Meet the Experts Transporter Conference Seoul 2019

BROWN Colin, PhD

Biography

Dr Colin Brown was awarded a B.Sc and Ph.D in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of St Andrews Scotland. He then was a Royal Society European Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, followed by a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Manchester.  Until recently, Colin was an Associate Professor at the University of  Newcastle where he focussed on developing in vitro models to study drug transport, drug interactions and toxicity in  kidney, developing  the aProximate in vitro PTC model.  In 2018, Dr Brown joined  Newcells Biotech as Director of ADMET Technologies. 

FONSI Massimiliano, PhD

Biography

Dr. Fonsi is currently responsible of the DMPK department at Citoxlab, a Charles River company, with a role that is both managerial and scientific. He has more than twenty years’ experiences in drug discovery and development and particularly in the field of drug metabolism and metabolism mediated toxicity and DDI. Before joining Citoxlab, he worked at Merck MSD, UCB, Addex, where he has actively participated in the discovery of Zolinza, Isentress, Niraparib, Grazoprevir and other candidate drugs currently in clinical phase. His area of competence covers both discovery and regulatory ADME, including toxicokinetics.  Dr. Fonsi is actively involved, in collaboration with academia and biotech companies, in developing new in vitro ADMET models (essentially for hepatotoxicity and thyroid toxicity via (secondary) hepatic enzyme modulation) for the determination of likelihood of human adverse outcomes using complementary in vitro and in silico models for interspecies extrapolation. Dr. Fonsi has been member of the scientific committee of the French “Groupe de Métabolisme et Pharmacocinétique” (GMP) congress in the recent past. Starting from 2019 he is also member of the steering board of the GMP organization.

LEE Wooin, PhD

Biography

Wooin Lee obtained her PhD degree at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University at Buffalo, SUNY in the USA. She did her postdoctoral training at the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. After that, she joined the research faculty working closely with clinical oncologists and the early drug development team at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. She was an Assistant and Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky. In 2014, she moved back to South Korea and is currently an Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University. Her research interest lies in understanding the genetic, epigenetic and molecular bases for variable drug response and drug interactions with a focus on membrane transporters and developing novel anticancer drugs targeting the proteasomes and their delivery strategies to achieve desirable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles. She has also been pursuing research in pharmacokinetic modeling and simulation using preclinical and clinical data. She has authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications. 

NAKANISHI Takeo, PhD

Biography

Dr. Takeo Nakanishi has more than 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutics. He received his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from Kanazawa University, and later had post-doc terms in Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA and Greenebaum Cancer Center, the University of Maryland at Baltimore, MD, USA. He currently appointed to a professor in Faculty of Pharmacy, Takasaki University of Health and Welfare. In his academic career, he has focused on 1) MDR transporters, in particular, ABCG2, in cancer cells, and 2) molecular biology of physiologically important transporters. For the past decade, he has been working in Kanazawa University to understand the pathophysiological significance of solute carriers for amino acids, urate, steroid hormones, and prostaglandins. Research on unappreciated roles of these carriers may hold much promise for new approaches in developing effective therapies for refractory diseases related to cancer and chronic inflammation.   

SAHI Jasminder, PhD

Biography

Jasminder Sahi obtained a Ph.D. degree (Pharmacognosy, 1991) from Panjab University, India and then participated in a post-doctoral program in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois at Chicago.  She started her career in the Pharmaceutical Industry in the Department of Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism (Parke Davis R&D), which was subsequently acquired by Pfizer Global Research and Development.  In 2006, she joined a new venture (CellzDirect) as the Vice President R&D.  In 2012 she moved to Shanghai China, as Head of DMPK for GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development and in 2015 made the transition to Sanofi R&D leading the DMPK efforts in the Asia Pacific region.   Jasminder’s research focus is on transporters and induction of drug metabolizing enzymes, using primary hepatocytes. While her initial forays into transporter research involved ion transport to understand CFTR, at Pfizer she changed her focus to xenobiotic transporters, with the goal of improving drug disposition, delivery and safety.   She has worked extensively with hepatic and renal transporters as well as the blood-brain-barrier.  She is an elected member of the ISSX council, a reviewer for six journals and has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications. 

TAMAI Ikumi, PhD

Biography

Education and Professional Experiences;

BS, Kanazawa University 1982, Ph.D; University of Tokyo 1988; Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Chicago and University of Michigan (1989-1991); Professor, Tokyo University of Science (2002-2008); Kanazawa University, Institute of Medical, Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences 2008-present. Head, Venture Business Laboratory, Kanazawa University (2014 – present).

Professional Affiliations:

Japanese Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (JSSX); Academy of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Japan (APSTJ); Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (PSJ); Japanese Society of Gout and Nucleic Acid Metabolism; American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS); American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET); International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX).

Board of Committee:

Committee Member of Food Safety Commission, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (2006 - present); Associate Editor, Biopharmaceutics and Drug Disposition (2009 - present); Editor, Pharmaceutical Research (2017 - present); Councilor, JSSX (2006 – 2013, 2017 - present); Councilor, ISSX (2010 - 2013); Editor in Chief, Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) (2010 - 2013); Associate Editor, Biological Pharmaceutical Bulletin. (2006 - 2008); Editorial Board Member for Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Molecular Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Research and Drug Metabolism and Disposition.

Research of Interest:

Transporters related to Drug-Drug Interaction, Drug-Food Interaction, Drug-induced Toxicity, Regulation of Uric Acid and Prostaglandins, Drug Absorption and Pharmacokinetics.

TERASAKI Tetsuya, PhD

Biography

Dr. Tetsuya Terasaki graduated Kanazawa University in 1977 and received Ph.D. degree from University of Tokyo in 1982. He was appointed Full Professor of Tohoku University in 1996 and the University Distinguished Professor of Tohoku University in 2008. He received the Ebert Prize from American Pharmaceutical Association in 1985, the Meritorious Manuscript Award from American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in 1996 and 2010, together with three Research Achievement Awards. In April 2013, he received the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, bestowed by the Government of Japan to the most highly honored scientists. His major research interests are the molecular pharmacology of blood-brain barrier function and the pharmacoproteomics. He published extensively in journals, with 309 original research articles and 70 review articles and contributed chapters to over 50 books.

UNADKAT Jashvant, PhD

Biography

Jashvant (Jash) Unadkat, Ph.D. is the Milo Gibaldi Endowed Professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle.   He received his Bachelor degree in Pharmacy (B.Pharm.) from the University of London (1977), his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester (1982) and his postdoctoral training at the University of California at San Francisco (1982-85).  Dr. Unadkat studies the mechanisms of transport and metabolism of drugs, including during pregnancy.  Dr. Unadkat has published more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers.  He is a fellow of AAAS, AAPS, JSSX, and the founding co-chair (1999-2001) of the focus group of AAPS on Drug Transport and Uptake.  Dr. Unadkat received the AAPS Research Achievement Award in 2012.  Dr.  Unadkat created and leads the UW Research Affiliates Program on Transporters (UWRAPT), funded by pharmaceutical companies and UWPKDAP, a NIDA funded Program Project grant (P01) on drug disposition during pregnancy.

ZUO Joan, PhD

Biography

Professor Joan Zuo holds a B. Sc. and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and has had over 20 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics fields. Since she joined the School of Pharmacy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Jan. 2000, Prof. Zuo has secured over 18 million continuous supports from various grant agencies such as University Grant Council, Innovation Technology Foundation, Food and Health Bureau in Hong Kong SAR as PI to support her series investigations on biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics of both western drug molecule and herbal bioactive components. Her research achievements have been applied to areas such as improvement of quality control and delivery of western drugs as well as herbal products, elucidation or even prediction of potential herb/drug interactions in vivo. Prof. Zuo’s research findings in the above fields have generated over 200 original research and conference papers and patents of USA, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia. In Hong Kong, Prof. Zuo is serving in the Pharmacy & Poison’s Board, Pharmacovigilance Committee, TCM Research and Development Committee and Proprietary Traditional Chinese Medicine Registration Committee at the government of Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China. Internationally, Prof. Zuo has served as nomination committee member for International Society of Xenobiotics (ISSX) and is currently the regional editor of European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and editorial board member for  Biopharmaceutics and Drug Dispositions, Xenobiotica, Chinese Medicine and, grant reviewer for China and Macau, and journal reviewer for more than 50 international peer reviewed journals.