May 1, 2020
The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) recently awarded Merrie Mosedale, Ph.D., with the 2020 Division for Toxicology Early Career Award.
The award was established to recognize excellent original research by early career investigators in toxicology.
Mosedale is an assistant professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. She is also the assistant director of the Institute for Drug Safety Sciences where she leads the Translational Pharmacogenomics Research Program. Through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and academic scientists, Mosedale is working to solve safety problems by integrating cutting-edge pharmacogenomics approaches with novel in vivo, in vitro, and in silico platforms.
Currently, she is focusing on the application of mouse genetics to identify individual susceptibilities to adverse drug reactions in humans, organotypic culture models to understand mechanisms of drug toxicities, and exosome biology to predict toxicity liabilities earlier in drug development. Findings from her research highlight the potential for these novel approaches to improve human risk assessment in drug-safety testing, as well as to provide mechanistic insights into drug toxicity.
About the early career award, Mosedale said, “I was extremely surprised! Based on the credentials of past winners, I didn’t think I was even a contender. However, I am so excited and honored to win this award…. Personally, it is very gratifying to be recognized for my work. Professionally, these kinds of awards help to build credibility in the field and advance my career.”
Prior to joining UNC, Mosedale was a research investigator at the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences. She received her B.S. from Duke University and her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.
As for future aspirations, Mosedale has her eyes set on a National Institutes of Health RO1 grant – the holy grail for early-stage academic researchers, she said.
“In terms of my research, I am pursuing several big ideas in the toxicology space – all focused on better predicting and understanding drug-induced liver injury (DILI). For example, I am working to develop an in vitro mouse genetic reference platform for the evaluation of genetic susceptibility factors associated with DILI. I am also exploring the utility of exosomes to predict and understand idiosyncratic DILI.”
While Mosedale said she has a long way to go in her career before she feels accomplished, she hopes receiving the early career award means she’s on the right path.
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