A major hurdle in drug discovery is the ability to predict the human efficacy/safety of new chemical entities (NCEs) from preclinical discovery and development data. This is a far from new problem and is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the industry in its quest to discover new drugs. Which animal species predicts human metabolism, efficacy and side effects?
These and other challenges have been recently encompassed in the phrase, translational medicine, which like many of the catchwords/phrases that have widespread use in 21st century biomedical science, e.g. systems biology, pathway analysis, predictive biomarkers, means different things to different scientific audiences and to individual scientists. To some, translational medicine represents a convenient confound that collectively embraces a century of issues at the preclinical/clinical interface of drug discovery while to others it is a mantra which - if said and written often enough- will be the cure for all of what ails productivity in the pharmaceutical industry.
In practical terms however, translational medicine remains a complex concept that is currently at an embryonic stage conceptually and will need careful development both as a generic science and in its concrete use to address problems in individual therapeutic areas if it is to be useful. Generically, the principles of translational activities need to be further defined, standardized and objectively developed both in academia and industry and the lessons of both the successes – limited as these may be - and the failures must be shared within and between different therapeutic areas to both advance and understand the translational medicine process to reduce risk and improve success in the drug discovery process.
The institutionalization of the translational medicine sciences and their integration into coherent and focused networking structures in research and clinical facilities in academia and industry is critical. In the US, an increasing number of universities has undertaken those efforts and built institutes of translational medicine, supported by the NIH. Similarly, the FDA, via its Critical Path (C-Path) Initiative, has focused attention on discrete activities under this initiative. Thus it is anticipated that the time for phrases lacking tangible translational content is finite.
Faculty
Confirmed speakers/ participants include:
Chairs
James E. Barrett
(Drexel University College of Medicine, PA, USA)
Martin Wehling
(University of Heidelberg, Germany)
Michael Williams
(Drexel University College of Medicine and Cephalon, Inc, PA, USA)
Keynote
Sir Colin Dollery
(GlaxoSmithKline, UK)
Invited Speakers
Gil Block
(Drexel University College of Medicine, PA, USA)
Joseph Coyle
(McLean Hospital, MA, USA)
Stephen Eck
(Eli Lilly & Company, IN, USA)
Alessandro Fatatis
(Drexel University College of Medicine, PA, USA)
William Fay
(University of Missouri, MO, USA)-
Gerard Fox
(Abbott, IL, USA)
Valentin Fuster
(Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY, USA)
Richard Hargreaves
(Merck and Co., PA, USA)
John Lazo
(University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
Lance Liotta
(George Mason University, VA, USA)
Jonathan C. Makielski
(University of Wisconsin, WI, USA)
Charles O’Brien
(University of Pennsylvania Center for Addiction Treatment, PA, USA)
Donald Price
(Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, MD, USA)
Daniel Rader
(University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA)
Jason Robert
(Arizona State University, AZ, USA)
Darryle Schoepp
(Merck and Co., PA, USA)
Other speakers will be confirmed shortly.
Who should attend?
With the focus on the science, rather than the technology, of translational medicine and a distinguished faculty, it is anticipated that Translational Medicine: Transitioning Success in Cardiovascular and Oncology to the CNS Drug Discovery Area will represent a seminal event in defining and driving the science of translational medicine that will be of interest to:
- Academic researchers
- Corporate researchers – preclinical and clinical
- Researchers in CROs
- Venture Investors
Why attend?
- Hear from the distinguished faculty. Click here to see Speaker Biographies.
- Direct informal interaction with the faculty and with peers. [Share your burning questions, issues, dilemmas and success stories with them]
- Find out about the latest research, successes, practices and developments from Cardiovascular, Oncology and CNS. View the conference program here.
- Make decisions based on (and shaped by) the best available information
