CHI recently spoke with Dr. Chas Bountra, Head of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), and Professor of Translational Medicine and an Associate Head of Medical Sciences at the University of Oxford. In this podcast, Dr. Bountra discusses how the SGC is impacting drug discovery and their work on developing novel probes, specifically for epigenetic targets. Dr. Bountra also gives a sneak peek into his keynote lecture joining the Structure-Based Drug Design and Chemical Biology for Target Validation meetings, May 22 in Boston.

An-Dinh Nguyen interviews David Galas of Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute on March 27, 2014. Dr. Galas will be a keynote speaker at TCGC: The Clinical Genome Conference, June 10-12, 2014 in San Francisco, CA.

Topics include the challenges of translating genomic data into diagnostics and therapeutics, the promise of computational biology approaches for overcoming those barriers, the possible impact of extracellular RNA and the microbiome on human biology and more.

Christina Lingham interviews on Luis Álvarez-Vallina of Aarhus University on March 27, 2014. Dr. Álvarez-Vallina will be speaking at the Phage and Yeast Display track at PEGS, on May 5-6 in Boston, Mass.

Topics include phage display, in vivo selection of antibodies. tumor targeting, novel tumor-associated antigens, antibody-based therapeutics, targeted delivery.

Nandini Kashyap interviews Dr. Geeti Gangal of Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research on March 26, 2014. Dr. Gangal will be speaking during the 2nd Annual Formulation and Drug Delivery conference which is taking place on May 21-22, 2014 as part of World Pharma Congress in Boston, MA

Topics Include:

Poor Solubility, Bioavailability, Oral Drug delivery, Preclinical animal models, Drug Absorption, Dissolution Prediction and Experimentation, Discovery and development interface, Solubilization, Formulation material science, Enabling formulation, Enabling technologies, Nanotechnology, Characterization, Drug and Product stability, In vitro-In vivo correlation (IVIVC)

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Christina Lingham interviews Rakesh Dixit of MedImmune on March 26, 2014. Dr. Dixit will be speaking at the Advancing Bispecific Antibodies to the Clinic for Oncology track at PEGS, on May 7-8 in Boston, Mass.

Topics include bispecific antibodies for oncology, engineering innovations for engineering bispecific antibodies, and bispecific platforms currently under development.

Nandini Kashyap interviews Dr. Nicholas Meanwell, Executive Director of Department of Chemistry at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. on March 25, 2014. Dr. Meanwell will be delivering keynote presentation during the 3rd Annual Property-Based Drug Design, May 22-23, 2014 at Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel in Boston, MA.

Topics Include:

Physicochemical properties in drug discovery and development, Bio-physical properties, Property based drug design, drug design, Solid State properties, Solubility, Permeability, Lipophilicity, Physicochemical descriptors, High-Throughput Physicochemical Screens, Developability of molecules, Polymorphism, Discovery workflow

Christina Lingham interviews Robert Mabry of Adimab on March 25, 2014. Dr. Mabry will be speaking at the Engineering Bispecific Antibodies track at PEGS, on May 8-9 in Boston, Mass.

Topics include common issues and engineering solutions for engineering bispecific antibodies, emerging applications for bispecifics and the growth of bispecific platforms currently under development.

Kip Harry, Conference Director at Cambridge Healthtech Institute discusses epigenetic drug discovery with Dr. Matthew Fuchter, Senior Lecturer of Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry at the Imperial College London.

Questions Include:

• From an inhibitor development standpoint, what methods do you use for discovery to lead?

• Why do you choose natural products to aid in targeting epigenetic modifiers and is there limited chemical matter in this space?

• What opportunities are there for infectious disease and other indications?

• What has ignited all this interest in developing second generation epigenetic inhibitors – particularly targeting Histone Methyltransferases, Demethylases and BET Bromodomains?

• Have we learned anything from approved compounds?

• What are major challenges seen in the development of novel epigenetic inhibitors?

• What about safety and toxicity of compounds – is this a major concern?

• What talks/topics are you looking forward to during the Epigenetic Inhibitor Discovery Meeting?

• How quickly can we expect to see these novel medicines reaching patients in need?

• Is combination therapy where we will see the greatest impact in this space?

• Some compare the epigenetic enzymes to kinases, where they will provide years of fertile grounds for discovery. What do you think?

Dr. Gerald Tanoury from Vertex, featured speaker at CHI's 'Efficient Process Chemistry' meeting May 22-24, 2014 in Boston, speaks about dealing with two challenging chemical steps in the scale-up of HCV protease inhibitor, Telaprevir, which was launched in 2011 as a new treatment for hepatitis C infection. Tanoury also discusses Telaprevir's route development in the context of his views on what makes an efficient route and shares with the interviewer, Dr. Anjani Shah, Conference Director for CHI, what he is interested in learning more about at the meeting.

Dr. Erlanson of Carmot Therapeutics and Dr. Zartler of Tessera Consulting speak with CHI's Dr. Shah on March 14, 2014 about new strategies for fragment linking, different companies' fragment-based campaigns, and types of PPI-directed compounds advancing in the clinic.

Dr. Erlanson will be speaking at the Fragment Based Drug Discovery meeting on April 24-25, 2014 in San Diego, part of CHI's Drug Discovery Chemistry event about Fishing for Fragments to Complement Known Binders.

Dr. Zartler was the scientific advisor to Dr. Shah for the Protein-Protein Interactions meeting taking place April 23-24, 2014 in San Diego, part of CHI's Drug Discovery Chemistry event.

Drs. Erlanson and Zartler are also co-instructors of one of the dinner workshops at the event, Advancing Tools and Technologies for Fragment-Based Design on April 24, 2014.

Erlanson and Zartler are also co-editors of the Practical Fragments blog: http://practicalfragments.blogspot.com/