Christopher P. Austin, M.D., Named as Keynote Speaker at CHI's Sixth Annual Predictive Functional Human Tissue Models Conference
Dr. Austin will update the audience on "Translational Therapeutics Development at the NIH." at CHI's conference scheduled on November 17-18, 2011 at the Omni Parker House in Boston, MA.
- Boston, MA-NH (1888PressRelease) October 03, 2011 - Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) confirmed its keynote speaker at its sixth annual Predictive Functional Human Tissue Models conference, to be held on November 17-18, 2011 at the Omni Parker House in Boston, MA, to be Dr. Christopher P. Austin with the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Austin will update the audience on "Translational Therapeutics Development at the NIH." His talk is on Friday, November 18 at 8:20-9:00 a.m. The explosion in mechanistic understanding of human physiology in health and disease, exemplified by the Human Genome Project and its successors, has provided a deluge of potential new targets for therapeutic development. At the same time, evolution of technologies and operational systems for drug discovery has allowed investigators and institutions in the public sector to contribute directly to new therapeutics discovery in a more vigorous way, particularly for rare and neglected diseases.
Over the last decade, the NIH has built a variety of programs which complement drug discovery efforts in the biopharmaceutical sector, principally in two areas: (a) science, technology, tool, and paradigm development to improve scientific understanding and efficiency of the therapeutics discovery process, and (b) early stage drug development programs to de-risk projects particularly for rare and neglected diseases, making them more amenable to biopharmaceutical adoption despite their low expected ROI. The mission and accomplishments of these programs will be discussed. The NCTT's programs span the translational spectrum, including the Genome-wide RNAi program, the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program, and the Rapid Access to Interventional Development (RAID) program.
The NCGC is an ultrahigh-throughput screening, informatics, and chemistry center that profiles small molecule libraries for biological activity using its qHTS technology, and develops novel compounds as probes of biology and starting points for the development of new drugs for rare and neglected diseases. The NCGC also develops new paradigms to increase the efficiency and genome-wide reach of assay, screening, chemistry, and informatics technologies, and is a partner with NTP, EPA, and FDA in the Toxicology in the 21st Century (Tox21) Program. The TRND program develops small molecules and biologics from lead to clinical proof-of concept for rare and neglected diseases.
Before joining NIH in 2002, Dr. Austin directed research programs genomics-based target discovery, pharmacogenomics, and neuropsychiatric drug development at Merck, with a particular focus on schizophrenia. Dr. Austin received his A.B. in biology summa cum laude from Princeton, and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed clinical training in internal medicine and neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a postdoctoral fellowship in genetics at Harvard.
For full details and to register, please visit healthtech.com/3DTissueModels.
Those that register by October 7 will receive the advance registration discount.
To inquire about sponsoring and/or exhibiting, contact Carol Dinerstein, 781-972-5471, dinerstein ( @ ) healthtech dot com dot
Writers and editors are encouraged to attend. To request a press pass, contact Tracey Fielding at tfielding ( @ ) healthtech dot com.
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