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短期課程
Short Courses Maximize Your Productivity

Continued training and education are essential for staying competitive. Discovery on Target Short Courses are designed to be instructive and interactive. These courses are a great introduction for those who are new to a particular discipline or as a refresher for those who want to brush up on their knowledge or expand their horizons. Attendance is limited to ensure an interactive environment. Group discussions are a key component in which course participants will have the opportunity to ask questions of the expert instructors and other participants. Course materials are included.

PRE-CONFERENCE SHORT COURSES*
Tuesday, November 1

8:00 am - 6:30 pm Ion Channel SYMPOSIUM: Tools and Targets, please click here for a full agenda.

(SC1) 8:00 - 11:00 am The Challenge of Targeting Ion Channels for Therapeutic Benefit

Topics to be Discussed:

• Safety
• Emerging Targets
• Lead Generation

Gregory J. Kaczorowski, Ph.D., President, CEO, Kanalis Consulting; Adjunict Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology, New Jersey Medical School

Maria Kaczorowski, Ph.D., Consultant

(SC2) 12:00 - 3:00 pm Ion Channel Assays for Safety Screening

• Overview of current and emerging assays and methodologies
• Use of automation and high-throughput techniques
• Comparison of platforms and applications
• Factors affecting sensitivity and specificity

(SC 3) 3:30 – 6:30 pm Automatic Patch Clamp for Ion Channel Screening

Chris Mathes, Ph.D.,Vice President & General Manager, North America, Sophion Bioscience, Inc.

(SC4) 12:00 - 3:00 pm Biomarkers for Tracking the Efficacy and Safety of HDACi

• Use of PCR to measure breaks in genomic DNA to evaluate drug efficiency and to predict the benefits of combination therapy
• Use of proteomic technologies to identify biomarkers of HDAC inhibition
• Utilization of HDACi biomarkers in the clinic

(SC5) 12:00 - 3:00 pm The Art and Science of Kinases

This course is designed for chemists and biologists new to kinase research or with some experience in the field and looking to learn more. This course will cover topics that are critical to know for any kinase research program, including protein structure, assays, kinome selectivity, technologies, inhibitors and late-stage challenges.

Kent Stewart, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Structural Biology, Abbott

Maricel Torrent, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Abbott

(SC6) 3:30 – 6:30 pm Label Free Assays for GPCRs and Safety and Metabolic Profiling

This course is designed for scientists who would like to learn more about incorporating label-free technologies in their pre-clinical assays for advancing GPCR targeted compounds and/or compounds that need to be assessed for specific toxicities.

• Types of label-free platforms and their pros and cons
• Label-free, cell based assays for GPCRs
• Tyrosine kinase-based label free assays for selectivity considerations
• Metabolic profiling applications (measuring pH and oxygen consumption changes)

Lisa K. Minor, Ph.D., President, In Vitro Strategies, LLC.

Hong Xin, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Lead Generation, J&JPRD

Thursday, November 3

(SC7) 9:00 am-12:00 pm Best Practices for Setting Up Effective RNAi Screens*

The course is designed to provide in-depth information on how to go about setting up RNAi screening experiments, how to design assays for getting optimal results. The challenges working with different types of molecules i.e. siRNAs, shRNAs and the delivery systems to get them into the appropriate cells and tissues will be discussed. The instructors will also provide their input on best practices for the execution of experiments and interpretation of results when dealing with complex biology and informatics.

Hakim Djaballah, Ph.D., Director, HTS Core Facility, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Marc Ferrer, Ph.D., Team Leader, NIH Chemical Genomics Center, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH

Eugen Buehler, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Informatics IT, Merck & Co., Inc.

Caroline Shamu, Ph.D., Director, ICCB-Longwood Screening Facility, Harvard Medical School

(SC8) 6:00-9:00 pm Dinner Course:*

Pharmacology and Drug Discovery in the Allosteric World

The advancing technology of high-throughput screening is changing the type of molecules found. With protein function more physiologically relevant, the quality of the molecules that pharmacologists and medicinal chemists must deal with is changing. This course will familiarize researchers with the tools needed to exploit this potentially fruitful area of new drug discovery through discussion of allosteric molecules, detection of allosterism, and quantifying allosterism for chemical lead optimization. The course is designed to answer these questions:

• What is protein allostery?
• What makes allosteric molecules unique and how can this contribute to unique therapeutic properties?
• How can we detect allosterism?
• How to quantify allosterism for chemical lead optimization?

Terry P. Kenakin, Ph.D., Principal Research Investigator Molecular Discovery, Assay Development, GlaxoSmithKline R & D

Annette Gilchrist, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Midwestern University

(SC9) 6:00-9:00 pm Dinner Course:*

Targeting Pancreatic Islets for Type 2 Diabetes

In recent years, ways to regenerate the beta islet cells of the pancreas, the producers of insulin, have been of great interest to scientists searching for new ways to treat diabetes. This course will review the basics of the role of the pancreas in diabetes and cover the current progress being made and challenges to overcome for developing therapies directed at regenerating pancreatic beta cells.

Rohit Kulkarni, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine, Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School

Fumihiko Urano, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School

*Separate Registration Required.