Day of Life Sciences «Competencies in Drug Discovery»

Pharmaceutical research is of great importance to society as it represents a major industry and improves people's lives. In this context, drug discovery and development are crucial steps in improving treatment options for patients. These are challenging and highly interdisciplinary projects with a high degree of complexity. Meeting these challenges requires diverse collaboration between different scientific disciplines as well as between academia and industry.

A Center of Excellence for Drug Discovery is therefore being established at the Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology at ZHAW to foster, support and successfully implement these collaborations. The symposium «Competencies in Drug Discovery» aims to discuss projects from different therapeutic indications in an interdisciplinary way and to promote the interaction of biological, chemical and medical competencies.

Programme

• 08.30 Registration
• 09.00 Welcome to the ZHAW, news and outlook - Prof. Dr. Christian Hinderling, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (CH)
• 09.15 Drug Discovery Competence Center - Prof. Dr. Rainer Riedl, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (CH)
• 09.30 A topical drug for a tropical bug: How a Swiss academic/private network is developing BAC-ZHAWOC-6027 to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis - Dr. Michael Adams, Bacoba AG (CH)
• 10.00 Approaches towards innovative antibiotics from myxobacterial natural products - Prof. Dr. Rolf Müller, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (DE)
• 10.30 Coffee break with poster session
• 11.00 Antivirals discovery against paramyxoviruses PD - Dr. Philippe Plattet, University of Bern (CH)
• 11.30 The treasure hunt of novel antibiotics produced by actinomycetes: lessons from the R&D of glycopeptides - Prof. Dr. Flavia Marinelli, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria (IT)
• 12.00 - Networking lunch and exhibition
• 13.30 Metabolomics assisted natural product discovery from marine fungi - Prof. Dr. Deniz Tasdemir, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (DE)
• 14.00 Development of small molecules to block CD93-signaling in leukemia patients - Prof. Dr. Carsten Riether, Bern University Hospital (CH)
• 14.30 Bioactive natural products from bacteria: how much do we know - Prof. Dr. Jörn Piel, ETH Zurich (CH)
• 15.00 Coffee break with poster session
• 15.30 Enhancing NO/sGC/cGMP pathway with new soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) agonists - Prof. Dr. Manolis Fousteris, University of Patras (GR)
• 16.00 Performance Boosted Antibiotics and Drug-Loaded Microbots Against Bacterial Infections - Prof. Dr. Karl Gademann , University of Zurich (CH)
• 16.30 USP18 as a checkpoint for IFN signaling and ISG15 deconjugation: From ko mice via structural analysis to therapeutic options PD - Dr. Klaus-Peter Knobeloch, University Clinic Freiburg (DE)
• 17.00 Aperitif and networking