EACPT early morning run at 2015 Madrid Congress

The 12th biennial Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (http://eacpt.eu) is underway in Madrid from 27th to 30th June 2015. Over 500 abstracts have been accepted from 66 countries and form all 5 continents for presentation as e-posters and oral presentations. the 54 oral presentations are eligible for an award for the best talk. 

See below a short video and photos of delegates you took part in a 6.30am early morning run during there time in Madrid for the Congress

2015 EACPT Lifetime Award winner Michel Eichelbaum discusses pharmacogenetics at the Madrid Congress

Professor Tabassome Simon with Professor Michel Eichelbaum

The 12th biennial Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (http://eacpt.eu) is underway in Madrid from 27th to 30th June 2015. Over 500 abstracts have been accepted from 66 countries and form all 5 continents for presentation as e-posters and oral presentations. the 54 oral presentations are eligible for an award for the best talk. 

Hear new EACPT chair Professor Tabassome Simon in discussion with 2015 EACPT  Lifetime Award winner Professor Michel Eichelbaum about the importance and some of the challenges of applying pharmacogenetics to clinical practice.




Michel Eichelbaum is one of the most cited pharmacologists in in the world. He has published nearly 500 articles, reviews and book chapters and numerous abstracts, and his work has been cited over 25,000 times by other authors. His primary research interest has been the pharmacogenetics of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporter proteins. He was also one of the pioneers of studying various aspects of the stereochemistry of drugs, the use of stable isotopes in clinical pharmacology and intestinal metabolism and transport of drugs. 

In 1975, he discovered a genetic polymorphism in the oxidation of the antiarrhythmic and oxytocic drug, sparteine, which later became known as CYP2D6 polymorphism. This is considered his single most important scientific discovery. Later, he became involved in research on factors involved in the regulation of drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters with special emphasis on nuclear receptors. This basic research is supplemented by clinical studies in oncology with special emphasis on breast cancer treatment, HIV, psychiatry and organ transplantation in which the consequences of genetic polymorphisms of these proteins for drug effects and toxicity are explored.

He was born in Leipzig on 19 May 1941. He studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg between 1960 and 1966, and he defended his doctoral thesis at this University in 1968. During 1966 to 1968, he was an intern in Internal Medicine, Surgery and Gynaecology and Obstetrics. Between 1968 and1976, he was a resident in Internal Medicine at University Hospitals of Giessen and Bonn. From 1976-1985, he was attending physician and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at the Department of Medicine, University of Bonn.

He is a specialist in both Clinical Pharmacology and in Internal Medicine. From 1985 and 21 years onwards, he was the Director of the Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, Germany. Simultaneously, he was Professor and Chairman of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Tübingen, and in 2001 he became Adjunct Professor at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

During his career, Michel Eichelbaum has obtained several Research Fellowships. During 1970-1971, he worked in the Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology, National Heart and Lung Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA, together with Drs. B.B. Brodie and J.R. Gillette. From 1973-1974, he was working at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, together with Professor Folke Sjöqvist, and from 1995-1996 he was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, University of Adelaide, Australia. Michel Eichelbaum has received numerous awards and honours. This year, he was honoured with the Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award in Therapeutics from the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He is the third European to receive this prize. 

The EACPT was founded 22 years ago and now includes as members all national organisations for clinical pharmacology in Europe, as well as organisations from further afield internationally. The EACPT aims to provide educational and scientific support for the more than 4000 individual professionals interested in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics throughout the European region, with its congresses attended by a global audience. The EACPT also advises policy makers on how the specialty can contribute to human health and wealth.

Trainee Clinical Pharmacologists in Madrid for the 12th EACPT Congress

The 12th biennial Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (http://eacpt.eu) is being held in Madrid from 27th to 30th June 2015. Over 500 abstracts have been accepted from 66 countries and form all 5 continents for presentation as e-posters and oral presentations. the 54 oral presentations are eligible for an award for the best talk. 

At a pre-congress session, Clinical Pharmacologists in training met to discuss professional and training issues and ways in which involvement with the EACPT may be helpful.

Lucio Ghiglione, Alexandra Pelaez Rivas and colleagues

Petru Micliuc and colleagues

Delegates from France, UK, Portugal, Denmark and South Korea

Congress scientific chair Cristina Avendaño discussing the EACPT Madrid conference

Cristina Avendaño

Around 800 delegates are now in Madrid for the  12th biennial Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics which is being held from 27th to 30th June 2015. 

Over 500 abstracts have been accepted from 66 countries from all 5 continents for presentation as e-posters and oral presentations.

In this recording at the start of the Congress, Cristina Avendaño, Chair of the Congress Scientific Committee and Chair of the Spanish Society for Clinical Pharmacology  discusses her hopes for this important international event with EACPT Secretary Donald Singer.

Young Clinical Pharmacologists in Madrid discussing EACPT and career development

The 12th biennial Congress of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (http://eacpt.eu) is being held in Madrid from 27th to 30th June 2015. Over 500 abstracts have been accepted for presentation as e-posters. 54 oral presentations will be eligible for an award for the best talk. In this recording, young clinical pharmacologists from Spain discuss their careers, the EACPT and its latest Congress in Madrid with EACPT Secretary Donald Singer.

Hear on the EACPT YouTube Channel Young Clinical Pharmacologists from Spain and South America discussing the EACPT Congress in Madrid.

 

Announcement of first joint EACPT-EPHAR Young Investigator Awards in Translational Pharmacology

The inaugural EACPT-EPHAR Young Investigator Awards in Translational Pharmacology have been conferred on PhD student Christoph Schneider from Bern in Switzerland and Dr Daniel Antoine from Liverpool in the UK.

The Federation of European Pharmacology Societies (EPHAR) and the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) developed this joint initiative to recognise projects of excellence in translational research in pharmacology. There are 2 awards of EUR 1,000 each that will be given in 2015 to the above two young scientists for their recent outstanding research papers. 

Requirements for the Awards are that applicants must be not more than 35 years of age on the deadline date, have as first author published an outstanding paper in the 2 years prior to the Awards, have conducted the submitted study in an institution of a country member of EACPT and/or EPHAR; and be a member of one of the member societies of EPHAR or EACPT, or be an individual associate member of EACPT.

Christoph Schneider's award was for his paper The human IgG anti-carbohydrate repertoire exhibits a universal architecture and contains specificity for microbial attachment sites, which was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine in January 2015.

A systems biology approach was applied in this study to explore the human repertoire of IgG antibodies for binding 610 different biologically relevant glycan epitopes. Schneider conducted the data analysis using state-of-the-aart bioinformatics involving a range of programs, including the statistical computing graphic software environment “R”. Furthermore, Schneider conducted research involving full access to the consortium of functional glycomics array database as well as the bacterial carbohydrate structure database.

Christoph Schneider

Christoph Schneider's obtained his Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Bern, Switzerland in 2013. Since then, he has been PhD student at the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Bern, in the research-group of Stephan von Gunten (MD, PhD). Christoph Schneider gained previous insights into research as research assistant in Switerland at the ETH in Zurich as well as at Frimorfo AG in Marly. Currently, his research interests cover different fields of glycomics and immunology, such as the protein-carbohydrate interactions of immunoglobulins and of Siglec receptors, expressed on NK- and cytotoxic T cells. His research is based on in vitro techniques involving primary human leukocytes as well as human antibody-preparations and involves different analytical approaches, such as flow cytometry, glycan arrays, confocal microscopy and system level approaches.

Dr Daniel Antoine's award was for his paper Mechanistic Biomarkers Provide Early and
Sensitive Detection of Acetaminophen-Induced Acute Liver Injury at First Presentation to
Hospital published in August 2013 in the journal Hepatology. The main finding of this published study was that a panel of novel biomarkers linked to the mechanism of hepatotoxicity can report acute liver injury very early on in man, before currently
used clinical chemistry markers. This paper builds on his previous translational work in clinical and preclinical studies utilising this biomarker approach to define the mechanistic basis of acetaminophen-induced liver injury and to also predict prognosis. 

Dr Daniel Antoine

Dr  Antoine works in the MRC Centre for Drug Safety Science in the Department of. Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool in the UK. Dr Daniel Antoine is currently a Wellcome Trust funded research fellow at the MRC Centre for Drug Safety Science (CDSS) and lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, UK. Dr Antoine completed his PhD in 2009 in Pharmacology. Prior to his PhD, Dr Antoine completed his B.Sc (Hons) in Biochemistry (first class) and worked in research posts within Molecular Toxicology at AstraZeneca. He undertook postdoctoral training at the CDSS with Prof BK Park and Prof M Pirmohamed as well as Royal Society International Travelling Fellowships at the Harvard Medical School, USA, with Prof JV Bonventre and at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, with Prof U Andersson. Dr Antoine is currently the coordinator of the safety biomarker research group at the CDSS, Liverpool, UK. 

His research is mainly focused on the understanding of fundamental mechanisms related to adverse drug reactions and the prediction of drug toxicity through the development of translational biomarkers of drug-induced liver and kidney injury. He is a member of the DILI (drug-induced liver injury) project team for the SAFE-T (Safer And Evidence based Translation) IMI consortium to develop and qualify safety biomarkers. He also sits on the British Toxicology Society’s (BTS) Education, Training and Early Career Toxicologists Sub-Committee and is the co-chair of the British Pharmacological Society (BPS) Toxicology Affinity Group. In 2014, Dr Antoine was elected to serve as a Councillor for the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) Drug Metabolism and Drug Transport Section Executive Board. 

In 2013, Dr Antoine received the British Toxicology Society’s Early Career Investigator Award and in 2015 received the European New Investigator Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX) and the 2015 Bill Bowman Travelling Lectureship from the British Pharmacological Society. Dr Antoine is an editorial board member for the journals Pharmacology Research & Perspectives and Biomarkers. Dr Antoine’s academic research is currently funded by grants awarded from the European Commission, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, The Royal Society and the pharmaceutical industry.

The  joint EACPT-EPHAR Young Investigator Awards in Translational Pharmacology will be presented at an Awards Ceremony during the 12th EACPT Congress in Madrid - 27th - 30th June 2015 where both award winners will present their research findings.

Update session on biosimilars released by European Medicines Agency

The European Medicines Agency has just released an update on biosimilars - the latest in its series of multimedia briefing sessions. The videos were recorded at a joint briefing session for EMA's Human Scientific Committees' Working Parties with Patients’ and Consumers’ Organisations (PCWP) and Healthcare Professionals’ Organisations (HCPWP).

Sessions include
- an introductory briefing by Professor Sir Kent Woods
- an overview of the science behind biosimilars
- how they are evaluated by regulators
- how to bridge the scientific evaluation with clinical reality
- public acceptability of biosimilars
- promoting better understanding of biosimilars

View the videos: 


The European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) was founded 22 years ago and now includes as members all national organisations for clinical pharmacology in Europe, as well as organisations from further afield internationally. 

The EACPT aims to provide educational and scientific support for the more than 4000 individual professionals interested in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics throughout the European region, with its congresses attended by a global audience. The EACPT also advises policy makers on how the specialty can contribute to human health and wealth.

The 12th biennial Congress of the EACPT is being held in Madrid from 27^th to 30^th June 2015.