Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Anticancer Agents
Recorded during the Keystone SymposiaSAB meeting:
June 17, 2017, Keystone, Colorado
Malaria: From Innovation to Eradication
The evidence base and research agenda for malaria elimination and eradication are fast-evolving. Of foremost concern is the threat of resistance of the mosquito to pyrethroid insecticides and emerging data showing multi-drug resistance in Southeast Asia. An evolving area, with much to be understood, is the epidemiology of sub-microscopic infections and how they fuel onward transmission. There is also a lot of progress; for example, in the development pipeline there are candidates for a single-dose cure that can also provide protection and block transmission, and there are novel classes of insecticides. In implementation science, there is plenty to examine, from mass drug administration of anti-malarials to re-purposing ivermectin to reduce residual transmission.
Watch this lively panel discussion moderated by Prof Marcel Tanner examining the scientific progress being made toward the goals of eliminating and eradicating malaria, and then ask the panelists your own questions.
Among other topics, the discussion will focus on:
Biological challenges and discoveriesDevelopment of the next generation of toolsPotentially transformative strategies to eliminate malariaThe impact of training and capacity building on malaria elimination goalsSurveillance-response approaches in malaria elimination
Event Hashtag: #VKSmalaria
This event is a collaboration with:
HMGB1 as a Marker for Lung Cancer in High-Risk Populations
Recorded during the Keystone SymposiaSAB meeting:
June 17, 2017, Keystone, Colorado
Multiple Sclerosis: Conventional and Alternative Therapeutic Approaches
MS is an immune-mediated demyelinating disorder with a neurodegenerative component. While most of the current therapeutic approaches are immunomodulatory, there is a definite interest and urgent effort to identify novel treatments to promote myelin repair and restore function.
The unmet need for novel therapies is even more clearly defined for patients with a relapsing-remitting course who enter the progressive phase of the disease and for patients with a progressive clinical course at onset.
Besides the conventional pharmacological approaches, patients are interested in the concept of stem cell therapy and the use of complementary medicine.
This roundtable will discuss:
- Stem cell therapy
The emphasis will be on mesenchymal, hematopoietic and neural/glial progenitors. We shall review the concepts of : target organ; goal of the therapeutic approach; whether the application is in the clinical or preclinical stage and whether there is credible evidence for restoration of function
- Repurposing old drugs for new applications
One of the newly identified remyelinating agents is clemastine, an anti-histamine and anti-muscarinic agent which has been very successful in preclinical models and is being tested for its remyelination potential in human clinical trials
- Complementary approaches
We shall discuss the concept of using diet and supplements as complementary approaches to adopt together with conventional therapies. The promising results with the use of lipoic acid supplementation raise new hopes and open new scientific venues to be explored
Event hashtag: #vksMS17
Sponsored by:
Understanding the scope and magnitude of Vector-Borne Pathogens
Recorded on September, 10 2017
Pre-Meeting Workshop
Vectors, Pathogens and Diseases: Current Trends and Emerging Challenges
Sept 10 - Sept 14, 2017 | Durban, South Africa
This Keystone Symposia SciTalk was made possible by a grant from the
Introduction to Vectors
Recorded on September, 10 2017
Pre-Meeting Workshop
Vectors, Pathogens and Diseases: Current Trends and Emerging Challenges
Sept 10 - Sept 14, 2017 | Durban, South Africa
This Keystone Symposia SciTalk was made possible by a grant from the
Fighting malaria with engineered symbiotic bacteria from vector mosquitoes
Recorded at a Keystone Symposia meeting:
Vectors, Pathogens and Diseases: Current Trends and Emerging Challenges
Sept 10 - Sept 14, 2017 | Durban, South Africa
Bedside to Bench: From Frailty to Muscle Regeneration
Clinical importance of frailty on outcomes has been studied for the last decade in South Korea. Initially, operational concept of frailty has been validated, and then studies have been focused on comprehensive assessment of frailty in geriatric field. Afterwards, many brief tools which can screen frailty in various clinical settings have been developed, opening door to widespread access on frailty assessment. By these historical emergence of frailty assessment in clinical medicine, many clinicians and researchers other than geriatricians started to incorporate the concept of frailty in their field. Firstly, adoption and expansion of frailty research in clinical medicine connects geriatrics with many other specialties including surgeries, cardiology, and oncology, which deal with serious conditions commonly occurs in older people. Many observational studies showed that frailty in these people can lead to severe adverse events which might be unexpected with chronological age or traditional risk models. Therefore, assessing frailty status and modifying therapeutic strategy has become an important issue in many common conditions in older people. Furthermore, studies even started to include pre- or post-treatment prevention of frailty or functional decline in surgery field. Also, studies on frailty is becoming more systematic and large-scaled, with support of nationwide public health care system. In the past, observational and interventional studies on frailty has been confined in small sized community or geriatric clinic. Evidences from these studies lead to the nationwide efforts to develop guidelines to prevent frailty in older people. Lastly, concept of frailty which started as operational criteria in older people started to expand to preclinical and translational biomedicine researches. Researchers are developing tools to assess frailty in animals including rodents, and also establishing animal models with features of frailty. Preclinical research platforms from these efforts will provide tools to validate efficacy and mechanisms of specific therapeutic intervention on frailty. Since frailty is rather recently suggested clinical concept, there are many unanswered questions. Nevertheless, since there is ever inrrpASinn demand for the prevention and treatment of frailty, clinical and preclinical studies on frailty in the future will continue to expand.
Recorded During the Keystone Symposia Conference on
Regenerative Biology and Applications: Cell Differentiation, Tissue Organization and Biomedical Engineering (T3)
Oct 15-19, 2017 | Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong
This Keystone Symposia SciTalk was made possible by a grant from the Croucher Foundation and The University of Hong Kong.
Rigor in Science: The Challenge of Reproducibility in Biomedical Research
Every researcher has a story about a compelling result that didn’t reproduce. Sometimes this is due to technical challenges or the experimental approach. However, there are also biological mechanisms that contribute to irreproducible results, and their importance is increasingly recognized by researchers, drug developers, funding agencies, and the general public.
In this discussion, we consider the issue of data reproducibility in preclinical research through a biological lens, focusing on often-neglected variables such as sex, age, microbiome, and circadian rhythms. The roundtable brings together stakeholders from across the biomedical enterprise to explore practical ways of controlling for these variables to maximize the translational potential of preclinical research. The participants include investigators Michael Holtzman, Dana Philpott, and Jeffrey Haspel, who encounter these variables in their research; Patricia Valdez, representing the NIH Extramural Research Integrity Office; and NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris, who moderates the discussion and brings a lay perspective.
The goal of the discussion is to explore both the tensions and opportunities for exciting science that irreproducible results create in preclinical research. It also considers economical ways for researchers to address biological drivers of irreproducible results, to comply with new standards set out by funding agencies, and to enhance the potential of their work to lead to novel therapies.
Neuroinflammation: Causes, Concepts and Consequences
Neuroinflammation comprises the interaction of two formidably complex organ systems. Two considerations underpin Keystone Symposia’s meetings on neuroinflammation: first that the communities of neuroscientists and immunologists must urgently formulate and deploy a joint set of concepts to promote mechanistic progress; and second, that neuroinflammation broadly conceived operates throughout life from embryogenesis through old age, with its consequences bearing on the most serious health concerns from autism and schizophrenia through dementia.
The roundtable will discuss:
Defining Neuroinflammation
Do we have a definition of neuroinflammation that encapsulates the different elements of immune-to-brain communication encompassing homeostasis to pathology in chronic neurodegenerative disease?
Disease Implications
What is the role of neuroinflammation throughout the aging process and in a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s?
New Ways to Study the Brain
How can we better study neuroinflammation in the cells of the brain and are there ways to collaborate in developing new imaging and sampling technologies and datasets, in vivo and postmortem, that will advance this field?
Pre-Competitive Research
What are ways that academic and industrial scientists from different backgrounds can collaborate on pre-competitive research?
The panel will touch on some of the most important learnings and highlights from the Keystone Symposia four-day meeting in June 2017 on Neuroinflammation. It will also brainstorm ideas for subsequent meetings, including the June 2018 symposium on “New Frontiers in Neuroinflammation: What Happens When CNS and Periphery Meet” which is being organized by Drs. Marco Prinz, Jonathan Kipnis and Irene Knuesel.
Event Hashtag: #VKSneuroinf17
Sponsored by:
