By João Abrantes, Janneke Keemink, Mario Correia, Viktor Rognås, Oliver Degerstedt, and Chenyan Zhao, executive committee members
The Uppsala University AAPS Student Chapter, located in Uppsala, Sweden, was established in the early summer of 2011 as the first chapter of its kind in Scandinavia. The chapter was initiated to facilitate professional and social networking across different departments that share a common interest toward pharmaceutical science.
In 2017–2018, and for the first time, our executive committee comprises elements of the three departments of the Faculty of Pharmacy of Uppsala University. Currently we have more than 50 members, for whom we work to provide a variety of activities covering various topics. This year, a new session called Meet the Expert was initiated. We invited experts to visit us and give an informal talk about their research and career choices. In January, we had the honor to receive two exceptional researchers recently appointed as honorary doctors by Uppsala University: Christopher Porter, Ph.D., director of the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Melbourne, Australia; and France Mentré, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics at the INSERM–Paris Diderot University, France. Having experts from different fields allows our chapter to draw in students with different interests.
Apart from academia, we also seek to target other career options. In April, we organized a roundtable meeting with René Bouw, Ph.D., scientific lead for clinical pharmacology evaluation of new drugs at the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA). Bouw has more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry (AstraZeneca, Roche, GlaxoSmithKein) and talked about the work in the MPA and his experiences and thoughts about the transition from working in the industry to the regulatory field. This provided insights to those who are questioning what career path to follow after graduation.
Whenever possible, we try to organize activities outside our campus. In April, we organized a study visit to Recipharm Development, in Uppsala. Recipharm is a Swedish contract development and manufacturing organisation, and the Uppsala site focuses on medicinal chemistry. We were introduced to the company itself and four departments, including good laboratory practice bioanalysis, synthesis, analysis, and formulations. All our visitors gave this worthwhile trip a thumbs up.
We are proud of what we have achieved during the past year and are looking forward to coming events. Among the planned activities is a sponsorship of the annual Uppsala Pharmacometric Summer School, seizing the opportunity to raise awareness about our chapter, and the organization of the “90-second presentations,” where student and postdoc members will have the chance to practice their research pitch.
Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to our chapter faculty advisor, Margareta Hammarlund-Udenaes, Ph.D., for her valuable guidance and support.
For more information about our chapter and its organized activities, check out our recently created LinkedIn account.