The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences Wins Simcyp Academic IVIVE Award

Research Triangle Park, NC, October 18, 2012 --(PR.com)-- The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences (http://www.thehamner.org) has announced that a team of researchers within the Institute for Chemical Safety Sciences has received the 2012 Simcyp Academic IVIVE Award for Most Informative Scientific Report at the Simcyp Consortium Meeting held Sept 17 in Sheffield, England. Dr. Barbara A. Wetmore, a senior research investigator and lead author of “Integration of dosimetry, exposure, and high-throughput screening data in chemical toxicity assessment,” accepted the award and presented the report findings to the consortium members. Researchers at The Hamner Institutes, in collaboration with scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, measured the ability of chemicals to be cleared by the liver and bound to proteins in the blood, two key determinants of how long a chemical will reside in the body following exposure. These data were then used to estimate the daily dose a person would need to be exposed to in order for the chemical to achieve internal concentrations similar to those that elicited biological activities in the high-throughput assays. The work was published earlier this year in the journal Toxicological Sciences (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21948869).

The Simcyp Consortium recognized The Hamner’s work in part because this project represents the first application of the Simcyp Simulator in performing these assessments for industrial and environmental chemicals. Wetmore also presented the report at the Simcyp Annual Virtual Seminar on the Applications of Automated Population-based IVIVE and PBPK on Oct 11.

Simcyp is a research-based company providing predictive pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic tools, workshops and consultancy services. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, its user-friendly simulator and databases predict drug absorption, clearance, distribution and metabolic drug-drug interactions from in vitro data. By simulating pharmacokinetics in virtual patient populations and identifying individuals at extreme risk, the Simcyp Simulator is able to accelerate drug discovery and development. For more information, visit http://www.simcyp.com.

Quotes:
“I congratulate Dr. Wetmore and her group for winning the 2012 Simcyp Academic Award for Most Informative Scientific Report,” said Dr. William Greenlee, president and chief executive officer of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences. “This honor serves as further evidence of the highly regarded stature of our staff and their impressive work in the fields of toxicology and chemical safety.”

Details:
- For more information about Wetmore, visit http://www.thehamner.org/scientists/entry/barbara-a-wetmore.

New Media Content:
- The Hamner’s Twitter page
http://www.twitter.com/thehamner

- The Hamner’s LinkedIn page
http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-hamner-institutes-for-health-sciences

About The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences:
The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences is a nonprofit translational biomedical research institute dedicated to bettering human health through innovative science. The Hamner – together with academic, corporate and government partners – works to bring improved medicines from bench to bedside. The Hamner, located on an open, multidisciplinary campus in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, builds upon 35 years of research in toxicology; drug and chemical safety; rare, orphan and neglected diseases; and more. Novel technologies currently being developed include in silico models for predictive toxicology, in vitro models that utilize human cells or cell lines to evaluate perturbations of cellular responses, and in vivo models to elucidate genes that play a role in susceptibility to drug-induced toxicities. For more information, visit http://www.thehamner.org.

Erin Smith
MMI Public Relations
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