At the Other Site

Speakers

Nigel Birdsall, PhD

National Institute for Medical Research, UK
email | web site | publications

Nigel Birdsall is program leader in the division of physical biochemistry at the National Institute for Medical Research and is an honorary reader in pharmacology at University College, London.

Birdsall received his graduate and postgraduate degrees from Cambridge University. After postdoctoral research on the chemical mechanisms of carcinogenesis at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York, he returned to Cambridge to work at the new MRC Molecular Pharmacology Unit. There he investigated the structure of lipids and lipid-protein interactions in membranes, primarily using NMR techniques. He then relocated to the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill and began to investigate the detailed binding and functional properties of G protein-coupled receptors, especially muscarinic acetylcholine receptors.

Jean-Philippe Pin, PhD

Institut de Genomique Fonctionnelle
email | web site | publications

Jean-Philippe Pin is the research director of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) as well as the head of the molecular pharmacology department at the Institute of Functional Genomics. His research efforts are focused on the activation mechanism of class C GPCRs, mostly mGlu and GABAB receptors, and on their regulation by intracellular proteins.

Pin received his PhD in molecular biology from the University of Science and Technology in Montpellier, France, while working in a CNRS unit. He was part of the team that discovered the metabotropic glutamate receptors. He then participated in the demonstration of synergism between various glutamate receptor subtypes for the activation of phospholipase A2. In 1990 he worked on identifying new mGlu receptor splice variants at the Salk Institute. He went on to set up a research team working on the structure function relationship of mGlu receptors within a CNRS laboratory headed by J. Bockaert in Montpellier. Among other important findings, he demonstrated mGlu receptor constitutive activity can be regulated by intracellular proteins.

Thomas P. Sakmar, MD

The Rockefeller University
email | web site | publications

Thomas Sakmar is Richard M. and Isabel P. Furlaud Professor at the Rockefeller University. He and members of his lab study the vertebrate visual proteins rhodopsin and transducin as a model system for structure-function studies of the molecular mechanism of transmembrane signaling. He is also interested in identifying specific domains of rhodopsin and transducin that interact during signal transduction, and in the actions of other G protein-coupled receptors.

Sakmar earned his MD degree at the University of Chicago before completing a medical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of H. Gobind Khorana in the departments of chemistry and biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Stuart C. Sealfon, MD

Mount Sinai School of Medicine
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Stuart Sealfon is the Saunders Family Professor of Neurology and a professor of neurobiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology at Mount Sinai School of Medecine. He is the director of research in the department of neurology; he also codirects the interdepartmental Center for Translational Systems Biology.

Sealfon received his medical degree from Columbia University and completed his medical and neurology residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital. After a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular neuroendocrinology at Mount Sinai, he remained as a faculty member. His laboratory studies the mechanisms underlying the decoding of extracellular stimuli to generate specific cellular responses in specific endocrine, neural, and immune experimental systems. Principal areas of study include the signaling mechanisms underlying the biosynthetic responses in the gonadotrope modulated by the GnRH receptor, the mechanism of action of serotonergic hallucinogens in cortical neurons, and viral stimulus decoding by dendritic immune cells.

Kenneth A. Jacobson, PhD

National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases, NIH
email | web site | publications

Kenneth Jacobson is chief of the molecular recognition section of the laboratory of bioorganic chemistry at NIH and director of the Chemical Biology Core Facility, both at NIDDK, National Institutes of Health. As a medicinal chemist, Jacobson investigates the structure and pharmacology of G protein-coupled receptors; he has a particular interest in receptors for adenosine and purine and pyrimidine nucleotides. Three agents developed in the Jacobson lab have entered clinical trials for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and cystic fibrosis.

Jacobson received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego in 1981. He was a Bantrell Fellow at Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel for two years. He received numerous awards, such as the premier international award of the Purine Club in 1996, the Roon Award at Scripps Research Institute in 2001, and the Hillebrand Prize of the Chemical Society of Washington in 2003. Jacobson has also served as chair of the medicinal chemistry division of ACS and as consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. He has authored or coauthored over 400 publications, has been an editor for three books on the pharmacology nucleosides and nucleotides, and is listed as inventor on 43 patents.

Christian C. Felder, PhD

Eli Lilly
email | publications

Christian Felder studies the mechanisms through which the muscarinic and cannabinoid classes of G protein-coupled receptors operate. He received his PhD in biochemistry from Georgetown University before joining Julius Axelrod's lab at the National Institute of Mental Health as a staff fellow in 1987. He became a senior staff fellow in 1990, and later served as chief of the unit on cellular and molecular signaling. Felder joined Eli Lilly & Company in 1998, and is currently director of neuroscience research in the company’s neuroscience division.

P. Jeffrey Conn, PhD

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
email | web site | publications

Jeffrey Conn recently moved to Vanderbilt University to start a new program in translational neuropharmacology, the primary mission of which is to promote translation of advances in basic science to novel therapeutics agents. Conn also serves as director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Chemical Biology Program in Drug Discovery.

Conn received his PhD in pharmacology in 1986 from Vanderbilt University and pursued postdoctoral studies in the department of pharmacology at Yale University, where he focused his on the roles of G protein-coupled receptors and second messenger systems in regulating neuronal function. Conn went on to join the faculty of the department of pharmacology at Emory University; he rose to the rank of full professor and established himself as a leader in the field of metabotropic glutamate receptors and neuromodulation in mammalian brain. In 2000, Conn moved to Merck and Company to assume the position of senior director of neuroscience and head of the department of neuroscience at Merck's site in West Point, Pennsylvania.

Adele Lubell

Adele Lubell had a career as a science writer and over 25 publications to her credit when she started doctoral studies in cell and molecular biology in 1993 at St. John's University in New York City. She was awarded the doctorate in 1998 for her work on the signaling pathways of diabetes. She currently consults on various writing and science projects for industry and the media.