8
29th CINP World
Congress 2014
Brief biography of Plenary Speakers
Monday, 23 June 2014
09:00 – 09:45
PL-01
e
Arvid Carlsson Lecture
The ups and downs of amphetamines: A diversity of actions on cellular signaling pathways
Susan G. Amara, USA
Susan G. Amara is the Scientific Director of the NIMH intramural research program at NIH. Work in
her laboratory has focused on the structure, function, and cellular physiology of neurotransmitter
transporters, including the biogenic amine transporters, major targets for psychostimulant drugs and
antidepressants. She received a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and a PhD in
Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California, San Diego and has previously held
faculty positions at Yale University School of Medicine, at the Vollum Institute in Portland, Oregon and
as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Yale and in Oregon. Amara has received the
Burroughs Wellcome Hitchings Award in drug discovery, the Society for Neuroscience Young Investi-
gator Award, the ASPET John Jacob Abel Award, a McKnight Neuroscience Investigator Award, a
MERIT Award from NIDA, a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award, and the Julius Axelrod Award
from the Catecholamine Society. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences
(2004), a fellow of the AAAS (2007) and is a past-President of the Society for Neuroscience (2011).
Monday, 23 June 2014
14:00 – 14:45
PL-02
e
Nobel Lecture
Structural insights into G protein coupled receptor signaling
Brian Kobilka, USA
Dr. Kobilka received Bachelor of Science Degrees in Biology and Chemistry from the University of
Minnesota, Duluth in 1977. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine in 1981, and
completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Barnes Hospital, Washington University
School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri in 1984. From 1984 – 1989 he was a postdoctoral fellow in
the laboratory of Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University. In 1990 he joined the faculty of Medicine and
Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. He was promoted to Professor of Medicine
and Molecular and Cellular Physiology in 2000. Research in the Kobilka lab focuses on the structure
and mechanism of action of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), which constitute the largest family
of receptors for hormones and neurotransmitters in the human genome. GPCRs are the largest group
of targets for new therapeutics for a very broad spectrum of diseases.
tuesday, 24 June 2014
09:00 – 09:45
PL-03
e
Plenary Lecture
The importance of being an endocannabinoid
Raphael Mechoulam, Israel
Prof. Mechoulam received his Masters Degree in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University in 1952
and his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute in 1958 where he studied under Professor F. Sondheimer.
He completed his postdoctoral research at the Rockefeller Institute. Dr. Mechoulam is currently with
the Institute for Drug Research at the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He
is former Rector of the University and is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences. Dr. Mechoulam
has received many honours, including honorary doctorates from Spain and USA, the Israel Prize in
2000 and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.
In 2012, he received the Rothschild Prize. His research interests are in the field of the chemistry and
biological activity of natural products and medicinal agents. His main contributions are in the field
of the constituents of cannabis and the endogenous cannabinoids found in the brain and the periphery.
He has published extensively on their pharmacological activities.
Susan G. Amara
Brian Kobilka
Raphael Mechoulam
