Drug Delivery Systems--Fifth US-Japan Symposium. 12-17 December 1999, Lahaina, Hawaii

The field of drug delivery is moving rapidly from the more efficacious delivery of 'old' drugs, to the delivery of therapeutic peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides and genes. Liposomes, polymers, microbubbles, nanoparticles, wafers and chips are the jargon, and entrepreneurialism is the prevailing force. Indeed, the scientific spirit is overwhelmed by the push to market, as fledgling companies compete or collaborate with the established pharma industry in converting concepts into profits. The 'Holy Grail' is a slice of the multi-billion dollar global market for these specialized, high-tech products.     

Medicinal Chemistry--XVth EFMC International Symposium. New technologies in drug discovery. 6-10 September 1998, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

This report summarizes the new technologies in drug discovery session of a five-day symposium organized by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Perkin Division, and the Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector of the Industrial Affairs Division on behalf of the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry. The objective of this international symposium, which was attended by over 1000 participants from 48 different countries, was to appeal to all scientists interested in drug discovery from lead identification to lead optimization. The session on new technologies focused on those tools currently being used in these processes, with particular emphasis on new developments. There were seven supporting sessions on specific molecular target classes and one on the prediction of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics. In addition, there were over 350 supporting posters held in two separate sessions.     

Gene Therapy of Arthritis and Related Disorders--First International Meeting. 2-3 December 1998, Bethesda, USA

The number of publications on gene therapy for arthritis has shown a logarithmic growth curve during recent years. This has resulted in the need for an international platform to exchange new ideas and data. The National Institute of Health (NIH) was the host for the First International Meeting on Gene Therapy of Arthritis and Related Disorders, which was attended by over 150 participants (70% from academic, 30% from industry) from nine different countries. All the participants were active in the field, which resulted in a lively meeting that covered most aspects of this fast moving field. The meeting was organized in eight sessions (biology and targets, vectors, non-viral therapy, adenoviral therapy, rheumatoid arthritis, immunomodulation, cartilage-osteoarthritis and clinical trials). This meeting report will follow the format of the meeting.     

Antibody engineering--IBC's Tenth International Conference. 6-9 December 1999, La Jolla, CA, USA

This meeting covered emergent antibody technologies through preclinical and clinical development of antibodies to the latest clinical data with antibody drugs. On the technology front, human antibody phage libraries have increased in size and quality, and have been combined with high-throughput screening methods. Such phage libraries have become powerful tools for the generation of antibody therapeutics and may also prove useful in the identification of new therapeutic targets. Indeed, four high affinity human antibodies from phage libraries are currently in clinical trials. Transgenic mice containing human immunoglobulin genes have also emerged as a route to high affinity human antibodies, including two that have progressed into the clinic. Molecular evolution of scFv fragments to increase their stability has led to improved localization to tumors in animal models and to their enhanced performance as intrabodies. In clinical trials, significant efficacy with minimal or acceptable toxicities were reported for the chimeric Fab fragment, ReoPro (abciximab; Centocor Inc), in coronary artery disease; the humanized anti-HER2 antibody, Herceptin (trastuzumab; Genentech Inc), in metastatic breast cancer; and, the humanized anti-IgE antibody, E25 (Genentech Inc), in asthma and allergic rhinitis.     

3rd International Symposium on Early Toxicity Screening. 11 December 2002, Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, USA

The 3rd International Symposium on Early Toxicity Screening: Early ADME-Tox Screening Approaches included presentations by primarily non-academic scientists, including biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical scientists and contract research service leaders. A central theme heard throughout the presentations involved the fundamental objectives of and obstacles to ADME and toxicity testing during drug development. In summary, successful preclinical drug safety assessment involves understanding a model's limited ability to mimic the human drug response, increasing the model's ability to mimic the human drug response, and adopting new strategies that model better human drug responses, while simultaneously conducting safety assessment more quickly, more thoroughly and more cost effectively.     

The Cytokine Odyssey 2001, a joint meeting of the Society of Leukocyte Biology and the International Cytokine Society. 8-11 November 2001, Maui, Hawaii, USA

The Cytokine Odyssey 2001 was held at the Outrigger Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii, USA. The meeting, jointly sponsored by the International Cytokine Society (ICS, 9th Annual Meeting) and the Society of Leukocyte Biology (SLB, 35th Annual Meeting), was organised by Carl Ware (Chair) from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (La Jolla, USA) and Thomas Hamilton (Co-Chair) from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (Cleveland, USA). This international conference was designed to bring together leading investigators in molecular and cellular biology, physiology and genetics, interested in cytokines and cells of the immune system. This forum was aimed to assess the impact of this expanding science on new approaches to disease intervention [1].     

Society for Anti-infective Pharmacology--Ninth International Symposium. 3-4 July 1999, Birmingham, UK

This meeting, organized as a 'self-contained' pre-symposium to the 21st International Congress of Chemotherapy, was introduced by Paul Tulkens (Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium), the outgoing president of the society, who reviewed the progress of pharmacodynamics (PD) and pharmacokinetics (PK) in anti-infective research over the past ten years. It was noted that, hitherto, the factors driving therapeutic regimens have been largely 'irrational' with a concentration on achieving the lowest dosage, PK being used principally to establish drug presence and PD considerations largely 'terra incognita'. In contrast, through recent PK/PD studies, we now know that the dose effect of different classes of anti-infectives varies widely, with some showing time-dependence, some a post-antibiotic effect and some co-operating with host defenses. By integrating these factors, we should be in a better position to predict the success or failure of potential new antibiotics at an earlier stage. The focus of the meeting was, therefore, the use of PD and PK to accelerate drug discovery, development and registration. Two particular factors were stressed: the need to establish dosing regimens which avoided or minimized the development of resistance and the role of PD/PK in the discovery process for novel classes of antibiotics that are emerging from genomic programs. The conference was attended by approximately 50 participants, from academia and industry, with representatives from several regulatory authorities also present.     

American Society of Hematology--40th annual meeting. 4-8 December 1998, Miami Beach, FL, USA

The annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology was attended by over 30,000 researchers, nurses, hematologists and physicians. The work presented covered a spectrum from basic science, drugs in development and reports of clinical trials. Over 4600 abstracts were submitted with 3000 presented mainly in poster form. Overviews of clinical progress were presented in satellite symposia hosted by various pharmaceutical companies. An education program, including 23 sessions intending to summarize the 'state of the art' in various clinical fields, was also presented. The sessions are available in a book distributed for the first time to all members of the society. Forty 'meet-the-expert' breakfast sessions allowed free interchange between basic and clinical researchers and interested practitioners. The aim of this meeting was the dissemination of the results of research efforts to practising hematologists, who would then take home the newest information to apply to their daily clinical decisions. Because of the large size of the meeting and the many simultaneous sessions, this meeting report is confined to those areas of greatest interest to the reporter, although some mention will be made of other topics of general interest.     

Oxidative Stress and Aging - Second International Conference. Technologies for assessment and intervention strategies. 2-5 April 2001, Maui, USA

The study of oxidative contributions to aging has reached sufficient maturity to support the development of interventional strategies designed to forestall or reverse protein cross-linking, oxidation of DNA and lipids, and mitochondrial senescence associated with chronic pathology and aging. Catalytic antioxidants, including combined superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase mimics, extend the lifespan of oxidatively compromised animals such as Mn-SOD knockout mice, and will be entering the clinic for radiation-induced dermatitis. Substituted phenacylthiozolium compounds that slow the formation and break extant protein cross-linkages formed via Maillard reactions, restoring vascular compliance in aged animals, and are showing efficacy in clinical trials. Non-feminizing estrogen analogs (eg, 17- alpha estradiol) block cytotoxicity in a host of oxidative stress models and moderate neuronal loss in MCAO stroke models. Efficacy of the polycyclic phenols is synergistically amplified by glutathione supplementation, suggesting that the two function as a redox couple analogous to vitamin E and ascorbate. Finally, discovery of novel small molecules designed to stabilize mitochondrial function during Ca(2+)-induced oxidative stress, such as that occurring during stroke or myocardial ischemia reperfusion, will be accelerated by a proprietary fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay developed at MitoKor. Maintaining mitochondrial function under these circumstances will improve cellular bioenergetic and oxidative status, and hence moderate secondary necrosis and apoptosis.