Newswise — ARLINGTON, VA (October 2, 2018) – The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) is pleased to announce the elevation of six recipients to AAPS Fellow (FAAPS), one of the highest honors given to members of the association. Each year, AAPS elevates a small group of highly accomplished members to Fellow in recognition of their professional excellence in fields relevant to AAPS’s mission: to advance the capacity of pharmaceutical scientists to develop products and therapies that improve global health.
Each Fellow has demonstrated a sustained level of superior and distinguished professional achievement and contributions in fields related to this mission. Fellows are nominated by supporters, selected by a committee of their peers, and elevated by AAPS’ Board of Directors.
2018 AAPS Fellows
Tapan K. Das, Ph.D., FAAPS, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Tapan K. Das’, Ph.D., FAAPS sustained contributions over nearly two decades include scientific research, biopharmaceutical development, technical leadership, and senior-level management. He has a demonstrated record of accomplishments of building research and development groups, creating its vision, and delivering strong results. His leadership and prolonged contributions in many medicine development programs in oncology, immunology, diabetes, and other therapeutic areas resulted in seamless progression of clinical development and several successful drug approvals including the immunotherapies Opdivo and Empliciti. Das has consistently pushed for new technologies in pharmaceutical sciences and implementing higher throughput processes to rapidly bring medicines to patients.
Das has been active in science outreach and he is passionate about coaching and mentoring students and early-career scientists to develop the next generation leaders and scientists. Das is a strong proponent of integrating innovation and excellence in drug development and sharing research outcomes broadly in the field. He has a strong track record of publications and presentations that highlight his unabated contributions to pharmaceutical sciences.
Rajesh Davé, Ph.D., FAAPS, New Jersey Institute of Technology
As a Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Professor Rajesh Davé has made significant impact to pharmaceutical sciences through grant funded research in particle engineering and material science for improved understanding of drug particle formation and processing, and cost-efficient manufacturing while developing patient compliant technologies including taste-masking and oral administration without water. He has promoted synergistic transformative research through his leadership roles as a founding director of New Jersey Center for Engineered Particulates and a founding co-principle investigator of a National Science Foundation funded Engineering Research Center. He has over 150 pharma-related journal papers, numerous keynote, plenary, and invited presentations, fifteen issued patents, and numerous awards, including 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineering, Particle Technology Forum Fluidization Lectureship, and 2016 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award. He has granted 30 doctorates. His trend-setting high-impact contributions include predictive understanding of the effect of surface modification of drug or excipient particles, thin polymeric films embedded with poorly water-soluble drug as a patient compliant platform technology for precision medicine along with regulatory science, and an understanding of drug particle milling from surface energetics perspective.
M.N.V. Ravi Kumar, Ph.D., Texas A&M University
M.N.V. Ravi Kumar, Ph.D.is an internationally recognized expert in the field of drug delivery. His research has won him several awards including the T. Nagai “Outstanding Researcher Advisor” by Controlled Release Society, USA, 2018; named as one of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s, Faces of Toxicology, UK, 2017; the British Pharmaceutical Conference Science Medal, UK 2009; Tom Gibson Memorial Award by British Society of Plastic Surgeons & the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, UK 2008; Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists, India 2007. He has written over 90 articles; edited/co-edited 6 journal special issues and 3 books; chair/co-chair-6 conferences/workshops; editorial board member of several international journals; invited/keynote speaker on over 130 occasions; raised over $5 million in external research funding; trained over 50 researchers. According to Google Scholar Index his work is cited 15,428 times and has an h-index of 39 (data collected on 07/27/2018). He is appointed to guest Professorships at Seoul National University (South Korea); University of Navarra (Spain); University of Torino (Italy) and Shandong University (China). He severed on several University/College, national and international committees.
Linda Owers Narhi, Ph.D., Amgen, Inc.
Linda Owers Narhi, Ph.D. has spent her career in biotechnology, studying the relationship of structure and function for proteins, and how to use these to make superior therapeutics. This includes several aspects of biopharmaceutical development, including formulation, biophysical characterization, and immunogenicity of protein pharmaceuticals. Key contributions include understanding the impact of trace materials (such as tungsten) from primary containers and devices on the stability of the biotherapeutic they contain, working with the pharmacopoeias to establish methods for particle assessment that are applicable to protein drugs, establishing predictive methods to select superior drug candidates, and studies on the potential immunogenicity of protein aggregates. She has also led the external engagement efforts for process development at Amgen and believes strongly in the value of collaboration across organizations to further our understanding about the attributes that contribute to changes in the efficacy and safety of protein products. Her work has resulted in development of several model systems and methods for testing characteristics of proteins such as viscosity, stability, aggregation and relative immunogenicity, and has contributed to the successful development and production of multiple biotherapeutics which are now available to patients with grievous illnesses.
Gus R. Rosania, Ph.D., University of Michigan
As Principal Investigator of the Subcellular Drug Transport Laboratory at the University of Michigan, College of Pharmacy, Professor Rosania has led a research group that has performed many pioneering studies into the mechanisms determining the distribution of small molecule drugs inside cells, by measuring the extent of drug accumulation in specific organelles of specific cell types, following long-term drug administration. Rosania has discovered several new transport pathways determining the distribution and accumulation of small molecule drugs within cells, in vivo. His scientific discoveries have greatly advanced the science of pharmacokinetics, beyond all established models and paradigms.
Challenging many preconceived notions, he courageously advanced experimental and computational approaches to reveal the specific molecular and cellular basis underlying the Volume of Distribution, which had been modeled as a ‘black box” (or as a lipophilic, membrane partitioning phenomenon). Without invoking active transporter-mediated phenomena, he demonstrated how soluble-to-insoluble phase transitions can selectively drive targeted, small molecule drug accumulation within macrophages, during prolonged dosing regimens. Rosania’s research is especially significant given the increasing
incidence of adverse drug reactions associated with unintended side effects, which often result from a drug’s suboptimal transport and off-target distribution properties.
Zaijie Wang, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago
Zaijie Wang, Ph.D. obtained his doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry from the School of Pharmacy, University of California San Francisco in 1996 and joined the faculty of the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago in 2001. Currently, he is a tenured professor of pharmacology and pharmaceutics, and holds the title of University Scholar, a highly prestigious designation bestowed to him by the president of the University of Illinois system. As a renowned researcher and educator, Wang has trained numerous graduate and pharmacy students and fellows who are active in pharmaceutical fields. His active research area focuses on the molecular mechanisms and novel therapeutics of pain and addiction. His research has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2001 and is currently funded by a R35 Outstanding Investigator Award and two R01 grants from the NIH. His research group has made a number of significant advances in the understanding of the molecular, epigenetics, genetic, and neurobiological
mechanisms of pain in sickle cell disease. Wang has made significant contributions to the mission of AAPS, participating in various committees and conference organization including the AAPS National Biotechnology Conference.
For more information about AAPS Fellows, visit here.
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About AAPS: The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) is a professional, scientific organization of approximately 9,000 members employed in academia, industry, government, and other research institutes worldwide.
Founded in 1986, AAPS advances the capacity of pharmaceutical scientists to develop products and therapies that improve global health. Visit www.aaps.org today and follow us on Twitter and Facebook, hashtag #AAPS2018 and #PharmSci360
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