CNS Therapeutics Xchange
East Coast 2021
May 24 & 26

Welcome to hubXchange’s East Coast CNS Therapeutics Xchange 2021, bringing together executives from pharma and biotech to address and find solutions to the key issues faced in developing CNS therapies.
Discussion topics will cover Novel Targets, Preclinical, Clinical Studies, Advanced Therapies and Drug Delivery.
Take advantage of this unique highly interactive meeting format designed for maximum engagement, collaboration and networking with your peers.

Novel Targets

Time
Titles and Bullets
Facilitator
 
DAY 1  (May 24, 2021)
8:30 – 9:00am
Opening Address & Keynote:
What Will Neurology Trials Look Like in the Post-COVID-19 ERA?
  • The Decentralized Landscape – Considering regulatory and operational features
  • The Post-COVID-19 Landscape – Exploring risk mitigation, contingency, and AI strategies
  • The Therapeutic Landscape – The advent of digital therapeutics at the expense of traditional drug therapy
Jimmy El Hokayem, Head, Neurology and Regenerative Medicine Center for Excellence, Biorasi

9:10 – 10:10am

Preclinical Topic  MD Biosciences Roundtable –Preclinical Models with Predictability and Human Translatability- Can Porcine Models Bridge this Gap?
  • Differences in sex with regards to therapeutic development
  • Similarities of porcine skin, innervation and vascularization to humans
  • Shortcomings of rodent models and the impact on success in CNS drug development
  • Cost as a factor in choice of porcine models

Chief Scientific Officer
MD Biosciences

Sigal Meilin, PhD, is a graduate of Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, Israel. Prior to taking the helm as Chief Scientific Officer of MD Biosciences Innovalora, Ltd. in 2004, Sigal headed the preclinical program at an early-stage company. At MD Biosciences, Sigal established the full preclinical research program with well-known as well as novel rodent models. The research capabilities were expanded with new insight and understanding, eventually encompassing all aspects of in vitro testing, cell-based assays and electrophysiology. In vivo research capabilities were augmented with porcine models which have proven to be a new standard and milestone in translational development. As Chief Scientific Officer, Sigal Meilin has the privilege of seeing many novel therapeutic classes, many different pathways and administration routes, giving a unique perspective on development trends, successes and failures.

Sigal Photo
10:10 – 11:00am
BREAK
11:00 – 11:30am
1-2-1 Meetings

11:35am – 12:05pm
1-2-1 Meetings
12:05 – 1:00pm
BREAK
1:00 – 1:30pm
1-2-1 Meetings

1:40 – 2:40pm

Novel Targets in CNS Research- Past, Present and Future?
  • What are the future exciting drug targets for pain, neurology and psychiatry?
  • Discuss the current status of our existing “hot” CNS drug targets
  • Explore the barriers to investigating a truly novel target
  • Should we re-explore “failed” drug targets of the past

Chief Medical Officer
Collegium Pharmaceuticals

Richard Malamut is currently Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President at Collegium Pharmaceuticals which is committed to be the leader in responsible pain management.  He has also served as Chief Medical Officer for Braeburn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he was responsible for the company’s medical affairs, non-clinical and clinical development, clinical operations, research and development quality assurance, and pharmacovigilance functions. Prior to that, Richard had similar responsibilities as Chief Medical Officer at Avanir Pharmaceuticals and was Senior Vice President of Global Clinical Development at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd where he was responsible for Pain, Neuropsychiatry, Oncology, and New Therapeutic Entities. His experience also includes roles of increasing responsibility focusing on early clinical development and translational medicine in Neurology, Psychiatry and Analgesia at Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca.

Richard earned his medical degree from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia and completed both a residency in Neurology and a fellowship in Neuromuscular disease. He worked as a board-certified academic and clinical neurologist for 17 years and has more than 50 publications in the fields of pain medicine, neuromuscular disease, autonomic disease, and neurodegenerative disease.

 

Portrait picture of Richard Malamut
DAY 2  (May 26, 2021)
8:30 – 9:00am
Keynote Presentation:

Current Developments and Trends in Novel Therapeutic Classes for CNS Diseases

  • A review of recent scientific developments and emerging technologies
  • Review of the CNS deal space with a particular focus on neurodegenerative diseases and pain

Sigal Meilin, Chief Scientific Officer, MD Biosciences

9:10 – 10:10am

Triaging Your Drug Targets to Find the Most Relevant Lead
  • How to triage potential targets based on the most validated human biology and genetics evidence
  • Explore the different approaches to defining standards for excluding drug targets
  • Explore how community research experience and confidence in novel targets can de-risk development
  • Discuss the risks of a research community-based approach to investigating new targets 

Senior Vice President and Head of Research 
Lucy Therapeutics     

Huseyin Mehmet has over 20 years experience in basic research and drug discovery, spending half of his career in academic research (Imperial College London) and half in biopharma. He has led drug discovery groups at Merch, Proteostasis Therapeutics and Zafgen and has consulted for several biotech start ups under the Atlas Ventures umbrella. He has extensive experience in metabolic disease, immunology, neuroscience and cancer and has authored over 100 papers and patents.

 

Huseyin Mehmet Photo (Cropped)
10:10 – 11:00am
BREAK
11:00 – 11:30am
1-2-1 Meetings
11:35am – 12:05pm
1-2-1 Meetings
12:05 – 1:00pm
BREAK

1:00 – 1:30pm

Ulysses Neuroscience Poster 
Interferon-Alpha as a Back-Translational Model of Neuroinflammation to Identify Novel Biomarkers and Targets
  • Neuroinflammation in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders
  • The interferon-alpha back-translational model of neuroinflammation
  • Translational central and peripheral biomarkers

Chief Scientific Officer And Patient Insight Manager
Ulysses Neuroscience

Charlotte K. Callaghan, PhD, is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, where she also completed her post-doc embarking on an exciting scientific career undertaking a variety of academic-industrial research collaborations investigating the neuropsychopharmacology of affective disorders. Charlotte is currently Chief Scientific Officer and Patient insight manager at Ulysses Neuroscience Ltd., a private R&D organisation, which has been established with patient-centricity and translational research as its core research values. Ulysses Neuroscience multidisciplinary preclinical and clinical translational platforms investigates the molecular mechanisms leading to the synaptic pathology and neuroinflammatory events which accompany the development of psychiatric, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. The company has a collaborative and scientist-to-scientist approach in working with pharmaceutical companies on tailored research projects. Drug discovery in neuroscience has changed, Ulysses Neuroscience is part of the new journey against brain disorders.

1:40 – 2:40pm

Neuroinflammation – Identifying Biomarkers and Drug Targets

  • Weighing up the evidence- is neuroinflammation cause of neurodegeneration or the symptoms?
  • What are biomarkers faithfully recapitulate the CNS state and are easy to measure in the patient?
  • What characteristics should biomarkers have to allow for accurate disease state tracking in patients?
  • Discuss the current developments of drug targets for neuroinflammation
  • How to effectively use biomarkers for patient identification, patient subgroups characterization and patient stratification?
     

Vice President, Translational Biology
Tiaki Therapeutics

Jonathan Levenson is the Vice President of Translational Biology at Tiaki Therapeutics. Prior to joining Tiaki, he was the head of preclinical and nonclinical research and development at Proclara where he was key in moving two assets into the clinic, one for Alzheimer’s disease and one for systemic amyloidosis. Before that, Jonathan worked at Galenea where he held positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in the role of senior scientist. Jonathan was an assistant professor and the director of the rodent behavioral core at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was previously a consultant at Saegis Pharmaceuticals and an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine. He earned his doctorate in Biology from the University of Houston and did his post-doctoral training at the Baylor College of Medicine in the Department of Neuroscience. He has authored or co-authored over 70 research publications focused on neuropharmacology and the treatment of neurological diseases.

 

 

Portrait picture of Jonathan Levenson
2:40 – 2:45pm
Closing Address 

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CNS Therapeutics Xchange | East Coast 2021
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