From rxpgnews.com
University at Buffalo symposium on in silico methods, high throughput screening
By University at Buffalo,
Sep 2, 2010 - 4:00:00 AM
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Twenty-first-century pharmaceutical breakthroughs require 21st-century drug discovery tools, such as computational or in silico molecular design and high-throughput screening of effective, new compounds. That's the theme of a University at Buffalo symposium to be held Sept. 11 on Twenty-first Century Bioscience: In Silico Methods and High-Throughput Screening, which will feature a variety of cutting-edge advances in the field developed by researchers in Western New York and throughout the US.
The symposium will be held at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, 700 Ellicott St., Buffalo from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Speakers will discuss techniques they are developing to treat cancer and other disorders, including such hereditary eye diseases as retinitis pigmentosa.
Symposium topics will range from using flow cytometry and combinatorial chemistry to screen new compounds, to overcoming the hurdles in RNA drug discovery and developing molecular regulators of gene expression.
Research into computational or in silico methods of designing potential new drug compounds and high throughput screening of them is especially strong in Western New York, according to Steven J. Fliesler, PhD (pronounced Fleece-ler), the Meyer H. Riwchun Endowed Chair Professor of Ophthalmology, and vice chair and director of research in the Department of Ophthalmology, Ross Eye Institute, in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Fliesler is a health systems specialist at the Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System; he organized the symposium and is one of the moderators.
Western New York is fortunate to have a diversity of scientists working in these areas on specific applications to human disease, Fliesler says. So whether it's in cancer, ophthalmology, cardiovascular disease or diabetes, these genetic approaches are going on in parallel, utilizing some of the same approaches but with diverse applications. The goal of this combination of methods is to give investigators more powerful tools with which to alter how the genome is expressed in cells and silence disease-causing genes.
For example, Fliesler and his UB colleagues are conducting research on novel gene therapy applications to treat retinitis pigmentosa, a group of genetic eye conditions that can lead to incurable blindness and which Fliesler says underscores the importance of genomic research.
In retinitis pigmentosa, he says, there are well over a hundred known mutations in the gene that codes for the visual pigment rhodopsin alone, and there are dominant and recessive forms of the disease.
If it was possible to just disable the disease-causing allele (one member of a pair of genes) early in development, then you'd get a normal individual, Fliesler says.
Plenary lectures will be given by Larry A. Sklar, PhD, of the University of New Mexico, John S. Lazo, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, Bryan Roth, MD, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Menghang Xia, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health.
Topics of other talks will include:
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