Dear AAPS members–
Here's my gripe about Hollywood's portrayal of scientists: they always seem to be working alone, in isolation.
Science is a collaboration! We share ideas, we read each other's research, we talk endlessly about possibilities and commiserate when some possibilities don't pan out.
The sweetest fruit of this collaborative operation is publication. With that in mind, I am thrilled to announce the forthcoming relaunch of the journal AAPS Open. With our partners at Springer Nature Publishing, we are currently looking for a new editor-in-chief for this journal. The ideal candidate is a scientifically passionate leader with a vision for the journal and a collaborative spirit to work with our other distinguished editors-in-chief @Ho-Leung Fung, @Robert Williams, and @Tonglei Li to round out AAPS' strong scientific literature presence.
A lasting and productive collaboration often starts with something as brief as a novel bit of data and a quick chat during a poster session. Keep that in mind as you browse the hundreds early abstracts for PharmSci 360 that are already available. In a year when many researchers have faced challenges in advancing or completing their work, I am proud for the scientists who have sent us these novel, exciting abstracts that explore so many possibilities. Please join me in helping them at PharmSci 360 by having a look at these abstracts and planning which authors you want to meet.
Sometimes collaborative opportunities arise spontaneously and must be seized before they float away. We had one such wonderful opportunity this week, when our Regulatory Sciences Community leadership (kudos to @Victoria Demby!) proposed a collaboration between AAPS and the International Consortium for Innovation and Quality in Pharmaceutical Development (IQ Consortium) to bring you a very timely webinar on ICH M9: Harmonization of Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS)-Based Biowaivers. On September 3, join four experts who are part of the working group intricately involved in the ICH M9 negotiation and harmonization efforts. The panelists will highlight aspects from their working group discussions, including consideration of the dose used to classify solubility, criteria for establishing high permeability, dissolution conditions, and permitted excipient changes. They will talk about observed gaps, challenges, and aspects of the future direction of the field that are not addressed in the current guidance, as well as the general process in developing an ICH guidance.
In other AAPS collaboration news, I would like to thank everybody who has already helped the team at the University College of Dublin with their study to uncover the effect presentation has on decision-making in pharma. If you have not participated, yet, you have until August 31 to complete the online experiment-and the researchers would really appreciate it if you did! Then need a generous-sized population of scientists to complete the experiment. Please help them!
Respondents will be presented with information about several hypothetical drug development projects and then asked to make decisions regarding the projects' viability. The experiment will take only 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Participation in the research is completely voluntary and anonymous-no information that can be used to identify the participants will be requested or recorded at any point during the experiment. The UCD team has promised to share the results of the study with AAPS members upon completion, so stay tuned for some interesting data.
If you are looking for a volunteer opportunity and are interested in biotechnology, you may want to apply for a position on the 2021 National Biotechnology Conference (NBC) Scientific Programming Committee, which will return as a virtual event next spring. Chair @Meena Subramanyam is looking for scientists who know what's happening in biotechnology today, and who have leadership and business skills.
Speaking of leadership: as the leadership in our AAPS Communities is turning over in August, I am offering a heartfelt thanks to all the Community Leaders for their time, enthusiasm, engagement, and leadership to keep discussion flowing and collaboration growing. I hope you are finding good connections in the AAPS communities of your interest, and as always: let our science inspire you to look up and ahead.
Tina
Share your thoughts with Tina via the AAPS Community!