Monash Dean becomes first Australian to receive prestigious ASPET Goodman and Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology
Professor Arthur Christopoulos FAA FAHMS.
22 February 2024
The Dean of Monash University’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor Arthur Christopoulos FAA FAHMS, has been announced as this year’s recipient of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) 2024 Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology.
Professor Christopoulos is the first Australian to receive the prestigious award, which was established in 1980 to recognise and stimulate outstanding research in pharmacology of biological receptors.
Throughout his career as a pharmacist and molecular pharmacologist, Professor Christopoulos has become world-renowned for his pioneering discoveries of novel drug binding sites on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest class of all medicinal protein targets.
Professor Christopoulos is receiving the ASPET award in recognition of his highly influential studies in GPCRs, particularly for his significant contributions to our understanding of receptor allostery and ligand bias. His research has facilitated identification, quantification and translation of novel first-in-class allosteric modulators and biased agonists for numerous health burdens, and transformed the way GPCR medicines are discovered in academia and industry.
In 2023, for the ninth year running, he was named one of the world’s most influential academics in the field of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the Clarivate list of Highly Cited Researchers. In 2021, he was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science for his seminal contributions to drug discovery and in 2022, together with Monash University collaborator, Professor Patrick Sexton, and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Robert J. Lefkowitz (Duke University), Professor Christopoulos was an academic co-founder of Septerna Inc., a novel GPCR biotechnology company.
Professor Christopoulos also helped lead the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in its journey to becoming ranked number one globally in the 2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject for Pharmacy and Pharmacology, and in 2021 he established the Neuromedicines Discovery Centre to stimulate research into mental health conditions to bring hope to those for whom current treatments are ineffective.
“It truly is an honour to receive this award and to be recognised among those who have received it since it was established in 1980, all of whom I greatly admire,” said Professor Christopoulos.
“I’m humbled to be joining the list of other researchers selected by ASPET over the decades to receive this accolade - each in their own way having made truly significant contributions in the field of pharmacology.”
“I would like to thank ASPET for this honour, and for their ongoing commitment to advancing the science of drugs and therapeutics to accelerate the discovery of cures for disease.”
This is not the first time Professor Christopoulos has been the successful recipient of an ASPET award. In 2013 he was also the first Australian to be awarded ASPET’s John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology, which recognises outstanding fundamental research in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics by early-to-mid career investigators.
The Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman Award in Receptor Pharmacology is presented biennially at the award ceremony during the ASPET Annual Meeting. To learn more, visit the ASPET website.
ENDS