AAPS DC Meeting

In late October the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS; www.aaps.org) held its 25th Annual meeting at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. Pharmaceutics professors from the Union University School of Pharmacy (Dr. Richard Addo and Dr. Joel Owen) and a second year pharmacy student (Priya Mohan) attended the meeting and benefitted from excellent scientific programming, networking opportunities, and exhibits from many vendors in the pharmaceutical industry. Janet Woodcock, M.D., Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spoke in the opening session. Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and former Director of the Human Genome Project, spoke on the dramatic progress being made in finding genetic causes of disease and the roles that clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics will play in developing this knowledge into approved products, especially for rare diseases. John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., CEO of Eli Lilly and Company spoke on changes in the business environment in the pharmaceutical industry and new models that companies like Eli Lilly are using to succeed in the face of these new challenges. Technical presentations in numerous related disciplines were made throughout the five day meeting.

Priya Mohan attended the Student Chapter Meeting with AAPS President Dr. Philip Meyers and students from other national and international universities. "It was really great and I had an opportunity to talk with them and to learn about the current trends," reported Priya. She also attended the Student Mentoring breakfast, where she had a chance to speak with individuals experienced in the pharmaceutical industry. Questions were addressed regarding the future job market and how students should prepare themselves to be more competitive. She returned from the meeting feeling that "this was a great exposure to the real world."

Dr. Addo and Dr. Owen attended a meeting for faculty advisors of AAPS student chapters. Many ideas were shared regarding activities of various chapters and the support that AAPS is providing to students interested in the fields related to pharmaceutical research.

The Union University Student Chapter of AAPS was officially constituted in December, 2010. During the Fall 2011 semester student members have volunteered at RIFA, a local relief agency, ran a 5K to raise money for the American Cancer Society, and visited the Cancer Research Institute in Henderson, TN. These activities were planned under the excellent leadership of the chapter chairperson, Kate Wilcoxen, a second-year student at Union. On Monday, November 21st, Joga Gobburu, Ph.D., the former Director of Pharmacometrics at the FDA, spoke to students at Union regarding the field of pharmacometrics.

AAPS is an important organization providing pharmacy students educational opportunities related to drug research and development, and many opportunities for service.