Leading Drug Discovery And Biotechnology Scientists And Experts Discuss Latest Advancements

SBS 13th Annual Conference & Exhibition



Guest Speakers and Topics include



Eugene Butcher, M.D., professor of pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., will address how the biology of human cell systems further innovation and drug discovery. The focus of recent pharmaceutical discovery on drug targets instead of drug biology has led to a decline in innovation and in the success rate of investigational drugs. Dr. Butcher describes a broadly applicable approach to evaluating lead compounds and drugs, using panels of human disease models in which primary human cells of multiple types are cultured in complex conditions to mimic disease biology. The effects of a drug in these models provide a unique and clinically informative measure of its usefulness and effectiveness. Dr. Butcher says this process can reduce costs and increase rates at which new drugs are discovered.



Larry Gold, Ph.D., chief executive officer, SomaLogic, Inc., Boulder, Colo., will address ways in which molecular diagnostics can improve health and lower health care costs. Molecular diagnostics, an evolving scientific field, involves the investigation of genes and their protein levels. Through molecular diagnostics, scientists hope to more accurately diagnose certain health conditions and diseases by assessing a gene's protein level in patients. Dr. Gold will discuss how this field can reduce overall health care costs by enabling physicians to diagnose diseases or potential health conditions early on, rather than when the patient requires more intensive treatment.



Mel Reichman, Ph.D., Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in Wynnewood, Penn., and Christopher Lipinski, Ph.D., Melior Discovery Waterford, Conn., will debate the benefits and drawbacks recently established National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research in the 21st Century. Comprised of 10 academic institutions, the NIH Roadmap was created to discover tools and data that can provide scientists with information about the biological processes of various health conditions. In particular, the two researchers will discuss whether the Roadmap has the potential to make any impact on the drug discovery process.



Other key topics to be discussed and presented at the meeting include: the advances that automation has had on categorizing, managing and synthesizing new drug compounds; proteomic vs. genomic research techniques; and new methods for testing toxicity levels of drug compounds without the use of animal research.







Contact: Ivette Morello


Society for Biomolecular Sciences