Concerned about COVID-19? AAPS is committed to refunding registrations for those affected by the virus. Learn more.
2020 PharmSci 360 Spotlight on Discovery and Basic Research
Monday, October 25
Theme 1: Bugs, Drugs, and the Microbiome: What’s the Hype, What’s the Promise?
Initially focused on gastrointestinal diseases, manipulating the microbiome is now being considered as a new way to treat cancer, metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and many more. The research on the microbiome has transformed our understanding of how bacteria, fungi, and other microbes affect human health and disease. This theme will cover topics including but not limited to: 1) the role of the microbiome in health and disease; 2) altering the microbiome using small molecules, biologics, and other modalities; 3) bugs as drugs including engineered bacteria, viruses, phages, bug-mimicking drug carriers, other engineered bugs; 4) the microbiome as a diagnostic fingerprint to monitor and detect diseases.
Theme 2: Novel Oncotargets and the Tumor Microenvironment Challenge
Identifying novel oncotargets is a continuous challenge to improve therapeutic outcome and overcome drug resistance. In this session, we will discuss the different approaches (proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics) to discover new oncotargets, the clinical significance of these targets, and the therapeutic outcome associated with their modulation. Additionally, the role of tumor microenvironment in cancer progression and approaches to target the key mediators that incite tumor progression will be discussed.
Tuesday, October 26
Theme 3: Innovations in Pharmaceutical Bioengineering
Pharmaceutical bioengineering covers all aspects of drug product design—from drug discovery and preclinical studies to manufacturing, formulation, and packaging—and spans various areas including chemical, mechanical, and biomedical engineering, as well as pharmaceutical sciences, chemistry, and materials science. Examples of submissions may include: 1) 3D bioprinting to co-deliver cells and biomaterials with precise control over their compositions, spatial distributions, and architectural accuracy, therefore achieving personalized recapitulation of the shape, structure, and architecture of target tissues and organs, and 2) bioengineered devices (e.g., tissue chips) for drug screening to improve the process of predicting whether drugs will be safe or toxic in humans. Other innovative examples are encouraged.
Theme 4: Making the Immune System Behave: Vaccines, Immunotherapies, and Other Treatments
This theme will cover early-stage drug discovery research at the cutting-edge of immunotherapeutics and vaccines. Topics will include, but are not limited to: 1) novel immunotherapeutic targets, mechanisms, and disorders of the immune system, 2) personalized immunization technologies and immunomodulatory approaches to treat infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, allergies, and other diseases, 3) next generation delivery methods for vaccines and immunotherapies: inhalation, nasal delivery, transdermal patches, etc., and 4) synthetic technology platforms for expedited vaccine development in response to infectious disease threats.
Wednesday, October 27
Theme 5: Taming the Blood-Brain-Barrier in CNS Drug Discovery
This theme addresses novel science, insights, tools, and approaches for targeting and bypassing CNS barriers to achieve drug delivery to the brain and spinal cord. Specialized barriers include the blood-brain barrier and the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barriers. Highly limited paracellular transport and the expression of numerous efflux transporters at these key endothelial and epithelial interfaces pose major challenges to successful brain delivery of both small and large molecule therapeutics. Topics may include the physiology and regulation of the CNS barriers, molecular mechanisms of brain permeability and targeting, novel CNS targeting strategies for crossing and bypassing the barriers, predictive models, and in vitro and in vivo correlations.
Theme 6: Preclinical Biomarker Studies: Connecting Discovery and Clinical Development
Biomarkers provide essential bridges between discovery and clinical research. However, the cross-translational potential of biomarkers has not been fully realized, i.e., technological advances in biomarker measurement are not always integrated into the frameworks that are used to identify mechanisms of disease and drug response, and vice versa. Biomarkers are used to demonstrate target engagement, understand pharmacology and mechanism of action, diagnose disease, categorize patient populations, and provide additional evidence in support of clinical efficacy. Biomarkers have untapped potential to drive discovery-based hypotheses regarding the relevance of new targets to disease states. Advanced biomarker technologies, single-cell analysis, next-generation sequencing, functional genomics, and other “omics” approaches push the boundaries of what is possible to measure. Biomarkers are used in the earliest stages of discovery to identify mechanism of action, but it is imperative that preclinical biomarker assessment in disease models correlate with clinical conditions. Clinical biomarker research drives reverse-translation, feeding back to discovery. For example, observational studies are being used to drive new target identification. Topics under this theme will include, but are not limited to: preclinical biomarker strategy, drug discovery biomarkers, next generation sequencing, circulating tumor DNA, soluble biomarkers, single cell sequencing, imaging technologies, RNA-seq, new target identification, preclinical models, epigenomic markers, preclinical to clinical translation, and reverse-translation.
Register for PharmSci 360 today!
AAPS PharmSci 360 Poster Abstracts
The 2020 PharmSci 360 poster abstract submission deadline has been extended until May 21, 2020, at 5 pm ET!
More than 1,400 posters will be displayed on October 26–28, 2020, at the meeting in New Orleans. Make sure yours is one of them. Submit your abstract today!
UPDATE! The AAPS Board of Directors recognizes that researchers have been especially affected by the pandemic, which has closed labs and forced the abandonment of projects.
The Board wants you to present whatever research and insights you are able to share at the 2020 PharmSci 360. Therefore:
- AAPS will accept abstract submissions that have no data: The board is relaxing the data requirement for poster abstracts for 2020, and welcomes promising research that may not be complete by the submission deadline. However, data should be included in the final poster presentation, should your abstract be accepted.
- The abstract submission deadline is extended to May 21 at 5 pm ET.
AAPS is developing contingency plans for PharmSci 360 that will give scientists from around the world the ability to participate in the event even if they cannot travel. The Board will announce those plans later this year. In the meantime, we urge you to submit an abstract and give yourself the option of presenting a poster at PharmSci 360. You do not need to register at this time, and poster abstracts can be withdrawn at any time.
AAPS will run the Late Breaking Abstract submission period as described in the Call for Poster Abstracts (PDF).
A GOOD POSTER MUST:
Be written with the audience in mind—As you design your poster, provide enough background on both the topic and the methods to convey the purpose, findings, and implications of your research to the expected range of readers/audience.
Tell a simple, clear story—Providing a clear take-home message that can be grasped in a few minutes is key!
Explain statistical methods and results—Present statistical significance that keeps the focus on the results, not on the arithmetic needed to conduct inferential statistical tests.
Use graphs and charts—Let your figures do the talking! Reduce the need for long text descriptions or complex tables with tiny numbers that are cumbersome to read.
Have a short, specific title—This is the first glimpse of your poster, so make a good impression. Make it inviting and easy to read from a distance.
Be ready with your story—Keep it short! Prepare a few sentences that highlight what you are studying, present a couple of key findings, and explain why they are important for your initial pitch to attendees to capture their attention.
Submit your poster abstract now!
Review the Call for Poster Abstracts and access the submission site.
Did you miss the 2020 PharmSci 360 Call for Symposia deadline? We are still accepting Rapid Fire submissions!
What are Rapid Fires?
Rapid Fires are quick, 10-min presentations with 3-min of Q&A on the latest scientific topics. Have research or ideas that are novel and exciting? Share them on the Rapid Fire stage!
AAPS is still accepting Rapid Fire programming ideas for the 2020 PharmSci 360. Submit your presentation idea by June 17, 2020, to be considered. Visit the 2020 PharmSci 360 submission instruction page to learn more about this year’s programming—including the tracks, topics, and themes it will cover—as well as how to submit your proposal.