IUPHAR Integrative and Organ Systems (IOSP) Initiative
The IUPHAR Integrative and Organ Systems (IOSP) Initiative was founded by Drs. David B. Bylund and S.J. Enna in 2007 to foster the skills of fundamental laboratory and animal research. The International Council for Science and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics offered funding to organize hands-on workshops to students and early career investigators in emerging economies, with an emphasis in Africa.
Dr. David Lewis, at the University of Leeds, became the chair in 2010. A full description of the initiative is on page 6 of the June 2013 issue of Pharmacology International. If you are interested in hosting an IOSP workshop in a developing country, please contact IOSP@IUPHAR.org.
December 2008: The first IOSP workshop was held for one day as part of the International Conference on Translational Pharmacology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. Please see the lead article of the December 2008 issue of Pharmacology International.
March 2009: The second IOSP workshop was held as part of the 31th Annual Meeting of the Pharmacological and Therapeutic Society of Thailand meeting. This included the effects of drugs in vivo on the cardiovascular system and behavior, and on organ bath preparations of skeletal muscle. Please see the lead article of the December 2008 issue of Pharmacology International.
September 2009: The third ISOP workshop was held for three days in Potchefstroom, South Africa, focusing on central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery. It was a satellite meeting to the 5th International Congress on Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences. For details, please see the article on page 59 in the December 2009 issue of Pharmacology International.
March 2010: The fourth ISOP workshop was held for three days in Cairo, Egypt on cardiovascular drugs in conjunction with the 51st Annual Conference of the Egyptian Society of Pharmacology. For details, please see the article on page 47 in the December 2009 issue of Pharmacology International.
May 2010: The fifth IOSP workshop was held at the University of Nairobi, Kenya focusing on in vivo toxicology investigations. It was the first major undertaking of the newly formed Kenya Society of Basic and Applied Pharmacology. For details, please see the article on page 37 in the December 2010 issue of Pharmacology International.
July 2012: The sixth and sevent IOSP workshops were held in Accra, Ghana and Abjua, Nigeria as satellite meetings to the 5h All Africa Congress for Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. The two-day Accra course focused on pharmacovigilance with an emphasis in communication and public health crisis management. The three-day Abjua course presented central nervous system pharmacology skills. For details, please see the article on page 16 in the December 2012 issue of Pharmacology International.
July 2014: The eighth IOSP workshop held at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa as a satellite meeting to the 17th World Congress on Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. It was a three-day course focusing on fundamental in vivo research skills. For details, please see the article on page 16 in the December 2014 issue of Pharmacology International.
November 2014: The ninth IOSP workshop held in Kigali, Rwanda. The one-day seminar was held at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences and included instructions on pharmacovigilance, rational use of medicines and the risks and regulations of traditional medicines. For details, please see the article in the June 2015 issue of Pharmacology International.