Joseph Larner Memorial Lecture in Pharmacology: Bryan Roth, MD, PhD

The University of Virginia Department of Pharmacology is holding its annual Joseph Larner Memorial Lecture in Pharmacology on March 7, 2025, featuring Bryan Roth, MD, PhD, as the speaker.

Dr. Joseph Larner (January 9, 1921 – January 28, 2014) served as Chairman of the Pharmacology Department from 1969-1990. He led a distinguished career, garnering numerous scientific awards including the Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement in Diabetes Research, the Virginia Lifetime Achievement Award in Science, and he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Larner’s notable research was focused on the study of insulin activity with the goal of improving diabetes treatments and, in 1974, he founded the UVA Diabetes Center for Research. The Larner family—wife Frances and sons Andrew, James, and Paul—endowed the Joseph Larner Annual Memorial Lecture in Pharmacology to explore the pervasive role of metabolism/cell signaling in human disease. Gifts from the family, as well as Dr. Larner’s UVa colleagues and other scientists, who respected his work, provide support for this annual lecture, and continue Dr. Larner’s legacy at the School of Medicine.

Speaker

Bryan L. Roth MD, PhD is the Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Dr. Roth received his MD and PhD (Biochemistry) from St. Louis University in 1983 and subsequently trained in pharmacology (NIH), molecular biology (Stanford) and Psychiatry (Stanford). Prior to coming to UNC, Dr. Roth was a Professor of Psychiatry and Biochemistry at Case Western Re-serve University School of Medicine where his clinical specialty was treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Dr. Roth has published nearly 500 papers in the general areas of molecular pharmacology, structural biology and synthetic biology including 28 papers published in Science, Nature and Cell over the past decade. Scientific highlights include creation of the widely used chemogenetic platform dubbed ‘DREADDs’ and the elucidation of the structures of LSD and antipsychotic drugs to their molecular targets. Dr. Roth was elected to the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. He has received many honors including the Goodman and Gilman Award for Receptor Pharmacology, the PhRMA Foundation Excellence in Pharmacology Award, a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award and the IUPHAR Analytical Pharmacology Lectureship. Dr. Roth has also given more than 40 named lectures including the 2017 Martin Rodbell Lecture and a Presidential Special Lecturer at the 2018 Society for Neurosciences meeting.

Breakfast will be served for all guests before the talk, and we encourage everyone to attend what promises to be an engaging lecture!

For more information about this event, contact Cierra Bell.

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