As pharmaceutical science evolves, Christopher McCurdy looks forward to overseeing changes at AAPS.
By Christopher R. McCurdy, Ph.D., FAAPS
As I take over the presidency of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), I look back to when I first came to AAPS as a graduate student years ago as a medicinal chemist. I participated with the American Chemical Society, but I realized that AAPS was the home for pharmaceutical scientists. AAPS brought together so many disciplines that help members understand the drug discovery, development, and postdevelopment processes. By helping me engage with all disciplines and giving me a venue to network with a broad variety of pharmaceutical scientists, AAPS has improved my life, my science, and my career. The association welcomed me into the community of pharmaceutical science, and I’ve learned how amazing that can be. As the pharmaceutical industry evolves and changes, the constant that AAPS has is that discipline difference, the interdisciplinary activity among our members, who are able to come together, network, learn from each other, and thus build, move forward, and grow as that happens.
AAPS is undergoing change right now. One change I’m excited about is the new AAPS communities. AAPS launched the communities last fall as an interactive online “laboratory,” where AAPS members can exchange knowledge and ideas, test out new theories, network with other scientists, share resources, and work together to advance their careers and the pharmaceutical sciences. The communities extend the collaborative experience of the annual meeting so that members can continue to participate in that rich cross-pollination. I’m happy to report that our members have been joining the communities and starting conversations. As we move into 2018, we hope to see new conversations. While we would like to see the communiy discussions attract large groups, a conversation among a few people can be just as beneficial. Starting this month, AAPS will guide some AAPS focus groups as they set up secure, members-only communities. As we develop the larger AAPS community of scientists who are our members, the AAPS Communities platform supports that goal.
Another exciting change we’re implementing this year is the new annual event, AAPS PharmSci 360. In response to our surveys, AAPS members told us that increasingly they are responsible for learning and understanding the cross-pollination of biomolecular and chemical entities. Thus, we created a new event to increase collaboration between chemical- and biologics-focused scientists, provide a meaningful and engaging learning experience, focus on new research, accomplish business objectives, provide training on new hot topics, and take advantage of the great strength of the AAPS community: cross-discipline learning experiences.
Every part of PharmSci 360 is designed to build up scientific knowledge and collaboration. Sessions will be split into chemical and biomolecular areas and grouped into the following tracks:
- Preclinical (including discovery)
- Bioanalytical
- Clinical pharmacology
- Manufacturing and bioprocessing
- Formulation and quality
Within each track, the program will offer parallel tracks covering the chemical entity and biomolecular areas, each offering scientific depth through symposia, keynote talks, and rapid-fire presentations.
The 2018 PharmSci 360 Scientific Programming Committee has been announced, and the new submission process will be announced in March 2018.
I look forward to seeing these two and other changes progress throughout the coming year as the association looks to be more responsive to the needs of its members.
In closing, I thank my predecessor Binodh DeSilva for her leadership and her sense of urgency that helped us achieve some of the successes of the past year.