The European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group (ELRIG) UK has announced the keynote speakers for Drug Discovery 2023, taking place at the ACC in Liverpool on 18–19 October. Professor Janet Hemingway CBE, FRS, Founding Director of Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON), and Dr Dave Powell, Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of LifeArc will lead this year’s event focusing on diverse thinking and new perspectives.
The free-to-attend, flagship conference will cover a wide range of themes from ‘omics', and personalised medicine to chemistry; all focused on bringing new therapies from the laboratory to the patient.
Janet Hemingway is Professor of Tropical Medicine at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the Founding Director of iiCON, a collaborative £230 million programme bringing together academic, industry and clinical partners to help transform the discovery and supply of anti-infectives and accelerate their journey to market. She is a Senior Technical Advisor on Neglected Tropical Diseases for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and has been PI on projects in excess of £370 million. Professor Hemingway was Director of LSTM from 2001 to 2019 and she was awarded a CBE for services to the Control of Tropical Disease Vectors in 2012.
Dave Powell joined LifeArc as CSO in 2022 as the next step in his 25 years in research and development. Prior to this he led the preclinical drug discovery and the phase lll antibiotic research programme at Summit Therapeutics. Dr Powell began his life sciences career at SmithKline Beecham (now GSK), gaining deep platform and project experience across numerous therapeutic areas, including neurosciences, oncology, and infectious disease. He also helped to start and then led the collaboration between GSK and the Francis Crick Institute in London.
Drug Discovery 2023 will include presentations from leaders in their fields, a trade show and exhibition, a poster competition, tech theatres focussed on robotics and automation, and sustainability practices, a host of networking opportunities and a learning zone for early career professionals.
The conference will run four parallel sessions each day focussed on: cellular technologies for drug discovery, transforming cancer drug discovery through diverse thinking and innovations, delving into the diversity of chemistry, driving molecules from concept to clinic, augmenting R&D with AI, biopharmaceutical discovery, translating ideas into therapies, hit identification and screening, and chemistry enabling drug discovery from start to clinic.
For a full listing of speakers and sessions, or to register to attend, please visit: https://www.elrig.org/portfolio/drug-discovery-2023/