faculty
they found; 100 this year, 45 last year
Goodbye, we’ll miss you…
• Pat Levitt - Director, Vanderbilt
Kennedy Center; will be moving
in June 2009 to become the
Director of the Zilkha
Neurogenetic Institute, Chair of
Cell and Neurobiology
Goodbye, we’ll miss you…
• Lou DeFelice has gone to
Virginia Commonwealth
University to be Director of
Graduate Studies in Physiology
and Biophysics and Assistant
Dean for Graduate Education
Our Challenges
• Managing fast growth – puts stress on faculty,
administration, space
• Funding in a flat NIH environment – faculty need
to be ever more adventuresome about finding
funding; bridge funding is SO appreciated!
• Economic crisis affects us all, individually, the
department, the institution.
Pharmacology Administrative
Headcount
250
14
200
11
11
11
11
150
9
8
214
100
190
194
FY07
FY08
8
163
164
FY05
FY06
138
50
111
92
0
FY02
FY03
FY04
Faculty/Research Staff Count
Admin Headcount
FY09