[DAS] Drug Discovery

Fri May 2 15:45:21 EDT 2003

                        Drug Discovery Technology 2003 
          Ensuring rapid drug identification, validation & development
			The Millennium Gloucester, London, 21st & 22nd May 2003

Identify and assess the key issues in Drug Discovery Technology. Don't miss this unique opportunity to examine the industry changes. Hear from leading companies presenting the next generation of drug discovery strategies, research and technologies.

Key Speakers include:
Andreas Sewing, Lead Discovery Technologies, Pfizer
Tom Smith, Senior Scientist, GlaxoSmithKline
Donald Halbert, Director, Genomics and Bioinformatics, Abbott Laboratories
Karen Maubach, Research Fellow - Merck Sharp & Dohme
Romano Kroemer, Senior Research Scientist - Molecular Modelling & Design, Pharmacia
Doriano Fabbro, Head of Oncology Research, Novartis
Hans-Jurgen Federsel, Head of Project Management - Process R&D, AstraZeneca
Dr Andrew Lyall, Director of Proteome Discovery, Oxford GlycoSciences
Serge Halazy, Worldwide Head of Chemistry, Serono
Ulf Boemer, Senior Scientist HTS, Schering
Hanno Langen, Head of Proteomics Initiative, Roche

... PLUS many more

Drug Discovery Technology 2003 will give you a unique opportunity to network with 100 + speakers, delegates and visitors who are all at the cutting edge of drug discovery technologies, enabling you to exchange ideas, make new contacts, forge new collaborations and gain further insight into this fast moving field.   

Key themes at Drug Discovery Technology 2003 include:

- Functional genomics and pharmacology
- Capabilities of proteomics in drug discovery
- In vitro electrophysical techniques
- HTS, ADME, in silico and structure based screening
- Improving hit-to-lead process
- High throughput purification
- High throughput molecular pathology
- Computer aided drug design
- Process R&D

Plus a PRE-CONFERENCE INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP - Tuesday 20th May 2003
Managing your newest business asset, e-data

-PRICING-
2 Day conference with interactive workshop GBP1400
2 Day conference GBP1099
Workshop only GBP650

To make an immediate booking or request a brochure for this event, please contact me.

Telephone: +44 (0)20 8767 6711
Fax: +44 (0)20 8767 5001
Email: mailto:jarrad.bhalla at visiongain.com

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards

Jarrad Bhalla
Account Manager

Drug Discovery Technology
21st & 22nd May 2003, London

Day One - Wednesday 21st May 2003

09:00	Opening remarks from the chair

09:20	Functional genomics and pharmacology: from genes to drug discovery
·	Novartis role in developing advanced technologies ranging from cellular 	genomics and proteomics to combinatorial chemistry and structural biology
·	Genomics and experession profiling, applications for oncology research
·	The principles of target prioritisation in drug discovery
·	Kinase inhibitors and the technological breakthrough behind Glivec
Doriano Fabbro 
Oncology Research 
Novartis 

10:00	SiRNA: Target validation and beyond 
·	Explaining the mechanism of RNAi, its applications as a technology 
      for drug discovery, and its potential as a therapeutic modality
·	Taking an approach for picking functional siRNA triggers for gene targets 
·	Comparison between antisense and RNAi technologies 
·	Potency, specificity and duration of siRNA mediated gene silencing
Roland Kreutzer
CEO
Ribopharma

10:30	Toxicogenomics and Drug Discovery 
·	Developing and validating the tools to assess liver toxicity early in the 
      discovery process 
·	Managing and mining the data 
·	Simple, accurate, fast and cheap- can we have it all? 
·	Issues of integration and implementation
Don Halbert
Director, Genomics & Bioinformatics 
Abbott

11:10	Coffee and discussion

11:30	The capabilities of proteomics in drug discovery
·	Managing experimental data relating to protein expression.Identifying the 	thousands of  proteins produced by an organism and understanding how they 	interact with each other
·	Image informatics technology and automated workflow
·	Advances to accurately detect and select proteins that can then be 	automatically analysed by mass spectroscopy
·	Automating established protein identification techniques such as gel        	electrophoresis, mass spectrometry and chromatography
·	Benefits of the deal to license Affymetrix' array and instrument technologies
Dr Hanno Langen
Head of Proteomics Initiative
Roche 

12:10	Proteomic technologies and the drug discovery process
·	Novel target identification and validation
·	Proprietary protein analysis technologies
·	Fluorescent dyes
·	Computer assisted selection
·	Robotic protein isolation
Dr Andrew Lyall
Director of Proteome Discovery 
Oxford Glycosciences

12:50	Lunch

14:00	Utility of in vitro electrophysiological techniques in drug discovery
·	Whole cell patch clamp recording in mammalian cell lines to screen novel
.     compounds 
·	Receptor mutagenesis and automated two-electrode voltage clamp recording in
.     Xenopus oocytes to facilitate compound design
·	Patch clamp recording aided by infrared videomicroscopy in brain slices for
.     mechanistic studies
·	Long-term recordings of synaptic plasticity from hippocampal slices to
.     increase confidence in approach rationale
·	Design of a novel brain slice system that permits multiple independent
.     recordings to enhance throughput
Dr Karen Marbach
Research Fellow, Neuroscience Research Centre
Merck Sharp Dohme 

14:40	Technological advances in stem cell biology to inhibit the degeneration of 	dopamine producing neurons
·	Neuronova's development of technologies to proliferate adult neural stem cells 	in culture and to differentiate them into dopaminergic neurons for 	transplantation
·	Outlining the regenerative potential of adult neural stem cells developed by 	proprietary stem cell based technologies utilised in the drug discovery process
·	Exploiting proprietary technology platforms to identify novel genes, proteins 	and drug targets important in stem cell proliferation and differentiation
Johan Haggblad
Director of Lead Discovery
Neuronova 

15:10	Drug discovery and the use of chemistry based technologies at Serono
·	Serono's utilisation of two technology platforms in the discovery of 	therapeutic proteins, selective gene splicing technology and protein 	confirmation remodelling technology
·	Explaining the adoption of 'high content screening' after experience with uHTS 	and combinatorial chemistry
·	PMCA (protein misfolding cyclic amplification) and advances in the 	understanding of prions
·	Case study Rebif® the role of chemistry technologies in breakthrough 	discoveries
Serge Halazy
Worldwide Head of Chemistry
Serono

15:40	Coffee and discussion

16:10	Application of structure based screening to lead generation
·	Enabling high through-put X-ray technology
·	Use of fragment based screening to identify novel scaffolds
·	Efficient optimisation from mM to nM using structure guided design
·	Application to proteases and kinases
Robin Carr
Vice President - Drug Discovery
Astex

16:40	Chemogenomic solutions in drug discovery and development
·	DrugMatrix(tm) combines the advantages of gene expression profiling with 	measurements in 	molecular pharmacology, clinical blood chemistry and 	histopathy
·	Mining and interpreting unique patterns, compounds and Drug Signatures(tm) 	developed through a minimum of twenty iterations of pattern recognition 	analyses including proprietary algorithms
·	In silico generation of prophetic signature to provide a window for feasible 	drug design
·	Utilising DrugMatrix(tm) to provide mechanistic and informative information to go 	forward or stop an untenable project in drug discovery
Pauline Gee
Vice President - Predicters Biology
MDS Pharma

End of day one

Day Two - Thursday 22nd May

09:00	Opening remarks from the chair

09:05	The role of automated screening technologies in the drug discovery process
·	The importance of HTS in the early stages of drug discovery
·	Utilising ADME screening
·	Managing the relationship between parallel screening processes 
·	Automation, liquid handling, bioassay technology, data analysis and process management
Andreas Sewing
Lead Discovery Technologies
Pfizer 

09:40	Schering case study: Improving the hit to lead process
·	Schering's unique cross-functional team approach
·	Lead quality and project time improved by a standardised set of lead criteria 	addressing pharmacodynamic, pharmacokinetic and chemistry issues
·	Use of high-throughput technologies, workflow optimisation and improved cross-	functional co-operation
·	Defined decision points for hit selection, defined lead selection criteria, 	implementation of early physchem, PK, tox and chemistry
·	Parallel workflow and a dedicated hit-to-lead team
·	Key success factors and lessons learned
Ulf Boemer
Senior Scientist, HTS
Schering AG

10:20	Coffee and discussion

10:40	High throughput drug discovery 
·	Examining how recent initiatives have revolutionised HTC at GSK. 
·	New challenges for synthesis, purification, analysis and downstream processing 
·	The success of parallel HPLC with UV detection in high throughput purification
Tom Smith
Senior Scientist
GlaxoSmithKline 

11:20	Virtual Screening in Drug Discovery
·	Virtual screening and its potential benefits
·	Docking and Scoring: pose prediction versus affinity prediction
·	Comparison of docking tools
·	Scoring functions - evaluation and development
Romano Kroemer
Senior Scientist, Molecular Modelling and Design
Pharmacia

12:00	High Throughput Molecular Pathology and Human Tissue Banking in the Drug 	Discovery Process
·	Molecular pathology allows direct association of genes with cells involved in 	the disease processes
·	The use of human tissues, rather than animal tissues, yields information which 	can be translated directly into the potential of a drug target in the disease 	process
·	Localization to a wide range of normal and diseased tissues allows 	prioritisation of drug targets, yields new drug use indications and gives an 	early warning of potential toxicity
·	Industrialization of the molecular pathology process, using automated staining, 	tissue microarrays, automated image acquisition and automated image analysis 	gives unprecedented efficiency thereby allowing high numbers of specimens to be 	accurately and reliably processed in the minimum time
·	This process is being used to identify new targets and new areas of research
Julian.E.Beesley
Vice President, European Business Development
LifeSpan BioSciences

12:30	Lunch

13:40	Discovery Informatics: The bedrock of NCE Selection
·	Impact of informatics in novel chemical entity selection
·	Scaling up in silico research and dealing with the data mountains
·	De Novo's approach to data integration - small molecules, compound collections, 	internal applications 
·	Supporting therapeutic projects - an example
·	Making standards work for real problems - experiences with the OMG and I3C
Richard Scott
Discovery Informatics
DeNovo Pharmaceuticals 

14:20	The role of bioinformatics technology in early stage drug discovery
·	Integration - creating seamless access to multiple data sources
·	Decision support platform to capture and analyse biological and chemical 	information
·	Utilising modern informatics tools to achieve key results
·	Optimising in house data mining techniques
·	Solving the key problem of the lack of standard file formats and data access 	methods, no standard way of exchanging sequence annotations
·	The future of niche biotech in competitive global markets
Thure Etzold
Managing Director, UK
Lion Bioscience 

15:00	Coffee and discussion

15:20	The interface between Process R&D and drug discovery - opportunities for closer
	collaborations
·	The path to the emergence of PR&D as a discipline in its own right and its role 	in modern drug discovery
·	Integrating drug discovery and PR&D, the trend for earlier involement
·	Involvement from the lead optimisation phase, 1-2 years ahead of candidate drug 	nomination  "What can be gained from doing this?"
·	Examining the role of modern synthetic methods, catalytic processes, and 	chromatography as exemplified by the recent development of a commercial scale 	process for esomeprazole, the active ingredient in Nexium® used for treatment of acid-related disorders
Hans-Jurgen Federsel
Head of Project Management, Process R&D
AstraZeneca 

16:00	Financing Drug Discovery Technology
·	Investing in drug discovery technologies
·	Where have technologies added most to the pharma value chain?
·	What are the key technology value drivers?
·	Is the platform technology business model compelling today?
·	Case studies
Dr Jane Fisken
Managing Partner
DrKC Life Science Partners, LP

16:30	Close of conference

Terms & Conditions
Cancellations/substitutions and name changes: All bookings carry a 50% liability after the booking has been made, by post fax, email or web. There will be no refunds for cancellations received on or after one month before the start of the conference (e.g. cancellation on or after 20th January for a conference starting on 20th February). If you decide to cancel after this date the full invoice remains payable. Conference notes, which are available on the day, will be sent to you. Unfortunately we are not able to transfer places between conferences and executive briefings. However if you are unable to attend the event you may make a substitution/name change at any time as long as we are informed in writing by e-mail, fax or post. Name changes and substitutions must be from the same company and are not transferable between companies or countries.

Indemnity: visiongain Ltd reserve the right to change the conference/executive briefing content, timing, speakers or venue without notice. The event may be postponed or cancelled due to acts of terrorism, war, extreme weather conditions, industrial action, acts of God or any event beyond the control of visiongain Ltd. If such a situation arises we will endeavour to reschedule the event. However, visiongain Ltd cannot be held responsible for any cost, damage or expenses, which may be incurred by the customer as a consequence of the event being postponed or cancelled. We therefore strongly advise all customers to take out insurance to cover the cost of the registration, travel and expenses.

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