International Narcotics Research Conference
The International Narcotics Research Conference (INRC) brought scientists from around the world to Bath in July with over 200 attendees participating in oral and poster presentations concerning aspects of opioid research ranging from genetic and molecular to in vivo studies. The event ran during 11–14 July and it was the first time the Society had hosted the INRC conference. The feedback from the event was resoundingly positive and we are delighted to have been part of such a successful event.
Pharmacological aspects of microvascular cell-cell signalling and CVS disease
There has been a dramatic increase in the understanding of cell signalling over the last five years, with key papers indicating the importance of endothelial cell projections as signalling microdomains, which appear subject to disruption by cardiovascular disease. This focused meeting provided a forum for over 70 pharmacologists and physiologists to come together to discuss vascular biology, with a particular interest in identifying novel therapeutic targets in endothelial cell dysfunction. The meeting was held at Magdalen College in Oxford on 21-22 September, and was organised by Professor Chris Garland, Co-Chair of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Affinity Group. By all accounts the meeting as a great success so many thanks to everyone involved.
Pharmacology 2016
It is just a few weeks until our annual meeting Pharmacology 2016. There was a fantastic response to the call for abstracts with 450 submissions received, an 8% increase on submissions for 2015. If you have yet to register please do so as soon as possible.
It is exciting to announce some changes and additions to Pharmacology this year. As many of you will be aware, the Society is marking its 85th anniversary in 2016 and has lots of reasons to celebrate. To mark this milestone, the Young Pharmacologists Advisory Group will be hosting an extra special reception to welcome participants at all stages of their career attending Pharmacology 2016.
The ticketed Welcome Reception will take place on Tuesday 13 December from 18:45–21:45 at the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square (a 15-minute walk from Pharmacology 2016). The Society is delighted to have such an iconic venue for the Welcome Reception: this prestigious art gallery is a well-known landmark and will give members access to one of the greatest collections of paintings in the world while they enjoy refreshments.
In addition, we will be hosting three Career Bootcamp sessions aimed at students and early career researchers. Each Bootcamp will be an hour long and we will have one each delivered by the Industry, Publications and Education & Training Committees. The titles for these are as follows:
• Industry Career Bootcamp: Opportunities for young pharmacologists at the interface between
academia and industry – insights from careers in small, medium and large companies,
Tuesday 13 December 9:00–10:00
• Education Career Bootcamp: Developing innovative practice, sharing approaches to teaching
challenging areas of the core curriculum, recognition for teaching excellence and tips for promotion
based on teaching and scholarship, Wednesday 14 December 08:00–09:00
• Publications Career Bootcamp: Understanding the publishing process. An opportunity to share
experiences around publishing research, including advice and tips from the British Pharmacological
Society journals’ Editors in-Chief on best practice, how to submit, handling reviewer feedback, and
meeting journal and funder requirements, Thursday 15 December 08:00–09:00
The Society will be hosting three guest societies at this year’s meeting (the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, ASCPT; the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, ASPET; and the Chinese Pharmacological Society, CPS) as well as a special symposium organised by the Biochemical Society. There is certainly more than enough on offer
in the online programme so don’t forget to register – registration closes on Friday 2 December.
ITMAT
For the first time, the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics (ITMAT) Meeting will be held in Europe at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh conference centre on Friday 17 March 2017.
The theme of the meeting is ‘Big Data & the Development of New Medicines’. The organisers look forward to welcoming attendees from the UK and Europe, both early and established researchers, from across science and medicine. The one-day programme will bring together a faculty of internationally-recognised speakers, thanks to support from the British Pharmacological Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Registration and further information on the programme will be announced online in the coming months. In the meantime, please save the date for what promises to be an exciting and engaging meeting.
There has been a marked deceleration in the rate at which new drugs are brought to the clinic and a loss of pharmacological expertise in the UK Industry through site closures. There is increasing evidence against the over-reliance on non-human in vivo models in the drug discovery process and an acceptance that failure in translational power can lead to incorrect dose selection and dangerously unpredictable adverse effects in first-in-man studies.There is a clear need to incorporate quantitative pharmacological approaches and the use of cutting edge in silico prediction in assessing PK/PD properties throughout the drug discovery process. This event, taking place during 24–25 April 2017 will provide attendees with the opportunity to explore these issues in more detail. This focused meeting will be hosted by the Drug Discovery, Development and Evaluation affinity group.
Spanish Pharmacological Society Annual Meeting
The British Pharmacological Society will host three symposia at the Spanish Pharmacological Society’s Annual Meeting, taking place in Barcelona, Spain on 18–21 June 2017. More information will be available soon.
8th European Workshop on Cannabinoid Research
The field of cannabinoid research has been one of most vibrant and active areas of pharmacology and biomedical sciences in the recent years. A search on PubMed using the search term ‘cannabinoid’ returns over 5,000 full published papers in the past five years, and nearly 700 have been published in the British Journal of Pharmacology (since 1999). The discovery of the endocannabinoid system has been a very exciting development and its potential as a therapeutic target across a wide range of diseases and disorders is widely recognized. Moreover, there has been considerable research activity in plant-derived phytocannabinoids as medicines and some recent successes in bringing compounds through clinical trials and into the market (e.g. Sativex®).
The British Pharmacological Society will be hosting the 8th European Workshop on Cannabinoid Research on 31 August–2 September 2017. More information on this event will be available on the Society’s website soon.
Integrated drug discovery: now & future
Biomedical research for several of decades was dominated by specialization in disciplines and reductionism that have produced important advances in drug discovery. Today a more holistic approach is emerging, recognizing and promoting collaborative science, in order to address the complexity of modern day drug research and the pressing societal and economic demands facing drug discovery and development.
It is within this context that the British Pharmacological Society and the Society of Medicine Research (SMR) symposium on “Integrative Biomedical Research: Past, Present and to its Future Future,” aims to engage and inspire the next generation of biomedical scientists in embracing collaborative research across trans-disciplinary methodologies and analytical tools. The event will take place on 5 October 2017 at Charles Darwin House in London. More information on the event and how to register and submit abstracts will be available on the Society’s website in due course.
Meetings in 2018
If you would like to propose and organise a British Pharmacological Society meeting in the future please visit www.bps.ac.uk/propose.
More from Meetings update
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