The Chemistry-Biology Interface: Drug Targets and Diagnostics

Conveners:

Harpal Minhas, Lab on a Chip

Niamh O'Connor, Analyst  

Michael Smith, Molecular BioSystems

Programme:

Tuesday 4 August (morning and afternoon)

Wednesday 5 August (morning and afternoon)

Keynote Speakers

Chemical methods to monitor and manipulate the immune system
Thomas Kodadek, The Scripps Research Institute, Florida, USA

Clinical applications of miniaturized devices
Larry J. Kricka, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Body-on-a-Chip: Using microfluidic systems to predict human response to drugs
Michael L. Shuler, Cornell University, USA

A simple drug target: The red blood cell
Dana M. Spence, Michigan State University, USA

Award Lecture

Metabolic spectroscopy, top-down systems biology and human disease processes
Jeremy Nicholson, Imperial College London, UK
(Winner of RSC Interdisciplinary Prize 2008)

Journal Sponsored Speakers

Miniaturaized technologies for cancer stem cell diagnosis and in vivo stem cell imaging for tissue engineering
Yoshinobu Baba, Nagoya University, Japan
(Sponsored by Lab on a Chip)

The systems biology of the cellular transporters of pharmaceutical drugs: evidence and implications
Douglas Kell, University of Manchester, UK
(Sponsored by The Analyst)

Drugging the cancer genome: From target to clinic with inhibitors of PI3 kinase and the HSP90 molecular chaperone
Paul Workman, The Institute of Cancer Research, UK
(Sponsored by Molecular BioSystems)

Speakers

Synthesis and biological activity of novel bisnaphthalimidopropyl polyamine derivatives (BNIPPs) against breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells
Gemma A. Barron, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK

Chemical probes for epigenetic drug discovery
Stuart Cameron, University of Oxford, UK

Cell-based assays in microfluidic systems
Jonathan M. Cooper, University of Glasgow, UK

Synthetic CarboCarrierT glycoconjugates: Prolonged therapeutic proteins and peptides with high affinity for antithrombin III
Martin de Kort, Schering-Plough Research Institute, The Netherlands

The development of luminescent probes for integral membrane proteins
Anne-K. Duhme-Klair, University of York, UK

Targeted delivery of drugs via the PepT1 transporter
David W. Foley, Keele University, UK

Using peptides to study protein-protein interactions: a basis for drug design
Assaf Friedler, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Peptidomic analysis of human blood serum for specific cancer markers
V. T. Ivanov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation

Ultrasensitive chemiluminescent ELISA of sulfamethoxypyridazine using soybean peroxidase
Ivan Yu. Sakharov, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian Federation

Continuous-flow polymerase chain reaction of single-copy DNA in microfluidic droplets
Yolanda Schaerli, University of Cambridge, UK

Digital microfluidics for cell-based screening
Aaron R. Wheeler, University of Toronto, Canada

Symposium Information

The overlap between chemistry and biology is increasing as many scientists focus on this rapidly developing interface in order to achieve a better balance between research and real-world applications. One of the most exciting, promising and innovative areas at this chemistry - biology interface is the area of Drug Targets and diagnostics, encompassing subjects such as cell signalling, proteomics/genomics, drug delivery, tissue engineering, biomarkers and diagnostics.

The enhanced ability to view and study individual cells and biological molecules using new and miniaturised technologies is also contributing to rapid developments in our fundamental understanding of biological systems that in turn lead to an improved approach to identifying drug targets and disease.