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Members in the News Achievements, Awards, Promotions, and Scientific Breakthroughs Namandje N. Bumpus, PhD
Dr. Namandje Bumpus Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Atul Laddu Georgia Thrombosis Forum (GTF)
The Pharmacologist • June 2016
Namandje Bumpus was recently named as one of 105 innovative scientists to receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers this year. This extremely prestigious award is the highest honor given by the United States government for early career investigators employed by or funded by a number of different departments or agencies. The award was conferred by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House. Dr. Bumpus, currently an associate professor of pharmacology, has been on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University since 2010. She is funded by the Department of Health and Human Services with an R01 from the NIGMS titled “Cellular Signaling in Drug-induced Toxicity” and a U19 project from the NIAID titled “Tissue Pharmacology Imaging and Modeling.” Overall, her laboratory studies drug metabolism, focusing specifically on drugs used to prevent and treat HIV infection and determining whether genetic differences alter drug metabolism and thus clinical efficacy. Dr. Bumpus previously won the 2015 Division for Drug Metabolism Early Career Achievement Award for this work. She has served as councilor of the Division for Drug Metabolism and will
be the Division Secretary/TreasurerElect starting July 1, 2016. Dr. Bumpus has been a member of ASPET since 2008. She is a member of the Division for Drug Metabolism, the Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology, and the Division for Toxicology.
Atul Laddu, MD, PhD Dr. Atul Laddu founded Georgia Thrombosis Forum (GTF), an affiliate of the North American Thrombosis Forum (NATF). Under his direction, a team of volunteers has been working since 2012 to promote awareness of the deadly conditions of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in the state of Georgia. Statistics indicate one clot develops every minute, and one patient dies of clots every six minutes. DVT and PE affect over 900,000 people in the United States annually, resulting in high mortality rates. An immediate need thus exists to spread public awareness and promote networks to support organizations such as the GTF. Dr. Laddu and Ms. Richa Bhome, a 9th grader and contributing author to this article, along with several other GTF volunteers have made significant contributions to spreading awareness of thrombosis in Georgia communities. These include receiving recognition