Giacomini honored with ASCPT Distinguished Service Award

Kathy Giacomini, PhD, has been named the 2017 recipient of the Henry W. Elliott Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT).

Founded in 1900, ASCPT comprises more than 2,200 members whose primary interest is to advance the science and practice of clinical pharmacology and translational medicine.

The Elliott Award acknowledges outstanding efforts on behalf of the organization by an individual member. The award will be formally presented at the ASCPT annual meeting March 15-18, 2017, in Washington, D.C.

Giacomini is a faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, a joint department of the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine.

She is also co-director of the UCSF-Stanford Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI), a collaborative effort that researches methods and technology to improve the safety and efficacy of drug and medical device testing. The UCSF-Stanford CERSI employs computational and bioinformatics approaches, known as quantitative pharmacology, to dissect vast amounts of diverse data to accelerate and improve the development of new therapeutic products.

The Giacomini Lab focuses on the roles of membrane transporters, proteins that regulate the passage of molecules, including drugs, across cell membranes. Her lab also researches how genetic differences, including in genes affecting transporter activity, affect patients’ response to the first-line medications for diabetes and gout.