Dr. Haian Fu was elected as the ASPET Fellow!

Congratulations to Dr. Haian Fu, a co-founder and a former ICBS President, for his election as the ASPET Fellow!

Selection as a fellow of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (FASPET) is a highly prestigious honor bestowed to the most distinguished ASPET members. Fellows are recognized for their meritorious efforts to advance pharmacology through their scientific advancements, mentorship, and service to the Society. 

Haian Fu, PhD, currently holds the positions of Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology and Associate Dean for Therapeutic Discovery and Development at the Emory University School of Medicine. He is also the co-leader of the Emory Center for New Medicines and holds the Winship Partner in Research Endowed Chair.

Dr. Fu received his BS in biology from Anhui University in 1982 and his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989. He then carried out his postdoctoral research in microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School (1989-91). Dr. Fu joined Emory Pharmacology in 1994 after three years at the Harvard Medical School faculty and was appointed as chair in 2017. 

Dr. Fu is a pioneer in the field of 14-3-3 proteins, which play a crucial role in regulating various cellular processes through protein-protein interactions (PPI). His recent work has led to the identification of numerous cancer-associated oncoPPIs and mutation-enabled neoPPIs, which has opened new avenues for developing cancer-specific therapeutic agents. To promote therapeutic discovery, Dr. Fu co-founded the Emory Chemical Biology Discovery Center and the Emory Center for New Medicines. He leads multidisciplinary teams at Emory for translational research. Currently, he co-directs the NIH-funded Emory Lung Cancer Program Project (NCI P01) and serves as a core leader for the NIH TREAT-AD consortium (NIA U54) to discover Alzheimer’s disease targets and therapeutics. 

In addition to his research contributions, Dr. Fu is a dedicated educator and mentor, having trained numerous outstanding students, postdoctoral fellows, and research scholars. With his trainees, he has authored over 200 research papers. He has been recognized by various honors, including the Burroughs Wellcome Fund New Investigator Award (1996), the GRA Distinguished Investigator Award (2006), and election as a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS; 2014).

As an ASPET member since 1995, Dr. Fu has actively been involved in the ASPET community, including organizing ASPET symposia and serving on the ASPET Finance Committee (2007-2013) and on the editorial board of the ASPET journal, Molecular Pharmacology (2011-2020; 2011-2016 as associate editor). He also serves on other national and international committees, such as the Steering Committees for the NIH/NCI Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC, 2010-2022) and the NCI Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2) Network (2012-2023), respectively; the NIH/NCI Board of Scientific Counselors (2024); and the International Review Committees for Institut Pasteur-Korea (chair, 2015) and Swedish SciLifeLab national infrastructure (2016, 2024). Dr. Fu is a co-founder, past president (2012), and chair of the Board of Directors (2016-2022) for the International Chemical Biology Society.

Congratulations, Dr. Fu for your achievements and recognition!