In Memory ofTony J. Harmar FRSE

28th Nov 1951 – 10th APRIL 2014

2014 JR Vane Medal lecture

Presented by Michael Spedding

British Pharmacological Society's Fellows' Reception

2

Nobel Prize 1982

Knighted 1984

700 Publications, 20 books, innumerable awards

Vane biocascade assay technique

Mechanism of action of aspirinCycoloxygenases, prostaglandins,Thromboxanes

R&D Director of Wellcome Foundation

Founded William Harvey Research Institute

3

Circadian rhythm of biological parameters

MT

melatonin

Suprachiasmatic

nucleus

Light

Pineal

gland

Melatonin activity in the central nervous system

Chronobiotic

effectMT1 MT2

Depression ?

Neuronal Plasticity and Chronobiology are crucially important : new antidepressant mechanisms

6

7

VPAC2 PER1 and PER2

8

9

10

11

12

13

Physiological definition of circadian rhythms – food versus light

14

Immune-Circadian Interactions

In memory of…our database chairman

Anthony (Tony) John Harmar, FRSE

28 November 1951 – 10 April 2014

17

NC-IUPHAR membershipIUPHAR/BPS Guidetopharmacology

• The main committee

• NC-IUPHAR meetings• Twice a year (Spring and Autumn), in Edinburgh and Paris; • Attended by members of the core committee and invited guests relevant to topics on the

agenda (e.g. corresponding members).• Members welcome.

Chair

Michael Spedding, France

Vice Chairs

Antony Harmar – Database (Jamie Davies)

Anthony Davenport, UK - Chairman Evolving

Pharmacology Group

Rick Neubig, USA - GPCRs

Eliot Ohlstein, USA - Editor

Members

Stephen Alexander, UK

Thomas Bonner, USA

William Catterall, USA

Arthur Christopoulos, Australia

Sir Colin Dollery, UK

John Cidlowski, USA

Doriano Fabbro, Switzerland

Kozo Kaibuchi, Japan

Yoshikatsu Kanai, Japan

Alex Phipps, UK

John Peters, UK

Jean-Philippe Pin, France

Ex Officio

Patrick du Souich, Canada (Clinical) - IUPHAR President

Sam Enna, USA - IUPHAR Secretary-General

Urs Ruegg, Switzerland - IUPHAR Treasurer

Simon Maxwell, UK - Educational Site Project Leader

Jamie Davies, UK - Database Principal Investigator

Joanna Sharman, UK - Database Developer

Adam Pawson, UK - Senior Database Curator

Helen Benson, UK - Database Curator

Elena Faccenda, UK - Database Curator

Christopher Southan, Sweden - Chemical Curator

Veronika Divincova, UK - Project Administrator

Matt Wright, UK - representing HGNC

Past Chairs (ex officio)

Paul Vanhoutte, China

Robert Ruffolo, USA

Some NC-IUPHAR achievements

• Human and organisational:1. Celebrate the life and work of Tony Harmar – set up database at

Edinburgh.

2. IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY database based in Edinburgh, with joint funding from IUPHAR and The British Pharmacological Society (BPS)

3. A federation of >80 drug target subcommittees, representing ~800 expert pharmacologists worldwide, allowing an independent academic/industrial expert-driven system of data collation and giving recommendations on key pharmacological interactions.

4. A unique human organisation allowing experts to validate their own areas, with authority, and to have their propositions published with high impact (good for their young co-authors) and freely available in the database.

5. Sometimes the human/scientific aspects can lead to real controversy !

Some NC-IUPHAR achievements

• Nomenclature:1. Cumulative H-Index for NC-IUPHAR is 72.

2. The 5-HT receptor nomenclature paper has been cited 2878 times, prostanoid receptor nomenclature 1721, adenosine receptors 2017, chemokine receptors 2022, cannabinoid receptors 696, muscarinic receptors 1226.

3. The nomenclature for voltage-gated ion channels was entirely rationalised by NC-IUPHAR.

4. Reorganisation of ligand-gated ion channel receptor nomenclature.

5. A potential tsunami of spurious GPCR heterodimers (caused by overexpression in artificial systems) was stopped by recommending rigorous criteria.

6. The recent (non-contentious) classification of transporters, and the complete pharmacology of kinases in guidetopharmacology have been achieved in very short periods of time (~1 year).

Tony’s last joke ?

22

My reply….

23

IUPHAR/BPS Guidetopharmacology

How can we Continue and Improve on Tony’s legacy ?

How can we engage fellows more ?