Bio Screening Industry News

The Symposium is sponsored by the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC).

The Organising and Scientific Committees cordially invite you to attend the 27 edition of this meeting on Trends in Drug Research. The interplay between molecular structure and biological activity is central to contemporary biomedical and translational research, relevant not only to structural biologists but also to diverse scientists involved in the study of bioactive compounds and signalling mediators and those working in drug discovery and development.

The scientific programme will include plenary lectures, oral communications and poster sessions. Registration will open on Sunday May 3, followed by an inaugural evening lecture and a welcome gathering.
The scientific programme ends on Thursday May 7 and the meeting will be concluded by the symposium dinner on Thursday evening. On Friday after the conference, a complimentary workshop “Virtual Screening and De Novo Design” is offered by BioSolveIT.

REGISTRATION Information and the complete SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME is available on the SYMPOSIUM’S WEBSITE: WWW.NOORDWIJKERHOUTMEDCHEM.ORG

PROGRAMME

Opening keynote lecture

Chairman Prof. Henk TIMMERMAN (VU UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Chemistry’s Role In Target Identification And Validation Dr. Scott A. BILLER (NOVARTIS, Cambridge, United States)

KINASE INHIBITORS: TARGETING THE NON-ATP SITE

Chairman: Dr. Edmond DIFFERDING (UCB, Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium)

Discovery And Development of Selective, Orally Bioavailable Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors For Targeted Treatment Of Human Cancers Prof. Stephen K. BURLEY (SGX PHARMACEUTICALS, SAN DIEGO, United States)

Non-Competitive Inhibitors of MEK1: from Discovery to the Clinic Dr. Jeffrey OHREN (PFIZER, GROTON, United States)

Allosteric Inhibition of Kinase Function Philip E. SANDERSON (MERCK, Rahway, United States)

CHEMICAL AND ENZYMATIC MODIFICATION OF THERAPEUTIC PEPTIDES AND PROTEINS TO IMPROVE THEIR MODE OF ACTION

Chairman: Dr. Stan VAN BOECKEL (ORGANON, Oss, The Netherlands)

Title to be announced
Dr. Jesper LAU (NOVO NORDISK, Maaloev, Denmark)

Sugars and Proteins
Prof. Ben DAVIS (OXFORD UNIVERSITY, Oxford, United Kingdom)

CarboCarrier(TM): a Novel Technology to Extend the Half-life of Small Proteins and Peptides Martin DE KORT (ORGANON, Oss, The Netherlands)

PROMISES IN GPCR DRUG DISCOVERY

Chairman: Prof. ROB LEURS (LEIDEN/AMSTERDAM CENTER FOR DRUG RESEARCH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Structural Genomics of GPCRs; New Opportunities for Drug Discovery Chris TATE (MRC LABORATORY OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, Cambridge , Belgium)

GPCR Hetero-Dimerisation: Contribution to Receptor Pharmacology and Function Prof. Graeme MILLIGAN (UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, Glasgow, United Kingdom)

Dicovery & Development of Allosteric Modulators: Hopes and Promises Dr Emmanuel LE POUL (ADDEX PHARMA, Plan les Ouates, Switzerland)

TRANSPORTERS

Chairman: Prof. Gerhard ECKER (UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA, Vienna, Austria)

Predicting Substrate Properties for ABC-Transporter - Safety Sciences on the Molecular Level Prof. Gerhard ECKER (UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA, Vienna, Austria)

Drug Transport and Metabolism: Value of Knockout and Transgenic Mouse Models Dr. Alfred SCHINKEL (HET NEDERLANDS KANKER INSTITUUT , Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Title to be announced
Prof. Robert FORD (THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, Manchester, United Kingdom)

OFF-TARGET EFFECTS

Chairman: Prof. Hugo KUBINYI (Weisenheim am Sand, Germany)

GPCR Antitargets – Prediction and Prevention of Side Effects Dr. Thomas KLABUNDE (SANOFI-AVENTIS DEUTSCHLAND GMBH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

Understanding Ion Channels Using Computational Approaches Dr. Marcel J. DE GROOT (PFIZER, Sandwich, United Kingdom)

The QSARome of the Receptorome: Development of Robust QSAR Models Capable of Predicting Compound Binding Profiles against Multiple Targets Prof. Alexander TROPSHA (UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL, Chapel Hill, United States)

FRAGMENT BASED DRUG DISCOVERY

Chairman: Dr. Iwan DE ESCH (VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Experiences in Fragment-based Lead Discovery Prof. Roderick E. HUBBARD (UNIVERSITY OF YORK, York, United Kingdom)

SPR Biosensor-Based Fragment Screening and Lead Characterization Prof. U. Helena DANIELSON (UPPSALA UNIVERSITY, Uppsala, Sweden)

Novel-Generation Kinase Inhibitors: Deep Pocket Binders by Fragment- Based Design Dr. Gerhard MÜLLER (CSO PROTEROS FRAGMENTS GMBH, Munich/Martinsried, Germany)

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUG DISCOVERY

Chairman: Robin THURMOND (JOHNSON & JOHNSON, San Diego, United States)

Histamine H4 Antagonists as Future Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Robin THURMOND (JOHNSON & JOHNSON, San Diego, United States)

JAK3 Kinase: a Molecular Target for Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases and Renal Transplant Rejection Dr. Paul S. CHANGELIAN (CHANGELIAN BIOSCIENCE, LLC, , United States)

Molecular Mechanim of Action for Chemokine and Other Anti-inflammatory Agents on 7TM Receptors Dr. Thue W. SCHWARTZ (UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN, Copenhagen, Denmark)

Complimentary Workshop on Friday: “Virtual Screening and De Novo Design” offered by BioSolveIT Late Departure - the transportation will be provided by the organisers.

http://www.LDOrganisation.com

WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX) has signed a new three-year CRO deal with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) to collaborate on in vitro ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion) services. Although WuXi has already been providing the services to Pfizer, WuXi said the new agreement “strengthens an already productive relationship.” WuXi also provides Pfizer with synthetic chemistry, parallel medicinal chemistry (PMC), and bioanalytical services.

In partnership with Pfizer, WuXi PharmaTech will establish ADME assays to provide in vitro screening services on compounds WuXi PharmaTech synthesizes for Pfizer. The goal is to improve the pharmacokinetic properties of new compounds.

The announcement did not disclose financial details of the contract.

Cell-based assays provide one of the most valuable tools in drug discovery.  They are routinely used in target validation, HTS campaigns, structure activity relationship analyses and ADMET studies. Many factors need to be considered in designing, developing and running relevant cell based assays to progress discovery programs.  Significant advances continue to be made in assay design and cell supply processes that incorporate biologically relevant cell types and novel detection technologies. This symposium is designed to capture successful techniques and practices that enable high quality cell-based assays using commonly employed cell types such as CHO, HEK and U-2 OS, as well as the expanding application of additional cell types. The symposium will be of great interest to cell culture scientists, assay developers, screeners, medicinal chemists, ADMET and therapeutic teams.

Session Overviews:

Session 1: Cells as Reagents - Fact or Fiction?
This session will cover various aspects of the most important material used in cell-based assays: the cells. The talks will address the topics such as: how to characterize cell lines to ensure their identity? What are the impacts to the cells after transfection? What are the issues during scale up process? This session will also highlight advances in cell culture automation and material tracking system for cell-based assays.

Session 2: Assay Development - Present Realities
Topics covered include the application of BacMam virus based gene delivery in assay development, the development of high-content cellular assays, dielectric spectroscopy technology and photoprotein aqueorin based GPCR assay platforms and considerations in screening for antibody based therapeutics.

Session 3: Cell-Based Screening - The How, Why & Where
This session will include topics on the implementation of cell-based assays and screens across the discovery process focusing on the challenges, solutions and issues to consider. Presentations include experiences with high throughput screening for lead identification, profiling with cellular panels, ADME applications, and the use of high content screening in both drug discovery and to probe complex cellular systems.

Session 4: Cell-Based Assays - Emerging Trends
The topics in this session will address emerging trends in supply of cells that attempts to bridge the gap between traditional target based in vitro assays and in vivo measurements. The presentations will highlight potential applications of cells to build model systems that can offer the combined benefits of traditional in vitro and ex vivo approaches. These emerging technologies and methodologies hold the promise of addressing a major gap in using target based approaches to discover new biological tools and drugs and will challenge the supply of cell reagents.

http://www.sbsonline.com/