JHDD Director Barb Slusher delivers the annual Emmett T. Cunningham, Jr., MD, PhD, MPH, Distinguished Lectureship in Medical Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Bullfrog AI announces an exclusive licensing agreement with JHDD to commercialize prodrug compositions of mebendazole to treat cancer
March 2023
JHDD and UMB hold their annual joint research symposium
In collaboration with Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company, JHDD scientists develop a novel prodrug for the treatment of alopecia areata
The JHDD team enjoys a tour at the Guinness Open Gate Brewery
February 2023
JHDD graduate student Manisha Pradhan is awarded an F31 to study the role of GCPII in visceral pain. Congratulations, Manisha!
December 2022
Congratulations to the JHDD Collaborator of the Year, Niyada Hin!
Happy Holidays from JHDD! The team celebrated at Cindy Lou’s Fish House with a party and white elephant gift exchange
For our summer outing, the JHDD team hits the rapids and goes whitewater rafting in Harper’s Ferry
June 2022
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!
April 2022
The JHDD team spreads their wings for indoor skydiving at iFly!
March 2022
JHDD welcomes Lukas Tenora to the DMPK team and Kate Novotna to the chemistry team
February 2022
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
January 2022
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!
December 2021
JHDD celebrates the holidays with a lunch and white elephant gift exchange. Happy holidays from JHDD!
November 2021
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]
October 2021
JHDD’s HEAL project to develop a new treatment for neuropathic pain approved for transition from the UG3 to the UH3 phase
September 2021
JHDD bids farewell to Sanket and Jake with a happy hour at Barcocina
August 2021
JHDD spends a fun day catching rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay
June 2021
PSMA Therapeutics, featuring JHDD-licensed technology, is acquiredbyBayer
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!
October 2020
Rana Rais and collaborators report on physiologically active and shape-changing theragrippers as a novel method of enhancing drug delivery. [Science Advances]
NIH awards R01 to Barb Slusher, Takashi Tsukamoto, and collaborator Amy Arnsten to study GCPII inhibition for the treatment of prefrontal cortex deficit.
September 2020
First-in-human Phase 1/2a clinical trial initiated for JHDD-invented glutamine antagonist for the treatment of solid tumors
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]
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
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
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
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
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
JHDD scientists presented their latest findings on NEPA mechanism of action during the MASCC meeting in Washington on June 23. NEPA is a drug combination of netupitant and palonosetron used for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). Previous work has shown that both palonosetron and netupitant can induce 5-HT3 and NK1 receptor internalization and that this could help explain the long-term action of this agent in CINV prevention. One question that has often been asked is what happens to the receptors after they are internalized. The latest work using HEK 293 cells that express the NK1 receptor shows that when using the NK1 receptor antagonist netupitant by itself or in combination with palonosetron (NEPA), NK1 receptors were internalized and remained internalized 6h after exposure to the antagonist. In contrast, the NK1 receptor could be internalized by its agonist, substance P (SP), and subsequently recycled to the cell surface within 4h of SP exposure. The results indicate that the antagonists trigger internalization without recycling and suggest receptors may undergo degradation. Read more
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 KitchenClick 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.
