Stem Cells in Drug Discovery 2015 Agenda

Registration

Stem Cells in Drug Discovery: Applications in Hit Discovery & Lead Optimisation
Lorenz Mayr, Vice President, AstraZeneca Ltd, United Kingdom

The presentation will describe the use of cell lines derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) for target validation, hit discovery and safety assessment for various therapeutic areas within AstraZeneca.

Coffee and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Cardiac iPSCs for Drug Discovery
Joseph Wu, Director/Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine, United States of America

Heart disease is the cause of morbidity and mortality in the industrialized world. While the use of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) in regenerative medicine is a long-term goal. Recent technological advancement has enabled the generation of patient-specific and disease-specific human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) in vitro. iPSC-CMs carry all the genetic information and therefore may be an ideal platform for elucidating disease modeling, drug screening, and cell therapy. Here I will discuss recent advances in this technology in the cardiovascular field.

Disease Modelling and Drug Discovery in Neurological Disorders
Zameel Cader, Director and Principal Scientist, IMI StemBANCC, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

My presentation will focus on stemBANCC and its progress in developing disease relevant models as well as how we hope to turn these into drug screening assays.

Lunch & Networking in Exhibition Hall

Poster Viewing Session

Technology Spotlight:
Implementation of iPS Cell Technology in Disease Research and Drug Discovery
Dominic Hussey, Senior Account Manager, Cellular Dynamics International Inc

A major challenge in disease research and drug discovery is modelling human biology in physiologically relevant and predictive in vitro systems. Human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology allows for the generation of virtually any cell type of the human body in unlimited quantities from a donor.

Developing Predictive Hepatocyte Models from Pluripotent Stem Cells
David Hay, Chair of Tissue Engineering, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

My presentation will focus on the delivery of hepatocytes from pluripotent stem cells. I will focus on the interdisciplinary collaborations we have employed to deliver optimised in vitro systems. While promising, there are key areas in the model which require attention. Data from a recent multi-centre project will be presented, providing a roadmap to improving the technology.

High Content Analysis using Stem Cells for Disease Modelling and Drug Discovery
Davide Danovi, Director, Cell Phenotyping Platform, Kings College London, United Kingdom

The talk will present our cell phenotyping strategy, aimed at defining boundaries between health and selected diseases through high content image analysis of induced pluripotent stem cells at single cell level.

Coffee and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Technology Spotlight:
Application of Axol Human iPS Cell-derived Cells for Drug Screening in a Dish
Tristan Thwaites, Business Development & Product Specialist, Axol Bioscience

Human iPS-derived cells provide a great research tool to complement studies performed in vivo using animal models and are an easier to obtain/less heterogenous source of cells than primary and human ESCs.

iPS Cells for Muscle Disorders: From Regenerative Medicine to Disease Modelling
Francesco Saverio Tedesco, Principal Research Associate, University College London, United Kingdom

I will discuss hurdles for the development of therapies for muscle disorders. I will present our platforms based upon iPS cells, inducible myogenesis and human artificial chromosomes. Extension of these technologies for tissue engineering and drug development will also be discussed.

High Content Biology & Cardiac Regeneration: Proliferation and Multi-lineage Differentiation Screens using Cardiac Progenitor Cells
Lauren Drowley, Associate Principal Scientist, AstraZeneca, United Kingdom

Phenotypic screens for proliferation and multi-lineage differentiation with relevant human cardiac cell populations has resulted in identification of novel compounds and mechanisms.

End of Day One

Developments from the EBiSC
Timothy Allsopp, Co-ordinator IMI EBiSC Project, Pfizer, United Kingdom

Coffee and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Technology Spotlight:
NeuroSafe: A Human Integrated in vitro Neurotoxicity Safety Platform using hiPSC- derived Neurons (Peri.4U neurons)
Dietmar Hess, Lab Leader, Axiogenesis AG

Disease Modeling and Phenotypic Drug Screening for Diabetic Cardiomyopathy Using Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Faye Drawnel, Scientist, Pharma Research and Early Development, Roche, Switzerland

This presentation describes the development and characterization of an iPS-cell derived cardiomyocyte model of diabetic cardiomyopathy used in a phenotypic drug screen to identify candidate therapeutic molecules.

Lunch & Networking in Exhibition Hall

Poster Viewing Session

Technology Spotlight:
Leveraging Novel Technologies for Human iPSC-based Screening
Xianmin Zeng, Associate Professor, Buck Institute for Research on Aging


Human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology offers the benefits of a cell line coupled with the advantage of using human primary cells. However this requires standardization of iPSC generation and genetic modification, as well as the ability to obtain large numbers of differentiated cells in an assay ready format.

Using iPS Cells for Drug Screening and Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease
Chris Ward, Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

I will discuss the derivation of AD iPS cells and their use in high content screening and prognostic/diagnostic applications.

Coffee and Networking in Exhibition Hall

Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes and Drug Safety: The Comprehensive In vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) Initiative and Beyond
Gary Gintant, Senior Research Fellow, Abbvie, United States of America

Close of Conference