Conference Program

Alan Gintzler currently works at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. Alan does research in Endocrinology, Molecular Biology and Neuroscience. Their most recent publication is 'Plasticity of signaling by spinal estrogen receptor alpha, kappa-opioid receptor and mGluRs over the rat reproductive cycle regulates spinal endomorphin 2 antinociception: relevance of endogenous biased agonism'. He has over 100 publications that have been cited over 4,000 times and his publication H-index is 38. He has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of many reputed journals.

Alan GintzlerDownstate Medical Center,USA

09:30- 10:10

Eliana has her expertise in Food and Drug Law. She has 26 years’ experience in helping international pharmaceutical, health and food companies to gain presence in markets of Latin America and Europe, especially. She has active participation in the harmonization of regulatory affairs process through the organizations that she represents. She has played an active role in setting up Brazil’s Public Health Regulator (ANVISA), organizing the agenda of its first Anvisa’s President in the USA to explore the US especially the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Paho, in December 1998. She is President of the ABPVS a Regulatory Affairs Organization for Brazil and Latin America Countries and Lawyer at Silva de Moraes, Member of the Brazilian Bar Association and The Portugal Bar Association.

Eliana Silva de MoraesFood and Drug Law,Brazil

10:10- 10:40

Pamela is an accomplished Gastrointestinal (GI) and Translational Pharmacologist with extensive experience in Academia and R&D. In R&D her leadership resulted in the discovery and characterization of eluxadoline (Viberzi), which is now a marketed drug for patients with diarrhea-predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS-d). She has received recognition of the impact of her work ( >100 publications), serves on Advisory Boards and is Past-Chair of the Translational & Clinical Pharmacology Division of ASPET. After post-doctoral training (Center for Brain Research, University of Rochester NY, and Department of Pharmacology, Georgetown University Medical School) she built an internationally-recognized laboratory in the neuropharmacology of GI disorders at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans, where she rose through the ranks to become Full Professor of Pharmacology. She joined Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research to lead a newly-formed GI Research Team. This resulted in eluxadoline, which was US FDA approved and launched in 2015. In Biotechnology (Centocor) she led incubator-funded initiatives on innovative technology - intestinal electrical stimulation for metabolic disease and engineered protein scaffolds enabling oral delivery of peptides. Currently, she is executing therapeutic strategies to exploit the gut signalling for Metabolic Diseases at Janssen R&D of J&J. As Adjunct Professor in the Dept. Pharmacology and Physiology, Drexel University Medical School she contributes to the educational mission of the College.

Pamela J. Hornby Janssen R&D, LLC,USA

11:00- 11:20

Dr. Rabah is a leader in drug discovery and early development focusing on drug target identification, mechanistic and translational studies, and the advancement of therapeutic candidates into clinical development. Dr. Rabah is currently the head of the Drug Discovery Incubator at Biogen. She has been with Biogen for over 13 years in roles of increasing scope and responsibility including the Head of the Immuno-pharmacology Group, Head of Immunology Discovery Biomarkers and Head of the New Indications Research Group. In her current role Dr. Rabah leads a drug discovery incubator and accelerator group that has created an innovative pipeline of projects using different modalities (biologics, small molecules, ASO, and gene therapy) in multiple indications. The portfolio spans the entire drug discovery spectrum from early exploratory to Phase II clinical studies. In addition, her group is tasked with incubating emerging disease areas, and developing them into independent research units. Dr. Rabah’s educational training includes a Master’s degree in Immunology from the American University of Beirut, PHD in Microbiology and Immunology from Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia (VCU/MCV), and post-doctoral training at Harvard medical School. .

Dania RabahBiogen,USA

11:25- 11:45

Dr. Michael Hicks has over 20 years of pharmaceutical research experience with a diversified background ranging from early discovery to pharmaceutical pre-clinical R&D. Dr. Mike started in Analytical Research and Development in 1989 at Merck, received his PhD from Seton Hall University in 1997. He taught an Advanced Biomedical Engineering Graduate Laboratory at the Stevens Institute of Technology as adjunct faculty for ten years. He served as the 2017 Program Director for the Eastern Analytical Symposium and is currently an affiliate member of the EAS Board of Directors. He leads the Analytical Chemistry subteam of the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Roundtable for the ACS Green Chemistry Initiative Global Consortium. He has been working in the Separations Sciences area for over 16 years and is currently in the Analytical Chemistry and Enabling Technologies group in the Analytical R & D Department at Merck Research Labs in Rahway NJ specializing in separations, particularly in supercritical fluid chromatography as well as other large molecule method like size exclusion with multi-angle light scattering.

Michael Brendan HicksMerck & Co.,USA

11:50- 12:10

James Bruno has thirty years of experience in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical market place. He has worked on a global basis to develop commercial processes for the manufacturing of intermediates and API's, develop regulatory strategies for your products. He is the past Chairman of the Rider University, Scientific Advisory Board and past president of Drug Chemical and Associated Technologies. His specialties include Regulatory including PAI and document review, Process Validation, Flow Chemistry and continuous improvements, Global Supply Chain, Plant Audits, Product Management, and Technology Assessments.

James Bruno,CapSolutions,USA

12:15- 12:35

Débora Cristina de Oliveira holds a bachelor's degree in Pharmacy and Biochemistry from the State University of Londrina (1991), a Master's Degree in Pharmaceuticals and Medicines from the University of São Paulo in the area of ethylene oxide gas sterilization (2000) and a PhD in Pharmaceuticals and Medicines from the University of São Paulo of plasma sterilization (2007). Has experience in the management of commercial pharmacy, pharmaceutical attention to the patient and implantation of laboratory of manipulation of magisterial and officinal formulas. Additionally, She has experience in the area of Industrial Pharmaceuticals, working in the following segments: controlled areas of sterile drug production, environmental monitoring of controlled areas and training of monitored and controlled production area operators. Currently holds the position of Adjunct Professor I in the Pharmacy and Biochemistry course of the Federal University of São Paulo-UNIFESP, next to the curricular units of Physical and Chemical Quality Control of Medicines and Cosmetics; Biological and Microbiological Quality Control of Medicines and Cosmetics; Scientific methodology.

Débora Cristina de OliveiraUniversidade Federal de São Paulo,Brazil

13:40- 14:00

Maria Kontoyianni holds a PhD in computational chemistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she worked under the supervision of Professor Phil Bowen. After a post-doctoral fellowship with Professor Terry Lybrand at the University of Washington, she joined ZymoGenetics, where she used computational methods in support of osteoporosis. She then moved to Research & Development of Fortune 500 companies, such as Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble, applying structure-based design to various therapeutic targets ranging from hit to lead optimization. In her most recent post, she was the Head of Drug Discovery at Crystax, a fragment-based biotechnology firm in Barcelona. She sits on the editorial board of several journals, holds seven patents, is a clinical consultant and panelist for the European Union large scale grant application proposals and NIH.

Maria KontoyianniSouthern Illinois University Edwardsville,Australia

14:05-14:25

To be updated soon.

Priya Saradha Levstat,USA

14:30-14:50

Thomas Heinbockel, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA. Dr. Heinbockel’s laboratory engages in multidisciplinary research to elucidate organizational principles of neural systems in the brain, speci?cally the limbic and olfactory system. His research has been directed at understanding brain mechanisms of information processing and their relation to neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. His lab works also on translational projects, speci?cally, the development of novel anti-epileptic drugs and pharmacotherapeutic treatment options of drug addiction. His lab analyzes drug actions at the epi- and genetic level using next-generation sequencing technology.

Thomas Heinbockel Howard University College of Medicine, USA

14:55- 15:15

Dr. Xiang-Qun (Sean) Xie is an Associate Dean for Research Innovation at School of Pharmacy and a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences/Drug Discovery Institute, and a PI of an integrated Medicinal Chemistry Biology laboratory of CompuGroup, BioGroup and ChemGroup (www.CBLigand.org/XieLab) at University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the Science Advisory Board to the US FDA. He is a Founding Director of Computational Chemical Genomics Screening Center (www.CBLigand.org/CCGS), and a Director/PI of NIH National Center of Excellence for CDAR (www.CDARCenter.org). He holds joint positions at Dept of Computational Biology and Dept of Structural Biology, and Pitt Cancer Institute MT/DD Program. He is an Editorial Advisory Board member for AAPS Journal and American Journal of Molecular Biology, and Associate Editor of BMC Pharmacology Toxicology. 

Xiangqun XieUniversity of Pittsburgh,USA

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