Recent
alumnus Dr. Lamont Bookers receives departmental honors [photo] Dr. Lamont Booker was given the Lauren A. Woods awards at the Department of Pharmacology Gathering on Friday, June 3rd. Each year, these merit-based awards are given to the top students, as selected by department faculty members. In a general election, two students are selected by the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology to receive the Woods award, which consists of a plaque and a monetary award. Dr. Booker's name will also be added to a departmental plaque of previous recipients that is displayed in the seventh floor lobby of the Blackwell-Smith Building. The Lauren A. Woods Award for research excellence is an annual award made possible by a generous gift to the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology by Dr. and Mrs. Lauren A. Woods to honor research excellence among doctoral students in Pharmacology and Toxicology entering their final year. Dr. Woods is a distinguished pharmacologist who served for many years as Vice President for Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Postdoctoral research fellow Dr. Laura
Wise receives Young Investigator Award from NARSAD Laura E. Wise, PhD, has been awarded a National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award. Dr. Wise’s project “The Effects of Elevating Endocannabinoid Levels on Fear Learning, Extinction, and Extinction Recall in Female and Male Mice” was one of 214 grants selected from more than 1,000 applications for this prestigious award. Research proposed in the grant is aimed at understanding and treating stress-related disorders such as post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression, which share the common characteristic of dysregulated fear behavior. Stress-related disorders disproportionately affect women; however, studies demonstrating that the endogenous cannabinoid system can modulate fear learning have been almost exclusively conducted in male rodents. Therefore, one of the most exciting aspects of this award is the opportunity to evaluate the potential of endocannabinoid based therapies for stress-related disorders in both women and men. NARSAD issued this news release.
Dr.
Lichtman elected President of the International
Cannabinoid Research Society Dr. Aron Lichtman was elected by his peers to serve as President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society. Effective August 1, 2010, he will serve on the executive committee for at least three years, first as President-Elect, and then as President and Past President of the ICRS. Dr. Lichtman was made aware of his successful election to the position at the 20th Annual meeting of the ICRS in Lund, Sweden. The ICRS is a non-political and non-religious organization dedicated to scientific research in all fields of the cannabinoids, ranging from biochemical, chemical and physiological studies of the endogenous cannabinoid system to studies of the abuse potential of recreational Cannabis.
Graduate students Joel Schlosburg
and Divya Ramesh receive top departmental honors [photo] Joel Schlosburg and Divya Ramesh were given the Lauren A. Woods and Anthony Ambrose awards, respectively, at the Department of Pharmacology Gathering on Friday, April 9th. Each year, these merit-based awards are given to the top students, as selected by department faculty members. In a general election, two students are selected by the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology to receive these awards. The Woods award consists of a plaque and a check for $2,000. The Ambrose award consists of a plaque and a check for $1,000. Both of these students' names will be added to the departmental plaque of previous recipients that is displayed in the seventh floor lobby of the Blackwell-Smith Building. The Lauren A. Woods Award for research excellence is an annual award made possible by a generous gift to the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology by Dr. and Mrs. Lauren A. Woods to honor research excellence among doctoral students in Pharmacology and Toxicology entering their final year. Dr. Woods is a distinguished pharmacologist who served for many years as Vice President for Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Anthony Ambrose Award for the best graduate student is an annual award made possible by a generous gift to the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology by Mrs. Ambrose to honor her husband. Dr. Anthony Ambrose was a long time faculty member who brought to the Department a wealth of information gained from a lifetime of pharmacological and toxicological investigations.
Graduate
student Lamont Booker awarded NIDA fellowship Lamont Booker, a 4th year PhD student in the Lichtman lab was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Fellows (F31) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The prestigious award was given to support Mr. Booker's research project on endocannabinoid regulation of inflammation and pain. The funded proposal, entitled "Determining the Role of FAAH and MAGL in the Modulation of Mechanical Allodynia" aims to find possible new targets for the treatment of inflammatory pain.
Graduate
student Joel Schlosburg awarded NIDA fellowship Joel Schlosburg, PhD graduate candidate in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology was recently awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Fellows (F31) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This prestigious award provides a stipend and supports the research that Mr. Schlosburg outlined in his proposal "Endocannabinoid Modulation of Pruritus," which investigates the role of the endogenous cannabinoid system in reducing itch and pain.
Postdoctoral
research fellow Steven Kinsey receives ICRS Scientific Achievement Award [photo] Pharmacology and Toxicology department postdoctoral research fellow Steven Kinsey was recently awarded the "ICRS Scientific Achievement Award" by the International Cannabinoid Research Society. Dr. Kinsey's presentation, entitled "FAAH modulation of neuropathic pain: a dissociation between pharmacological and knockout approaches" was selected for the award, along with two others, at the annual meeting of the ICRS in Aviemore, Scotland. A total of thirty two postdoctoral researchers competed for the award, which was judged based on scientific merit, originality and quality, as well as a presenter's ability to field questions from the audience. Dr. Kinsey joined the department in August, 2007 after receiving his Ph.D. in psychology from the Ohio State University. He currently works on research projects involving cannabis-based treatments for pain reduction in Dr. Aron Lichtman's lab and is a postdoctoral research trainee on Dr. Bill Dewey's NIDA-funded training grant on drugs of abuse.
Graduate student Joel Schlosburg receives Ambrose Award [photo] Joel Schlosburg, PhD graduate candidate in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, recently received the "Anthony Ambrose Award" at the School of Medicine Graduate Programs Recognition Ceremony on the Medical College of Virginia Campus. The award is given to the top student in the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology to have completed his/her comprehensive qualifiers. The award, voted on by the faculty of the department, is judged on the following criteria: GPA, performance on comprehensive examinations, research productivity, and service to the department and university. The award, presented by graduate program director Dr. Stephen Sawyer, includes a plaque and monetary prize. Joel Schlosburg is currently a fourth-year graduate candidate, researching endocannabinoid treatment of cannabis dependence, pain, and pruritus.
Dr. Lichtman named "Professor of the Year" by Pharmacology & Toxicology students Dr. Aron Lichtman, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, was named the department's 2007 "Professor of the Year". The award, which included a plaque and his name to be added to a display of past winners, was received at the departmental research retreat held in Williamsburg, VA. The award is voted on by the students of the department, organized by VCU's Pharmacology and Toxicology Student Organization (PTSO). According to the PTSO guidelines "this award goes to a professor who goes above and beyond in the classroom and demonstrates a extraordinary desire for the student to understand the material." Dr. Bill Dewey, interim chair of the department, congratulated Dr. Lichtman on his recognition, commenting that he "has been a credit to our department for many years."
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