DRUG DISCOVERY FOR PROTOZOAN PARASITES

CONFERENCE TITLE: Drug Discovery for Protozoan Parasites

(Part of the Keystone Symposia Global Health Series, Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

Organizers:     Dennis E. Kyle, Michael A.J. Ferguson and Susan Charman
Date:               March 22 – 26, 2009
Venue:             Beaver Run Resort, 620 Village Road, PO Box 2115, Breckenridge, Colorado, 80424, USA.

Attended by: 
Mr. OYEDEJI Segun Isaac
Department of Biotechnology

Meeting Summary
The conference is part of a series of international conferences and workshops held by Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology, a nonprofit organization committed to connecting the scientific community within and across disciplines to discuss the most up-to-date advances in biomedical and life sciences. Topics discussed include: current methods to identify and validate new drug targets, screening of libraries of compounds to discover novel chemotypes, assessing the potential for chemical biology and medicinal chemistry to characterize new compounds, mechanisms of drug resistance, utility of key models for assessing preclinical drug leads and cutting edge strategies to progress new drug candidates into clinical trials. The meeting brought together chemists, biologists, pharmacologists, and clinicians to find solutions to accelerate drug discovery efforts. Details of the Conference Programme could be assessed following the link below:
http://www.keystonesymposia.org/Meetings/viewMeetings.cfm?MeetingID=1016&subTab=program
A total of 173 participants/speakers attended the conference out of which 8 are Nigerians who also received the Keystone Symposia Global Health Travel Award (supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). The conference was held in retreat-like venue conducive for the exchange of information, generation of new ideas, and acceleration of applications that benefit society. Scientific sessions took place in a relaxed setting with Social Hours and Lite Bites in-between.