Dr. Namandjé Bumpus — a recipient of both a PhRMA Foundation predoctoral fellowship in pharmacology/toxicology and a pharmacology/toxicology Research Starter Grant from the Foundation — was recently named the Director of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, where she has carved out a distinguished record of achievement.
In her new role at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Bumpus also holds the E.K. Marshall and Thomas H. Maren Professorship in Pharmacology.
Dr. Bumpus completed her undergraduate education at Occidental College and received a PhD in pharmacology in 2007 from the University of Michigan. Her PhRMA Foundation graduate fellowship in pharmacology/toxicology focused on investigation of the effects of a naturally occurring cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2B6 mutation on the ability of the enzyme to become inactivated by known inactivators of the wild-type enzyme.
As a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute, Dr. Bumpus studied the regulation of CYP4A and CYP4F genes in mice.
She began her independent research career in 2010 as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology & Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where her initial work investigating the mechanisms of anti-HIV drug-induced toxicities was supported by a PhRMA Foundation Research Starter Grant.
While rising through the ranks academically at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Bumpus has held positions in the Dean’s office, including Associate Dean for Institutional and Student Equity, and more recently Associate Dean for Basic Research.
Dr. Bumpus’ research has continued to focus on drug metabolism and the pharmacology and toxicology of metabolites. In particular, she is known for her studies on the metabolism of antiviral drugs used to treat HIV-1 and how genetic variations in drug-processing enzymes may influence their efficacy.
She recently served as chair of the National Institutes of Health Xenobiotic Distribution and Action study section and an Associate Editor of Drug Metabolism and Disposition. She is currently a member of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Executive Council. Dr. Bumpus is the recipient of numerous awards for her work, including the Tanabe Young Investigator Award from the American College of Clinical Pharmacology; the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama; the Leon Goldberg Award from the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; and the John J. Abel Award, named after the first director of the Department of Pharmacology at Johns Hopkins, and given by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics to an outstanding researcher in the field of pharmacology under the age of 45.
