CNS Therapeutics Xchange
Europe 2021, December 2nd

Welcome to hubXchange’s European 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, Gene Therapies and Drug Delivery.
Take advantage of this unique highly interactive meeting format designed for maximum engagement, collaboration and networking with your peers.

Please note this is now a fully VIRTUAL meeting.

Novel Targets

Time
Titles and Bullets
Facilitator
8:00 – 8:30am
Registration

8:30 – 9:00am

Opening Address & Keynote:
Back and Forward Translational Research – How to close the circle?

Founder / President & CEO
Ulysses Neuroscience

Professor Massimiliano (Max) Bianchi launched Ulysses Neuroscience Ltd. in 2019 following over 20 years of international neuropharmacology R&D and executive management experience in industry and CRO including Transpharmation Ireland Ltd (Ireland), MAPREG (France) and GlaxoSmithKline (UK and Italy). A native of Italy, Massimiliano originally studied veterinary medicine in Sassari and Milan before obtaining his PhD in psychopharmacology at the University of Nottingham and embarking on a career in scientific research and the pharmaceutical industry. He has dedicated his scientific career to explore the role of neuronal plasticity and cytoskeletal dynamics in the pathogenesis and treatment of neuropsychiatry and neurodegenerative disorders. Massimiliano is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology in Trinity College Dublin and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Maynooth University. His company Ulysses Neuroscience Ltd. was founded with the mission to start a New Journey Against Brain Disorders based on Patient-Centricity, Translation Research and Social Responsibility. Ulysses Neuroscience currently works with several pharmaceutical companies around the world to accelerate drug discovery in neuroscience by providing cutting-edge capabilities bridging preclinical and clinical research in neuropsychiatry and neurodevelopmental disorders. Proud of its rapid growth, Ulysses can count on 12 research dedicated staff and two research sites in the Republic of Ireland.

Paul Sharp Photographer.

9:05 – 10:05am

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

Head of Discovery Chemistry, Screening Biology and Operations
AbbVie

Magnus Walter leads Abbvie’s Discovery organisation in Ludwigshafen, Germany focused on the development of disease modifying treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Drug discovery activities range from target identification to clinical candidate delivery and cover medicinal chemistry, synthetic technologies, assay development, cell culture and high content imaging. Before joining Abbvie in 2018 Magnus had global responsibility for Neurodegeneration Medicinal Chemistry at Eli Lilly and was based in the UK. He has broad experience in medicinal chemistry and his group contributed to drug discovery projects in neuroscience, immunology and metabolic diseases. He made significant contributions to the discovery of several clinical candidates that progressed into late-stage clinical trials.

Magnus Walter
10:10 – 10:40am
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
10:40 – 11:10am
1-2-1 Meetings / Networking Break
11:10 – 11:20am
Morning Refreshments

11:20am – 12:20pm

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
12:20 – 1:20pm

Networking Lunch

1:20 – 1:50pm

Spotlight Presentation

Introducing diversity in non-clinical and translational CNS models for better prediction of clinical outcomes

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

1:55 – 2:55pm

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

Vice President, Search & Evaluation – Pain & Neurodegeneration
Eli Lilly

Jenny Laird, Ph.D., D.Sc. is Vice-President, Search & Evaluation Pain & Neurodegeneration at Eli Lilly and Company, based at Lilly’s European Headquarters near London, UK. She leads a global Search & Evaluation team complementing Lilly’s internal R&D efforts in Neuroscience by evaluating, in-licensing, or acquiring assets and technologies and by advancing molecules through discovery and development in collaboration with external partners including venture firms. Prior to joining Lilly in 2012, Dr. Laird held roles of increasing responsibility in drug discovery and development at AstraZeneca and Merck, and as an academic PI. Dr. Laird received doctorates from University of Bristol, UK and University of Alicante, Spain. She has served on editorial boards of journals in the field of neuropharmacology, and as an honorary Professor of Pharmacology at McGill University, Canada.

Jenny Laird
3:00 – 3:30pm
1-2-1 Meetings / Networking Break
3:30 – 4:00pm
1-2-1 Meetings / Networking Break
4:00 – 4:10pm
Afternoon Refreshments

4:10 – 4:40pm

Poster Session
Target discovery – the Euretos approach
  • Integrating gene-disease annotations and biological networks from multiple sources
  • Predicting novel gene-disease associations from known genetic associations
  • Contextualising results with public knowledge in the Euretos platform

Head of translational science
Euretos

Sophie Roerink joined Euretos in 2019. She has a MSc degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a PhD in Medicine from Leiden University – studying cancer biology in model organisms. During her postdoctoral work at the Cancer Genome Project in the Sanger Institute and the Princess Maxima Center for pediatric oncology she has worked on understanding cancer biology from cancer genomics data. Within Euretos she heads up the translational science team – translating research questions from customers into data science solutions and/or user-friendly workflows in the Euretos AI Platform

4:45 – 5:45pm

Neuroinflammation (NI) – identifying diagnostic, prognostic and target engagement biomarkers for novel NI drug targets

  • Cause or effect and when to intervene – are there biomarkers that faithfully recapitulate and track the CNS disease state(s)?
  • Are current NI biomarkers accurate, reproducible and cost effective or are better biomarkers in development?
  • Discuss the current developments of drug targets for neuroinflammation and how are they being assessed preclinically?
  • How to effectively use biomarkers for translation into patients and identify / stratify patients?

Vice President, Neuroscience
Cerevance

Lee is Vice President of Neuroscience at Cerevance, in Cambridge, UK. Cerevance is a neuroscience focussed biotech start up using its NETSseq technology to discover and develop truly novel therapeutics for diseases such as Parkinson’s, ALS and dementia.  Lee is a neuropharmacologist with over 25 years in the Pharmaceutical industry having held positions across biotech and large Pharma organisations including Wyeth Research (in the UK and US), GlaxoSmithKline, Eisai and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. During his career Lee has been responsible for global strategic input on all aspects of R&D and has lead projects from early target identification, through drug discovery to phase II proof of concept testing.

Lee Dawson 1
5:45 – 6:45pm
Evening Drinks Reception

Lead Partner

Partners

CNS Therapeutics Xchange | Europe 2021
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