CPSA Shanghai 2013
Reviving Pharmaceutical R&D with Translational Science, Regulatory Efficiency, and Innovative Models
April 24 - 27, 2013
Renaissance Shanghai Pudong Hotel
Shanghai, China
Plenary Speaker
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Ian A. Blair
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Dr. Blair received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1971 from Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, under the mentorship of the 1969 Nobel Laureate, Sir Derek H.R. Barton. He then took up a British Council-sponsored Lectureship at Makerere University in Uganda. In 1973, he moved to Australia and held research fellowships at the Australian National University in Canberra and at Adelaide University. Dr. Blair conducted some of the early ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry studies with Dr. John Bowie at Adelaide University during this time. In 1979, Dr. Blair was appointed to a lectureship and then senior lectureship in the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London (now part of Imperial College, London). In 1983 he was appointed as a Professor of Pharmacology and Chemistry, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and in 1996 to the Derek H.R. Barton Chair in Pharmacology. He moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 as the A.N. Richards Professor of Pharmacology and Director of a new Center for Cancer Pharmacology. In 2002, Dr. Blair was appointed to be Vice-Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and in 2003 Director of the Proteomics and Systems Biology Facility at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an internationally renowned expert in the use of mass spectrometric methods for the structural elucidation and quantification of endogenous biomolecules, DNA-adducts, protein-adducts, and drugs and their metabolites. He is particularly interested the discovery and quantification of biomarkers of oxidative stress that are involved in carcinogenesis and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Blair has published over 310-refereed manuscripts many of which have employed the use of mass spectrometry. His papers have been cited over 11,000 times, he has an h-index of 53, and an I10-index of 203. In 2000, he made the landmark discovery that the DNA-reactive bifunctional electrophile, 4-oxo-2-nonenal is a major product of endogenous lipid hydroperoxide decomposition (Lee SH, Blair IA. Chem Res Toxicol. 2000;13:698; 173 citations). In addition, Dr. Blair discovered a new technique of mass spectrometry based on electron capture atmospheric pressure chemical ionization that makes it possible to conduct quantitative analyses of steroids, eicosanoids, and DNA-adducts using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry at levels of sensitivity using that were not possible previously (Singh et al. Anal Chem. 2000;72:3007; 157 citations). The paper describing the application of this technique to chiral lipidomics analysis (Lee SH, Blair IA. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2003;17:2168; 114 citations) was awarded the 2005 RCM Beynon Prize for "an innovative advance in mass spectrometric instrumentation or methodology that has had the greatest immediate impact in its particular sub-discipline over the previous two calendar years". In a 2001 study published in Science, which stimulated tremendous media and scientific attention, Dr. Blair used mass spectrometry to identify a novel pathway by which vitamin C can induce DNA damage (Lee et al. Science 2001;292:2083; 375 citations). A collaborative study with Dr. David Tuveson published recently in Nature (which has already been cited over 100 times) used mass spectrometry-based methodology to help unravel the mechanisms by which oncogene-mediated oxidative stress is involved in tumorigenesis (DeNicola et al. Nature. 2011;475:106). In 2005, Dr. Blair was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his "distinguished contributions to the field of mass spectrometry and its applications to pharmaceutical medicine and for moving autocoid biology forward with sensitive bioanalytical techniques". In 2006, he was awarded the presitigous Dean's award for graduate student training at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, he was also elected as a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists for his "distinguished contribution to the pharmaceutical sciences." In 2011, he received the Eastern Analytical Award for Outstanding Achievements in Mass Spectrometry. Dr. Blair is on the editorial boards of the Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, Journal of Lipid Research, Chemical Research in Toxicology, Journal of Mass Spectrometry, and Current Drug Metabolism, and he regularly serves on NIH study sections. Most recently he became a chair of the NIH Drug Discovery and Molecular Pharmacology (DMP) Study Section. He is the Principal Investigator on three NIH research grants. His commitment to training is reflected in his NIH-funded Cancer Pharmacology Training Program and by the > 90 pre- and post-doctoral trainees who have graduated from his laboratory.
CPSA Shanghai - Where Technology and Solutions Meet. Where East Meets West.