Pharmacology and Chemical Biology 2022 Inaugural Town Hall

Semi-Annual Notable News

Fall 2022

The Pharmacology and Chemical Biology (PhCB) Vision is to Extend its Outstanding Discovery Based Research Programs Towards Therapeutic Innovation and Translational Biology

Main PharmChemBio town hall meeting image

Pharmacology and Chemical Biology held its inaugural Town Hall on June 23, 2022. Dr. Haian Fu, Professor and Chair, opened the meeting with a celebration and recognition of the faculty, staff, and students and followed with a brief department overview with a particular focus on the departmental achievements in the previous 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We recognize our essential workers in the labs and how they kept our research projects going throughout COVID-19," said Fu "Their dedication has been remarkable."

To honor and recognize these essential works, Awards were presented to individuals for the Most Outstanding: Instructor (Asheebo Rojas), Postdoctoral Fellow (Peng Teng), Research Specialist (Suneela Ramineni), Administrator (Tanisha Haynes) and Service (Linda Mathis).

The Town Hall meeting also included research and grant funding highlights from each laboratory, and closing remarks by Dr. George Painter, who was honored with the Pioneer Award for Exemplary Contributions and Leadership. Painter is Endowed George R Painter III Distinguished Professor, CEO of DRIVE (Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory) and the director of the Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD).

Profiles of individual Award Winners and each departmental Lab Highlight for 2022 are shown below.

Lab Highlights

The 2022 PhCB Town Hall Highlighted Each Transformative Research Program

Chang Lab

Dingledine-Ganesh-Rojas-Varvel Labs

Ganesh Group

Feng Lab

Emory Chemical Biology Discovery Center (ECBDC)

Fu Lab

Hall Lab

Hepler Lab

Hess Lab

Kukar Lab

Li and Chin Lab

Mao Lab

Morgan Lab

Patgiri Lab

Read Lab

Traynelis Lab

Varvel Lab

Wan Lab

Yuan Lab

PhCB Department Awards

For exceptional research contributions and service to the department Outstanding Instructor Asheebo Rojas, PhD

Asheebo Rojas, PhD, is an Instructor in Ray Dingledine's lab in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology. Dr. Rojas has published three lead-author papers in the past 15 months, all of them reporting exciting advances in understanding the molecular basis of epilepsy, and during this time he has also been actively serving on 4 departmental committees (events planning committee, equipment committee, DEI committee, and a faculty search committee).

For exceptional research contributions and service to the department Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow Peng Teng, PhD

Peng Teng, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Yue Feng's lab in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology. Dr. Teng's groundbreaking research on noncoding RNA's provided the key preliminary data for two R01 grants received by the Feng lab and also have resulted so far in two lead-author papers

For exceptional research contributions and service to the department Outstanding Research Specialist Suneela Ramineni

Suneela Ramineni is a Research Specialist Supervisor in John Hepler's lab in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology. In 2022, Ms. Ramineni celebrated her 20th year in the Hepler lab, during which time she has been co-author on 14 papers and contributed key data to every grant the lab has received, including a substantial grant this past year.

For exceptional contributions and service to the department Above and Beyond Service Award Linda Mathis

Linda Mathis is a Senior Laboratory Assistant in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology. During the COVID-19 pandemic Ms. Mathis was classified as an "essential employee" and thus worked long hours even during the height of the pandemic, providing critically important support to all the department's labs, such as making sure that labs received their deliveries on time and that all glassware was washed and sterilized.

In 2022, Ms. Mathis celebrated her 25^th year at Emory, celebrated with a luncheon in her honor.

For exceptional contributions and service to the department Outstanding Administrator Tanisha D. Haynes

Tanisha Haynes is an Administrative Manager in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology. Ms. Haynes has done exceptional work as the department's daily problem solver, while also overseeing many crucial aspects of the department's recent renovation and providing stellar service on the Emory University Employee Council.

Ms. Haynes has worked in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology for 24 years.

Exemplary Contributions and Leadership Pioneer Award George R. Painter III

George Painter, III, PhD, is Endowed George R Painter III Distinguished Professor in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Director of the Emory Institute for Drug Development and CEO of Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE). He received a Pharmacology and Chemical Biology award for his exemplary contributions and leadership to advance therapeutic innovation including life-saving work in developing critical medicines including molnupiravir, which is now approved globally for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).

Dr. Fu presenting Dr. Painter with award

Major New Grant Awards (2021-present)

Regulation and function of human neural circular RNAs (Feng)

RGS14 Regulation of hormone-sensitive NPT2A-mediated Phosphate Transport (Hepler)

Neuronal mechanisms underlying sex differences in dystonia (Hess)

Molecular and Network Analyses of Lewy Body Dementia Pathogenesis (Chin)

Dysregulation of Multivesicular Body and Exosome Flux in Alzheimer’s Disease (Mao)

NMDAR Mutations & Neuro-developmental Disorder: from Mechanism to Targeted Therapy (Yuan)

Control of Seizure and Migraine Susceptibility by GPR37L1 (Hall)

Resolving the function of Progranulin in lysosomal lipid metabolism and the etiology of Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia (Kukar)

R37: Discovery of small molecule mutant SMAD4-PPI inducers (Mo)

UG3: Optimization of EP2 antagonists for post-seizure cognitive deficits (Ganesh/Dingledine)

Deciphering LKB1-associated immunotherapy resistance in lunch adenocarcinoma (Fu/Ramalingam)

Genetic analysis to determine the functional role of GRID1 (Traynelis)

Closing Remarks by Dr. George Painter

Dr. George Painter closed out the Town Hall meeting with a presentation titled, "Towards Accelerated Therapeutic Development". Painter talked about his decades of experience in the discovery and development of pharmaceutical agents for the biotechnology and global pharmaceutical sectors and how that experience intersected with Emory University. Painter thanked members of the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology for their collaboration and support and their integral roles in therapeutic development.

"I look forward to continued work with the department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology and Emory's scientific community," said Painter.

Painter is Endowed George R Painter III Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Director of the Emory Institute for Drug Development, and CEO of Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE).

Painter's life-saving research has been instrumental in developing critical medicines for the treatment of HIV, hepatitis B, smallpox, influenza, coronavirus infections, and most recently the drug molnupiravir, which is now approved globally for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).

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