College of Pharmacy News

April 18, 2007

Three University of Utah Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate Students and a Postdoctoral Fellow Honored at the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting

The 46th annual Society of Toxicology meeting was held the last week of March in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Several graduate students and one postdoctoral fellow representing the University of Utah's Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology were recognized for their outstanding achievements in Toxicology.  Dr. Aaron M. Rowland, Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Garold S. Yost's laboratory, garnered national and international recognition as the sole recipient of the Society's only postdoctoral fellowship, the Colgate-Palmolive Postdoctoral Fellowship.  This award is to support his proposal to identify the gene regulation mechanisms of cytochrome P450 2S1 by retinoic acid.  Dr. Rowland was one of two finalists who received travel funds to attend the meeting and be interviewed.  Selection of the award recipient was based on the applicant's on-site interview, conducted by the Society's Education Committee.  This award provides a total of $73,000 over two years to support Dr. Rowland's research.  Not only did Dr. Rowland receive the Colgate-Palmolive Award, he also received first place in the competition for the best postdoctoral abstract from the Molecular Biology Specialty Section.  This award was a $500 cash prize for his presentation entitled "Retinoic Acid Regulation of the Pulmonary Expressed Cytochrome P450 2S1."  

Three of the department's graduate students, Hao Sun, Karen C. Thomas, and Dorinda Arch were also recognized for their superb research efforts at the national meeting.  Hao Sun a 4th year graduate student in Dr. Garold S. Yost's laboratory, won 3rd place ($100 cash prize) in the highly competitive Carl C. Smith Mechanisms Graduate Student Award competition through the Mechanisms Specialty Section of SOT for his work entitled "Cytochrome P450-Catalyzed Indoline Dehydrogenation is a Novel Aromatization Process."  Karen C. Thomas, a 3rd year Pharm.D./Ph.D. student in Dr. Christopher Reilly's and Dr. Garold S. Yost's laboratory received a travel award for active participation on the Student Advisory Council.  She also presented her work entitled “Structure Activity Relationships Between Capsaicinoid Analogues and TRPV1 Activation.”  Dorinda Arch, a 3rd year Ph.D. student in Dr. Michael R. Franklin's laboratory received two travel awards, the Society of Toxicology Graduate student travel award ($500) and the University of Utah Graduate school travel award ($400), for her work entitled "Hepatic Transporter mRNA Changes Associated with Treatment Regimens Leading to Uroprophyria in a Mouse Model of Porphyria Cutanea Tarda."