The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) Annual Meeting saw remarkable achievements from pharmaceutics students Aurora Authement, Emily Chien and Keiann Simon, who were awarded travel grants and poster awards for their outstanding research presentations.
Authement secured third place in the division for drug metabolism and disposition poster competition with her insightful study, “Increased cortisol exposure raises cannabinoid renal clearance without affecting metabolism in women: implications for pregnancy pharmacokinetics.”
Chien earned second place in the division for drug discovery and development poster competition with her research, titled: “Development of KRAS-Targeting siRNA and Chemotherapy Co-Delivery Chitosan Nanoparticles for Enhanced Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer.”
Simon won first place in the division for drug metabolism and disposition poster competition with her research titled “The Oxidation of Δ9-THC and its Primary Metabolites Show Regiospecificity by Cytochrome P450 Enzymes (CYPs).”
Vicky Sun, a PhD student in pharmaceutics, was selected to present a four-minute abstract at the ASPET Annual Meeting. Her talk, “Impact of Enteroid Culture Methods on Nutrient and Xenobiotic Transporter Expression,” was delivered alongside presentations from three other student trainees. In addition to this prestigious selection, Sun was awarded the 2025 ASPET Annual Meeting Student-Postdoc Travel Award.
Christopher Arian, PhD (‘24) a pharmaceutics alum, was honored with the prestigious James R. Gillette Award. This award is presented annually by the ASPET Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition for the best papers published in the ASPET Journal Drug Metabolism and Disposition.
Arian received the 2024 award in the Pharmacokinetics/Drug Transporters category for his outstanding paper, “Human Enteroid Monolayers: A Novel, Functionally-Stable Model for Investigating Oral Drug Disposition.”
Professor Joanne Wang of the Department of Pharmaceutics was recognized with the ASPET Journals Top Reviewer Award for Molecular Pharmacology. This award was established to honor the top-performing reviewers from the previous 24-month period, based on various metrics. Wang has reviewed the largest number of papers for Molecular Pharmacology this year, totaling 16 reviews. Her balanced and constructive comments have consistently helped authors enhance the quality of their articles. Dr. Wang’s dedication and expertise as an ASPET volunteer manuscript reviewer make her a leader in her field.