Quest for better drugs gets international nod

A Monash University researcher with a focus on creating drugs that are more targeted, with fewer side effects has become the first Australian to take out a major international pharmaceutical award.

Professor Arthur Christopoulos, from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), has been awarded the prestigious John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET).

Awarded to a researcher aged 45 or younger, the Award recognises original, outstanding research in the field of pharmacology and/or experimental therapeutics. Previous winners, such as Duke University's Robert Lefkowitz - one of the ASPET members who nominated Professor Christopoulos for this year's award - have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.

The award recognised Professor Christopoulos' investigations of alternative drug recognition sites on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) - the largest and most important family of receptor proteins in the human body. 

GPCRs play a role in virtually every biological process and most diseases, including cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, neuropsychiatric disorders, inflammation and cancers. Almost half the current medications available use GPCRs to achieve their therapeutic effect.

Monash Provost and Senior Vice-President Professor Edwina Cornish congratulated Professor Christopoulos. 

"Arthur is making significant and promising discoveries in the search for new, targeted therapies. This prestigious award is an indicator of the importance of his research in bettering the health of the wider community," Professor Cornish said. 

Professor Christopoulos investigates allosteric sites on GPCRs, which have, traditionally, been largely ignored in drug development. By focusing on these sites, it is possible to develop drugs that are more targeted, avoiding what he calls "blunt hammer" treatments. 

"Drugs that act on the protein region used by the body’s endogenous hormones or neurochemicals will likely have a similar action in any part of the body where the protein region exists. So a treatment for the heart will likely have an effect on the brain, or liver also, if the same hormone or neurochemical - and hence its binding region - is found in those organs," Professor Christopoulos said.

"Allosteric sites allow us to be more specific because they are more variable regions between similar classes of proteins. So, a heart therapy will only act on the heart, reducing side effects.”

Originally a pharmacist, Professor Christopoulos moved into pharmaceutical research to improve the treatments available to patients. 

“It is very satisfying to know that my team’s work will lead to more effective drugs, with benefits for the wider community. I am honoured that our work has been recognised by international peers,” Professor Christopoulos said.

Professor Christopoulos will receive his award at the Experimental Biology conference, hosted by ASPET, the British Pharmacological Society and numerous other scientific societies in the USA in April, 2013, where he will deliver a plenary lecture on his work.