Ala F Nassar, PhD
Biography
Research & Publications
News
Biography
Ala F. Nassar, PhD, is a faculty member at Yale University. He has over 25 years of experience in Drug Metabolism and Preclinical Drug Development with leadership roles in both big pharma, smaller biotech firms and academics (UCONN, Brandeis and Yale). He has published more than 100 articles and chapters and holds patents in the fields of drug metabolism and bioanalytical chemistry. He leads and executes ADME-Tox experiments supporting grant projects. He was the head of the drug metabolism and bioanalytical department at Vion Pharmaceuticals, where his studies of the ADME-Tox properties of Laromustine led to a fuller, more accurate and detailed understanding of the human toxicities of the drug. He was an Ass. Professor of chemistry department and the director of Mass Spectrometry Facility at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA before coming to Yale. He has served on numerous editorial boards and is the editor of the previous edition of Drug Metabolism Handbook: Concepts and Applications and Biotransformation and Metabolite Elucidation of Xenobiotics: Characterization and Identification. Co-editor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Encyclopedia: Drug Discovery, Development & Manufacturing, 2010. He was honored as a guest editor of the special issue of Metabolites entitled "MS-Based Drug Metabolism in Cancer Research. 2021"
Courses Taught and Coordinated
General chemistry 161 and 162, Central Connecticut State University, Spring 2017
Advanced Mass Spectrometry course at Brandeis University, Fall 2011
Coordinated and taught graduate-level course on drug metabolism and bioanalytical chemistry at University of Connecticut, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2011
Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry at Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s World Pharmaceutical Congress Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA 2005 and 2007
Drug Metabolism at Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s World Pharmaceutical Congress Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA 2007 and 2008
Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry, at Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, OH 1998
Education & Training
- Post DocUCONN/Chemistry/Pharmacology (1996)
- PhDUCONN, Bioanalytical/Drug Metabolism (1995)
- Visiting ScientistKyushu and Nagasaki Universities (1994)
Activities
- Short courses on drug metabolism (Parts 1 and 2)Philadelphia, PA, United States 2008World Pharmaceutical Congress Annual Meeting
- Organized and chairperson for short course on drug metabolismPhiladelphia, PA, United States 2007World Pharmaceutical Congress Annual Meeting
- Organized and chairperson for short course on drug metabolismPhiladelphia, PA, United States 2006World Pharmaceutical Congress Annual Meeting
- Chairperson for drug-drug interactions sessionPhiladelphia, PA, United States 2006World Pharmaceutical Congress Annual Meeting
- Chairperson for DMPK workshopBoston, MA, United States 2006Evaluation and Validation of Preclinical DMPK Assays
- Chairperson for DMPK session “Removing Compounds with Unfavorable DMPK Attributes Early”Philadelphia, PA, United States 2005World Pharmaceutical Congress Annual Meeting
- Chairperson for short course on drug metabolism, “The importance of understanding metabolism in pharmaceutical research”Philadelphia, PA, United States 2005World Pharmaceutical Congress Annual Meeting
- Idiosyncratic Drug Reactions: Approaches for reducing reactive intermediates discovery and developmentPhiladelphia, PA, United States 2004ACS National Meeting
- Method For Characterization of Metabolites in Drug Discovery Utilizing GENESIS Workstation and Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry.Orlando, FL, United States 2002ISSX meeting
- Enhanced Separation for Nitrogen Containing Compounds in Plasma Using a Post-Column Reagent with Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry. (Bioanalytical Chemistry: MS)Orlando, FL, United States 1999Pittcon
Honors & Recognition
Award | Awarding Organization | Date |
---|---|---|
Research and Development fellowship | Battelle Memorial Institute | 1999 |
Fellowship | Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan | 1994 |
The Nat and Frances Sadow Scholarship in Chemistry | University of Connecticut | 1994 |
Professional Service
Organization | Role | Date |
---|---|---|
Metabolites | Guest Editor | 2021 - Present |
CT Science Fair | Judge | 2020 - Present |
New Haven high school (ESUMS) | I served as a mentor for 9-12 grades students at ESUMS school in New Haven. I meet with the students at ESUMS every week to coach them translate their ideas for projects into finished products in time for the CT science fair in April and New Haven science fair in May. In this process, I taught them basic scientific concepts of chemistry and bioanalytical tools (e.g., validation, reproducibility). Also, I serve as a judge for CT science fair. | 2019 - 2021 |
Metabolites | Editorial Board Member | 2018 - Present |
The Open Drug Metabolism Journal | Editorial Board Member | 2007 - 2014 |
Journal of Drug Metabolism Letters | Editorial Board Member | 2007 - Present |
The American Society for Mass Spectrometry | Member | 2002 - Present |
International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics | Member | 1995 - 2010 |
American Chemical Society | Member | 1992 - 2016 |