Associate Professor Nicola J Smith is an expert in molecular pharmacology with a track record in exploring GPCR structure-function relationships in the context of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, and more recently lung cancer. She is the Head of the Department of Pharmacology at UNSW Sydney, Australia, where her team works on a class of G protein-coupled receptors called ‘orphan GPCRs’. Recently, her career focus has been interrogating receptor deorphanisation claims and calling for more stringent standards of evidence. Smith is the current President-elect of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT).

Mariah is a final year PhD candidate at UNSW Sydney, supervised by A/Prof Nicola Smith. Her research focuses on the molecular pharmacology of BB3, an understudied G protein-coupled receptor with untapped therapeutic potential in lung cancer. Since 2023, she has served as Treasurer of the ASCEPT Student Committee, where she has organised career workshops and networking dinners for students at the annual ASCEPT conferences.