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Archive for the ‘Scientific & Biotech Conferences: Press Coverage’ Category

9:20AM 11/12/2014 – 10th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference at the Harvard Medical School, Boston

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

REAL TIME Coverage of this Conference by Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN – Director and Founder of LEADERS in PHARMACEUTICAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE, Boston http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

9:20 a.m. Panel Discussion – Genomic Technologies

Genomic Technologies

The greatest impetus for personalized medicine is the initial sequencing of the human genome at the beginning of this Century. As we began to recognize the importance of genetic factors in human health and disease, efforts to understand genetic variation and its impact on health have accelerated. It was estimated that it cost more than two billion dollars to sequence the first human genome and reduction in the cost of sequence became an imperative to apply this technology to many facets of risk assessment, diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic intervention. This panel will take a brief historical look back at how the technologies have evolved over the last 15 years and what the future holds and how these technologies are being applied to patient care.

Genomic Technologies

Opening Speaker and Moderator:

George Church, Ph.D.
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Director, Personal Genomics

Genomic Technologies and Sequencing

  • highly predictive, preventative
  • non predictive

Shareable Human Genomes Omics Standards

$800 Human Genome Sequence – Moore’s Law does not account for the rapid decrease in cost of Genome Sequencing

Genome Technologies and Applications

  • Genia nanopore – battery operated device
  • RNA & protein traffic
  • Molecular Stratification Methods – more than one read, sequence ties
  • Brain Atlas  – transcriptome of mouse brains
  • Multigenics – 700 genes: hGH therapies

Therapies

  • vaccine
  • hygiene
  • age

~1970 Gene Therapy in Clinical Trials

Is Omic technologies — a Commodity?

  • Some practices will have protocols
  • other will never become a commodity

 

Panelists:

Sam Hanash, M.D., Ph.D. @MDAndersonNews

Director, Red & Charline McCombs Institute for Early Detection & Treatment of Cancer MD Anderson Cancer Center

Heterogeneity among Cancer cells. Data analysis and interpretation is very difficult, back up technology

Proteins and Peptides before analysis with spectrometry:

  • PM  – Immunotherapy approaches need be combined with other techniques
  • How modification in protein type affects disease
  • amplification of an aberrant protein – when that happens cancer developed. Modeling on a CHip of peptide synthesizer

Mark Stevenson @servingscience

Executive Vice President and President, Life Sciences Solutions
Thermo Fisher Scientific

Issues of a Diagnostics Developer:

  • FDA regulation, need to test on several tissues
  • computational environment
  • PCR, qPCR – cost effective
  • BGI – competitiveness

Robert Green, MD @BrighamWomens

Partners, Health Care Personalized Medicine — >>Disclosure: Illumina and three Pharmas

Innovative Clinical Trial: Alzheimer’s Disease, integration of sequencing with drug development

  • Population based screening with diagnosis
  • Cancer predisposition: Cost, Value, BRCA
  • epigenomics technologies to be integrated
  • Real-time diagnostics
  • Screening makes assumption on Predisposition
  • Public Health view: Phenotypes in the Framingham Studies: 64% pathogenic genes were prevalent – complication based in sequencing.

Questions from the Podium:

  • Variants analysis
  • Metastasis different than solid tumor itself – Genomics will not answer issues related to tumor in special tissues variability

 

 

 

 

– See more at: http://personalizedmedicine.partners.org/Education/Personalized-Medicine-Conference/Program.aspx#sthash.qGbGZXXf.dpuf

@HarvardPMConf

#PMConf

@SachsAssociates

 

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8:50AM 11/12/2014 – 10th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference at the Harvard Medical School, Boston

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

REAL TIME Coverage of this Conference by Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN – Director and Founder of LEADERS in PHARMACEUTICAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE, Boston http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

8:50 a.m. – Keynote Speaker – CEO, American Medical Association

The American Medical Association (AMA) has the largest number of practicing physicians of all specialties as its members and the organization plays a very important role in health care policy and education of medical professionals.  AMA has been quite active in assessing the role of personalized medicine in the future of healthcare in all of its facets.  Dr. Madara will talk about the status of AMA’s thinking about personalized medicine and his vision of how it might be able to transform medical care.

Keynote Speaker

James Madara, M.D. @AmerMedicalAssn


Executive Vice President and CEO, American Medical Association

AMA Strategy the context for PM  – Outside looking in View applied

Mission statement: Promote Medicine 167 years since it was established. Societies of MDs – all population of American MDs, are members.

AMA developed:

  • CPT Curation – Billing of Procedures
  • Standard Procedure for Katrina and Emergency Medicine
  • Strategic Plan 110 active Projects to be compressed into three big ideas
  1. Connect clinics with community – OUTCOMES, cooperation with CDC i.e., Diabetes, HTN (KaiserPermanente)
  2. Medical education bring t to 21th century: Competence vs Time-in-Chair, 141 Medical Schools, teaching methods: Gaming/mobile, the lecture Hall in Medicine is poor form for education, Simulation methods, Clinical Research and Basic Research – blend across disciplines, platforms in Silicon Valley to create new TEACHING of MDs, Genomics must be incorporated, shifting from Inpatient to Outpatient to HOME, all training is for Inpatient – Nothing for HOME delivery of Care. 85% of all Medical School responded they need change in Teaching — 11 Excellence Medical Schools selected: Vanderbilt, MI, UCSF, UC Davis…
  3. Make practice of medicine joyous again – installation in MDs Offices, optimize the efficiency of MDs reporting now emphasis on USABILITY

Doing through Partnership: PM in Nutrition is everywhere — it is a HYPE, Gartner Group Hype Cycle was used by the Speaker for an analogy with Personalized Medicine (PM)

SHAKE out for a steady state in PM mitigation the hype

  • Mixed perceptions of Cost effectiveness of Healthcare delivery – Growth of Health Spending by Component:
  • Center on Outcomes and Values: PM redefined: away from behavioral toward procedural (actions): i.e, CV death risk predicted by waist size –

Cost/Behavior: sweet-spots are the following

  • Pharmaconeconomics: Is cost effective and it does not involve behavior
  • Cancer
  • Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs)

– need be approved by FDA – New challenge in PM

– AMA View: Medical services not Medical Devices, CLIA ensure the quality and Standards, it requires more than guidance, currently FDA has ONLY guidance

 

 

– See more at: http://personalizedmedicine.partners.org/Education/Personalized-Medicine-Conference/Program.aspx#sthash.qGbGZXXf.dpuf

 

@HarvardPMConf

#PMConf

@SachsAssociates

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8:20AM 11/12/2014 – 10th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference at the Harvard Medical School, Boston

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

REAL TIME Coverage of the Conference by Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN – Director and Founder of LEADERS in PHARMACEUTICAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE, Boston http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

 

8:20 a.m. Special Guest Keynote Speaker – The Future of Personalized Medicine

The Future of Personalized Medicine

Special Guest Speaker

Margaret Hamburg, M.D.
Commissioner of Food and Drugs Administration

[Her Father was President of IOM said at the introduction to the Keynote]

How to ask the right question is what HMS taught me best 

Increasing the knowledge of Biology, response to disease, preventive strategies.

2004 — Monumental year — One year after completion of sequencing the Genome

2008/9 – Breast Cancer – pharmacotherapy approved, a protein involved in triggering the disease.Target therapy – risk of disease identified

WHAT FDA is doing on Genetics Information as PARTNERS in Medicine

25% of drugs approved are Targeted therapies

LABELING drugs on genetic information

diagnostics test — identify good respondents

Companion Diagnostics – should be used in Targeted therapies. IGF1, HER2 expression and amplification

PM more important in ONCOLOGY , HepB, Cystic Fibrosis, differential response, CVD – expansion, more to be done

In 2002 — a Program to discuss Genetic information VSDS – New Genomics Program, National Center for Toxicology Research a participants

Translational Scientist are added.

Completion Genome sequencing — push to PM 2011 – Genomics evaluation Team for Safety.

Challenge – Drug, Biologics – interaction need coordination by Agency to discuss challenges and collaboration with out side Group.

Developers of Targeted therapies: Orphan Drugs, Biomarkers – expedited review to promote innovations, fast track breakthrough therapies. Opportunities of Scientist to engage discussion with FDA

 – ALL hands on Deck Approach at FDA – making products available, i.e. SCLC (small cell lung cancer)

Since 2005 – 25 Guidance Reports, i.e., Orphan Drugs and on Companion Diagnostics to be developed in tandem with drug development.

Companion Diagnostics – 3 month review, enforcement and direction – in the framework

FDA — needs to keep up with development in the Diagnostics and in the disease ares.

Illumina – Assays using SNIPS – FDA assesses a shared curated DB on mutation, reduce the review time significantly

FDA – NGS – reference libraries, Genomics Reference and Storage of genomics data

Tools and Capabilities  – support regulatory and science, statistical methods of analysis — implemented for Breast Cancer — signaled the way of new Partnerships and New Clinical Trials formats and methods in its development.

New diagnostics – AMP Program Alzheimer’s Disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS)

What Science is needed for the Regulators to effectively HELP spar innovation.

Pharmacogenomics, Pharmacogenetics — MAPPING the Human Genome and all other areas of “OMICS” – moving from Lab to bedside — requires expertise in Disease prevention, Difference in patients life, Standard medical practice

  • Biology and Pathways
  • Biomarkers
  • New diagnostics
  • Increased communication Universities, new paradigms models and continual effort of SHARING and coordination of shared resources

 

– See more at: http://personalizedmedicine.partners.org/Education/Personalized-Medicine-Conference/Program.aspx#sthash.qGbGZXXf.dpuf

 

@HarvardPMConf

#PMConf

@SachsAssociates

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8:00 AM – Welcome & Opening Remarks

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

REAL TIME Coverage of the Conference by Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN – Director and Founder of LEADERS in PHARMACEUTICAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE, Boston http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

Speakers

Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D.
Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Welcome all attendees, discussing Personalized Medicine, what happened and looking forward — the potential of this approach to Medicine. Event organized with Partner, National Council Cancer Research. Organizing committee and Sponsors made the event possible.

AND

Scott Weiss, M.D., M.S.
Scientific Director, Partners Personalized Medicine;
Associate Director, Channing Laboratory, Professor of Medicine.

Greetings

Greetings from the Institute of Medicine

Victor Dzau, M.D. — ABSENT — By Voice addressing the Audience
President, Institute of Medicine

Advisor on Genomics – In 1996 returned from Stanford to Harvard. What role Genetics and Genomics will play in Medicine.

Boston is a very special place for that endeavor. Harvard allocated $100 Million to study this topic. 10th year of the Conference. I am 100 days at IOM, Genomics and personalized medicine (PM) and Translation Medicine are the center. Spin off in Software development to solicit application in PM. Scientists, payers, technologists — the economics of PM navigate the regulatory. Looking forward for the next 10 years in PM

“10 Years in 10 Minutes: 10 Facts”

Edward Abrahams, Ph.D. (@newsfrompmc)
President, Personalized Medicine Coalition

Review the Progress made in PM – it has change, treating the patient not changing the disease. Friendlier  between Science and the Medicine.

  • 2004 Harvard graduate started Facebook, Viox was recalled,
  • Personalized Medicine – drugs increase form 13 in 2003 to 113 in 2013.
  • Diagnostics evolution by revolution
  • It took 4 years to develop new drug in 2013
  • In 20 years 45% of drug approvals – revolution in 155 Pharmacogenomics drugs approved at $12 Billion sales
  • FDA encouraged PM – 2017 Diagnostics
  • FDA molecular diagnostics test
  1. Regulatory of tests
  2. Payers and Manufacturer do not agree on practices
  3. Education of MDs in PM, 10% had sufficient knowledge in Genomics to incorporate it in Delivery of Care
Margaret Hamburg, MD
Commissioner of FDA

– See more at: http://personalizedmedicine.partners.org/Education/Personalized-Medicine-Conference/Program.aspx#sthash.qGbGZXXf.dpuf

@HarvardPMConf

#PMConf

@SachsAssociates

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Hashtags and Twitter Handles for 10th Annual Personalized Medicine at Harvard Medical School, 11/12 – 11/13/2014

Reporter: Stephen J Williams, PhD

10th Annual Personalized Medicine at Harvard (Partners Healthcare)

Meeting #: #PMConf

Meeting @: @HarvardPMConf

 PLEASE ALSO FOLLOW LIVE MEETING NOTES AT @pharma_BI OR AT http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/

Overall good meeting #s:

#personalizedmedicine

#powerofgenomics

#genomics

#pharmanews

@BiotechNews

Day Time Talk Title # @
Wed. Nov 12, 2014 8:00 AM Welcome & Opening Remarks #personalizedmedicine

#genomics

#Boston

#Harvard

#MGH

#biotech

#harvardhealth

@PartnersNews

@MassGeneral

@AstellasUS (Stephen Eck)

@HarvardHealth

@harvardmed

Greetings #personalizedmedicine @theIOM (Dzau Institute of Medicine)

@newsfrompmc

(Personalized Medicine Coalition)

8:20 AM Special Guest Keynote Speaker Margaret Hamburg, M.D. #FDA

#personalizedmedicine

#FDACommissioner

#pharma

#healthcare

#PublicHealth

#HealthPolicy

@US_FDA

@HIVForum

@AIDSAlliance_DC

@HHSGov

8:50 Keynote Speaker

James Madera, M.D.

#AMA

#meded

#HealthPolicy

#personalizedmedicine

#healthcare

#physician

#PublicHealth

@AmerMedicalAssn
9:20 Panel Discussion

Genomic Technologies

#genomics

#genome

#personalizedmedicine

#health

#biotech

#lifesciences

#syntheticbiology

#startups

#startup

#disease

#endcancer

#MDAnderson

@harvardmed

@PartnersNews

@Harvard

@geochurch

@BrighamWomens

@MDAndersonNews

@servingscience (Thermo Fisher)

11:00 Keynote Mirella Marlow #personalizedmedicine

#UK

#health

#healthcare

#NIH

@NIH

@NICEcomms

@MirellaMarlow

11:30 10th Annual Award for Personalized Medicine #personalizedmedicine

#VC

#venturecapital

#startups

#startup

#VoyagerTherapeutics

#biotech

#biopharma

#partnership

#investing

@VCapitalGuide

@hgbc_harvard

@MassBio

@MALifeSciences

@FierceBiotech

1:15 Keynote Speaker International Genetics Health and Disease #personalizedmedicine

#health

#disease

#populationgenetics

#spain

#medicine

#EU

#salud

@insalud_es

@CIBER-BBN

@EIGlobalNet

1:45 Panel Discussion Oncology #oncology

#cancer

#bioinformatics

#genetics

#technologies

#endcancer

#personalmed

MAKE LINK TO VIDEO

@MDAndersonNews

@MDAnderson

@DrRoyHerbstYale

@YaleCancer

@lnadauld

@intermountain

3:20 Discussion #disease

#populationgenetics

#health

#geneticfactors

#PopulationHealth

#epidemiology

#genome

#merck

#risk

@WeillCornell

@ASU (for Anna Barker)

@rplenge

@Merck

4 pm Panel Discussion Novel Approaches to Personalized Medicine #personalizedmedicine

#personalmed

#genetictesting

#biomarker

#oncology

#diseasedetection

#geneticcounseling

#partnership

#startup

#biotech

#executiveMBA

@cardinalhealth

@Sarepta

@KEWGroup

@MolecularHealth

10th Annual Personalized Medicine at Harvard (Partners Healthcare)

DAY TWO (Thursday 11/13, 2014)

Meeting #: #PMConf

Meeting @: @HarvardPMConf

Day Time Talk Title # @
Thurs. Nov 13, 2014 8:00 AM Welcome from Gary Gottlieb, M.D. #personalizedmedicine

#genomics

#Boston

#Harvard

#harvardmed

#biotech

#harvardhealth

@PartnersNews

@MassGeneral

@HarvardHealth

@harvardmed

@BrighamWomens

8:30 AM Harvard Business School Case Study: 23andMe #genetictesting

#personalizedmedicine

#management

#diagnostic

#clinical

#HealthPolicy

#DigitalHealth

#innovation

#geneticcounseling

@HarvardHBS

@harvardmed

@23andMe

10:15 AM Panel Discussion: IT/Big Data #BigData

#sequencing

#NGS

#clinicalresearch

#genetictesting

#bioinformatics

#oncology

#cancer

#health

#diagnostic

#genome

#epidemiology

@Duke_Medicine

@AstellasUS

@GoogleVentures

@harvardmed

@BrighamWomens

@kyeshwant

11:30 AM Keynote Speaker: Role of Genetics and Genomics in Pharmaceutical Develpment #genetics

#genomics

#pharma

#pharmanews

#neurodegenerative

#brain

#Alzheimers

#HuntingtonsDisease

#cancer

#oncology

@EliLillyCo

@LillyHealth

@FiercePharma

@PharmaNews

@medicalnews

1:00 PM Genomics in Prenatal and Childhood Disorders #genomics

#pediatriccancer

#ChildhoodCancer

#research

#childhood#disease

#diagnosis

#Healthcare

@MGH

@MassGeneral

@Tufts

@MedscapePeds

@ClinicSpecChild

@InovaHealth

2:15 PM Panel Discussion: Reimbursement and Regulation #personalizedmedicine

#powerofgenomics

#HealthCare

#healthpolicy

#healthinsurance

#ACA

#patientchat

@GenomeQuebec

@clopezcorrea

@Aetna (for Dr. Kolodziej)

@FoleyHoag (for Bruce Quinn)

3:30 PM Closing Remarks

Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D.

#personalizedmedicine

#pharmanews

@harvardmed

@BiotechNews

4 pm

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AGENDA for microRNA Conference by CHI, March 16-17, 2015, Cambridge, MA

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

 

BIDMC’s Distinguished RNA Scientist, Dr. Frank Slack, to Deliver Presentation at Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s eleventh annual microRNA Conference. 

Dr. Slack, Director of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s new Institute for RNA Medicine, has led his team of molecular biologists in pioneering various aspects of the microRNA field and continues to make important contributions to this aspect of post-transcriptional control of gene regulation in stem cell development, cancer and aging.

Recent research has shown microRNAs to have tremendous potential as non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of disease, monitoring of treatment, and patient stratification. Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Eleventh Annual microRNA as Biomarkers and Diagnostics will cover the latest developments in the use of microRNA in the early detection of disease for more effective treatment, monitoring tumor growth and disease progression, issues associated with microRNA measurement, and the potential for personalized medicine based on microRNA profile.

————————————————————————

Exosomal RNA/DNA in Cancer

  • The Biology and Functional Contribution of Exosomes in Cancer Progression and Metastasis

Raghu Kalluri, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Cancer Biology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

  • Exosomic microRNAs Affect the Biology of the Tumor Microenvironment

Muller Fabbri, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics and Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

microRNA Biomarkers in Drug Development 

  • Identification of Urinary microRNA Biomarkers of Glomerular Injury

Rounak Nassirpour, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Investigative Pathology Laboratory, Drug Safety R&D, Pfizer

  • MiRNAs as Circulating Biomarkers for Neurodegenerative Disorders

Pavan Kumar, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Biomarkers and Personalized Medicine, Eisai

  • MicroRNAs as Biomarkers in Clinical Fluids

Martin Beaulieu, Ph.D., Director, MicroMarkers™, Regulus Therapeutics

  • MiRNAs as Biomarkers for Cancer Development and Drug Resistance

Bing-Hua Jiang, Ph.D., Professor, Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Thomas Jefferson University

  • Universal Screening Test Based on Analysis of Circulating Organ-Enriched microRNAs

Kira Sheinerman, Ph.D., CEO, DiamiR Biosciences Corp.

microRNAs in Personalized Medicine 

  • MiRNAs in Personalized Medicine: Hurdles and Possibilities

Omar Laterza, Ph.D., Director, Clinical Development Laboratory, Merck

  • Circulating miRNAs in Autoimmune Disorders – Opportunities as Biomarkers for Patient Stratification and Challenges

Hungyun Lin, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Drug Safety R&D, Pfizer

  • MiRNA Biomarkers for Colorectal Cancers

Ajay Goel, Ph.D., Director, Epigenetics and Cancer Prevention, Baylor Research Institute

microRNA in Disease Diagnostics 

  • Circulating miRNA Markers for Disease Diagnosis

Xuemei Zhao, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Molecular Biomarkers and Diagnostics Laboratory, Merck

  • MicroRNA Biofluid Profiles as Diagnostic Biomarkers in Epilepsy

David Henshall, Ph.D., Professor, Physiology & Medical Physics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

  • Circulating microRNAs Show Promising Clinical Implications for Type 2 Diabetes

Elena Flowers, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Physiological Nursing, University of California, San Francisco

Roundtable Discussions

  • Topic 1: microRNA Normalization Strategy

Moderator: Christos Argyropoulos, M.D., Ph.D., University of New Mexico School of Medicine

  • Topic 2: Quantitation Issues

Moderator: John Chevillet, Ph.D., Institute for Systems Biology

  • Topic 3: Biomarker Biology: Delineating between Biomarkers that are the Drivers vs. Passengers in Disease Initiation, Progression and Maintenance

Moderator: Andrea Kasinski, Ph.D., Purdue University

microRNA as Predictive Cancer Biomarkers

Talk Title to be Announced

Frank J. Slack, Ph.D., Director, Institute for RNA Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

  • Tumor-Associated Circulating microRNAs as Biomarkers of Pancreatic Cancer

Subrata Sen, Ph.D., Professor and Deputy Chair, Translational Molecular Pathology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

  • MiRNAs as Predictors of Recurrence and Death in Melanoma

Iman Osman, M.D., Associate Director, NYU Cancer Institute & Professor, Oncology, and Director, NYU Interdisciplinary, Melanoma Coop Group, New York University Langone Medical Center

  • MicroRNAs that Control the PI3K Survival Pathway

Andrei Thomas-Tikhonenko, Ph.D., Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

microRNAs in Cancer Pathways 

  • Epigenetic Regulation of miRNAs in a Human T Cell Leukemia

Sundararajan Jayaraman, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor, Surgery, University of Illinois at Chicago

  • A Combinatorial microRNA Therapeutics Approach to Eradicating Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Andrea Kasinski, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Purdue University

  • MicroRNA as Therapy – MRX34, a First-in-Human, First-in-Class microRNA Therapy in Advanced Cancer and Heme Malignancies

David S. Hong, M.D., Associate Professor and Chair, Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Sponsored presentation opportunities are available.  For details, contact Carolyn Benton

 

CONFERENCE TRACKS

 

MARCH 16-17

Systems Biology, Evidence Synthesis and in silico Discovery Approaches to microRNA Biomarkers 

Executive ThinkTank: Development of Exosome-Based Diagnostics 

 

MARCH 17-18

RNA-Seq: A Fundamental Guide to the Field 

Circulating Nucleic Acid Biomarkers for Development of Non-Invasive Prenatal Tests

Separate registration is required.

SOURCE

From: microRNA as Biomarkers & Diagnostics <jaimeh@healthtech.com>

Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 10:30:00 -0500
To: <avivalev-ari@alum.berkeley.edu>
Subject: BIDMC’s Dr. Frank Slack to Deliver microRNA Research Updates

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Twitter is Becoming a Powerful Tool in Science and Medicine

 Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

Article ID #159: Twitter is Becoming a Powerful Tool in Science and Medicine. Published on 11/6/2014

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

Updated 4/2016

Life-cycle of Science 2

A recent Science article (Who are the science stars of Twitter?; Sept. 19, 2014) reported the top 50 scientists followed on Twitter. However, the article tended to focus on the use of Twitter as a means to develop popularity, a sort of “Science Kardashian” as they coined it. So the writers at Science developed a “Kardashian Index (K-Index) to determine scientists following and popularity on Twitter.

Now as much buzz Kim Kardashian or a Perez Hilton get on social media, their purpose is solely for entertainment and publicity purposes, the Science sort of fell flat in that it focused mainly on the use of Twitter as a metric for either promotional or public outreach purposes. A notable scientist was mentioned in the article, using Twitter feed to gauge the receptiveness of his presentation. In addition, relying on Twitter for effective public discourse of science is problematic as:

  • Twitter feeds are rapidly updated and older feeds quickly get buried within the “Twittersphere” = LIMITED EXPOSURE TIMEFRAME
  • Short feeds may not provide the access to appropriate and understandable scientific information (The Science Communication Trap) which is explained in The Art of Communicating Science: traps, tips and tasks for the modern-day scientist. “The challenge of clearly communicating the intended scientific message to the public is not insurmountable but requires an understanding of what works and what does not work.” – from Heidi Roop, G.-Martinez-Mendez and K. Mills

However, as highlighted below, Twitter, and other social media platforms are being used in creative ways to enhance the research, medical, and bio investment collaborative, beyond a simple news-feed.  And the power of Twitter can be attributed to two simple features

  1. Ability to organize – through use of the hashtag (#) and handle (@), Twitter assists in the very important task of organizing, indexing, and ANNOTATING content and conversations. A very great article on Why the Hashtag in Probably the Most Powerful Tool on Twitter by Vanessa Doctor explains how hashtags and # search may be as popular as standard web-based browser search. Thorough annotation is crucial for any curation process, which are usually in the form of database tags or keywords. The use of # and @ allows curators to quickly find, index and relate disparate databases to link annotated information together. The discipline of scientific curation requires annotation to assist in the digital preservation, organization, indexing, and access of data and scientific & medical literature. For a description of scientific curation methodologies please see the following links:

Please read the following articles on CURATION

The Methodology of Curation for Scientific Research Findings

Power of Analogy: Curation in Music, Music Critique as a Curation and Curation of Medical Research Findings – A Comparison

Science and Curation: The New Practice of Web 2.0

  1. Information Analytics

Multiple analytic software packages have been made available to analyze information surrounding Twitter feeds, including Twitter feeds from #chat channels one can set up to cover a meeting, product launch etc.. Some of these tools include:

Twitter Analytics – measures metrics surrounding Tweets including retweets, impressions, engagement, follow rate, …

Twitter Analytics – Hashtags.org – determine most impactful # for your Tweets For example, meeting coverage of bioinvestment conferences or startup presentations using #startup generates automatic retweeting by Startup tweetbot @StartupTweetSF.

 

  1. Tweet Sentiment Analytics

Examples of Twitter Use

A. Scientific Meeting Coverage

In a paper entitled Twitter Use at a Family Medicine Conference: Analyzing #STFM13 authors Ranit Mishori, MD, Frendan Levy, MD, and Benjamin Donvan analyzed the public tweets from the 2013 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) conference bearing the meeting-specific hashtag #STFM13. Thirteen percent of conference attendees (181 users) used the #STFM13 to share their thoughts on the meeting (1,818 total tweets) showing a desire for social media interaction at conferences but suggesting growth potential in this area. As we have also seen, the heaviest volume of conference-tweets originated from a small number of Twitter users however most tweets were related to session content.

However, as the authors note, although it is easy to measure common metrics such as number of tweets and retweets, determining quality of engagement from tweets would be important for gauging the value of Twitter-based social-media coverage of medical conferences.

Thea authors compared their results with similar analytics generated by the HealthCare Hashtag Project, a project and database of medically-related hashtag use, coordinated and maintained by the company Symplur.  Symplur’s database includes medical and scientific conference Twitter coverage but also Twitter usuage related to patient care. In this case the database was used to compare meeting tweets and hashtag use with the 2012 STFM conference.

These are some of the published journal articles that have employed Symplur (www.symplur.com) data in their research of Twitter usage in medical conferences.

B. Twitter Usage for Patient Care and Engagement

Although the desire of patients to use and interact with their physicians over social media is increasing, along with increasing health-related social media platforms and applications, there are certain obstacles to patient-health provider social media interaction, including lack of regulatory framework as well as database and security issues. Some of the successes and issues of social media and healthcare are discussed in the post Can Mobile Health Apps Improve Oral-Chemotherapy Adherence? The Benefit of Gamification.

However there is also a concern if social media truly engages the patient and improves patient education. In a study of Twitter communications by breast cancer patients Tweeting about breast cancer, authors noticed Tweeting was a singular event. The majority of tweets did not promote any specific preventive behavior. The authors concluded “Twitter is being used mostly as a one-way communication tool.” (Using Twitter for breast cancer prevention: an analysis of breast cancer awareness month. Thackeray R1, Burton SH, Giraud-Carrier C, Rollins S, Draper CR. BMC Cancer. 2013;13:508).

In addition a new poll by Harris Interactive and HealthDay shows one third of patients want some mobile interaction with their physicians.

Some papers cited in Symplur’s HealthCare Hashtag Project database on patient use of Twitter include:

C. Twitter Use in Pharmacovigilance to Monitor Adverse Events

Pharmacovigilance is the systematic detection, reporting, collecting, and monitoring of adverse events pre- and post-market of a therapeutic intervention (drug, device, modality e.g.). In a Cutting Edge Information Study, 56% of pharma companies databases are an adverse event channel and more companies are turning to social media to track adverse events (in Pharmacovigilance Teams Turn to Technology for Adverse Event Reporting Needs). In addition there have been many reports (see Digital Drug Safety Surveillance: Monitoring Pharmaceutical Products in Twitter) that show patients are frequently tweeting about their adverse events.

There have been concerns with using Twitter and social media to monitor for adverse events. For example FDA funded a study where a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School and other academic centers examined more than 60,000 tweets, of which 4,401 were manually categorized as resembling adverse events and compared with the FDA pharmacovigilance databases. Problems associated with such social media strategy were inability to obtain extra, needed information from patients and difficulty in separating the relevant Tweets from irrelevant chatter.  The UK has launched a similar program called WEB-RADR to determine if monitoring #drug_reaction could be useful for monitoring adverse events. Many researchers have found the adverse-event related tweets “noisy” due to varied language but had noticed many people do understand some principles of causation including when adverse event subsides after discontinuing the drug.

However Dr. Clark Freifeld, Ph.D., from Boston University and founder of the startup Epidemico, feels his company has the algorithms that can separate out the true adverse events from the junk. According to their web site, their algorithm has high accuracy when compared to the FDA database. Dr. Freifeld admits that Twitter use for pharmacovigilance purposes is probably a starting point for further follow-up, as each patient needs to fill out the four-page forms required for data entry into the FDA database.

D. Use of Twitter in Big Data Analytics

Published on Aug 28, 2012

http://blogs.ischool.berkeley.edu/i29…

Course: Information 290. Analyzing Big Data with Twitter
School of Information
UC Berkeley

Lecture 1: August 23, 2012

Course description:
How to store, process, analyze and make sense of Big Data is of increasing interest and importance to technology companies, a wide range of industries, and academic institutions. In this course, UC Berkeley professors and Twitter engineers will lecture on the most cutting-edge algorithms and software tools for data analytics as applied to Twitter microblog data. Topics will include applied natural language processing algorithms such as sentiment analysis, large scale anomaly detection, real-time search, information diffusion and outbreak detection, trend detection in social streams, recommendation algorithms, and advanced frameworks for distributed computing. Social science perspectives on analyzing social media will also be covered.

This is a hands-on project course in which students are expected to form teams to complete intensive programming and analytics projects using the real-world example of Twitter data and code bases. Engineers from Twitter will help advise student projects, and students will have the option of presenting their final project presentations to an audience of engineers at the headquarters of Twitter in San Francisco (in addition to on campus). Project topics include building on existing infrastructure tools, building Twitter apps, and analyzing Twitter data. Access to data will be provided.

Other posts on this site on USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND TWITTER IN HEALTHCARE and Conference Coverage include:

Methodology for Conference Coverage using Social Media: 2014 MassBio Annual Meeting 4/3 – 4/4 2014, Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge, MA

Strategy for Event Joint Promotion: 14th ANNUAL BIOTECH IN EUROPE FORUM For Global Partnering & Investment 9/30 – 10/1/2014 • Congress Center Basel – SACHS Associates, London

REAL TIME Cancer Conference Coverage: A Novel Methodology for Authentic Reporting on Presentations and Discussions launched via Twitter.com @ The 2nd ANNUAL Sachs Cancer Bio Partnering & Investment Forum in Drug Development, 19th March 2014 • New York Academy of Sciences • USA

PCCI’s 7th Annual Roundtable “Crowdfunding for Life Sciences: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters?” May 12 2014 Embassy Suites Hotel, Chesterbrook PA 6:00-9:30 PM

CRISPR-Cas9 Discovery and Development of Programmable Genome Engineering – Gabbay Award Lectures in Biotechnology and Medicine – Hosted by Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, 10/27/14 3:30PM Brandeis University, Gerstenzang 121

Tweeting on 14th ANNUAL BIOTECH IN EUROPE FORUM For Global Partnering & Investment 9/30 – 10/1/2014 • Congress Center Basel – SACHS Associates, London

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/press-coverage/

Statistical Analysis of Tweet Feeds from the 14th ANNUAL BIOTECH IN EUROPE FORUM For Global Partnering & Investment 9/30 – 10/1/2014 • Congress Center Basel – SACHS Associates, London

1st Pitch Life Science- Philadelphia- What VCs Really Think of your Pitch

What VCs Think about Your Pitch? Panel Summary of 1st Pitch Life Science Philly

How Social Media, Mobile Are Playing a Bigger Part in Healthcare

Can Mobile Health Apps Improve Oral-Chemotherapy Adherence? The Benefit of Gamification.

Medical Applications and FDA regulation of Sensor-enabled Mobile Devices: Apple and the Digital Health Devices Market

E-Medical Records Get A Mobile, Open-Sourced Overhaul By White House Health Design Challenge Winners

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Leader Profile: Family Offices – Impact Investing and Philanthropy – Health and the Life Sciences

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Cavendish Global Impact Forums:  A unique event for leading family investment offices and foundations from around the world focused on identifying well-conceived, pro-social impact investment and philanthropy opportunities within health and the life sciences.

Cavendish Global Impact Forums take place three times each year; in the United States (hosted by the United Nations and The Rockefeller University in May 2014), Europe (hosted by Oxford University November ’14) and a third event held at a Cavendish Host Partner City which moves to a different global location each year (London January ’15 and Dubai, UAE Spring ’15):

Over 50 compelling presentations by:

  • CEO’s of compelling and innovative private sector companies and philanthropic organizations with the potential for major advances in disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and medical outcomes
  • Scientists and engineers revealing specific discoveries and technology with the potential for transformational impact on health
  • Accomplished healthcare delivery professionals and health policy experts implementing specific programs driving meaningful improvements in health, health access and medical outcomes on a regional or national basis

Participants Include:

  • Over 100 family offices and foundations attending from North America, Europe, India, Asia, Middle East and Latin America focused on,  “Innovations with the Potential for Transformational Impact on Disease Prevention, Health, Health Access and Medical Outcomes”
  • Family offices seeking to identify well conceived:
    • Impact investment opportunities in private sector companies
    • Sustainable, high-impact foundations and 501c3 (not-for-profit organizations)
  • CEO’s from leading family office owned hospital groups, private sector companies and regional foundations seeking:
    • Product discovery and development collaborations
    • Regional distribution opportunities
    • Joint-venture opportunities
  • CE0’s and senior executives from the worlds largest multi-national medical device, equipment, pharmaceutical, diagnostic and service-sector companies
  • Over 100 accomplished:
    • Senior health ministers and experts in health policy
    • Hospital group CEO’s and Board Members
    • Senior physicians and scientists
  • Senior principals of leading venture capital, investment banking and advisory service groups

SOURCE

http://cavendishglobal.com/cavendish-global-impact-forums.html

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How Investors identify Innovations, Transformational Impact on Health and the Life Sciences and how they make sure compelling companies are successfully Financed?

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN  of the NEW YORKOct. 31, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/

 

About Cavendish Global
Cavendish Global provides leading family offices and their foundations from around the world with a discrete, peer-to-peer knowledge expansion and relationship building environment, combined with the innovative resources required to help develop and implement their individual impact investment, grant-giving and philanthropy programs within health and the life sciences. Cavendish Global provides family offices with a number of innovative advisory and digital resources, which includes Cavendish Impact Forums. A unique gathering of leading family offices, Cavendish Forums take place three times each year and are hosted by leading institutions around the world.  In May of 2014 the Cavendish Global Health Impact Forum was hosted at the United Nations Headquarters, Secretariat Building New York, The Rockefeller University and The New York Academy of Sciences.  Following the Oxford University hosted Cavendish Forum in November of this year, the Cavendish community of family offices will next convene in the spring of 2015 in the United States.

For more information: http://cavendishglobal.com

CONTACT
Michael Moffat, Chief Excutive Officer, Cavendish Global
Telephone: +1-607-282-4261
michael.moffat@cavendishglobal.com

TO ENQUIRE ABOUT ATTENDING THE CAVENDISH GLOBAL IMPACT FORUM CONTACT:
Gwen Snyder, Cavendish Global
Telephone: +1-607-282-4261
gwen.snyder@cavendishglobal.com

To find out more about participating private-equity firms:

Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141030/155558LOGO

SOURCE Cavendish Global

 

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leaders-of-five-leading-private-equity-firms-selected-to-participate-in-panel-discussion-at-cavendish-global-health-impact-forum-281037192.html

 

NEW YORKOct. 31, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Cavendish Global announced today the selection of accomplished leaders of private-equity firms from the United States and the United Kingdom to participate in the Cavendish Global Health Impact Forum taking place Monday, November 10th to Thursday, November 13th at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.  The selected private-equity firms and the partners representing them includes:

  • Mr. Michael Greeley, General Partner, Foundation Medical Partners of Boston, Massachusetts
  • Mr. John H. Friedman, Founding and Managing Partner, Easton Capital of New York
  • Mr. Edward Mott, Founding Partner, Oxford Capital Partners of Oxford, England
  • Mr. Bruce Roberts, Co-Founder and Managing Director, of Roberts Mitani and Health Family Capital ofNew York
  • Andrew Schiff, M.D., Managing Director, Aisling Capital of New York

These respected leaders from the world of private-equity will participate in a panel discussion to share how they identify innovations with the potential for transformational impact on health and the life sciences together with how to make sure compelling companies are successfully financed, developed and commercialized.

The purpose of the by-invitation Forum is to help family offices and foundations develop and implement their individual impact investing and grant-giving programs within health and the life sciences.  To accomplish this mission the Forum showcases presentations and panel discussions by leading scientists, accomplished healthcare delivery professionals, private-sector companies and institutional investors engaged in developing innovations with the potential for transformational impact on disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Michael Moffat, Cavendish co-founder and President said, “This is an exceptionally talented group of institutional investors with a well-developed knowledge of what it takes to successfully innovate in the life sciences. Collectively they have managed over $2.5 billion in capital and we are glad they have this opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with our members this November at our Oxford University hosted Forum. The quality and originality of their insights will be intriguing to our members.”

Cavendish Global consists of over 150 leading family offices and foundations from around the world with combined assets of over $190 billion who share a passion for pro-social endeavors within health and the life sciences. The Cavendish Global Health Impact Forum provides family offices with a discrete, peer-to-peer knowledge expansion and relationship building environment, combined with the information and educational resources required by foundations actively seeking to accelerate technological innovation and health access through sustainable philanthropy, grant-making and impact investing.  The Forum is also an opportunity for family offices to champion and share information on projects and organizations, which they are passionate about with other family offices from around the world.

 

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LIVE – Now –>> CRISPR-Cas9 Discovery and Development of Programmable Genome Engineering – Gabbay Award Lectures in Biotechnology and Medicine – Hosted by Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, 10/27/14 3:30PM Brandeis University, Gerstenzang 121

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Article ID #157: Article ID #159: CRISPR-Cas9 Discovery and Development of Programmable Genome Engineering – Gabbay Award Lectures in Biotechnology and Medicine – Hosted by Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, 10/27/14 3:30PM Brandeis University, Gerstenzang 121. Published on 10/26/2014

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

REAL TIME Conference Coverage by Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

For more Biotech Conferences Covered in Real Time by Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN for Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence using Social Media and Open Access Online Scientific Journal http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

click on

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/press-coverage/

For articles on CRISPR-Cas9 in Open Access Online Scientific Journal http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

click on

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/?s=CRISPR-Cas9

 

LIVE CONTENT from 

Gabbay Award Lecture in Biotechnology and Medicine @Brandeis

is been added 0n 10/27 @3;30PM

InVivo Target Search Mechanism – Fast Cas9 Diffusion in Live Cells

First Speaker

Emmanuelle Charpentier (Dept. of Molecular Biology. Umea University; Dept. of Regulation in Infection Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research)

CRISPR-Cas9: How a Bacterial Immune System Revolutionizes Life Sciences and Medicine

application in dairy industry basilicum, bacteria

Second Speaker

Jennifer Doudna (Dept. of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology, UC Berkeley)CRISPR-Cas9 Discovery and Development of Programmable Genome Engineering

Bacterial/archaeal chromosome

a single gene CAs9m- enzyme single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs)

crRNA

A Programmable Dual-RNA- Genome editing begins with dsDNA cleavange

ZFHs, TALENs, HEs, Cas9:sgRNA

protein DNA recognition

Genome targeting technologies: ZFN & TALEN

/Cas9/targeting RNA bound by a nuclease

2012-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease

1/2013 Church, Zhang

Re-Writing the Genome:

DNA structu

restriction enzymes

PCR

Specific genome editing in cell and in organizmism

robust transcriptional control with ccatalyrtic

In the Lab @Berkeley

Hoe Cas9 find DNA targets with high specificity

Mechanism of DNA interrogation

  • high affinity product binding, no substrate turnover
  • binding first occur at PAM motifs
  • PAM binding triggers Cas9 catalytic activity

CRISPR: Clusters of Regulary

three steps to acquire immunity in bacteria

1. adaptation

2. crRNA biogenesis

3. Interference

CRISPR in Structural Biology

  • RNA-induced conversion of Cas9 into an active confrontation – crystal structure morphology

Models for DNA interrogation by Cas9:RNA

Programmed RNA cleavage using Cas9:gRNA in O’Connell at al. (2014) Nature

 

  • Therapeutic Applications

1. Delivery of antibiotic small molecule

2. Animal models live cell (catalitic inactive version vs active version)

 

Third Speaker

Feng Zhang (McGovern Inst. for Brain Research, MIT)
Development and Applications of CRISPR-Cas9 for Genome Editing

Brain Research – Applications for CRISPER

  • Genetics & epigenetics
  • signals – optogenetics Neuromodulation
  • optogenetics — fibers — cells

The CRISPR/Cas bacterial

Crispr RNA maturation

E.coli – immunity for using Crispr

Streptococcus thermophilus – CRISPr editing applied

Development of a Technology Platform

  • expand modes of Genomic Pertubation

develop efficient co-transduction of primary neurons

multiplex knockout un the denate

  • demonstrate uses in biological therapeutic context

CRISPR — Reagents development, protocol developed, discussion forums

targeting of MeCP2 gyrus leads to robust protein depletion and behavior change

toxicity potential researched

Cre-dedendent CAs9 MOUSE FOR CANCER MODELING – mouth lung

  • develop an open source for the community

Genome-scale CRISPR knockout (GeCKO) Screen – generate library pool of cell – mutation identification – melanoma treated by BRAF inhibitor – targets for menanoma resistence

Comparison of shRNA vs GeCKO – CRISPR more robust and statisticaly significant, However, GeCKO provides higher sensitivity than shRNA

  •  foundational technology development

Crystal structure of Cas9 in complex wiht guided RNA and target DNA

Cre-dependent Cas9 Mouse

 

For Twitter.com

#Cas9
#CRISPR
#molecularbiology
#biotechnology
#GeneEditing
#genetic#engineering (sometimes these two # are put together like this)
#Boston

@BrandeisU
@MIT
@UCBerkeley
@CRISPRpapers
@UmeaUniversity
@mcgovernmit (this is for Feng Zhang)
@pharma_BI

 

CRISPR Service / Cas9

Commercialization by

 http://www.appliedstemcell.com/services/cell-line-models/cell-line-modification/

The CRISPR/Cas9 system uses the Cas9 nuclease to facilitate RNA-guided site-specific DNA cleavage. The system consists of two components:

(1) Mammalian codon-optimized version of the Cas9 protein carrying a nuclear localization signal to ensure nuclear compartmentalization in mammalian cells

(2) Guide RNAs (gRNAs) to direct Cas9 protein to sequence-specifically cleave the targeted DNA

The advantage of CRISPR/Cas9 over ZFNs or TALENs is its scalability and multiplexibility in that multiple sites within the mammalian genome can be simultaneously modified, providing a robust, high-throughput approach for gene editing in mammalian cells.

CRISPR Service (Point mutation, Deletion, Small DNA insertion)

crispr

We are experts in CRISPR Service! Applied StemCell is in Nature Biotechnology as one of the select companies for CRISPR-Cas9 tools! Monya Baker, “Gene Editing at CRISPR Speed,” Nature Biotechnology, 32: 309-312, April 2014.

Since Applied Stem Cell started out as a company focused on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), we have excellent capabilities of correcting mutations in disease-model iPSCs using CRISPR/ Cas9.

 

 

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