SBS 2009
Label-Free Symposium
San Diego, California
November 2-3, 2009
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Program Overview
Advances & Challenges in Label-Free Technologies for Drug Discovery
Label-free technologies in drug discovery are allowing scientists to address some of the outstanding
fundamental questions of productivity that contemporary Pharma R&D is struggling with. Label-free
technologies present the opportunity to address issues such as limited access to tractable therapeutic
targets, early exploitation of chemical genomics, poor predictability of the therapeutic action of chemical
compounds in biological assays, and inadequate selection of candidate molecules that fulfil the right
biological and physicochemical profile of a drug. Label-free methodologies positively impact assay
development by enabling the direct monitoring of molecular and cellular interactions on native systems of
biological relevance in a non-destructive and generic manner.
Since the SBS 2008 label-free technologies symposium in Dresden, Germany, there has been significant growth
in the size of the label-free community, as well as an expansion of the label-free capabilities for drug
discovery. The upcoming November 2009 symposium will showcase the latest scientific and technological
advances where label-free technologies have proven their value in the discovery and characterisation of new
drugs and therapeutic targets. Case studies from formation of multi-component biomolecular complexes to
phenotypic alterations in native cells, from the detection of the interaction between small organic
molecules and isolated proteins to the redistribution of mass within a cell upon activation of a particular
receptor, from screening of compound libraries to hit (in)validation or elucidation of the mode of action of
lead compounds, from agonist trafficking to receptor panning will draw the interest of the meeting
participants. The technological challenges and uncertainties that drive the wide adoption of label-free by
the drug discovery community will be also presented. Attendees should come away from the meeting with a
strong sense of the ability of label-free technologies to address their most challenging applications and
how to make best use of label-free in their everyday work processes.
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