
Translating Natural Products into Drugs for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Disease
Monday, May 6, 2013
Presented By
Historically, natural products have been a highly successful source for the development of new drugs. Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases are fraught with challenging drug targets that may benefit from the novel chemistries present in natural products. In addition, technological advances may present new opportunities for drug discovery based on natural product leads. This conference will present an overview of drug discovery from natural products, including novel approaches and technologies, and promising Alzheimer's drug discovery programs that originated from natural products.
*Reception to follow.
Registration Pricing
Member | $30 |
Student/Postdoc Member | $15 |
Nonmember (Academia) | $65 |
Nonmember (Corporate) | $85 |
Nonmember (Non-profit) | $65 |
Nonmember (Student / Postdoc / Resident / Fellow) | $45 |
Presented by
The Brain Dysfunction Discussion Group is proudly supported by
Mission Partner support for the Frontiers of Science program provided by 
Agenda
* Presentation times and titles are subject to change.
May 6, 2013 | |
8:15 AM | Registration and Continental Breakfast |
8:45 AM | Welcome |
8:50 AM | Opening Remarks |
Session I: Overview of Natural Product Drug Discovery | |
9:00 AM | Translating Natural Products into Drugs: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Historical Precedents |
9:20 AM | Q&A session |
9:30 AM | Natural Products Discovery — The State of the Art |
9:50 AM | Q&A session |
10:00 AM | Medicinal Chemistry: The Challenges and Advantages of Natural Compounds |
10:20 AM | Q&A session |
10:30 AM | Coffee Break |
Session II: Natural Products for Alzheimer's Disease and Neurodegeneration | |
11:00 AM | The Origins of Galantamine |
11:30 AM | HSP90 Inhibitors for Neurodegeneration — Geldanamycin as a Starting Point |
12:00 PM | Targeting Tau with Novel Marine-Sourced Natural Products and their Derivatives |
12:30 PM | Lunch Break |
1:30 PM | Epothilone D: History and Future Directions in Alzheimer's Disease |
2:00 PM | Fingolimod Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis: A Fungal Derivative Mimicking a Natural Lipid |
2:30 PM | Rapamycin as a Potential Therapeutic for Alzheimer's Disease |
3:00 PM | Biologically Active Grape-Derived Polyphenols for Targeting Tau Oligomerization and Beta-Amyloidosis |
3:30 PM | Closing Remarks |
4:00 PM | Networking Reception |
5:00 PM | Close |
Speakers
Organizers
Howard Fillit, MD
The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
Howard Fillit, MD, a geriatrician, neuroscientist and a leading expert in Alzheimer’s disease, is the founding Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF). The ADDF’s mission is to accelerate the discovery and development of drugs to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias and cognitive aging. Dr. Fillit has had a distinguished academic medicine career at The Rockefeller University and The Mount Sinai School of Medicine where he is a clinical professor of geriatrics and medicine and neuroscience. He is co-author of more than 250 scientific and clinical publications, and is the senior editor of the leading international Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. Previously, Dr. Fillit was the Corporate Medical Director for Medicare at New York Life, responsible for over 125,000 Medicare managed care members in five regional markets. Dr. Fillit has received several awards and honors including the Rita Hayworth Award for Lifetime Achievement. He also serves as a consultant to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, health care organizations and philanthropies.
Jennifer Henry, PhD
The New York Academy of Sciences
Speakers
Kurt R. Brunden, PhD
University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Kurt R. Brunden is Director of Drug Discovery and Research Professor in the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he oversees drug discovery programs in the areas of Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Parkinson's disease. Prior to joining CNDR in 2007, Dr. Brunden served as a Vice President in two publicly-traded biotechnology companies, leading drug discovery and development programs in Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, metabolic disease, inflammation and oncology. Earlier in his career, Dr. Brunden was an NIH-funded faculty member within the Biochemistry Department at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He obtained a BS degree (Magna Cum Laude) from Western Michigan University, with dual majors of Biology and Health Chemistry, a PhD in Biochemistry from Purdue University, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Brunden has >75 scientific publications and numerous issued and pending patents.
Grant J. Carr, DPhil
AMRI
Grant Carr has over 20 years in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries contributing to the development of therapeutic protein (Recombumin, Novozymes) and small molecule drugs (Odanacatib, Merck) and the discovery of a number of clinical candidates (for example CRA-028129, Schering AG). At AMRI Grant lead's the companies in vitro biology/pharmacology efforts (which he founded), natural product discovery based operations and the Bothell Research Center based to the NE of Seattle, WA. Grant has direct experience developing discovery strategies for a wide range of targets and therapeutic areas including CNS, diabetes, inflammation (CRA-028129), osteoporosis (Odanacatib) and cardiovascular disorders. More recently Grant led AMRI's efforts to discover novel antibacterial drugs to treat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections which ultimately led to the licensing of a compound series to Genentech in January 2011. Prior to joining AMRI Grant was the Director of Screening Operations at Elitra Pharmaceuticals where he reduced to practice a novel platform technology for the identification of antibacterial compounds with specific mechanisms of action utilizing hyper-sensitive cell based assays and co-invented a technology enabling the identification of the mechanism of action of any antibacterial compound. These inventions translated into collaborations with large Pharmas and the eventual acquisition of Elitra by Merck who continue to publish discoveries based on these technologies. Prior to joining Elitra Grant founded the HTS group at Arris taking on additional responsibilities over the years until he was the Director of Biochemistry responsible for the in vitro pharmacology of all of the companies programs including those contributing to the discovery of Odanacatib, a first in class Cathepsin K inhibitor for the treatment of osteoporosis, and the licensing of compounds for inflammation (CRA-028129, a Cathepsin S inhibitor, licensed to Schering AG) and thrombosis (a Factor Xa inhibitor series, licensed to Pharmacia).
Gabriela Chiosis, PhD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Gabriela Chiosis is a Principal Investigator and an Associate Member in the Program in Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry at Sloan-Kettering Institute, and an Associate Attending in the Department of Medicine of Memorial Hospital for Cancer & Allied Diseases, New York. She is also a faculty in several biomedical graduate programs such as the Program in Pharmacology, Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Cornell University, the Tri-Institutional Training Program in Chemical Biology, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Center, Cornell University and The Rockefeller University and the Cancer Biology Program of the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School. She received her graduate training at Columbia University in New York and has joined Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1998. The Chiosis Laboratory investigates the significance of modulating molecular chaperones in disease treatment. In this respect, it has developed pharmacological tools instrumental in defining the roles of Hsp90 in regulating the stability and function of aberrant protein driving the neurodegenerative phenotype in tauopathies. Hsp90 inhibitors discovered by the lab are the platform for the development of several purine-scaffold Hsp90 inhibitors currently in clinical evaluation in patients with advanced cancers.
Jerold Chun, MD, PhD
The Scripps Research Institute
Jerold Chun is a Professor in the Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Department, Dorris Neuroscience Center, at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology and Neuroscience at The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. His laboratory identified the first lysophospholipid receptor and has contributed to understanding roles for this receptor family — that includes receptors for sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), the target for the Multiple Sclerosis drug fingolimod — in normal and diseased states. He received both MD and PhD (Neuroscience) from Stanford University School of Medicine, conducted postdoctoral work at the Whitehead Institute/MIT in Cambridge, MA, and subsequently has held positions of Professor at UCSD School of Medicine, Senior Director and Department Head (Molecular Neuroscience) at Merck, before joining TSRI.
Bonnie M. Davis, MD
Synaptec
Dr. Davis is the inventor of the use of galantamine (Reminyl, Razadyne) for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Her patents have been licensed to Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis), Hoechst Roussel (now Sanofi-Aventis), Johnson & Johnson and Shire. She is the founder and CEO of Synaptec, which is currently developing compounds as positive allosteric modulators of nicotinic receptors. Following an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Syracuse University, Dr. Davis earned an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, trained in internal medicine at Kaiser Hospital in Santa Clara, California, and performed early studies in insulin resistance as a fellow in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Stanford Medical Center. Dr. Davis joined the faculty of Mount Sinai in 1979, serving as the Medical Director of the Psychiatric Clinical Research Center, and conducting endocrine studies in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. In 1988, she left Mount Sinai to raise her two children and to found Synaptec. She was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in 2007, where she chairs the committee on Technology Transfer.
Chad Dickey, PhD
University of South Florida
Dr. Chad Dickey joined the faculty at the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute in September 2008. Dr. Dickey earned his PhD from the University of South Florida under the direction of Dr. David Morgan in 2004. His post-doctoral training was done at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville under the direction of Dr. Michael Hutton, an expert in the field of Alzheimer's disease genetics. He was a recipient of a New Investigator Award from the Alzheimer's Association and a Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation/AFAR New Investigator Award in Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Dickey has conducted two research projects for the Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy to study the mechanisms behind this particular form of hereditary dementia. He is currently funded through the NIH, the VHA, AHAF and AFAR for his research related to therapeutic development for and molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease and tauopathies. He lives in the Carrollwood area of Tampa with his wife Adria and his two sons, Luke and Jacob.
Frank E. Koehn, PhD
Pfizer Global R&D
Frank E. Koehn, born in 1955, obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Butler University, Indianapolis Indiana USA, and did his doctoral research on marine red tide neurotoxins at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Following postdoctoral work in natural products at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1984 he joined the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA, where he spent the next decade studying biologically active marine natural products. He joined Lederle Laboratories in 1994, which subsequently became Wyeth Research. In 2010 he joined Pfizer as a Research Fellow, where his laboratory is focused on the application of natural products in new disease therapies.
David J. Newman, PhD
National Cancer Institute, NIH
David Newman is the current President of the American Society of Pharmacognosy for 2012-2013, and chief of the Natural Products Branch (NPB) in the Developmental Therapeutics Program at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD. Born in the UK he received a MSc in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Liverpool and a DPhil for work in microbial chemistry from the University of Sussex. He came to the USA in1968 as a post-doctoral fellow in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Georgia and in 1970 joined the then SK&F as a biological chemist. He later completed an MS in Information Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, and in 1985 he left SK&F when their antibiotic discovery program ceased. Following work in marine and microbial discovery programs at various companies he joined the NPB in 1991 with responsibilities for marine and microbial collection programs. He received the NIH Award of Merit in 2003 for the development of microbial and marine drug candidates at NCI, Following Gordon Cragg's retirement he was acting chief from Jan 2005 until appointed chief of the NPB in late 2006. His research interests are in natural product structures as drugs and leads thereto. He is the author or coauthor of over 150 papers, reviews and book chapters, and holds 21 patents mainly on microbial products.
Salvatore Oddo, PhD
University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio
Dr. Oddo received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Catania, Italy, and his graduate degree in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Oddo's research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying memory deficits in Alzheimer's disease. Using animal models, he showed that dysfunction signaling transduction pathways that are critical for learning and memory play a pivotal role in the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of a grant from the National Institute of Health, which is focused on elucidating the role of the mammalian target of rapamycin on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Oddo has published more than 60 research articles in international peer-reviewed journals. In recognition of his contribution to the aging and Alzheimer's disease fields, he has been the recipient of several national and international awards.
Giulio Maria Pasinetti, MD, PhD
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti's research on complementary and alternative medicine influencing clinical dementia, neurodegeneration and Alzheimer's disease has made him a pioneer in his field. He is the recipient of major awards as The Alzheimer's Association's Zenith Award and the Foundation Queen Sofia of Spain Research Center Award on Alzheimer's Disease, among others. Dr. Pasinetti is a Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Geriatrics and Adult Development, and is Chief of the Brain Institute Center of Excellence for Novel Approaches to Neurotherapeutics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He also serves as Director of the Basic and Biomedical Research and Training, Geriatric Education and Clinical Center at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Pasinetti recently received an NIH-funded research grant supporting a Center of Excellence for Research in Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Pasinetti is currently the Principal Investigator and Director of the Center.
Sponsors
Promotional Partners
Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research
Presented by
The Brain Dysfunction Discussion Group is proudly supported by
Mission Partner support for the Frontiers of Science program provided by 
Abstracts
Translating Natural Products into Drugs: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Historical Precedents
David J. Newman, PhD, National Cancer Institute, NIH
Natural Products Discovery — The State of the Art
Grant J. Carr, DPhil, AMRI
Medicinal Chemistry: The Challenges and Advantages of Natural Compounds
Frank E. Koehn, PhD, Pfizer Global R&D
The Origins of Galantamine
Bonnie M. Davis, MD, Synaptec
HSP90 Inhibitors for Neurodegeneration — Geldanamycin as a Starting Point
Gabriela Chiosis, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Targeting Tau with Novel Marine-Sourced Natural Products and their Derivatives
Chad Dickey, University of South Florida
Epothilone D: History and Future Directions in Alzheimer's
Kurt R. Brunden, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Fingolimod Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis: A Fungal Derivative Mimicking a Natural Lipid
Jerold Chun, MD, PhD, The Scripps Research Institute
Rapamycin as a Potential Therapeutic for Alzheimer's Disease
Salvatore Oddo, PhD, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio
Biologically Active Grape-Derived Polyphenols for Targeting Tau Oligomerization and Beta-Amyloidosis
Giulio Maria Pasinetti, MD, PhD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Travel & Lodging
Our Location
The New York Academy of Sciences
7 World Trade Center
250 Greenwich Street, 40th floor
New York, NY 10007-2157
212.298.8600
Hotels Near 7 World Trade Center
Recommended partner hotel
Club Quarters, World Trade Center
140 Washington Street
New York, NY 10006
Phone: 212.577.1133
The New York Academy of Sciences is a member of the Club Quarters network, which offers significant savings on hotel reservations to member organizations. Located opposite Memorial Plaza on the south side of the World Trade Center, Club Quarters, World Trade Center is just a short walk to the Academy.
Use Club Quarters Reservation Password NYAS to reserve your discounted accommodations online.
Other nearby hotels
212.693.2001 | |
212.385.4900 | |
212.269.6400 | |
212.742.0003 | |
212.232.7700 | |
212.747.1500 | |
212.344.0800 |