Keynote Speakers in Drug Discovery

Drug Discovery 2018 begins next week! Make sure you are registered and then take a look at the speakers you can learn from. With topics in GPCR Drug Discovery, Biomarkers in Early Stage Drug Development, Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine, and new Emerging Trends, this year’s agenda covers the entire drug discovery and development process to give attendees a comprehensive overview of the latest process improvements and regulations. On Feb 21, 2018 at 7:30 AM PST, speaker Shuji Ogino, MD, PhD, MS with give a Keynote Presentation entitled “Evolving Paradigms of Pharmaco-MPE (Molecular Pathological Epidemiology) and Immuno-MPE for Precision Medicine.” Attendees for this webinar can earn P.A.C.E. Continuing Education credits. Dr. Shuji Ogino is Professor of Pathology and Epidemiology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), Harvard Medical School, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as well as the founding Chief of Program in MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology at BWH and an Associate Member of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Ogino is developing the transdisciplinary science "Molecular Pathological Epidemiology (MPE)", which bridges and integrates molecular biologic and population health sciences. Dr. Ogino has been recognized as one of the "Most Influential Scientific Minds" in 2014, and "Highly Cited Researcher" in 2015, 2016, and 2017 by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics. Dr. Ogino will introduce the evolving paradigm of Molecular Pathological Epidemiology (MPE) as simply as possible.  Any given human disease represents a fundamentally heterogeneous process, as implicated by the "unique disease principle".  MPE dissects complex interplay between environment, lifestyle factors, molecular pathogenic alterations, and disease occurrence and progression, using large populations, and can be integrated into genome-wide association studies (GWAS), termed the “GWAS-MPE Approach”.  MPE has proven itself to be a promising approach to identify biomarkers for precision medicine, combined with pharmacology to uncover effects of medications on health and diseases, and integrated with immunology to decipher effects of environment on immune status in health and diseases. It is increasingly critical to design large-scale population-based MPE databases worldwide by means of integrating medication use, lifestyle factors, molecular pathology, immune status, and clinical outcome.  Such databases can generate novel information on potential chemopreventive or therapeutic benefits of drugs, which can be further tested by experimental models and clinical trials.  Because disease heterogeneity is a ubiquitous phenomenon, the MPE concept should be widespread to advance biomedical and population health sciences in the 21st century and move us towards precision prevention and treatment. On Feb 22, 2018 at 7:30 AM PST Keynote Presenter Janaki Veeraraghavan, PhD, a Biologist and CDRH/OIR/DMGP at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will present “Predictive Biomarkers to Diagnostic Tests - Scientific and Regulatory Consideration in Development of Companion Diagnostic Tests.” This webinar is also eligible for P.A.C.E. Continuing Education credits. Janaki Veeraraghavan’s experience includes development and validation, from target discovery to Phase II clinical trial, of antibody therapeutics for autoimmune disorders and cancer immunotherapy as well as identification and development of response predictive biomarkers and associated test systems. In the last 3 years, as an FDA review staff in office of in vitro diagnostic and Radiological health at CDRH, she has been involved in the review of companion and complementary diagnostic devices for oncology indications with focus on devices to support immunotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors and update of policy guidelines for review of immunohistochemistry devices. Dr. Veeraraghavan’s presentation will discuss the path that forms biomarker discovery to conversion to a clinically useful companion diagnostic test, which presents many challenges. She will outline the regulatory requirements to developing a successful companion diagnostic test and the challenges that are encountered during the process. Other Speakers for Drug Discovery:

• Sophia Antimisiaris, PhD - Professor, University of Patras & Institute of Chemical Engineering FORTH/ICE-HT
• Joseph Beechem, PhD - Senior Vice President of Research and Development, NanoString Technologies
• Larisa Cavallari, Pharm. D. - Associate Professor & Director, Center for Pharmacogenomics, University of Florida College of Pharmacy
• Sylvain Chemtob, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FAAP, FCAHS - Professor of Pediatrics, Ophthalmology, Optometry and Pharmacology, Université de Montréal, Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology, McGill University, Université de Montréal
• Katherine Chiappinelli, PhD - Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, & Tropical Medicine at The George Washington University
• Michael Davies, MD, PhD - Deputy Chairman and Associate Professor in the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Mark Dunnenberger, PharmD - Director, Pharmacogenomics at NorthShore University HealthSystem
• Matthew Eddy, PhD - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The Scripps Research Institute
• Agnete Fredriksen, MSc, PhD - Chief Scientific Officer, Vaccibody AS
• Annette Gilchrist, PhD - Associate-Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Midwestern University
• Damien Gruson, PhD - Professor, Associated Laboratory Director, Saint-Luc University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium
• Alexander MacKerell, PhD - Grollman-Glick Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Director, Computer-Aided Drug Design Center, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy
• Colleen Niswender, PhD - Professor of Pharmacology, Director of Molecular Pharmacology, Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery
• Bryan L. Roth, MD, PhD - Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy
• Martin Shaw - Business Development Manager at AroCell AB
• Sid Topiol, PhD - Chief Scientific Officer, 3D-2drug LLC
• Alejandro Villagra, PhD - Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Thomas Webster, PhD - Professor and Department Chair, Chemical Engineering, Art Zafiropoulo Chair in Engineering, Affiliated Faculty, Bioengineering, Northeastern University, College of Engineering