Cambridge Healthtech Institute Research Articles

CHI's 6th Annual Oligonucleotide and Precision Therapeutics (OPT) Congress. Virtual - March 30-31, 2021

Held virtually on March 30-31, 2021, the 6th Oligonucleotide & Precision Therapeutics (OPT) Congress, organized by Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI), covered advances in science and technologies that are propelling innovation across the oligonucleotide industry. Welcoming 300 attendees and 25 speakers, the event offered several modes of content presentation (live, prerecorded, on-demand, panel discussions, group breakout sessions and posters) and featured 2 focused conference streams: day 1 examined oligonucleotide discovery and delivery, and day 2 addressed chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) and regulatory strategies. This report summarizes several presentations given during the congress.

CHI's 18th Annual Discovery on Target. Virtual - September 16-18, 2020

The Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) continued its annual Discovery on Target series of conferences as a virtual platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic preventing live attendance at large events This, the 18th annual conference, continued the multitrack format, providing coverage of a wide range of targeting topics, including RNA, PROTACs, antibodies, proteins, immunology and oncology, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, fibrosis, models, cell/gene therapy, kinase inhibitor and GPCR-based drug discovery, biomarkers Along with live and on-demand presentations, all with potential for QAa virtual exhibit hall was also created This report will cover some of the presentations given relating to drug discovery and potential targets Copyright © 2020 Clarivate Analytics

Highlights of 2019 Protein Engineering Summit (PEGS) in Boston, USA: Advancing Antibody-Based Cancer Therapies to the Clinic.

The 15th Annual Protein Engineering Summit (PEGS) organized by Cambridge Healthtech Institute was held in Boston, USA, from 8 to 12 April 2019. This report highlights the presentations in the Oncology Stream of this meeting with a focus on bispecific antibodies (BsAbs). A variety of BsAb formats with different target antigens (CD3, CTLA4, PD-1, PD-L1, EGFR, HER2, BCMA, CD19, CD20, CD38, CD123, TGFβ, PSMA, etc.) have been discussed, in which the T-cell engaging (anti-CD3) BsAb is the most studied construct to exhibit promising immunotherapeutic activities. The BsAb formats include IgG-like structures or antibody fragments composed of antigen-binding sites only. Preclinical and clinical data from different BsAbs demonstrated the potential therapeutic applications in various solid tumors and hematological malignancies. The ongoing development of BsAb formats will help overcome current clinical issues, such as tumor selectivity and antigen coverage. This report also covers several presentations about emerging targets (e.g. mesothelin, CD47) and new technologies in the field of antibody engineering and therapeutics.

Point-of-care testing: Emerging market, opportunity for pharmacists

In August, Cambridge Healthtech Institute hosted Leveraging Pharmacies for Rapid Diagnostics—an inaugural conference that brought together point-of-care test manufacturers and pharmacy professionals to explore partnership potential and provide education on the services available in this emerging area.

Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Third Annual Anti-inflammatories: Small Molecules Meeting, April 17th – 18th 2012, San Diego, USA

The Third Annual Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) sponsored meeting of Anti-inflammatories: Small Molecules was held in San Diego from the 17th to the 18th of April 2012. It comprised of approximately 70 attendees from both large and small pharma and academic institutes from around the world. The meeting drew on the wide ranging application of targeting drugs which have anti-inflammatory activity and which modulate the immune response in a number of human diseases. These included rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and asthma, multiple sclerosis (MS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and multiple myeloma (MM). Data was presented supporting all stages of drug discovery from target identification and validation through to lead identification and optimization and both early and late stage clinical development. A keynote address by Paul Garside (Institute of Infection, Immunology and Inflammation, University of Glasgow) was devoted to investigating components of immune response biology in real time in vivo and the potential of this rapidly developing field to dissect biological mechanism at a cellular level. This report contains selected highlights from the meeting and concludes with some perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing drug discovery and development.

Conference Scene

The Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s (CHI) 18th International Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference 2011 brought together all the key stakeholders in the stem cells marketplace including academic researchers, researchers from biotechnology companies, as well as business leaders involved in various aspects of the regenerative medicine space. The focus of the stem cells track, of this 12-track conference, was on the translation of basic stem cell discoveries into preclinical and clinical milestones. Many presentations focused on the production of induced pluripotent stem cells from various patient populations and the potential utilization of induced pluripotent stem cells in the future for cellular therapy. In this article, I provide a snapshot of this conference and highlight selected presentations, giving the overall direction that the stem cell field is taking.

Conference Scene: Advancing Toward Personalized Medicine

Organized by the Cambridge Healthtech Institute, this conference consisted of four major tracks, each of which focused on a topic integral to the development and successful translation of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools and approaches. The theme of these tracks were optimizing clinical trials, implementing personalized medicine, advancing cancer therapy and bridging the silos in biomarker development. Four preconference short courses were also offered that well-complemented these themes, and addressed biomarker assay development/validation, commercial advances in circulating tumor cell assessment, novel cancer biomarkers and biomarker qualification/validation. This conference served as an interactive venue for the networking and exchange of information between researchers, industry, physicians and other attendees on the translation of concepts from the laboratory to the clinic.

Conference Scene: Venture Capital and Emerging Regenerative Medicine Companies

Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 16th International Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference held on 25–27 February, 2009, in San Francisco is one of the most comprehensive drug discovery and development events worldwide. 11 concurrent tracks had covered areas from molecular diagnostics to translational medicine including The Fourth Annual Stem Cell Congress. Stem-cell niche and control of stem-cell differentiation were the focus of the first day, whereas cardiac regeneration and harnessing cells for regenerative healing were dominant topics of the second day. The morning of the last day was dedicated to induced pluripotent stem cells and personalized medicine. The last session of the meeting called ‘Venture Capital and Emerging Company forum’ was actually something very new and unique. A panel of venture-capital experts presented an overview of their venturecapital firm and gave helpful tips in building a cell-based technology into a viable business.

Drug repositioning summit: Finding new routes to success

The Third Annual Drug Repositioning Summit 2008 was held at the Hyatt Harborside Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, October 6-7, and focused on new strategies for drug repositioning. The meeting, organized by The Cambridge Healthtech Institute, brought together a panel of speakers from the industry and the academia, who discussed and proposed new routes for success in drug repositioning based on their own experience in the field. This meeting report summarizes the most relevant presentations and issues discussed.

The 'PREXCEL-Q Method' for qPCR

The purpose of this manuscript is to describe a reliable approach to quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay development and project management, which is currently embodied in the Excel 2003-based software program named 'PREXCEL-Q' (P-Q) (formerly known as 'FocusField2-6Gallup-qPCRSet-upTool-001,' 'FF2-6-001 qPCR set-up tool' or 'Iowa State University Research Foundation [ISURF] project #03407'). Since its inception from 1997-2007, the program has been well-received and requested around the world and was recently unveiled by its inventor at the 2008 Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Fourth Annual qPCR Conference in San Diego, CA. P-Q was subsequently mentioned in a review article by Stephen A. Bustin, an acknowledged leader in the qPCR field. Due to its success and growing popularity, and the fact that P-Q introduces a unique/defined approach to qPCR, a concise description of what the program is and what it does has become important. Sample-related inhibitory problems of the qPCR assay, sample concentration limitations, nuclease-treatment, reverse transcription (RT) and master mix formulations are all addressed by the program, enabling investigators to quickly, consistently and confidently design uninhibited, dynamically-sound, LOG-linear-amplification-capable, high-efficiency-of-amplification reactions for any type of qPCR. The current version of the program can handle an infinite number of samples.

Novel Vaccines: Bridging Research, Development and Production

Vaccines are among the greatest achievements of modern medicine, leading to the eradication of naturally occurring smallpox, the near elimination of polio and the control of diseases such as rotavirus and hepatitis A and B in industrialized countries. Conventional vaccines, however, protect against a limited number of infectious diseases and, in some cases, provide incomplete protection. Effective vaccines against common infections such as HIV, hepatitis C and malaria remain an unmet medical need. These gaps, together with the threat of resurgence of eradicated diseases, contribute to the growing need for the development of new vaccines and the improvement of existing ones. Approximately 250 scientists and vaccine experts from around the world gathered at Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 3rd Annual Immunotherapeutics and Vaccine Summit (ImVacS 2008) to present the latest developments in this field and to discuss, in 64 presentations, the challenges and current approaches to development and production of novel vaccines.

Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 7th Annual, Identifying and Validating Metabolic Markers for Drug Development and Clinical Studies

Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 7th Annual, Identifying and Validating Metabolic Markers for Drug Development and Clinical Studies

Cell-based assays for high-throughput screening

The fifth international World Pharmaceutical Congress was organised by the Cambridge Healthtech Institute and contained six concurrent conferences in parallel. This report focuses on the third annual conference: ‘Cell-based assays for HTS’. The major topics of this meeting were technologies for setting up screening assays, cells as biological reagents for screening campaigns, three-dimensional cell culture and the use of stem cells for drug screening. Technology-based presentations focused on the latest developments for cell-based screening, such as the open microscopy environment, a cell culture array as a kind of ‘cell culture on a chip’, a cellular microarray for analysing the binding behaviour of cells and aptamer technology. Further talks described success stories using the β-galactosidase enzyme fragment complementation assays from Applied Biosystems (InteraX) and from DiscoveRx for the drug discovery process. Other presentations focused on the Cell Sensor Technology from Invitrogen and a dual luciferase-based technology for G-protein-coupled receptors from Promega. One talk presented a comparison of fluorometric laser imaging plate reader system and ion works devices for ion channel-based assays, as well as the challenges facing high-throughput screening (HTS) of ligand gated ion channels. Two lectures highlighted the growing role of three-dimensional cell culture and the potential use for drug discovery. A key point of interest was also the role of cells as a reagent in an HTS environment and the attempts made by different companies to overcome issues for cell-based screening campaigns. In this context, several talks focused on the use of frozen and/or division-arrested cells for drug discovery processes. An interesting topic, the use of stem cells in the drug discovery process, was covered by two presentations.

The Plasma Proteome: High Abundance versus Low Abundance

Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Sixth Annual The Plasma Proteome: High Abundance versus Low Abundance meeting focused on different methods of analyzing the plasma proteome as well as applications ...

RNAi: for functional analysis and target validation

The third annual conference on discovery on target, organised by the Cambridge Healthtech Institute was held on 19 – 20 October 2005, in Boston. More than 300 delegates from both academic and industrial institutes attended the meeting. The presentations provided insights into understanding the RNA interference technology as a useful tool to identify and validate new targets for therapeutic intervention. Discussions focused in the design of siRNA for effective gene silencing, RNAi screens to identify new targets, RNAi delivery and the in vivo validation of targets using this technology.

Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 3rd Annual Laser Capture Microscopy: Cutting Edge Applications

The third annual meeting dedicated to laser microscopy organized by Cambridge Healthtech Institute was held at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston (MA, USA) on May 2–3, 2005 [101]. Since the f...

Data management challenges for molecular and cell biology: an industry perspective.

OMICS: A Journal of Integrative BiologyVol. 7, No. 1 Original PapersData Management Challenges for Molecular and Cell Biology: An Industry PerspectiveVictor M. MarkowitzVictor M. MarkowitzSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:8 Jul 2004https://doi.org/10.1089/153623103322006760AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail "Data Management Challenges for Molecular and Cell Biology: An Industry Perspective." , 7(1), pp. 121–122FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 7Issue 1Jan 2003 To cite this article:Victor M. Markowitz.Data Management Challenges for Molecular and Cell Biology: An Industry Perspective.OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology.Jan 2003.121-122.http://doi.org/10.1089/153623103322006760Published in Volume: 7 Issue 1: July 8, 2004PDF download

Macroresults through Microarrays

The third enactment of Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Macroresults through Microarrays meeting was held in Boston (MA, USA) from 29 April–1 May 2002. The subtheme of this year's meeting was ‘advancing drug discovery’, a widely touted application for array technology.

Metabolic profiling: pathways in drug discovery

The Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Metabolic Profiling: Pathways in Discovery conference (3–4 December 2001, Chapel Hill, NC, USA) focused on developments in spectroscopic tools for the acquisition of metabolite data, pattern recognition and modeling studies based on such data, and specific examples of metabolic profiling applications.

Beyond the genome: turning data into knowledge

Since the publication of the draft sequence of the human genome in April 2001 1,2 , the pressure on life scientists to annotate and gain useful knowledge from the millions of As, Gs, Cs and Ts, is ever increasing. Now that the initial hype has passed, the life sciences field demands the technologies and computer power that can produce and analyze data in a high-throughput manner for drug discovery and disease diagnosis. Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Beyond Genome 2001 conference 1 1 Conference proceedings will be published for the first time this year available through Cambridge Healthtech Institute. (17–22 June 2001, San Francisco, CA, USA) brought together the latest research in these technologies in a ‘tri-conference’ that encompassed the 10th Annual Conference of Bioinformatics and Genome Research, the 3rd Annual Conference of In Silico Biology and the 5th Annual Conference of Proteomics.