News Page
Work published byJoanna Sandilos
in the Bayliss lab, “Pannexin 1, an ATP release channel, is activated by caspase cleavage of its pore-associated C terminal autoinhibitory region” in the Journal of Biological chemistry (Sandilos et al., J. Biol. Chem. 287: 11303-11311), was selected for a first author profile and as JBC "Paper of the Week." The paper was also recently selected as a "must read" by Faculty of 1000. Congratulations, Joanna!
The 2011 Robert Haynes Award was presented to four trainees at the 2011 Pharmacology Reserach Retreat. Joanna Sandilos (Bayliss lab) and Katie Barletta (Linden/Mehrad labs) took home the award for best predoctoral talk, while Stephen Abbott (Guyenet lab) and Rachel Griffiths (Leitinger lab) won the award for best postdoctoral talk.
Faraaz Chekeni and Jeff Sturek shared the Ted W. Rall Award for the most outstanding papers by Pharmacology Graduate students in 2010; the award was presented at the departmental retreat in August. The work by Faraaz in the Ravichandran laboratory identified Pannexin 1 as a caspase-activated channel that mediates nucleotide release from dying cells, a process which is critical for macrophage recruitment and clearance of dead cells; his paper appeared in Nature 467: 863-867, 2010 and was highlighted in numerous commentaries. Jeff’s research in the Hedrick laboratory showed that ABCG1, an integral membrane cholesterol transport protein, acts to retain cholesterol in secretory granules of pancreatic β cells and that its function is necessary for insulin release. The discovery of this surprising intracellular function of ABCG1 was lauded by the American Heart Association as a “Major Scientific Advance of 2010” and appeared in J Clin Invest 120: 2575-2589, 2010. Congratulations to Faraaz and Jeff!
Patrice Guyenet, Professor of Pharmacology,was selected for the prestigious University of Virginia Distinguished Scientist Award in 2011. 
The award was given in recognition of his long and illustrious career at the University of Virginia and his many important contributions to advancing two (2) distinct fields of integrative neuroscience – neural regulation of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. His recent work characterizing a long-sought cardiorespiratory chemoreceptor cell group and incorporating cutting edge optogenetic approaches was widely hailed by external reviewers as transformative for the field. Dr. Guyenet shared the Award with Drs. Kodi Ravichandran (Microbiology) and Thomas Gallagher (Physics).
Congratulations to fourth year Human Biology major Danielle Murashige of the Harris laboratory for being named a 2012-2013 Whitaker International Scholar. The Whitaker program recognizes emerging leaders in U.S. biomedical engineering and provides them with the opportunity to go overseas to undertake a self-designed project that will enhance their own careers within the field. Danielle has received funds to work for one year in the laboratory of Dr. David James at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, Australia where she will use computer modeling to simulate insulin-stimulated glucose uptake.
Congratulations to Kyle Hoehn, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, and his collaborator Kodi Ravichandran (Center for Cell Clearance & Microbiology) for their recent publication in Nature (Park et al., Nature 477: 220-224, 2011). In their paper, they describe a novel role for mitochondrial membrane potential in phagocytic clearance of dying cells. Specifically, they found that phagocytes increase uncoupling protein (UCP)-2 expression in order to deal with the surplus metabolic load of digesting dead cells. The reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential enables successive engulfment of multiple targets in vitro and in vivo. They are now investigating how changes in intermediary nutrient metabolism and mitochondrial oxidative stress influence phagocytic capacity.
John Lazo, Professor of Pharmacology, 
was chosen as President-Elect of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the scientific society that serves basic and clinical pharmacological researchers in academia, industry and the government. During his term as President, Dr. Lazo plans to enhance society membership reaching out to the growing group of scientists involved in drug discovery and development. The explosion of new molecular drug targets revealed by genomic studies, sophisticated animal models of human diseases, chemical libraries, and advanced knowledge of cellular signaling networks has created a revolution in Pharmacology. It will be critical to bring multiple disciplines together if we are to productively harvest the potential of the fundamental information that has been generated in the last decade. UVA is well positioned to participate in this exciting time.
Exciting work by Dr. Anne Carmack from the laboratory of Thurl Harris, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, was published in a recent issue of Cell (Peterson et al., Cell 146: 408-420, 2011). In this collaboration with the Sabatini laboratory, Anne and Thurl found that intracellular localization of the phosphatidic acid phosphatase lipin 1 is regulated via the action of mTOR complex I, and that this occurs in a largely rapamycin-independent manner. The regulation of lipin 1 was shown to be the missing link between mTOR activity and control of hepatic lipid synthesis by SREBP-1c.
David Goodman, Ph.D., Pharmacology (1993) and CEO of Pharmascience, Inc.,
continued his generous contributions to theDepartment of Pharmacology, providing an additional $50,000 to enhance graduate education and to establish a faculty mentoring award in honor of his own Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Peter Isakson (Vice President, Abbott Laboratories). The inaugural Isakson Award was presented this year to Chien Li, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, and his student, Jessica Geisler. The award was used to support a mini-sabbatical for Jessica to visit UT Southwestern, where she learned exciting new techniques for her studies of pancreatic β cell function and insulin secretion. A nice write-up about Dr. Goodman and his gift was included in the November issue of UVA Pulse magazine.
On the event of his retirement, the Department of Pharmacology celebrated the career of Jim Garrison (Professor of Pharmacology and Department Chair from 1993 to 2008) with an exciting symposium and a fun evening dinner/roast in the Dome Room of Jefferson's Rotunda. The symposium featured some of Jim's longtime collaborators (Ken Harden, UNC; Joel Linden, La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology) and various mentees who got a boost early in their careers under Jim's leadership (Tim Haystead (now at Duke); Fraydoon Rastinejad, (Sanford-Burnham Institute); Lin Mei (Georgia Health Sciences University); and Ray Mattingly (Wayne State University). The science in the talks was outstanding and all the speakers emphasized the positive impact Jim had on their careers. The "Jim Stories" told after dinner were highly entertaining, not least of which was Howard Kutchai's recollection of where Jim "found" a jellyfish following a swim on a sailing trip - I'll bet that stung. Jim will remain as Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology, and he will keep busy with his other life as a glider pilot and ski instructor for the disabled.