Welcome to the September issue of your CINP eflyer.

In this Issue

	History of Psychopharmacology Online
	Education Committee Report
	Brian Dean Reports from Shanghai
	Honorary Member
	Job Bank

History of Psychopharmacology Online

The CINP History Committee, headed by Tom Ban, will be making the famous history of psychopharmacology series available free on the CINP website to CINP members and interested scholars.  The four books of the series are: The Rise of Psychopharmacology, The Triumph of Psychopharmacology, From Psychopharmacology to Neuro- Psychopharmacology in the 1980s and Reflections on Twentieth-Century Psychopharmacology (edited by T.A. Ban, D. Healy and E. Shorter).  These volumes will soon be available in a form that can both be read on the computer and downloaded as required.  Historical insights in a field such as psychopharmacology could point the way toward more rapid progress in the future, avoiding dead ends, over-promising, overgeneralization and hypothesis bound rigidity. 

RH Belmaker
CINP President

Education Committee Report

The members of the CINP Education Committee for 2008-2010 are: Amir Kalali – USA (Chairman), Peter Gaszner – Hungary (Mentor Program), Robin Emsley – South Africa, Francesco Benedetti – Italy, Brian Dean – Australia (Council Liaison), David Sheehan - USA , Gang Wang – China .

The vision of the Education Committee is aligned with the overall goals of the CINP. This will be achieved by leveraging the educational activities to drive membership and therefore revenue, especially in priority geographical areas. These include areas outside the US and Europe that are already reasonably well served by other organizations. The methods of delivering education will be modernized to have the largest reach and sustained value. Therefore the priority was set to develop online educational resources for members that can be accessed at anytime and provide ongoing and cutting edge education. This initiative will hopefully enhance the reputation of CINP and the value of membership.

Progress so far has been achieved with several agreements. The Neuroscience Education Institute led by CINP member Steve Stahl provides access free to CINP members to their extensive psychopharmacological material. This resource is already available to members on the CINP web site. Quintiles Inc. has also agreed to provide free online training in Good Clinical Practice (GCP) which is required for those interested in conducting clinical trials according to international standards. Both these resources, if purchased independently, are associated with high cost and are being offered to CINP members at no cost. This adds great value to CINP membership and we urge all members to make their availability known to non-member colleagues. Finally we are in discussions to bring other educational offerings to members. All these resources will be accessible via the education section of the CINP web site.

The CINP Education Committee activities comply with the current CINP philosophy of relationship with pharmaceutical companies, and CINP code of conduct. Commercial sponsorship is welcomed in the context of educational activities that provide information on multiple treatment options. The specific criteria for CINP sponsoring educational activities were detailed by CINP President Dr. Belmaker in the August eFlyer.

Finally the Education Committee is working towards the success of the Hong Kong 2010 congress, which will include an educational tract. The chair of the Education Committee Dr. Amir Kalali would be pleased to receive comments and suggestions from members regarding how the CINP Education Committee can best serve the members’ educational needs. He can be contacted via the central office cinp@northernnetworking.co.uk .

Amir Kalali
Chairman of Education Committee

 

Brian Dean Reports from Shanghai

Shanghai is a dynamic,modern city and was a great venue for the 21st International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Congress which focused on our advancing understanding of the regulation of gene expression. This was perhaps best reflected in a lecture by the Sidney Altman, 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, who mounted a convincing argument that RNA is the only molecule that has all the biochemical properties needed to allow the commencement of life on Earth. Another Plenary Lecture was by Victor Ambros who focused on the role of microRNA in regulatory pathways and disease.

In the post human genome era, Mathias Uhlen gave a comprehensive talk on progress toward identifying the entire human proteome. Initial focus has been on identifying membrane proteins and it would appear that the human proteome contains ~5,500 proteins that are involved in maintaining membrane function.

The challenge in fully understanding the role of proteins in human diseases and as drug targets was addressed by Aaron Ciechanover, 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This lecture focused on the importance of protein degradation in cellular functioning and highlighted that 6 to 8 % of our total protein is degraded each day. Robert Singer brought Hollywood to Shanghai by showing a video of mRNA moving around the nucleus and exiting the nucleus by a nuclear pore.

I recommend after the CINP Congress in Hong Kong in 2010 a short side-trip to Shanghai which would be very rewarding.

Professor Brian Dean
CINP Councillor

Honorary Member

Norbert Matussek (born 1922) came to Munich in 1956 and became one of the first to carry out studies on biogenic amines and the biochemical mode of action of modern psycho-tropic drugs. He has been a CINP member since 1964.   In 1967, Matussek became director of psychopharmacology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry.

He initiated extensive collaborations with clinicians which give the Munich clinic a reputation as a research centre for biological psychiatry. He was unanimously elected as an honorary member.
 

Gill Moore
Executive Secretary

Job Bank

We are pleased to announce the opening of the CINP Job Bank for CINP members. The initiative is intended to aid and facilitate advertising and seeking new positions within the focus area of CINP.

Applicants may search positions based on keyword, world region and type of position. The applicants will find full information on how to apply in the detailed description of the job. Advertisers may enter the open position details in a form on the website. Following a review by CINP, the position will be advertised on the website.

If you wish to visit the Job Bank, and see more information, please visit the CINP member area: http://cinp.org/job-bank/

Gregers Wegener
CINP Webmaster