Tuesday, 30 October 2012

08:00

Registration


Preclinical Drug Testing

09:00

Kattesh V. KattiKeynote Presentation

Green Nanotechnology Approaches in Drug Discovery: Implications in Controlling Primary and Metastatic Tumours
Kattesh V. Katti, Director, Institute of Green Nanotechnology / Radiology / Cancer Nanotechnology Platform, University of Missouri, United States of America

This presentation will discuss novel Green Nanotechnology approaches in drug discovery with direct implications in treating various forms of solid tumors. Development of Laminin receptor specific EGCg-AuNPs and their  therapeutic efficacy in treating prostate tumors will be presented. The dual role of EGCG in offering target specificity and as an effective DNA methylation inhibitor will also be presented. 

09:30

Developing New Models of University-Industry Collaborations for Commercialization of New Innovations
Chris Fender, Director, University of Missouri, United States of America

This presentation will focus on new models for establishing collaborations between universities and industry for the successful commercialization of new biomedical innovations in an ever changing, global environment.

10:00

The Benefit of Companion Animal Models in Drug Development
Carolyn Henry, Professor of Oncology, University of Missouri, United States of America

This session presented by a veterinary oncologist will illustrate how the use of companion animal models of spontaneously occurring disease can facilitate efficient preclinical assessment of novel drug therapies.

10:30

Coffee and Networking in Exhibiton Hall

11:15

Preclinical Models for Translational Research in Oncology and Allied Areas
Ritu Verma, Head of Cell Biology, Dabur Research Foundation, India

This presentation will discuss the applications of in vitro, ex vivo & in vivo pre-clinical models for evaluation of new molecules for Oncology, Inflammation & Dermapathology. The delineation of molecular pathways operating in cancer & inflammation has enabled development of predictive preclinical models. Judicious selection & application of these disease models play a key role in evaluation of efficacy of new molecules & subsequent design of clinical trials.


Formulation and Solubility
Session SponsorsSession Sponsor

11:45

Copper–Promoted Carbon-Heteroatom Cross-coupling Reaction with Boronic Acids: A Powerful Synthetic Tool for Medicinal Chemist
Parthasarathi Das, Scientist, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR), India

Recent development application of this methodology in synthesizing various heterocyclic with pharmaceutical interest will form the basic premise of my presentation.  

12:15

Lunch and Networking in Exhibition Hall

13:30

Poster Viewing Session

14:15

Site-Selective Delivery of Nitric Oxide (NO)
Harinath Chakrapani, Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, India

Strategies towards site-directed delivery of nitric oxide through the use of prodrugs and delivery vehicles will be discussed.


High-Throughput Synthetic Chemistry

14:45

Haian FuKeynote Presentation

The Evolving Landscape of Drug Targets
Haian Fu, Professor and Director, Emory University, United States of America

An overview of current drug targets and emerging target areas will be presented to highlight opportunities for new drug discovery and associated challenges, Target discovery opportunities at protein-protein interaction interfaces will be illustrated by our genomics-based research that aims to bridge the gap between extensive genomics data and therapeutic development.

15:15

Coffee and Networking in Exhibiton Hall

16:00

High-Throughput Microwave Chemistry in Silicon Carbide Microtiter Plates
C. Oliver Kappe, Professor and Scientific Director, Center for Continuous Flow Synthesis and Processing, University of Graz, Austria

A high-throughput heating platform made out of strongly microwave absorbing silicon carbide (SiC) equipped with 20 cylindrical wells of appropriate dimensions to be fitted with standard HPLC/GC vials serving as reaction vessels is presented. Microwave heating allows rapid and homogeneous heating of the entire plate, with minimal deviations recorded at different positions of the plate or inside the vessels. Utilizing an additional aluminum top plate fixed with six stainless steel bolts the reaction platforms can be heated up to 250 °C and 20 bar applied pressure inside the HPLC/GC autosampler vials. Four SiC plates (80 reactions) can be processed simultaneously by using the corresponding rotor inside the multimode microwave cavity.1 A key advantage of using autosampler vials as reaction vessels is the possibility of direct reaction monitoring, eliminating a transfer step from the reaction vial to the autosampler vial. Apart from its use for the performance of parallel catalyst/solvent screenings and reaction optimization, the SiC blocks were utilized to synthesize whole libraries of chemical compounds within a single multimode microwave run. More related to analytical chemistry applications, the system has been utilized for GC derivatization reactions in forensic laboratories, the enzymatic hydrolysis of protein-bound selenium, for acid-mediated hydrolysis of proteins and peptides, in forced degradations studies involving active pharmaceutical ingredients, and for parallel low-volume sealed vessel microwave-assisted solvent extractions.

16:30

CANCELLED - Advancing Innovation and Convergence in Cancer Research
Jerry Lee, Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health, United States of America

17:00

Drinks Reception

Wednesday, 31 October 2012


Compound Library Modelling

08:45

Rathnam ChaguturuKeynote Presentation

Strategies for Uncorking the Drug Discovery Bottleneck: A Pharmacognosy Perspective
Rathnam Chaguturu, Founder and CEO/Senior Director, SRI International, United States of America

The wealth of chemical diversity that has evolved with biological diversity is underrepresented in the commercial chemical library offerings, but needs to be harnessed in earnest to ease the current drug discovery bottleneck.  The talk emphasizes the need for a renaissance in Pharmacognosy.

09:30

Combinatorial Virtual Library Screening for the Discovery of High Specificity Glycosaminoglycans
Umesh Desai, Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, United States of America

The presentation will cover the development of an algorithm to analyze a combinatorial library of glycosaminoglycan sequences and its application to understand specificity of interaction with proteins. The emphasis of the talk will be on design of novel antithrombotic glycosaminoglycan sequences.

10:00

On the Use of rm2 Metrics for Validation of Predictive QSAR Models with Applications in Virtual Screening and Focused Library Design
Kunal Roy, Associate Professor, Jadavpur University, India

The success of any QSAR model depends on accuracy of the input data, selection of appropriate descriptors and statistical tools, and most importantly validation of the developed model, which checks the reliability and relevance of the developed model for a particular endpoint. Our group has recently developed a set of rm2 parameters, which serve as a more stringent measure for assessment of model predictivity compared to the traditional validation parameters.

10:30

Coffee and Networking in Exhibiton Hall


High-Throughput and Content Screening

11:15

Translational Research Driven by High-throughput Screening Approaches
Horst Flotow, Senior Project Manager, D3 (Drug Discovery and Development)e, Singapore

The Singapore Screening Centre is the newly opened High Throughput Screening facility of the Experimental Therapeutics Centre in Singapore. An innovative whole animal-based high throughput screen will be described and discussed.

11:45

Using In Vitro Screening Assays to Profile the Biology of Chemical Entities
John Watson, Director, Promega Corporation, United States of America

In vitro assays can be used in early drug discovery to help shape chemical leads into molecules with increased likelihood of success in vivo.

12:15

Lunch and Networking in Exhibition Hall

13:30

Poster Viewing Session

14:15

High-Throughput Catalyst Screening Technique: Micro-reactor coupled to GCMS
Asraf Ali, Research Scientist, GE India Technology Centre Pvt Ltd, India

We present a novel integrated online screening technique which allows rapid testing of small amount of heterogeneous catalysts for activity towards selected vapor phase organic synthesis. The system consists of in-house designed and fabricated vapor phase pulse reactor coupled on-line to a GC-MS.

14:45

Innovative Approaches in Drug Discovery
Bhushan Patwardhan, Professor & Director- ISHS, University of Pune, India

Drug discovery strategies based on natural products are re-emerging as attractive options. We suggest that drug discovery and development need not always be confined to new molecular entities. Rationally designed, carefully standardized, synergistic traditional herbal formulations and botanical drug products with robust scientific evidence can also be alternatives. A reverse pharmacology approach, inspired by traditional medicine, can offer a smart strategy for new drug candidates to facilitate discovery process and also for the development of rational
synergistic botanical formulations.

15:15

Coffee and Networking in Exhibiton Hall

15:45

Title to be Confirmed
Ahmed Kamal, Outstanding Scientist and Head, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, India

15:45

Close of Conference