Drug Discovery:
   Easing the
   Chemistry Bottleneck

June 8-9, 2009
Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA
PAST CONFERENCE AGENDA (as of 5-27-09)

2009 Attendees:

Key Areas for Discussion

The program is shaped to address key bottlenecks along the drug discovery process. This far-reaching discussion on some of the biggest challenges faced by the industry is designed to highlight technology trends as they emerge.

Conference Day One: Monday 8th June 2009

7:30a

Continental Breakfast & Registration

8:15a

Chairperson’s Welcome & Opening Remarks

Conference Chairman,
Melvin Reichman, Lankenau Institute for Medical Research

8:30a

Compound Management’s Role in Accelerating Drug Discovery

• Outline compound management’s central role in drug discovery
• Discuss key responsibilities of compound management in supporting medicinal chemistry (i.e. accept and rearray
  compounds for all assays in assay-ready format; and perform LC/ MS analysis for all med chem.. solutions
  liquid handled)
• Understand ADME and liability assays, and their impacts on med chem., and ADME)
• Discuss the GNF solution and highlight critical part CM played in PK processing
• Use tracking and automation skills to make discovery processes more efficient

John J. Isbell, Ph.D., Director of Analytical Sciences and DMPK, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation

9:15a

Developing a Global Biologics Registration System

• Defining biological entities and their rules for uniqueness; tracking the lineage of an entity and the relationships
  between entities
• Understanding and supporting diverse workflows across projects and sites
• Integrating with other Drug Discovery applications
• The Special Interest Group (SIG) model for collaborative development: Minimising project risks and costs

Joseph M. Cesarone, Ph.D., Principal Research Computer Scientist, Scientific Informatics & Automation, Abbott Laboratories

10:00a

Morning Refreshment and Networking Break

10:15a

Panel Discussion: Compare Workflow for Compound Management

• Identify the bottlenecks in compound processing/ workflow (e.g. HTS compound support/ chemistry supply)
• Understand your customers’ needs and deliver compounds in a timely fashion
• Discuss strategies to ensure turnaround time
• Explore workflow options (workstation vs. integrated system; Lead ID vs. Lead OP )
• Review compound management and assay management
• Improve real time lead identification strategies

Moderator:
Dr. Rodney A. Bednar, Senior Investigator and Chief Drug Discovery Engineer, Facility for Automation and Screening Technology (FAST), Merck Research Laboratories

Panelists:
Janet Diratsaoglu, Head of Chemical Information and Compound Inventory Groups, Hoffman La Roche
Scott D. Mosser, Senior Research Associate and Drug Discovery Manager, Facility for Automation and Screening Technology (FAST), Merck Research Laboratories
Dr. Sue Holland-Crimmin, Site Director, Sample Management Technologies, GlaxoSmithKline
David Harding, Sales Director, RTS Life Sciences

11:15a

Case Study: Iterative Random and Focused Screening: A Thoughtful Approach to Increase Hit Rates

• Random screening using a small set of collection (20,000 compounds) that covers entire chemical space of the library
• 3-4 rounds of Iterative focused screening using computational modeling
• Improved hit rates with less resources

Suresh B. Poda, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Lundbeck Research USA

12:00p

Luncheon

1:15p

Corning Epic® System: A label-free platform for high throughput drug discovery

The Epic System is a novel, label-free detection platform designed for both bio-assay development and for high throughput drug discovery. Based on optical biosensor technology, the system provides a high sensitivity label-free detection platform for measuring both molecular interactions in a biochemical assay, as well as integrated cellular responses of endogeneous or over-expressed receptors in a cell-based assays. Detection of live cell and time dependent cellular response in a pathway unbiased manner with the Epic system may provide previously unattainable biological and pharmacological information for an integrated drug-stimulated cellular response. The SBS-standard 384 well Epic sensor plate enables the adaptation of the Epic system to HTS drug discovery. This presentation will introduce the principle of the Epic system and highlight its applications in drug discovery. Topics of the discussion include:

• Principle of operation of the Epic System;
• Applications of the Epic System for cell-based GPCR screening;
• Applications in biochemical binding and functional assays for small molecule and fragment based drug discovery;
• Applications for biologic drug discovery;

Arron S. Xu, Ph.D., Manager, North America Epic® Applications Center, Corning

1:30p

Practical Applications of Lean Thinking Principles in Compound Management

• Identify strategies to overcome the ‘bottlenecks’
• Gain buy-in from clients for process change
• Implement workflow to minimize "non-value added" work

Marybeth S. Burton, Associate Director, Chemical Technologies, Schering-Plough Research Institution

2:00p

Case Study Roundtable: Streamlining Sample Management Process

Panelists will present case study describing how they utilize lean principal to deliver greater value in one or more of the areas listed below:

• Safeguard integrity of compound collections
• Deliver compounds to customers in timely fashion
• Maintain capacity in response to rising demand
• Operate at the highest possible efficiency in resource expenditure and capital investment

Moderator:
Edward W. Petrillo, Discovery Performance Strategies LLC

Panelists:
John J. Isbell, Ph.D., Director of Analytical Sciences and DMPK, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation
Manori Turmel, Principal Scientist, AstraZeneca
Marybeth S. Burton, Associate Director, Chemical Technologies, Schering-Plough Research Institute

3:00p

Afternoon Refreshments and Networking Break

3:30p

Panel Discussion: Strategies for Optimal Screening Library Size to Improve the Efficacy of Drug Discovery

• Incorporates tractable chemistry to improve drug discovery process
• Discuss selection on biologically annotated, IP-rich (novel), rationally designed, and privileged structure molecules
• Explore whether screening library as small as 10,000 compounds is capable of producing better results

Moderator:
Rick Hammar, Director, Compound Management, Chemistry and Screening Services, ASDI Inc.

Panelists:
Ricardo Macarrón, EMTM, Ph.D., VP of Sample Management Technologies, GlaxoSmithKline
Dave Schultz, Ph.D., Director, Protein Production, Libraries & Molecular Screening Facility, Wistar Scientist, Wistar Institute

4:30p

Case Example: Automation from Compound Storage to Assay Development

• Manage sample storage and retrieval with the ability to randomly access up to 30,000 samples daily
• Produce assay plates in nanoliter volumes on demand for HTS
• Minimize delivery time to less than 48 hours
• Integrate compound management into drug discovery process with full support to lead identification and
  lead optimization

Dalin Nie, Head of Compound Management, AstraZeneca

5:15p

Closing Remarks and Cocktail Reception

Conference Day Two: Tuesday 9th June 2009

7:30a

Continental Breakfast & Registration

8:15a

Chairperson’s Welcome & Opening Remarks

Conference Chairman,
Melvin Reichman, Lankenau Institute for Medical Research

8:30a

Narrowing Interface between Lead Discovery & Optimization

• Thinking backwards: Drug-like to lead-like and back
• On-target structure activity relationships (SAR): It's a wide world of catalog diversity
• Off-target structure liability relationships (SLR): A side effect around every coronary
• Lead exploration to lead development: How many roads to CROss
• Project Management: When to hold and when to fold; who makes the call?

Moderator:
Melvin Reichman, Ph.D., Director LIMR Chemical Genomics Center (LCGC), Lankenau Institute for Medical Research

Panelists:
Jonathan Usuka, Senior Director of Industry Marketing, Accelrys
Li Tao Zhang, Executive Director, Lead Evaluation and Mechanistic Biochemistry, Bristol-Myers Squibb

9:30a

QuantiGene: Single and Multiplex Gene Expression Solutions for Drug Discovery and Development

• QuantiGene multi-format gene expression technology platform can be used throughout the drug discovery pipeline
  from primary- and secondary screening, through toxicology, biomarker discovery and companion diagnostics.

• QuantiGene bead-based multiplex assay enables a novel approach to compound screening by plexing both genes
  and samples directly from cell lysates thereby substantially increasing throughput to a level that gene signatures
  can be made from primary screens. This assay is rapid, sensitive, and allows high throughput gene expression
  analysis without extensive optimization.

• QuantiGene ViewRNA in situ gene expression technology is capable of measuring single RNA molecules in individual
  cells. The automation-friendly 384 well format has a simple assay workflow that is suitable for high-throughput
  applications such as phenotypic- or reporter gene screening.

Session sponsored by Affymetrix

Dr. Gary McMaster, Chief Scientific Officer, Affymetrix

10:15a

Morning Refreshment and Networking Break

10:30a

ADME and the Chemistry Bottleneck – from HTS to Pharmacokinetics

• HTS in vitro assays can be important steps in designing out unwanted pharmaceutical properties
• The HTS in vitro models should be linked to more complex in vitro and in vivo models so as to facilitate
  simulation and 'prediction'
• Higher throughput approaches to target engagement and in vivo PK properties can speed up candidate selection in
  later LO phases
• The choice of appropriate in vitro or in vivo models should be based on chemotype and not on one-size-fits-all.

Norman Huebert, Team Leader Discovery ADME, J&J PRD, LLC, Spring House PA

11:15a

Computational Drug Discovery: Integrating a Collaborative Database

• Learn about the use of computational models for PXR and other ADME/ Tox properties
• Learn how a web-based database can foster collaborations in drug discovery

Sean Ekins, Ph.D., D.Sc., Collaborations Director, Collaborative Drug Discovery Inc.

12:00p

Luncheon

1:15p

Providing High Quality and Efficient Support for the Diverse Analytical Work-Flows in Pharmaceutical Discovery

In a pharmaceutical discovery organization, scientists carry out diverse sets of complex assays many of which require their own highly sophisticated visual and statistical analyses. Allergan recently instituted a research analytics program that has developed certain principles to efficiently support these analyses.

• There is no substitute for a well-structured data warehouse and data mart
• Identify common requirements and automate them in intuitive ways
• Let scientists focus on science not data handling
• Train scientists with their data

Robert Cain, Manager R&D IS, Allergan

2:00p

Technology Roundtable

Case studies presented by table facilitators and attendees will serve as the basis for discussion at each table. Attendees will be allowed to attend (2) table discussions within this hour to allow for greater information sharing.

Table 1: Corning Epic® System: A label-free platform for high throughput drug discovery
Arron S. Xu, Ph.D., Manager, North America Epic® Applications Center, Corning

Table 2: Today’s Challenges and Respective Solutions in Compound Management Software
Michael Girardi, President, Titian Software

Table 3: Topic TBD
Mark Lasinski, Senior Director, Global Sales, Labcyte

Table 4: CyBio innovations in liquid handling help drive low volume and high density screening efforts. A sneak peek into CyBio’s future developments
Ian Hanegraaf, General Manager, CyBio

3:00p

Afternoon Refreshments and Networking Break

3:30p

Explore the Unique Challenge Faced by Academia

• Target novelty: Publish or patent
• The NIH Roadmap: Biomedical highway to the future--or bridge to nowhere?
• 'Probing' the boundaries between basic and applied research
• Re-Purposing: Truly a panacea?
• Better drugs through better chemistry: Huh?

Melvin Reichman, Ph.D., Director LIMR Chemical Genomics Center (LCGC), Lankenau Institute for Medical Research

4:15p

Panel Discussion: Teaming up to tame the Bottleneck: Industrial-Academic Interactions”

• Pharma-Academic partnerships: Devil (God) is in the details
• Changing Pharma-Academia landscape: Grants, contracts and collaboration
• Role of Academia in translational research: Conquering the valley of death
• Role of academic technology transfer offices: Bridging the great divide
• Explore opportunities for collaboration between Pharma, academia and the Government: The time is now

Moderator:
Dr. Rathnam Chaguturu, Director, High Throughput Screening Laboratories, University of Kansas

Panelists:
Krishna Kodukula, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for Advanced Drug Research, SRI International
Wei Zheng, Ph.D., Group Leader, Cellular Signaling Assays, NIH Chemical Genomics Center
Jeff Dodge, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Academic Research Liaison, Eli Lilly
Jim Baxendale, MS, MBA, Executive Director-KU Center for Technology Commercialization, University of Kansas
Katya Tsaioun, Ph.D., President, Scientific Director, Apredica
Jia Xu, Ph.D., Director of Operations, Johns Hopkins Ion Channel Center

5:00p

Closing Remarks and End of Conference