Protein prenylation Session.

This session, which took place on Monday, 30 March 30 1998, was organized by Richard A Gibbs and Kim D Janda, and presided by Richard A Gibbs (Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA). The first two speakers discussed the mechanism of protein prenylation in yeast and mammalian species, while the next three lectures were about inhibitors of one of the prenylation enzyme, farnesyl transferase. As more research is carried out in identifying farnesyl transferase inhibitors, with companies starting clinical studies, it was of interest to have a session on this topic. The meeting was well attended, with about 300 people in the audience.     

Polymeric drugs and drug delivery systems.

The ACS symposium on polymeric drugs and drug delivery systems was organized by Professors Raphael M Ottenbrite (Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA) and Sung Wan Kim (University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA). It provided an update of recent developments in the rapidly developing field of bioactive polymers and their applications for drug delivery technologies; 36 papers were accepted for presentation at the five sessions. In addition, posters were presented during the regular poster session organized by the Division of Polymer Chemistry. The speakers were from academia and industry, and the symposium was equally attractive for those interested in fundamental research and those involved in applied research and product development. The symposium was well received and the attendance was excellent.     

Topoisomerase inhibitors and other new agents

At ASCO there was an oral presentation session on the pharmacology of topoisomerase inhibitors and other new agents. It was co-chaired by Dr. Herbert M. Pinedo (University Hospital, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Dr. Mark J. Ratain (University of Chicago, IL, USA).     

American Society of Clinical Oncology--35th annual meeting. 15-18 May 1999, Atlanta, GA, USA

A major focus of this year's meeting was the plenary session on the use of high-dose chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer and the incorporation of adjuvant treatment for poor prognosis primary breast cancer. Four abstracts on large randomized collaborative trials in the US, Scandinavian countries and South Africa were presented in this plenary session and discussed by Dr R Livingston (University of Washington, USA), Dr G Hortobagyi (University of Texas/MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA) and Dr K Antman (Columbia University, USA). In general, high-dose chemotherapy followed by (autologous bone marrow) stem cell support has not yet shown improvement in overall survival and has contributed to substantial side-effects when compared to standard chemotherapy in breast cancer. In most trials, however, follow-up was short and long-term analysis may change the current conclusions. Other issues of interest included early clinical trials on agents affecting angiogenesis, signal transduction inhibitors, gene therapy and cancer vaccines.     

New agents for colon and breast cancer

The education session, chaired by Dr Yousef Rustum (Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA), described many of the newer agents being evaluated for the treatment of colorectal cancer, including thymidylate synthase inhibitors, antifolate antimetabolites, dihydrofolate reductase inhibitors, GAR trans-formylase inhibitors, topoisomerase I inhibitors and alkylating agents. The integrated HER-2neu in breast cancer symposium was large and very interesting; it was co-chaired by Dr Nancy Davidson (Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Baltimore, MD, USA) and Dr Silvana Martino (The Breast Center, Van Nuys, USA). The latest research on HER-2neu was grouped into one session and was followed by a discussion of the abstracts by Dr Edison Liu (National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA).     

Plenary session of the best posters.

The plenary session was chaired by George Stamatoyannopoulos (University of Washington, USA) and James Wilson (Institute for Human Gene Therapy, University of Pennsylvania, USA). The eight best posters had been chosen for oral presentations.     

Retinoids and cancer.

The Medicinal Chemistry session on retinoids and cancer, chaired by WJ Brouillette (University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA), took place on Thursday, August 27. It focused on new, rigid analogs of retinoic acid with improved selectivity, and their role in dermatology and in the treatment of cancer.     

26th National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium--Developments in chemokines, carbohydrates, p53 and drug metabolism. 14-18 June 1998, Richmond, Virginia, USA

This symposium, organized by the American Chemical Society, is held every two years. This year's meeting, sponsored by the ACS and The Virginia Commonwealth University, was attended by approximately 300 delegates and covered developments in chemokines, carbohydrates, p53, drug metabolism, prodrugs, structure-based design and molecular modeling. At the opening ceremony, John Topliss began by paying tribute to the distinguished medicinal chemistry career of Alfred Burger (University of Virginia, USA). He then reviewed the application of physicochemical principles to drug design, including the development and application of quantitative structure-activity relationship methodology.     

Abeles symposium

This symposium was the inspiration of Joanne Stubbe (MIT, MA, USA), who organized an impressive tribute to the career of Robert H Abeles (Brandeis University, MA, USA). Professor Abeles is an influential figures in the development of 'rational drug design' and is one of the pioneers in the development of suicide substrates. His work in transition-state or reaction-intermediate analogs, most notably trifluoromethyl ketones, has had a substantial impact on the design of novel pharmaceutical compounds. Despite retirement and failing health, Professor Abeles has managed to contribute to the development of combinatorial chemistry, which is currently of interest as a strategy in drug design. Another facet of his career has been a fascination with biosynthetic pathways or enzyme catalyzed reactions of an unusual or obscure nature. Professor Abeles's approach has always had a distinctly chemical emphasis resulting in unraveling detailed, and often surprising, mechanisms. He has served as an inspiration to countless academic and industrial scientists around the world. Evidence of this is the impressive attendance at the Abeles Symposium and the standing ovation given to Professor Abeles. Former associates gave most of the oral presen-tations in the morning and afternoon sessions of the symposium. Professor Joanne Stubbe gave the introductory talk for the morning's session. An overview of the various research areas by Professor Abeles, including his early work on ribonucleotide reductase that led, in part, to Professor Stubbe's own research in this area, was presented.     

American Society of Gene Therapy--First Annual Meeting. Education session: the ABCs of non-viral vectors for gene therapy. 28-31 May 1998, Seattle, Washington, USA

In July 1996, the American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT) was established in San Francisco by George Stamatoyannopoulos (President of ASGT, Professor of Genetics and Medical Genetics at the University of Washington, USA), James M Wilson (President Elect of ASGT, Director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy, University of Pennsylvania, USA) and other gene therapy experts. In May 1998, this society held its first annual meeting, in Seattle, WA. The aim of the annual meeting is to provide a forum for all investigators, including students, young scientists, academic researchers and those working in industry. To avoid the risk of bias through election of one program committee, symposia, workshops and poster sessions are organized by different committees. There are nine committees in total, so each discipline within the diverse field of gene therapy is properly represented. An education program was organized by Savio LC Woo (Mount Sinai of Medicine, New York, USA) and there was a high school student symposium to encourage interest from the younger generation. Professor Stamatoyannopoulos said that he would like to see the NIH establishing centers of excellence of gene therapy, as they did for cancer 25 years ago. James Wilson then thanked George for all his work founding the society, as he took over as president. There are already 14,000 members of the ASGT and more than 1500 scientists attended this conference. There were 18 sessions of oral presentations and 750 abstracts.     

American Chemical Society 217th National Meeting division of Medicinal Chemistry general session. 21-25 March 1999, Anaheim, CA, USA

The National Meeting of the American Chemical Society is a twice-yearly event attracting in excess of 6000 papers from the Society's numerous divisions. The Medicinal Chemistry division played host to several general, topical and poster sessions. This year 280 medicinal chemistry papers were presented which featured some of the most current, competitive and state of the art research in today's pharmaceutical industry. The opening session was chaired by Stanislaw Pikul (Procter and Gamble Co, OH, USA) and included talks covering aspects of the syntheses and SARs of corticotropin releasing hormone antagonists, serine proteinase, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and cysteine proteinase inhibitors.     

Glycochemistry and glycobiology

This report summarizes the glycochemistry and glycobiology session held on the fourth day of this international symposium organized under the auspices of the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry. The session objective was to highlight and emphasize the important and diverse functional roles played by glycoproteins and glycolipids and to demonstrate the advances that have been made to exploit their interactions in the development of new therapeutic agents.     

Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships - 12th European Symposium Molecular modeling and prediction of bioactivity.

Approximately 340 scientists attended this symposium, which is organized every two years in a different European country, between the biannual QSAR Gordon Research conferences in Tilton, NH, USA. This conference focused on QSAR, 3D-QSAR and other computational approaches, ligand-protein interactions, quantitative aspects of molecular modeling, and the modeling of membrane penetration. The symposium was successfully organized by Klaus Gundertofte (H Lundbeck A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark) and his staff. In total, 36 lectures were presented in 9 sessions and more than 130 posters in 7 sessions. It was the common opinion of the symposium participants that, from a scientific point of view as well as from the technical organization, this meeting had been a real highlight. More details on the conference, including the abstracts of all lectures and posters, can be found at http://compchem.dfh.dk/qsar98/. In addition, the symposium proceedings "Molecular Modeling and Prediction of Bioactivity" will be published by Plenum Press, in March 1999.     

Current issues in biowaivers and biosimilars

International Conference on Biowaivers and Biosimilars

San Antonio, TX, USA, 10–12 September 2012

An International Conference on Biowaivers and Biosimilars was held in San Antonio (TX, USA) on September 10–12, 2012. The conference was organized by OMICS Group Inc. The topics covered wide-ranging issues that are especially relevant to the current considerations of biosimilarity. Speakers came from North America and Europe, as well as from Argentina, Brazil, India and Israel.     

Ernest Guenther award in the chemistry of natural products

A marvelous symposium was held to honor Professor GR Pettit (Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA) as the 1998 recipient of the Ernest Guenther Award in the chemistry of natural products. Attendance at the symposium was fantastic, numbering well into the hundreds, and at various times there was standing-room only. Three outstanding lectures given by MR Boyd (National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD, USA), David GI Kingston (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA), and JP Kutney (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, USA) preceding the superb award address by GR Pettit. Professor Pettit was warmly acknowledged by each lecturer who preceded him. MR Boyd gave an especially touching tribute to Bob Pettit commenting on his professional excellence, scientific and personal integrity, dedication to public service, and declaring that he truly was a "National Treasure". On a personal note, I find Bob Pettit to be a brilliant scientist and tenacious researcher (in a sense, a true pioneer and statesman for science) who is driven by the humanitarian purpose of discovering and developing the most effective antitumor drugs possible and getting them to the people who need them the most, the cancer patients themselves. It is a further delight that Bob Pettit is a most humble and gracious man, as well as a true gentleman, who is a world leader in the battle against cancer.     

Perspectives on the use of adaptive designs in clinical trials. Part I. Statistical considerations and issues

With greater and enthusiastic interests in pursuing adaptive design clinical trials, the pharmaceutical industry as a whole is in the midst of gaining better understanding of scientifically sound approaches. In light of the public's greater interests, the Basel Biometric Section (BBS) of the Austo-Swiss Region of the International Biometric Society held a spring conference on "Perspectives on the Use of Adaptive Designs in clinical trials" at Basel University, Basel, Switzerland (March 12, 2010). The conference opened with statistical considerations and issues of adaptive designs in clinical trials, followed by a panel discussion in which international representatives from industry, academia, and regulatory agencies participated. In addition, six presentations were given by individual research groups mainly focusing on adaptive design methodologies, some illustrated with examples. There are two parts in this special article capturing the morning session of the conference. Part I summarizes the highlights given at the statistical considerations and issues session and is presented here. Part II, capturing the panelists' perspectives given at the panel discussion session, can be found immediately following Part I.     

A 'mini-residency' in drug information for the practicing pharmacist

Continuing education "mini-residencies" in drug information services were sponsored by the University of Washington School of Pharmacy's Division of Continuing Education and the University of Washington Drug Information Service (DIS) in August of 1976, 1977, and 1978. Each mini-residency covered a two-week period (a total of 80 hours) and was divided into didactic and experimential sessions. The university's DIS was the major resource for the residents. The two-week residency was designed to provide education and experience in the areas of drug information retrieval, analysis, and dissemination. The program was assessed through pre- and post-testing and a midcourse evaluation session. The residency format of the program allowed practicing pharmacists to return to the university to develop their skills in the area of drug information. The article presents a model for other drug information pharmacists who may want to offer similar training programs.     

Similar ameliorating effects of benzomorphans and 5-HT2 antagonists on drug-induced impairment of passive avoidance response in mice: comparison with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

Mice were trained to avoid electric shocks by means of step-down type passive avoidance learning tasks, and memory retention was measured 24 h after the training session. Memory impairment (amnesia) was produced by administering eitherp-chloroamphetamine (PCA), a serotonin (5-HT) releaser or scopolamine (SCOP), a muscarinic cholinoceptor antagonist, 30 min prior to the training session. Benzomorphans, 5-HT₂ antagonists and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors were administered immediately after the training session. PCA- but not SCOP-induced amnesia was attenuated by the post-training administration of two benzomorphans, (+)N-allylnormetazocine ((+)SKF-10,047) and (±)pentazocine ((±)PTZ). Similarly, PCA-induced amnesia was reversed by the post-training administration of 5-HT₂ antagonists, ritanserin (RIT) and mianserin (MIA), but SCOP-induced amnesia was not. However, the AChE inhibitors, tetrahydroaminoacridine (THA) and physostigmine (PHY) attenuated both PCA- and SCOP-induced amnesia when administered immediately after the training session. These results indicated that benzomorphans and 5-HT₂ antagonists have antiamnestic effects in mice, as do AChE inhibitors. In addition, it is interesting that the patterns of ameliorating effect of benzomorphans were similar to those of 5-HT₂ antagonists, which differ from those of AChE inhibitors.     

Effects of alcohol on short term memory as measured by a guessing technique

Thirty male volunteers were given 10 trials of the guessing technique test of short term memory. Subjects were divided into two groups equated for performance on the guessing task and WAIS digit span and vocabulary tests and retested on the guessing task one week latter under 1.2 ml per kilogram of commercial ethyl alcohol or placebo. Alcohol treated subjects displayed significantly poorer short term memory during the treatment session when compared with controls. This inferior performance was due to a combination of improved short-term memory on the part of controls and inferior performance by the alcohol treated subjects from the first to second session. It was suggested that alcohol may have interfered with the effects of practice and has non-specific actions on human short term memory.This study was supported by a grant from the University of Kentucky Medical Center through the auspices of the General Research Support Branch, Division of Research Facilities and Resources, N.I.H.This experiment constituted a portion of a thesis submitted by the second author in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master's Degree at the University of Kentucky. Thanks is given to J. Berzins and R. Baker for serving on the thesis committee.