Sprowl receives ASPET Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Early Career Award

This award recognizes excellence in translational and clinical pharmacology research from early career scientists. Sprowl received the award in recognition of his pioneering research studying the contribution of solute carriers (SLCs) in drug-induced toxicity and related transformative strategies that target these proteins while maintaining drug efficacy.

Sprowl has been recognized as an emerging leader in studying the role of SLCs as contributors to drug efficacy and toxicity. Expanding knowledge of SLCs and their regulation seeks to aid in predicting nutrient or xenobiotic disposition, as well as explain interpatient variability and response based on their activity. Sprowl’s expertise and contributions to this field are represented by more than twenty-five peer reviewed manuscripts in high impact journals associated with SLCs and drug response. His research group is currently investigating tyrosine kinase regulation of SLCs and how these events contribute to patient variability or life-threatening drug-drug interactions, which is supported by National Institute of General Medical Sciences R01 funding.

“I am honored to be recognized by the ASPET Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology,” says Sprowl. “This is an award that has been previously received by numerous of my colleagues who I hold in high regard, and have made many significant contributions to our field.”

The Division for Translational and Clinical Pharmacology will present the award to Sprowl in May 2023 during the ASPET Annual Meeting in St. Louis, MO. Sprowl will also present a lecture on his work at the meeting, titled "Regulation of Solute Carriers by Disruption of Tyrosine Kinases and Associated Clinical Outcome.” Sprowl has been a member of ASPET since 2018.

“I am pleased to present on our research which provides insight into identifying sources of interpatient variability and dangerous drug-drug interactions,” says Sprowl. “This will involve discussing our recent discoveries of drug uptake transporters, which regulate drug disposition, being regulated by tyrosine kinases. These kinases are sensitive to many tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which are a family of drugs used chronically to treat cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and various other diseases,” Sprowl explains. “This knowledge has the potential to have far-reaching implications and could ultimately be used to better predict drug disposition that contributes to adverse events, provide guidance in identifying targets to avoid in drug development, or provide methods to reduce transport activity that promote tissue accumulation and toxicity.”