News & Events

July 2022

• JHDD Director Barbara Slusher named a “Top 50 Women Leaders of Maryland for 2022” by Women We Admire. Congratulations, Barb!
• For our summer outing, the JHDD team hits the rapids and goes whitewater rafting in Harper’s Ferry

• JHDD welcomes 1 new PREP scholar, Evan Carlyle, and 7 new summer students – Nick Haughey, Eshan Beg, Nasreen Naqvi, and Brianna Edmunds to Animal Pharmacology, Noor Sheikh and Michael Maragakis to DMPK, and Philana Hin to Chemistry!

• The JHDD team spreads their wings for indoor skydiving at iFly!

• JHDD welcomes Lukas Tenora to the DMPK team and Kate Novotna to the chemistry team

• Congratulations to JHDD’s Diane Peters on your promotion to Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences!
• In collaboration with JHU gastroenterology and pain clinicians, JHDD received a grant from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation to study therapeutic targets for pain in IBD
• JHDD researchers and colleagues awarded the NIH P30 renewal to support JH CAHN and its groundbreaking work to better understand and develop novel treatments for HIV
• JHDD’s Barb Slusher and Rana Rais celebrate the sale of Adarga/PSMA Therapeutics to Bayer at The Bygone Four Seasons

• Congratulations to JHDD’s Diane Peters for securing your K01 award to study GCPII inhibition for the treatment of IBD
• Jesse Alt is named the JHDD 2021 Collaborator of the Year. Congratulations, Jesse, and thanks for all of your hard work and dedication!

• JHDD celebrates the holidays with a lunch and white elephant gift exchange. Happy holidays from JHDD!

• Takashi Tsukamoto is named the 2021 Maryland Chemist of the Year by the American Chemical Society. Congratulations, Takashi!!! The virtual ceremony will be held on Wednesday, December 8 at 7pm, linked here, with Takashi delivering a lecture, “Connecting Fluroinated Dots“. Please join us with video and audio off, ask your questions or send comments through the chat feature, and RSVP to Angela Sherman at [email protected]

• JHDD’s HEAL project to develop a new treatment for neuropathic pain approved for transition from the UG3 to the UH3 phase

• JHDD bids farewell to Sanket and Jake with a happy hour at Barcocina

• JHDD spends a fun day catching rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay

• PSMA Therapeutics, featuring JHDD-licensed technology, is acquired by Bayer

• Barb Slusher receives Dickinson College’s Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement. Congratulations, Barb!

• Barb Slusher delivers keynote speech at the University of Hawaii’s Annual Biomedical Sciences & Health Disparities Symposium
• JHDD welcomes rotating graduate student Manisha Pradhan to the Assay Development lab

• JHDD team members enjoy a day of skiing and snow tubing at Liberty Mountain Resort!

• JHDD Barb Slusher appointed to Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Board of Directors
• JHDD welcomes Brennan Murphy to the Medicinal Chemistry group

January 2021

• JHDD members Xiaolei Zhu and Run-Duo Gao accepted to the Training in Neurotherapeutics Discovery and Development for Academic Scientists Course
• JHDD welcomes rotating graduate student Davell Carter

December 2020

• JHDD celebrates the holidays with a Zoom secret Santa in new sweatshirts and masks. Happy Holidays from JHDD!

• Sanket Awate joins JHDD. Welcome, Sanket!
• Ben Bell awarded PhRMA postdoctoral fellowship grant to study nSMase2 inhibition in Alzheimer’s disease

November 2020

• Ajit Thomas named JHDD Collaborator of the Year!

• Rana Rais and collaborators report on physiologically active and shape-changing theragrippers as a novel method of enhancing drug delivery. [Science Advances]
• Katie Lemberg awarded a Maryland Innovation Initiative grant to study novel treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• NIH awards R01 to Barb Slusher, Takashi Tsukamoto, and collaborator Amy Arnsten to study GCPII inhibition for the treatment of prefrontal cortex deficit.

• First-in-human Phase 1/2a clinical trial initiated for JHDD-invented glutamine antagonist for the treatment of solid tumors
• JHDD welcomes postdoctoral fellow Ilyas Berhane and graduate student Robyn Wiseman!

• Rana Rais awarded Maryland Innovation Initiative grant to explore new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease

• Welcome, Sadakatali Gori and Jacob Friedman, to the DMPK group!

• New PREP scholars chose JHDD for post-baccalaureate research – welcome, Kaleem Coleman and Tawnjerae Joe!
• Ben Bell awarded T32 Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences postdoctoral fellowship
• JHDD’s Barb Slusher quoted in Chemistry World article about academia’s growing contributions to CNS drug discovery

• JHDD’s Barb Slusher and Rana Rais recognized as key Women in Innovation leaders by JH Tech Ventures
• NIH awards R01 to JHDD and collaborator Dr. Kannan Rangaramanujam to test a novel dendrimer-conjugated treatment for Alzheimer’s disease
• JHDD and collaborator Dr. Atsushi Kamiya receive NIH R01 funding to develop a new treatment for post-operative delirium

April 2020

• NCATS Early Translation Branch to conduct high throughput screening in collaboration with JHDD to identify new treatments for pain as part of the HEAL initiative

March 2020

• Anonymous donor provides support to evaluate nSMase2 inhibitors and glutamine antagonists against COVID-19
• National Institute of Aging funds R01 to JHDD to explore novel treatments for Alzheimer’s disease

February 2020

• Barb Slusher speaks at JH Tech Ventures AccelHERator series dedicated to supporting female inventors and entrepreneurs – JH Hub
• Carolyn Tallon presents “Inhibiting EV release for the treatment of AD” at Pharmacology & Toxicology 2020 in Vienna, Austria

January 2020

• JHDD receives a Maryland Innovation Initiative grant to test a new treatment for alopecia areata – Tedco

December 2019

• Holiday Luncheon at Aldo’s – Click here for photos
• JHDD led the 2nd Annual Drug Discovery Symposium with UMB – UMD Pharmacy News Center
• Camilo Rojas and Norman Haughey presented the keynote commercialization project lecture on the discovery of the first potent, orally-available, brain penetrant inhibitor of neutral sphingomyelinase 2 with potent HIV anti-viral activity.  JHDD/UMB Joint Drug Discovery Symposium, UMD
• Crohn’s and Colitis Foundations’ IBD Ventures partners with JHDD to develop a new therapy for inflammatory bowel disease – IBD Ventures

November 2019

• Glutamine antagonist can slow tumor growth, alter the tumor microenvironment, and promote the production of durable and highly active antitumor T cells – Science, 2019, Nov. 7 [PubMed]
• Glutamine blockade induces divergent metabolic programs to overcome tumor immune evasion [Science Magazine]
• Glutamine-Blocking Drug Slows Tumor Growth And Strengthens Anti-Tumor Response [Hopkins Medicine]
• Glutamine-blocking drug slows tumor growth and strengthens anti-tumor response [Science Daily]
• Glutamine-blocking drug slows tumor growth and strengthens anti-tumor response [Eurekalert]
• Glutamine-blocking drug slows tumor growth and strengthens anti-tumor response [Bioengineer]
• Xiaolei Zhu gave an oral presentation on antagonists of glutamine at 16th International Symposium on NeuroVirology (ISNV) and 2019 Conference on HIV in the Central Nervous System.
• Carolyn Tallon gave an oral presentation titled “PDDC: A novel neutral sphingomyelinase 2 inhibitor for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease” at the 2019 Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.
• Angie Rubin receives 2019 Collaborator of the Year Award

October 2019

• Happy Hour with colleagues from IOCB Click here to see photos
• JHDD and IOCB discover the first orally-available, brain-penetrable nSMase2 inhibitor – Br J Pharmacol., 2019, Oct;176(19):3857-3870  [PubMed]
• Barbara Slusher gave plenary lecture at Camden Partners Nexus Fund, Baltimore  Click here to see photos

September 2019

• Takashi Tsukamoto received a UG3 grant through the HEAL Initiative to develop MRGPRX1 positive allosteric modulators as non-addictive therapies for neuropathic pain. Click here for more information

August 2019

• JHDD finds that JHU-083 attenuates deficits in a model of Multiple Sclerosis.  Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm., 2019 Aug 29;6(6) PubMed

July 2019

• Barbara Slusher and Diane Peters awarded Thalheimer Commercialization grant
• JHDD goes sailing in Annapolis!  Click here to see photos

June 2019

• Camilo Rojas joins with Atomwise to utilize Artificial Intelligence for Drug Discovery

May 2019

• Ondrej Stepanek gave an oral presentation on inhibitors of neutral sphingomyelinase 2 at ACS Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM)
• JHU and Mount Sinai investigators find that intranasal insulin reverses cognitive impairment in a model of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders – AIDS, 2019, May 1;33(6):973-984 PubMed

April 2019

• JHDD volunteers at Moveable Feast Click here to see photos

• JHDD and IOCB discover a new class of tumor-targeted glutamine antagonists – J Med Chem, 2019, April 11;62(7):3524-3538  PubMed

March 2019

• JHU reports that glutamine antagonism may represent a new class of anti-depressants – Neuropsychopharmacology, 2019, Mar:44 (4):683-694 PubMed
• Clinical connection See more from Hopkins Medicine

• In Case You Missed It @HopkinsMedNews Click here for more information

February 2019

• Mouse Studies Advance Search for New Class of Antidepressants Click here for more information; Click here for even more information

January 2019

• Eva Prchalova gave an oral presentation on prodrugs of glutamine antagonist DON at 14th Medicinal & Bioorganic Chemistry Conference

December 2018

• Partnership Awards $3 Million in Grants for Promising New Treatments in Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias
• JHDD Celebrates with Santa and Luncheon! Click here to see photos

November 2018

• Barbara Slusher to give plenary lecture at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation conference “IBD Innovate” at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City
• JHDD throws axes Click here to see photos

October 2018

• Xiaolei Zhu receives 2018 JHDD Collaborator of the Year Award Click here to see photos

September 2018

• Camilo Rojas, Takashi Tsukamoto and Barbara Slusher awarded NIH R01 to develop nSMase2 inhibitors for Alzheimer’s disease

August 2018

• JHDD goes Ziplining at Sandy Spring Adventure Park Click here to see photos

June 2018

• Rana Rais presented the Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery Core at the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute For Cancer Immunotherapy

May 2018

• Johns Hopkins startup gets funding from company turning research into business
• IP Group and Johns Hopkins collaboration funds cancer therapeutic start-up
• Barbara Slusher gave the plenary lecture at the Crohn’s and Colitis “Voices of Progress” Symposium in New York City

April 2018

• Camilo Rojas gave the plenary lecture at the 15th International Symposium on NeuroVirology Conference, Chicago, IL
• Novel glutamine antagonist prodrugs to be developed as anticancer therapies
• JHDD goes to the Autobahn Speedway Click here to see photos

March 2018

• Another immunometabolism deal? Johns Hopkins spinout Dracen lands $36M investment from Deerfield
• Deerfield leads oncology startup Dracen Pharma’s $40M series A 
• Health care-focused Deerfield Management leads Baltimore biotech’s $40M round

January 2018

• Johns Hopkins-born pharma company raising $40.5 million, hunting for lab space
• One-Year Old Dracen Pharma Raises $40.5M, Hunts for Office and Lab Space With Plans to Hire
• Startup with Johns Hopkins roots raising $40.5 million to develop cancer metabolism drugs
• Dracen Licenses Immunometabolism Platform, Platform was created by key scientists at the Johns Hopkins University and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry
• JHDD receives grant award from Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation

December 2017

• JHDD enjoyed holiday lunch at Aldo’s Restaurant in Little Italy Click here to see photos

November 2017

• Barbara Slusher presents “Bridging a Drug Discovery Career in Academia and Pharma” at the SFN Conference, Washington, D.C. Click here to see photos

• Camilo Rojas presents on nSMase at SFN Conference, Washington, D.C.

October 2017

• Rana Rais presents Plenary lecture at Therapeutics Discovery Conference in Saudi Arabia Click here to see photos

• Barbara Slusher and Jonathan Powell present at the ADDC/ASPET Conference, Fueling Innovation: Public Programs Driving Drug Discovery, Bethesda, MD

• Barbara Slusher presents at TEDCO Entrepreneur EXPO, Baltimore, MD

• Takashi Tsukamoto gave lecture at the 35th Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, Nagoya, Japan

August 2017

• JHDD Lab goes fishing…Orange team wins! Click here to see photos

July 2017

• Summer Bash at the Slusher home for JHDD Lab and families Click here to see photos

• Barbara Slusher to lecture at ANA Course, Chicago, IL

June 2017

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery presents 6 posters at the First Annual Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Scientific Retreat

• Ajit Thomas presented new insight on the molecular mechanism of action of Netupitant/Palonosetron (NEPA) for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting at the MASCC 2017 meeting in Washington, D.C. Click here for more information

May 2017

• Barbara Slusher gave Keynote address at the VirginiaCancerRx Symposium

• Johns Hopkins and Eisai Extend Drug Discovery Collaboration with New Licensing Agreement

February 2017

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery partnered with The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy to welcome more than 200 researchers from across both universities to the first-ever UMB-JHDD Joint Symposium on Drug Discovery

  Click here to read more

• Rana Rais presents plenary lecture on cell targeted glutamine antagonists as novel cancer immunotherapy

• Sarah Zimmermann presents lecture on the design of small molecule selective glutaminase inhibitors Click here to see photos

• Barbara Slusher and Takashi Tsukamoto present at IncMed Translational Symposium: “I Dream About Drugs: How Hopkins can help translate your targets into treatments”

• The Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) has awarded $22 million to more than 200 commercialization projects to include 46 start-up companies since its inception in late 2012.

January 2017

• Mike Nedelcovych co-chairs “Neuropsychiatric Impact of HIV” Symposium at Winter Brain Conference in Big Sky, MT

   

December 2016

• Novel Prodrugs of 6-Diazo-5-Oxo-L-Norleucine With More Brain Delivery

• Rana Rais and Jonathan Powell present “Design of cell-targeted glutamine antagonists for cancer treatment” at the Johns Hopkins ICTR and CFAR Second Annual Symposium

• Mike Nedelcovych presents Johns Hopkins Clinical Pharmacology Lecture on “Glutamine Antagonism as a Cognition Enhancing Therapeutic in EcoHIV mice”

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery hosts its annual Holiday Luncheon and Santa Swap Party at Woodberry Kitchen Click here to see photos

November 2016

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery goes bowling at Mustang Alley’s: green team wins again 🙂  Click here to see photos

• Barbara Slusher delivers plenary talk at Abbvie’s  “Celebration of Science” Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL

• Barbara Slusher presents the Dean’s Lecture at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Research Integrity Colloquium on the importance of academic-pharma collaborations in the development of new therapeutics.

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery & the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) in Prague Initiate Joint Postdoctoral Training Program

October 2016

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery joins iLab

• Alterations to cancer drug allow it past the blood-brain barrier

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery Scientists Build a Better Cancer Drug to Pass Through Blood-Brain Barrier

August 2016

• Sarah Zimmermann presents lecture on glucuronidation in drug design at the 252^nd American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition

• New Synergy and Innovation Awards Announced

July 2016

• Barbara Slusher presents at the ANA Translational and Clinical Research Course in Chicago, IL

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery’s Annual Fishing Trip Click here to see photos

• Rana Rais receives Johns Hopkins Synergy Innovation Award

June 2016

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery Receives Sanofi iAWARD for new Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) therapeutics

• Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery hosts high school summer science camp Click here to see photos

April 2016

• Barbara Slusher gives opening plenary lecture at the Northwestern Drug Discovery Conference, Chicago, IL

• Barbara Slusher co-leads “Drug Discovery in Academia: Recent Successes and Emerging Opportunities” Symposium with ADDC and ASPET in San Diego, CA

March 2016  

• Barbara Slusher co-directs the NIH Neurotherapeutics Development Course in Washington, DC.

• Barbara Slusher presents to students at Alma mater, Dickinson College, to discuss her career in Drug Discovery.

July 2015   

• JHU and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry Enter Partnership

November 2014   

• A Changing Ecosystem for Drug Discovery
• Mind Benders

January 2014   

• Licensing Deals Still Backloaded In 2013, But Biotechs Could Gain Leverage
• New Academia/Industry Partnership Template in Eisai/JHU Collaboration?

October 2013   

• Bringing together the academic drug discovery community
• Academic Drug-Discovery Group’s Work Catching Industry’s Notice

October 2011   

• Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute Hosts Conference to Explore New Paradigm for Drug Discovery

March 2010   

• Brain Science Institute Announces License Agreement to Develop Treatments for Neurological Disease