Morning Coffee, Breakfast Pastries and Materials Pick-up

Coffee Break and Discussions

Comparative Business Models for In Silico Drug Discovery
Ed Addison, CEO, Cloud Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

In Silico drug discovery is a young field only now showing seriously good results.  Various business models have been applied – software licensing, drug discovery collaborations, pure services models, development of drugs for later license or full development, re-purposing of existing drugs.  This panel will explore the trends, the intellectual property issues, the pros and cons of each model, and the receptivity of big pharma.  The use of an asset-based LLC to hold, fund and share development of new drugs will be explored due to its explosive popularity.

Lunch and Discussions

Technology Spotlight:
Exploring Local vs Global Models of SAR with Activity Atlas and Activity Miner
Rae Lawrence, Technical Sales
The hundreds, if not thousands, of compounds prepared in lead optimization programs hold a wealth of information on potency, selectivity and ADMET properties, however, in many cases exploring the SAR information can prove daunting. To this end, we have recently presented two methods of navigating SAR landscapes using 3D activity cliff analyses.

Technology Spotlight:
Collaborative Drug Discovery: An in silico Step Forward
Nigel Beeley, Advocate
CDD software packages provide fully integrated data management tools to the practicing bench scientist in a user friendly and cost effective way to enable new avenues in drug discovery. Cloud based storage systems provide both security and simplify collaborative access between partners over distance. This will be illustrated with real examples from biology and medicinal chemistry.

Coffee Break

Starting Small and Staying Small: A Guiding Principle for Fragment Library Design and Fragment Optimization for Drug-like Properties
Vicki Nienaber, CSO, Zenobia Therapeutics, Inc.

“It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience,” later simplified to “Everything should be made as simple as possible but not one bit simpler.”        ---- Albert Einstein

This is a guiding principle in science and easily applied to the field of fragment-based lead discovery. Since its inception in the mid-1990 by Abbott laboratory scientists, it has grown into an accepted world-wide method of drug discovery. The number of metrics has grown, as have the number of approaches, and library molecular weights, sizes and shapes. At Zenobia Therapeutics and our products division, Zenobia Fragments, we have taken a step back and sought to distill FBLD down its basic scientific principles and guidelines.  We will discuss our library design process and criteria, screening strategy including number of compounds screened and approach to optimization where a specific, bioavailable and efficacious LRRK2 inhibitor was identified with synthesis of less than 50 compounds.

Discussions and Engagement with Delegates from the Diagnostics Co-Located Conference. Challenges and Opportunities in Drug Discovery and Diagnostics Development in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry

Networking Reception with Beer and Wine

Morning Coffee and Breakfast Pastries

In Silico Framework to Account for the Interplay Between Different Mechanisms of Action for Multiple Thyroid Disruptors: A PBPK Model for Thiocyanate as a Case Study
Marie Willemin, Research Fellow, National Center for Toxicology Research, US Food and Drug administration (FDA)

A global pathway model for thyroid disruptors with multiple mechanisms of action is under development. A PBPK model of thiocyanate, including key sites of action in thyroid (NIS active transporter and metabolic enzyme TPO), was calibrated as an initial step.

Coffee Break and Discussions with Delegates and Speakers

Networking Lunch