# Seminars
**Source**: https://pharmacy.ucsd.edu/research/seminars
**Parent**: https://pharmacy.ucsd.edu/admissions/admissions-general-information
- [2026 Winter & Spring Seminar Series](#winter2026)
- [Past Seminars](#pastseminars)
## 2026 Winter & Spring Seminar Series
### Stuart L. Goldstein, MD, FAAP, FASN, FNKF
#### Center for Acute Care Nephrology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Professor of Pediatrics and Director
##### The Transdermal GFR System: Case Studies and Discussion of Applications for Use
Friday, January 16 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PT | PSB Room 1186
### Aryana Sepassi, Pharm.D., MAS
#### UC San Diego SSPPS Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy
##### Anticipated Differences in Out-of-Pocket Drug Spending under the Inflation Reduction Act: A Focus on People with Cancer
Thursday, January 29 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Brittany Wright, Pharm.D., BCACP
#### UC San Diego SSPPS Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy
##### Defining a Clinical Focus in Pulmonary Pharmacotherapy: Past Work and Future Directions
Friday, February 20 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Tze Ning Hiew, Ph.D.
#### University of Iowa, College of Pharmacy Assistant Professor
##### The role of ionic interaction in amorphous solid dispersion stability and release performance
Tuesday, February 24 | 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Gustavo Trossini, Ph.D.
#### School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo, University of São Paulo, Brazil
##### Medicinal Chemistry Tools for the Design of Chemotherapy Against Neglected Tropical Diseases
Thursday, March 5 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Niamh Higgins, Pharm.D., MSc, AAHIVP
#### UC San Diego SSPPS Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy Center for Compassionate Communication Affiliate Faculty, Antiviral Research Center, UC San Diego Health
##### How to put together a happy and productive lab team
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### Sara Gianella
#### UC San Diego Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health
##### How to put together a happy and productive lab team
Friday, March 20 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Thibault Alle, Ph.D.
#### UC San Diego SSPPS Assistant Adjunct Professor
##### Microtubule-Stabilizing Agents: Reviving an Old Target for New Therapeutic Horizons
Friday, April 17 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Alex Luli, Pharm.D., BCACP
#### UC San Diego SSPPS Associate Clinical Professor of Pharmacy
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### Kimberly Won, Pharm.D., APh, BCCCP
#### UC San Diego SSPPS Associate Professor
Friday, May 15 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
## Skaggs Therapeutics: Discovery, Development, Practice and Policy (DDPP) Seminar Series
Held weekly during the Fall, the Skaggs Therapeutics: Discovery, Development, Practice and Policy (DDPP) Seminar Series features world-renowned experts who will discuss all aspects of medicinal research — from discovery to drug pricing — with the goal of sparking new ideas and forging collaborations that improve human health.
### Daniel Nomura, Ph.D.
#### University of California, Berkeley Professor of Chemical Biology and Molecular Therapeutics, Department of Chemistry and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
##### Reimagining Druggability using Chemoproteomic Platforms
Friday, September 27 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Margaret Phillips, Ph.D.
#### *UT Southwestern Medical Center Professor and Chair Department of Biochemistry*
##### Potent and reversible proteasome inhibitors for the treatment of malaria identified by phenotypic screening
Tuesday, October 1 | 10-11 am PT | PSB Room 1160
### Vsevolod "Seva" Katritch, Ph.D.
#### University of Southern California Professor Department of Quantitative & Computational Biology Department of Chemistry Co-Director, Center for New Technologies in Drug Discovery and Development Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience The Bridge Institute
##### New Computational Approaches to Drug Discovery, Applied Towards Breaking the Cycle of Pain and Addiction
Friday, October 11 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### Thierry Diagana, Ph.D.
#### *Novartis Head of Global Health and California Sites Head Biomedical Research Head of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases*
##### Novartis Global Health R&D: Innovating for Underserved Patients
Friday, October 18 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### Kim D. Janda, Ph.D.
#### Professor Departments of Chemistry and Immunology Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Chair in Chemistry Director Worm Institute of Research and Medicine (WIRM) Scripps Research
##### A Pharmacokinetic Strategy to Combat the Ultra-Potent Opioids
Friday, October 25 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### Arnab Chatterjee, Ph.D.
#### *Scripps Research Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry, the Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines*
##### Repurposing Screening to Accelerate Fit-for-Purpose Medicines
Thursday, October 31 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### Steven Pearson, M.D., M.Sc.
#### *Founder and Special Advisor Institute for Clinical and Economic Review Lecturer, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School*
##### ICER and the role of drug value assessment to achieve fair pricing and fair access: From the Inflation Reduction Act to new gene therapies
Monday, November 4 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### Prof Dr. Peter Gmeiner
#### *Chair of Medicinal Chemistry Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg*
##### Structure-based development of Class A GPCR ligands
Tuesday, November 5 | 1-2 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1170
### Ron Dror
#### *Stanford University Cheriton Family Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Structural Biology and of Molecular & Cellular Physiology*
##### Simulation and Machine Learning of Biomolecular Structure for the Design of Safe, Effective Drugs
Friday, November 15 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### Fleur M. Ferguson, Ph.D.
#### *Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences University of California San Diego*
##### Interrogating the Druggable Proteome with Proximity Pharmacology
Friday, November 22 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### Peter J. Turnbaugh, Ph.D.
#### *UCSF Professor Department of Microbiology & Immunology*
##### Towards a pharma[e]cological view of precision medicine
Thursday, December 5 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### William B. Feldman, M.D., D.Phil., M.P.H.
#### *Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Medicine Associate Physician, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics Brigham and Women's Hospital Associate Physician Department of Medicine*
##### The High Costs of Inhalers for Asthma and COPD
Friday, December 13 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
### Pradipta Ghosh, M.D.
#### *UC San Diego School of Medicine Professor, Medicine and Cellular & Molecular Medicine*
##### Engineering-driven Biology: Fighting Imprecision in the Era of Precision Medicine
Friday, December 20 | Noon-1 p.m. PT | PSB Room 1120
## Winter & Spring 2025 SSPPS seminars
### Christopher Southan, Ph.D.
#### Professor, Deanery of Biomedical Sciences, University of Edinburgh Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Mexico Owner of TW2Informatics
##### Exploring pharmacological structure-activity relationships in public databases: from patents to AI drug discovery and back
Thursday, January 16 | 11am - 12pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Erika Cyphert, Ph.D.
#### University of California, San Diego Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
##### Microbial therapeutics – harnessing the microbiome to combat musculoskeletal and infectious diseases
Friday, January 17 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Andrew Willeford, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCCP
#### University of California, San Diego – SSPPS Assistant Professor of Health Sciences & Heart Failure Pharmacist
##### A Translation of Clinical Practice in Cardiology to Scholarly Work
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### April Lukowski, Ph.D.
#### University of California, San Diego – SSPPS & Scripps Institution of Oceanography Assistant Professor
##### Discovery and Development of Biocatalysts for Medicinal Chemistry
Friday, February 21 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Chitra Mandyam, Ph.D.
#### University of California, San Diego – Department of Anesthesiology Professor Veterans Affairs, San Diego Research Biologist and Research & Development
##### Barrier Proteins in Alcohol Dependence: An Understudied Target for Therapeutics
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### Zaid Yousif, Pharm.D., MAS
#### University of California, San Diego – SSPPS Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor
##### Leveraging Big Data and Machine Learning in Clinical Pharmacy Research
Friday, March 21 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Panteha Kelly, RPh, APh, BCACP, CDCES.
#### University of California, San Diego – SSPPS Assistant Clinic Professor University of California, San Diego – Health System Clinical Pharmacist and Clinical Coordinator Diabetes Management Clinic
##### Breaking Barriers: Approaches to Treat Severe Insulin Resistance in Diabetes
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### Neville Bethel, Ph.D.
#### University of California, San Diego – Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Assistant Professor
##### The Biophysics of De Novo Design
Monday, April 21 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1160
### Raymond Suhandynata, Ph.D., DABCC (CC), NRCC (CC), ASCP (C)
#### University of California, San Diego – Department of Pathology and SSPPS Assistant Professor
##### Impact of Tacrolimus Formulation on Measurement Bias: Immunoassay vs. LC-MS/MS
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### Niamh Higgins, Pharm.D., MSc, AAHIVP
#### University of California, San Diego – SSPPS Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy University of California, San Diego – Antiviral Research Center Center for Compassionate Communication, Affiliate Faculty
##### Enhancing Compassion to Self and Others Through the Use of a Compassion Training Program Among Research Team Members of the Last Gift Study
Friday, May 16 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
## 2025 Fall Skaggs Therapeutics DDPP Series
### Kip Guy, Ph.D.
#### University of Minnesota
##### Discovery and Early Development of a Novel Antimalarial
Thursday, September 25 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Elizabeth A. Winzeler, Ph.D.
#### UC San Diego Professor - Division of Host Microbe Systems and Therapeutics Department of Pediatrics & Associate Dean for Research and Innovation Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
##### Drugs for Malaria: From New Targets to New Therapeutic Modalities
Friday, October 3 | 1:30-2:30 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Jerold Chun, M.D., Ph.D.
#### Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys(SBP) Medical Discovery Institute and Distinguised Scholar at Neurocrine Biosciences in San Diego
##### Lysophospholipid Receptors in the Brain and Brain Diseases
Friday, October 10 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Yoshi Ishihara, Ph.D.
#### Genesis Therapeutics
##### Exploring functional groups of the Topliss Tree: chloro, methoxy, and hydroxy groups in drug discovery
Friday, October 17 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Judy Varner, Ph.D.
#### UC San Diego Department of Pathology and Moores Cancer Center
##### Small molecule approaches to enhance anti-cancer immunity
Friday, October 24 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Lauren Albrecht, Ph.D.
#### UC Irvine Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharm Sciences
##### MrTAC: Proximity Inducing Methylator and Lysosomal Degrader
Friday, October 31 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Thomas F. Martinez, Ph.D.
#### UC Irvine Assistant Professor Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biological Chemistry Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
##### Big Surprises from Small Proteins
Thursday, November 6 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### John MacMillan, Ph.D.
#### UC Santa Cruz Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
##### Natural Product Discovery and Functional Characterization
Thursday, November 13 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Xiang-Lei Yang, Ph.D.
#### The Scripps Research Institute Ernest W. Hahn Endowed Chair Professor, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology
##### Uncovering the SerRS-SIRT2 Axis: Translational and Transcriptional Control in Stress Response
Friday, November 21 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Sumit Chanda, Ph.D.
#### The Scripps Research Institute Professor of Immunology & Microbiology
##### Fighting Tomorrow's Viruses Today
Friday, December 5 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Deanna L. Kroetz, Ph.D., BS Pharm
#### Ohio State University College of Pharmacy Dean and Professor
##### Reverse Translational Pharmacogenomic Studies to Understand Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy
Friday, December 12 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120
### Frank Furnari, Ph.D.
#### UC San Diego Professor-Department of Medicine Division of Regenerative Medicine Co-Director, Sanford Stem Cell Institute Brain Tumor and Neurorestoration Program
##### BRD2 Bromodomain-Mediated Regulation of Cell State Plasticity Modulates Therapy Response in GBM
Friday, December 19 | Noon-1 pm PT | PSB Room 1120