Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology

Yuhong Du, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, was named a fellow in the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS). The SLAS Fellow Member Program launched in 2016 to recognize the exceptional contributions of SLAS’s most valued contributors. SLAS Fellow Members represent the epitome of SLAS as a mission-driven organization that focuses on serving life sciences professionals via practitioner-driven knowledge, education and peer-to-peer connections.

Two Pharmacology and Chemical Biology were recognized during the 2025 Emory School of Medicine Researcher Appreciation Day: Yuhong Du, PhD, Associate Professor, and Jae Won Chang, PhD, Assistant Professor. Emory researchers are nominated by their peers and colleagues for their groundbreaking research, development of new technologies, and continued pursuit of novel and innovative ideas.​

​2025 Research Appreciation Day

Congratulations to Pharmacology and Chemical Biology awardees of the Center for New Medicines (CNM) Therapeutic Advancement Awards. ​Emory’s CNM announced the first cohort of therapeutic projects​. The Pharmacology and Chemical Biology recipients are:

Andrey Ivanov, PhD, Assistant Professor
Xiulei Mo, PhD, Assistant Professor
Stephen Traynelis, PhD, Professor
Yong Wan, PhD, Professor

​Emory News Center

Lian Li, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, received the 2025 Emory School of Medicine Mentoring Award. This honor is bestowed upon School of Medicine faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding mentoring and leadership to trainees or early-career faculty. Dr. Li  will be honored during the Celebration of Faculty Eminence Ceremony on October 28, 2025

Our faculty Innovators, George Painter, PhD, Dennis Liotta, PhD, and Christina Gavegnano, PhD ​(Adjunct faculty), are featured in  Emory Magazine - Summer 2025 issue. Congratulations toGeorge, Dennis, and Christina!​

​Emory Magazine

Haian Fu, PhD, Professor and Chair of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, has been selected by his peers as the new President-elect of the Association of Medical School Pharmacology Chairs (AMSPC). This is a great honor that is well deserved.​

​Dr. Fu will begin his service as AMSPC President next summer, June 2026.​

Congratulations to Dr. Tom Kukar, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, for receiving a new grant co-sponsored by the Alzheimer's Disease Drug Discovery foundation (ADDF) and the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) titled:​

"Development of a granulin biologic to treat progranulin deficient Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)".

Congratulations Dr. Mohamed Ishan, Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Renee Read’s Lab, for his recent accolades:

1. American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship
2. Dana Foundation Professional Development Award
3. "Best Oral Presentation by a Postdoctoral Fellow" award at the 2025 Southeastern Brain Tumor Research Meeting, May 2025

The Varvel-Dingledine Labs published a paper, "Brain-invading monocytes promote seizure-associated cognitive deficits and neurodegeneration," in Neuropharmacology. First author is postdoc Soheila Pourkhodadad, PhD.

Drs. Todd Golde and Yong Ran’s technology entitled “Therapeutic strategy to preserve muscle mass during weight loss” was selected as “Innovation of the Year” and honored at the Technology Partnership Forum: Partnering, Technology & Faculty Honors” event organized by Emory University Office of Technology. 

Emory OTT News

Emory Pharmacology and Chemical Biology ranked number 9 ​for NIH Funding by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) 2024. Each year, the BRIMR publishes a ranking of U.S. academic institutions and health care systems based on the research funding they received from NIH the prior year. Congratulations ​to our faculty, staff, and trainees! 

Emory Report News Story

The labs of Drs. Ray Dingledine and Nick Varvel published an article in Science Translational Medicine titled, "Disease modification upon 2 weeks of tofacitinib treatment in a mouse model of chronic epilepsy". This work investigates genetic pathways to address the stubbornly difficult challenge of alleviating epileptic seizures. Using this pathway, they achieved promising reductions through utilizing an existing FDA-approved drug.

The lab of Dr. Yong Wan published articles in Nature Communications and The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 

Nature Communications: "MGAT1-Guided complex N-Glycans on CD73 regulate immune evasion in triple-negative breast cancer," April 15, 2025. 

The Journal of Clinical Investigation: "4-1BB stimulation with concomitant inactivation of adenosine A2B receptors enhances CD8⁺ T cell antitumor response," April 3, 2025.

The lab of Dr. Haian Fu and Xiulei Mo published an article titled, "Uncovering the rewired IAP-JAK regulatory axis as an immune-dependent vulnerability of LKB1-mutant lung cancer," in Nature Communications, February 2025.

Link to full Nature Communications article

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Congratulations to Dionna Williams, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, for being featured on the cover of The Pharmacologist, in honor of Black History Month. Dr. Williams was one of two professors at Emory to recently receive the Presidential Early Career Award, the U.S. government’s highest honor for early-career scientists. She joined ASPET in 2022 and is a member of the Division for Drug Metabolism and Disposition.

“AMSPC President’s Award for Leadership in the field of Pharmacology”​

This award was presented to Haian Fu, PhD, Professor and Chair of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Emory University, by the AMSPC President at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Association of Medical School Pharmacology Chairs. The President’s Award for Leadership was established to recognize a current or retired department chair who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment and accomplishment as a leader in the field of Pharmacology. Awardees are expected to have distinguished themselves in their discipline and have contributed as a leader both within their institution and beyond, particularly in positions that advance the field of Pharmacology.

Congratulations to Dionna Williams, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, for receiving the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which recognizes scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership early in their research careers.​

​The Williams Lab studies how HIV compromises the brain and determines whether combining HIV antiretroviral therapies with drugs of abuse exacerbates brain damage. Additionally, Williams investigates how immunologic and pharmacologic factors affect health disparities.​

​The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers is overseen by a joint commission between federal agencies and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Honorees receive an award package that includes a citation, a plaque and up to five years of funding to advance their research. 

Emory News Center​​

ASPET is pleased to award Haian Fu, PhD, the 2025 Susan Band Horwitz Award Lecture in Cancer Pharmacology. The ASPET Division for Cancer Pharmacology established this award lecture to recognize excellent original research by established investigators in the area of cancer pharmacology. The award is named in honor of Dr. Susan Band Horwitz who is a pioneer in understanding the mechanism of action of cancer chemotherapy drugs many of which have been and remain mainstays of cancer therapy and whose work has changed the nature of cancer treatment. 

Dr. Fu is receiving this award in recognition of his dedication to the field of cancer pharmacology and ASPET, especially his pioneering contributions to targeting protein-protein interactions in cancer.

The award will be presented by the Division for Cancer Pharmacology on April 4, 2025, during the ASPET 2025 Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. Additionally, Dr. Fu has been invited to deliver the award lecture on his work as part of the annual meeting. Congratulations again, Dr. Fu!

Congratulations to Stephen Traynelis, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Emory University, for his 2025 Pharmacia-ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics by ASPET. Another well-deserved national recognition for Steve’s remarkable scientific accomplishments!​​

This award recognizes outstanding research in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, basic laboratory or clinical research that has had, or potentially will have, a major impact on the pharmacological treatment of disease.​​

Dr. Traynelis is receiving this award in recognition of his important discoveries regarding the molecular and functional properties of the glutamate receptors and the development of novel subtype-selective ligands for glutamate receptors that are in clinical development for neurological diseases with high unmet clinical.​