Register Advanced Technology Research Facility, Auditorium , Advanced Technology Research Facility (ATRF) 8560 Progress Drive, Frederick, MD 21701 Frederick National Laboratory
The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research together with the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce organizes the quarterly Biotech Connector Speaker Series. This event promotes and supports the Frederick County and surrounding areas’ biotech and bioscience community and provides an inside look at local advances.
Please join fellow biotech and bioscience professionals for our third quarter series.
Invited speakers (in-person):
Ruth Nussinov, PhD
Senior Investigator and Head, Computational Structural Biology Section, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research
“The Molecular Basis of Targeted Anticancer Therapies with Small Molecules”
Abstract: Small molecules are at the forefront of anticancer therapies. Huge efforts are invested in their development. Here, we take up the cardinal question of the optimized approach for their prescription: single drugs in succession or combinations? If combination as increasingly advocated, which types of drugs to harness, and which types of combinations?
Currently, there is a broad consensus that effective anticancer drug treatment relies on combinations of drugs. The question that deserves comprehensive discussion, which to date has been missing, is which types of combinations should the protein targets be. Nussinov's talk will discuss these significant questions.
Bio: Dr. Ruth Nussinov obtained her degrees from the University of Washington and Rutgers. Her dissertation developed the first dynamic algorithm for folding of RNA, still taught in bioinformatics classes in the United States and Europe. She was a postdoc/research associate in the Weizman Institute, Berkeley, Harvard, and the Computer Science in Tel Aviv University. She joined the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv University, where she was a full professor, and became associated with the NCI-Frederick (SAIC/Leidos Biomedical Research). She was elected a Fellow in several societies, won multiple domestic and international awards, and served in several roles in the academic community.
Carter Mitchell, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Kemp Proteins
“Inference from Low Confidence Models: Are Disordered Regions Truly Disordered?”
Abstract: Traditionally, structural biologists spent a considerable amount of time generating sequence alignments to feed into structural modeling programs to guide hypotheses. Over the years, improvements in computation efficiencies and concomitant reductions in cost helped foster the development and release of routines that enable the rapid generation of macromolecular structural models with reasonable fidelity (i.e., Rosetta and Alpha-Fold). Today, we are met with unprecedented computational speed resulting in tremendous insight into hyper specific structural questions in minutes instead of weeks. These modeling routines were developed from known, characterized structures and are likely biased (crystallographic packing interactions, low temperature data collection, the omission of “disordered regions”, etc.). What do disordered regions mean? How can we validate models in the discovery workflow? We are leveraging expertise in structural biology, computational modeling, and machine learning to find gaps in our structural knowledge base in an effort to improve our models and macromolecular understanding.
Bio: Dr. Carter Mitchell is a protein chemist and structural biologist with over 20 years of experience isolating and characterizing proteins from recombinant and natural sources. Throughout his career, he has been exposed to a range of structural and biochemical techniques and developed interests in the development and manufacture of bioproducts. As a graduate, he enzymatically and structurally characterized multidomain proteins involved in metabolite biosynthesis and then also led a drug discovery pipeline with a team of scientists that isolated and characterized bioactive small-molecules, peptides, and proteins from mammalian microbiomes and marine aqueous. Currently, Mitchell leads the scientific team at Kemp Proteins.
Manu Kohli, PhD
Principal Scientific Advisor, Scientific Advisory Services, Charles River Laboratories
“Mass Spectrometry in Drug Development: Breaking Down Drug Metabolism”
Abstract: Drug development is an intensive, complex process that is replete with challenges that can limit bringing effective medicines to the clinic. Structural biology approaches are engaged throughout drug discovery to identify novel drugs and to help reduce the major causes of clinical failures, such as toxicity, lack of efficacy, and poor exposure. In particular, mass spectrometry is used early in drug development of small molecules to help select lead candidates with favorable absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion profiles (ADME). The understanding of drug metabolism is important to determine the fate of a drug in the body, and, with the aid of mass spectrometry, a drug and/or its metabolites can be evaluated to predict whether they will have significant toxicity or cause clinically important drug-drug interactions (DDI).
Bio: Dr. Manu Kohli is a principal scientific advisor with over 20 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical experience, with expertise in target identification, validation, drug discovery and development. He has led senior scientific research teams in the biotech/pharma sector to advance drugs for a variety of disease indications. Kohli has previously headed research programs in small molecules, immunotherapies, biologics, and cell therapies, and has developed research strategies using diverse modalities. Kohli has a PhD in biochemistry/molecular biology from Georgetown University with post-doctoral training from Johns Hopkins University. He has published many research articles in top-tier scientific journals and holds numerous patents.