10th Anniversary of MIPTEC 2007 – The leading European Event for Drug Discovery Technologies

May 7-10, 2007
Congress Center Basel, Switzerland
www.miptec.com

10th Anniversary of MIPTEC 2007 – The leading European Event for Drug Discovery Technologies

In the last decade, MipTec has evolved as the leading event in Europe on enabling technologies in the drug discovery process with its scientific programme and the accompanying exhibition. The conference is ideally suited for both specialists and newcomers to the field and gives everyone an excellent opportunity to gain a relevant and updated view of this rapidly moving field. Its diverse session topics address the wide range of disciplines and activities that populate the landscape of modern pharmaceutical research, from the identification and validation of new targets up to the generation and optimisation of candidate drugs through both in silico and experimental biology approaches. Distinguished scientists from both academia and industry have chosen MipTec as the ideal forum to unveil new concepts and share their experience with colleagues from all over the world. In addition, MipTec is committed to being unrivalled in Europe for the vendor exhibition that offers every participant a unique opportunity to gather critical information to guide the acquisition of technologies, services, tools and hardware. MipTec promises its growing community to preserve and continue its tradition of incorporating scientific sessions on highly relevant, emerging fields in drug discovery.

Programme at a glance

Main Scientific Programme

Maximising compound value

The storage and management of compound collections is well established in large pharma and the use of automated systems is commonplace. Depending on desired capacity and budget considerations there are a wide range of solutions providing high quality storage conditions, as well as rapid and reliable sample processing. The topic “Maximizing Compound Value” is split into four sub-topics that look into these areas. The four sub-topics are: Academic Drug Discovery Case Studies, Analytical Methods, Equipment, Processes and Techniques and Collection Enhancement.

Chairs:

Hubert Haag, Sanofi-Aventis, Frankfurt (DE)
Christopher Lipinski, Melior Discovery, Waterford (US)
Ian Yates, Velocity 11, Menlo Park (US)

Maximising Compound Value ‘case histories’
Patrick Chaltin, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven (BE)

Compound management in European drug discovery
Paul Wyatt, University of Dundee, Dundee (UK)

Building a high-quality screening collection from commercial sources
Justin S. Bryans, MRC Technology, London (UK)

Quantifying a million compounds via CLND – Myth or reality?
Olga Issakova, NanoSyn, Menlo Park (US)

Analytical support of drug discovery
Gavin Dollinger, Novartis, Emeryville (US)

Implementing 1536-well based storage and high throughput acoustic dispensing automation
Frank Höhn, Novartis, Basel (CH)

Integration of storage solutions with CM processes
Rhett Affleck, Nexus Biosystems, Poway (US)

Establishing an open access CM facility in Australia
David Camp, Brisbane (AU)

Practical considerations for building the correct compound library
Herman J. Verheij, Pyxis Discovery, Delft (NL)

Drug discovery processes:

The process of creating a novel drug and moving it to clinical trials is a complex multidisciplinary task. There are huge costs associated with the identification of a patentable chemical entity and getting it approved by regulatory authorities. This session will review novel technologies and processes that hopefully will help to improve the poor success rate that the pharma industry is facing.

A special focus will be given on target (in)-validation, hit validation and profiling and lead optimisation.

Chairs:

Kurt Amrein, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel (CH)
William Janzen, Amphora Discovery Corp., Research Triangle Park (US)
Thilo Enderle, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel (CH)

High-Content siRNA screening for target identification and validation
Eberhard Krausz, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), Dresden (DE)

A new paradigm for translational drug discovery for Huntington’s disease using virtual model
Hyunsun Park, CHDI, Los Angeles (US)

Hit validation and profiling
Werner Stürmer, Altana Pharma AG, (DE)

Large scale profiling in discovery and development of kinase and protease inhibitors
Joerg Trappe, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel (CH)

Support of lead optimisation
Thierry Jean Ceo, Cerep S.A., Paris (FR)

Drug Discovery Technologies:

New technologies have always played a critical part in advancing drug discovery from biological research tools to high throughput analysis. Drug Discovery Technologies is a broad session that covers both new technologies and new applications and how they can be applied from target discovery to late stage compound development. The presentations will include advances in ion channels, high content screening and imaging as well as a range of label-free methods applied to cell-based assays and ligand identification.

Chairs:

Andrea W. Chow, Caliper Life Sciences, Mountain View (US)
Al Kolb, KeyTech Solutions, Madison (US)
Lorenz Mayr, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel (CH)

Label-free screening: Where next and how soon?
Matthew Cooper, Akubio Limited, Cambridge (UK)

Cell IQ, a platform to study aneuploidy in vivo
Francisco Jose Iborra, University of Oxford, Oxford (UK)

Comparison of Abbott’s ultraefficient affinity screening format with other affinity-based high throughput screening platforms
David Burns, Abbott Labatories, Abbott Park (US)

Title to be confirmed
Luke Lee, ETH Zurich, (CH)

Addressing the problem of selectivity and site specificity of small ligands using SPR assays
Walter Huber, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel (CH)

SURFE2R, a cell free electrophysiology platform for transporter and ion channel drug discovery
Bela Kelety, IonGate Biosciences GmbH, Frankfurt (DE)

Pharmacodynamics and Biomarkers:

Functional analysis at the level of the transcriptome, proteome and metabolome is gaining increasing interest across a wide variety of disciplines, including functional genomics, integrative and systems biology, pharmacogenomics and biomarker discovery. The presentations will include the development of analytical approaches that are essential components of biomarker research, as well as highlight achievements from both academic and industrial labs active in the field.

Chairs:

Eric Bertrand, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel (CH)
Roy Goodacre, University of Manchester, Manchester (UK)
Melvin Reichman, Pharmacophore Discovery (PDC), West Chester (US)

Glutamate receptor imaging
Simon Ametamey, ETH Zürich, Zürich (CH)

Immunohistochemistry based biomarker discovery
Michael Stumm, Novartis Zürich, Zürich (CH)

Protein microarrays
Claudio Calonder, Zeptosens Alschwil, Alschwil (CH)

Microproteomic analysis of membrane proteins and protein complexes
Uwe Schulte, LogoPharm Freiburg, Freiburg (DE)

Overview of biomarkers in preclinical and clinical development
Jean W. Lee, Amgen, Thousand Oaks (US)

Defining biomarkers for multiple sclerosis – How far are we from clinical utility?
Raija L.P. Lindberg, University of Basel, Basel (CH)

Myopathy biomarker discovery using metabolomics and transcriptomics
Matej Ore‰iˇc , VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo (FI)

Metabolomics for biomarker discovery and pathway analysis
Kristina Busch, Metanomics Health GmbH, Berlin (DE)

Metabolomics in drug discovery and development
Karl-Heinz Ott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ (US)

Structure-Based Drug Design

The computational approaches based on protein structure continue to gain recognition in drug discovery and optimisation. The focus in this session on Structure-Based Drug Design is three complementary areas: the structural proteomics as it applies to drug discovery and the predictive methods for functional characterisation and annotation of those structures, the cheminformatics approaches to rational search and design of improved drug candidates and the docking approaches that bring together the first two areas.

Chairs:

Ruben Abagyan, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla (US)
Alexander Hillisch, Bayer Healthcare, Wuppertal (DE)

Prediction of protein function from structure
Janet Thornton, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Cambridge (UK)

A Structural Biology View of Target Drugability
Ursula Egner, Bayer Schering Pharma, Berlin (DE)

Docking to flexible targets
Sandra Handschuh, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma KG, Biberach (DE)

Think Combinatorial: Fragment-based Approaches to Structure-based Design
Matthias Rarey, University of Hamburg, Hamburg (DE)

The role of protein structures for in silico ADMET prediction
Gabriele Cruciani, University of Perugia, Perugia (IT)

Cheminformatics approaches to virtual screening
Alex Tropsha, UNC School of Pharmacy, Chapel Hill, (US)

Emerging ADME / Tox Technologies

This session on Emerging ADME/Tox Technologies focuses on an intensive dual-pronged approach from six experts in both experimental and computational ADMET, respectively, who are also from both industry and academia. The presentations and discussions will facilitate insights and ideas for integrating facets of experimental and computational ADMET at earlier stages of the pharmaceutical R&D continuum in order to create instruments to accurately select candidates with a higher probability for clinical success.

Chairs:

Melvin Reichman, Pharmacophore Discovery (PDC), West Chester (US)
Wolfgang Sauer, Merck-Serono International S.A., Geneva (CH)

Integration of highly automated ADME systems for acceleration of drug discovery
Darwin Cheney, Cyprotex, Cheshire (UK)

New technologies in support of drug development: Toxicogenomics
Laura Suter-Dick, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel (CH)

Optimising the use of ADMET prediction tools across drug discovery stages
Daniel Domine, Merck Serono International S.A, Geneva (CH)

Predicting blood-brain barrier and intestinal barrier permeation
Anna Seelig, University of Basel, Basel (CH)

In Silico Screens and Tools for Drug Discovery
Vijay K. Gombar, Lilly, Indianapolis (US)

The (forgotten) T in ‘ADMET’ – (Q)SARs: The challenges and opportunities for their use under REACH
Grace Patlewicz, ECB, Varese (IT)