Short Courses*

Monday, April 18, 2016
Morning Courses | 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

SC1: Trends in Physical Properties of Drugs

Instructors:

Terry Stouch, Ph.D., President, R&D, Science for Solutions, LLC

Robert Fraczkiewicz, Ph.D., Team Leader, Simulations Plus, Inc.

John Comer, Ph.D., CSO, Sirius Analytical Ltd.

• Properties important for enhanced efficacy, delivery, and formulation
• pKa, tautomerism, crystallization, others
• Computational prediction: What works - what doesn’t
• Experimental best practices

SC2: GPCR Structure-Based Drug Discovery

Instructors:

Matthew Eddy, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow, Ray Stevens Laboratory, The Bridge Institute, University of Southern California

• Review of recent GPCR structures and their lessons
• Approaches for crystallization of GPCRs
• GPCR conformational dynamics
• Application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study GPCR structure and dynamics

SC3: Designing Peptide Therapeutics for Specific PPIs

Instructors:

Nir Qvit, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Associate, Chemical & Systems Biology Operations, Stanford University School of Medicine
Opher S. Kornfeld, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine

• Designing novel modulators of protein interactions based on sequence homology, domain conversation and protein structure
• Synthesis of novel inhibitors to target specific protein-protein interactions
• Development of peptidomimetics that derive from an active site to improve stability, activity and bioavailability

Afternoon Courses | 2:30 – 5:30 pm

SC4: Immunology Basics for Chemists

Instructors:

Seng-Lai “Thomas” Tan, Ph.D., Senior Director, Immunology, FORMA Therapeutics

Songqing Na, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Biotechnology & Autoimmunity Res-AME, Eli Lilly and Company

• Review of immune system’s cellular players
• Review of inflammatory process
• Autoimmune & inflammation-related diseases
• Current treatment landscape and promising drug targets

SC5: Phenotypic Screening and Chemical Probe Development

Instructor: Samarjit Patnaik, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Probe Development Center, NCATS, NIH

• Overview of modern phenotypic drug discovery using examples from literature and NCATS
• Screening assay designs and phenotypic systems
• Strategies to elucidate MOA and options for de-convoluting molecular targets
• Development of chemical probes at NCATS

Dinner Courses | 6:00 – 9:00 pm

SC7: Ligand-Receptor Molecular Interactions and Drug Design

Instructor: Maricel Torrent, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, AbbVie

• Drug design principles generally applicable to all medicinal chemistry programs
• Interpretation of atomic-level protein X-ray and modeled structures of binding modes
• Understanding the relative amounts of potency gain from different interactions
• Case studies illustrate all of the design strategies

SC8: Inhibitor Design using MOE SBDD Applications

Instructors:
Daniel Chang, Ph.D., Applications Scientist, Chemical Computing Group

Alain Ajamian, Ph.D. Director Chemical Computing Group

• Analyzing protein active sites with molecular surfaces and maps
• Generating pharmacophore models to capture essential ligand binding features
• Application of docking to determine ligand poses in the active site  
• Fragment-based design applications for scaffold replacement
• A virtual reaction-based combinatorial approach for R-group screening

Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Dinner Courses | 6:30 – 9:30 pm

SC10: Enabling Macrocyclic Compounds for Drug Discovery: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies

Instructors:

Mark L. Peterson, Ph.D., COO, Cyclenium Pharma, Inc.

Eric Marsault, Ph.D., Professor, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology, University of Sherbrooke

• Unique characteristics of macrocycles
• Factors affecting cell permeability and PK/ADME properties
• Synthetic strategies for macrocyclic compound libraries & macrocyclization challenges
• Drug discovery and development examples and future perspectives

SC11: Advancing Tools and Technologies for Fragment-Based Design

Instructors: Daniel A. Erlanson, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Carmot Therapeutics, Inc.

Ben Davis, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Biology, Vernalis Research

• Why fragments – pros and cons
• What makes a good fragment, and a good fragment library
• Finding, validating and characterizing low affinity ligands
• The importance of using orthogonal screening methods
• What to do with a fragment – growing, linking, and more

SC12: Introduction to Targeted Covalent Inhibitors

Instructors: Mark Schnute, Ph.D., Associate Research Fellow, Biotherapeutics Chemistry & Immunoscience Research, Pfizer Global R&D

Christoph Zapf, Ph.D., Senior Principal Scientist, Worldwide Medicinal Chemistry, Pfizer Research Labs

• Overview of covalent drugs, irreversible and reversible inhibitors including recent clinical examples
• Biochemical analysis of covalent inhibitors
• Design considerations for targeted covalent inhibitors
• De-risking covalent inhibitors
• Mechanism of drug resistance

*Separate Registration Required