ASPET is pleased to award Dr. P. Jeffrey Conn from the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery the 2020 Julius Axelrod Award in Pharmacology. The Axelrod Award was established in 1991 to honor the memory of the eminent American pharmacologist who shaped the fields of neuroscience, drug metabolism, and biochemistry and who served as a mentor for numerous eminent pharmacologists around the world.
Dr. Conn is receiving this award in recognition of his commitment to academic mentoring of trainees and his cutting-edge research in developing therapies for psychiatric diseases in an academic setting.
He was nominated by Dr. Craig Lindsley, also from Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, who stated that "Jeff is an absolute star pharmacologist whose work has had a fundamental and even transforming impact on basic research in the neurosciences and pharmacology as well as drug discovery related to schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease."
Dr. Conn is the Lee E. Limbird Professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University and Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery. He received his PhD degree from Vanderbilt in 1986 and pursued postdoctoral studies at Yale University before joining the faculty at Emory University in 1988. Dr. Conn served as head of the Department of Neuroscience at Merck and Company, and then moved to Vanderbilt University where he founded the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, where he has advanced multiple drug candidates into development for neurological and psychiatric indications. His research is focused on understanding the pathophysiology changes that contribute to serious brain disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, depression, and using this understanding to develop novel therapeutic strategies for treatment of these devastating disorders. Dr. Conn served as Editor in Chief of Molecular Pharmacology and has been an ASPET member since 1992.