Academic Drug Discovery 2016 Keynote Speakers

Sir Tom Blundell Professor, University of Cambridge Tom Blundell is Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry and Head of Biological Sciences in the University of Cambridge. He researches on structural biology of cell regulation, structural bioinformatics and applications to drug discovery and medicine. He is Member of Academia Europaea, Fellow of the Royal Society and Fellow of Academy of Medical Sciences. He has Honorary Doctorates from fifteen universities. He was a member of ACOST, the advisory group to the PM in the 1980s, founding CEO BBSRC in 1990s and Chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution 1998 to 2005. He co-founded Astex Therapeutics, he was Non-Executive Director of Celltech from 1996 to 2005 and has been science advisor to Pfizer, UCB and SKB.
Jeffrey Conn Director, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Dr. Conn is the Lee E. Limbird Professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University and Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery. He received the Ph.D. degree from Vanderbilt in 1986 and pursued postdoctoral studies at Yale University before joining the faculty at Emory University in 1988. Dr. Conn served as head of the Department of Neuroscience at Merck and Company (West Point, PA) from 2000 – 2003 then moved to Vanderbilt University as the founding director of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, where he has advanced multiple drug candidates into development for neurological and psychiatric indications. Dr. Conn served as Editor in Chief of Molecular Pharmacology, on editorial boards of multiple other journals, and Scientific Advisory Boards of multiple foundations and companies. He has received numerous awards for his translational research. Dr. Conn’s research is focused on understanding the pathophysiology changes that contribute to serious brain disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, depression, and others, and using this understanding to develop novel therapeutic strategies for treatment of these devastating disorders.