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Dear SABPA Friends,
SABPA is pleased to present you the following in this newsletter:
1. Highlights of the 7th Frontiers in Therapeutics and Diagnostics Forum
2. Open positions in local companies
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1. Highlights of the 7th Frontiers in Therapeutics and Diagnostics Forum
On February 4, 2023, the Sino-American Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Association (SABPA) successfully held its flagship forum, the 7th "Frontiers in Therapeutics & Diagnosis Forum (FTD)", at Hilton San Diego/Del Mar. This was the first in-person FTD forum held by SABPA since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and around 500 people participated from the pharma and biotech industry and research institutions in Southern California and beyond.
"After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pharma and biotech industry had to tackle various challenges quickly, push ahead with the ongoing programs, and embark on new research and developing new solutions for the Covid outbreak. Therefore, we decided to organize this FTD forum around the themes of neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases and COVID-19 drug development and diagnosis," said Dr. Hua Gong, the president of the SABPA San Diego Chapter.
This year’s FTD forum was organized into morning and afternoon sessions. The morning session was hosted by the two co-hosts of this forum, Dr. Hua Gong and Dr. Stephanie Shi. After Dr. Gong opened the FTD forum, four speakers gave excellent talks covering exciting progress in chemistry, drug development, and clinical research.
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Prof. Howard Feldman, UC San Diego, gave a tour de force overview of the latest understanding of Alzheimer's disease progression and “at long last, the dawn of the era of amyloid-lowering therapies and beyond”.
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Dr. Hartmuth Kolbbos, VP of Janssen R&D, talked about applying the Nobel Prize-winning Click chemistry in molecular Imaging to support oncology and neuroscience drug development.
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Dr. Amir Kalali, DTRA, reviewed “the state of play” and various initiatives DTRA is working on to support decentralized clinical research.
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Prof. Yu Jinquan, Scripps Research Institute, gave a fascinating talk on the "20-year dancing with Palladium and C-H Bonds” and how chemistry moved from academic curiosity to industrial applications.
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The afternoon session was run in two concurrent tracks focusing on development work in neuroscience and Covid-19, respectively. The virtual option was also offered here for those unable to attend in person.
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The neuroscience track was co-hosted by Dr. Hui Wang and Dr. Guang Chen.
The theme of this track focused on neurodegenerative diseases, including the development of new drugs for Parkinson's disease, stem cell-derived neuron replacement therapy, the application of PFF in the research of neurodegenerative diseases, therapeutic and biomarker opportunities in the treatment of dementia, and utilizing the stem cell approach for drug discovery. The guest speakers included: Dr. Sean Joseph (Scripps), Dr. Jeanne Loring (Scripps), Dr. Tracy Zhao (ACRO Biosystems), Dr. Jeffrey Cummings (UNLV), and Dr. Tao Huang (NeuCyte).
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The Covid-19 track was co-hosted by Dr. Chang He and Dr. Andrew Wang.
The speakers included Dr. Jamison Tuttle (Pfizer), Avindra Nath, MD (NINDS), Dr. Yanping Li (Asymchem), Dr. Eric Lai (RADx initiative, NIH), and Dr. Scott Ferguson (Aptitude). Their talks covered the discovery and development of Nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), long-COVID, challenges and opportunities of clinical operations using customized quality management, the NIH COVID-19 initiatives (RADx and ITAP), and the development of the first FDA-authorized Covid OTC molecular test.
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Throughout the FTD forum and various talks, there were many excellent and thought-provoking Q&As between the audience and the speakers. Quite often, there was a queue of people eager to ask questions or add comments at the end of presentations.
Outside the main conference room, sponsors and exhibitors had the booths lined up along both sides of the corridor, showcasing their products and services for the pharma and biotech industry. And there were many people in the exhibitor and refreshment area and many lively discussions. The FTD forum also held a cocktail reception after the end of the sessions and provided an excellent opportunity for attendees to network, catch up with old friends, and make new friends.
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Please click here for more wonderful photos.
Slides and videos of this FTD Forum will come soon！
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As SABPA is a nonprofit professional organization managed and operated entirely by volunteers, let’s give our sincere thanks to the organizing committees who put in countless hours of preparation and to all the speakers, volunteers, and sponsors who made the 7th FDT forum a great success!
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2. Open positions in local companies
Are you job hunting? Don't miss out on the job postings on the SABPA website career page. More than 50 open positions in local companies from rising start-ups to global pharma companies such as CorDx, Tanvex BioPharma, iXCells Biotech, Bristol Myers Squibb, etc are waiting for you. For more open position information, please visit https://lnkd.in/gc5zk738.
If you would like to post jobs with us, please don't hesitate to reach out to the Education and Career Development (ECD) Committee at info.job@sabpa.org.
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