Dear AAPS members–
At AAPS, the high-energy, PharmSci 360 buzz has our volunteers and our staff hopping! I hope you have reviewed the on-site program for Philadelphia that we have just released, and are getting as excited and inspired as we are.
Our opening and closing plenary speakers could not better reflect or bookend the wide scientific waterfront of pharmaceutical science we cover at AAPS. If you have followed Siddhartha Mukherjee's writing, you can expect to be taken on an inspirational journey that weaves a contextual canvas far outside our day-to-day issues in the laboratory. He will help us step back and reflect on the greater purpose of why we do what we do in the pharmaceutical sciences. Having spent formative years of my own career in the genomics field, I am very much hoping he will talk about his latest book The Gene: An Intimate History.
Our closing speaker, Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer's Senior Vice President, Head of Vaccine Research, will share a firsthand perspective on the vaccines that are critical to gaining control of the current pandemic and overcoming the long-standing challenges posed by other diseases affecting global public health.
As you consider the science we'll discuss in Philadelphia, don't forget that the early registration deadline for the meeting is next Tuesday, August 24.
There is also still time to volunteer for a couple of engaging roles that will allow you to help other members and make the meeting a more rewarding experience for yourself!
- You can offer career advice to the next generation of scientists at the Mentoring Breakfast. By serving as a mentor, you give tomorrow's scientists-and the future leaders of AAPS-the benefit of your experience through informal, one-on-one conversations.
- You can also share your expertise with emerging scientists by reviewing résumés.
- If you are a seasoned "PharmSci 360 pro," to quote program coordinator @Maria Nadeau, you can also help first-time attendees as a PharmSci 360 Conference Buddy. This program connects first-time attendees with meeting veterans who know the people and the programming that AAPS events attract. It is an easy way to enrich your conference experience and meet your scientific colleagues.
While you ponder all these great possibilities for the fall, don't overlook your own immediate learning opportunities! Next week's webinars will add to great conversations that other members and I have been following all year. As part of our ongoing content and learning commitment in the DEI space, @Shraddha Thakkar and the Career Development Committee have arranged for Monica Guzman to talk about Understanding the Dimensions of Biasness on August 24. On August 25, we return to the ever-challenging world of assay validation with a presentation by @Amanda Hays on Best Practices for the Development and Validation of qPCR and ddPCR Assays-after the great discussions at our qPCR Workshop (recordings are available to members!) and then at Land O 'Lakes Bioanalytical (recordings for members coming soon!), I feel I still need to know more about this area! You can round out your lunch time learning with some quantitative systems pharmacology on August 26 when Justin Feigelman will present on QSP Model Parameterization and Developing Virtual Populations.
AAPS does indeed have a wide scientific waterfront! And I hope you will join me in letting our science inspire you to look up and ahead.
Tina
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