13 May - 14 May 2024

4th SCI / RSC Symposium on Anti-Infectives Drug Discovery

Organised by:

SCI’s Fine Chemicals Group and RSC’s Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector

Francis Crick Institute, London, UK

Registration Closed

This event is no longer available for registration.

Synopsis

With the ever-growing prevalence of drug-resistant pathogens, it has never been more important that we refresh the drug pipeline with new antimicrobials that act on new targets or exhibit novel modes of action. The recent COVID pandemic has served to highlight the importance of developing effective treatments for infection, driving the recent resurgence in anti-infectives drug discovery and development of innovative technologies and approaches for combating infection through more effective detection and diagnosis methods.

 

This two-day symposium will examine the latest advances in anti-infectives drug discovery from a medicinal chemist’s perspective, focusing on the particular challenges associated with developing anti-infectives whilst also showcasing emerging strategies for tackling infection.   


Attendees

This meeting will bring together leading exponents in the field from academia and industry, so will appeal to anyone with an interest in antimicrobial resistance and anti-infectives drug discovery.


Programme

Monday 13 May

09.15
Registration and refreshments
09:40
Chair 1: Liam Cox, University of Birmingham
Welcome, housekeeping and opening remarks
09:45
Keeping PACE with antibiotic resistance
Keynote 1: Dr Clive Mason, Programme Director (AMR), LifeArc, UK
10:30
Enabling targeted protein degradation in bacteria
Dr Ester Morreale, The Francis Crick Institute, UK
11:00
Flash poster presentations
11:10
Refreshments, posters and exhibition
Chair 2: Francis Wilson, Avacta
11:40
Harnessing the immune system towards the treatment of Gram negative infections
Pam Brown, Centauri Therapeutics, UK
12:10
Accelerating structural biology research using AlphaFold
Oleg Kovalevskiy, Google DeepMind
12:40
Lunch, posters and exhibition
Chair 3: Pascal Savy, Isomorphic Labs
13:45
Tricyclic GmPcides; A new class of antibacterial agents
Dr Fredrik Almqvist, Quretech Bio, Umeå, Sweden
14:15
Exploiting microbial sources for the discovery of new anti-infective natural products
Dr Olga Genilloud, Fundacion Medina, Granada, Spain
14:45
Refreshments, posters and exhibition
Chair 4: Caroline Low, Isomorphic Labs
15:15
High-throughput drop-out screening of an intracellular cyclic peptide library for the identification of new antibiotics
Prof Ali Tavassoli, University of Southampton, UK
15:45
The Open Science Discovery of DNDi-6510: an orally bioavailable SARS-CoV2 anti-viral
Dr Ed Griffen, MedChemica, UK
16:15
Oral Protease Inhibitors for the Treatment of COVID-19
Keynote 2: Dr Dafydd Owen, Pfizer, UK
17:00
Reception, posters and exhibition
18:00
Close

Tuesday 14 May

08:55
Chair 5: A Ganesan, UEA
09:00
What did we learn from Covid-19? A view from the frontline of diagnostic testing
Keynote 3: Dr Rob Howes, Charles River Laboratories, UK
09:45
Discovery of potent sarbecovirus inhibitors that prevent viral assembly by targeting the viral membrane protein
Dr Patrick Chaltin, Centre for Drug Discovery and Design, KU Leuven, Belgium
10:15
Flash poster presentations
10:25
Refreshments, posters and exhibition
Chair 6: Dan Jones, Nxera Pharma
10:55
Development of an ultrapotent pan-serotype inhibitor of the dengue virus
Keynote 4: Johan Neyts, KUL
11.25
Discovery of zosurabalpin
Dr Patrizio Mattei, Roche, Basel, Switzerland
11.55
MET-X: Development of a best-in-class metallo-β-lactamase inhibitor
Dr Ian Cooper, Infex Therapeutics, UK
12.25
Lunch
Chair 7: Liam Cox, University of Birmingham
13.30
Prospecting for new antibiotics
Dr Eachan Johnson, The Francis Crick Institute, UK
14.00
DNA nanostructures for targeted antimicrobial delivery
Dr Ioanna Mela, University of Cambridge, UK
14.30
Chemical biology approaches to antimicrobial discovery
Keynote 5: Prof Ed Tate, Imperial College London and The Francis Crick Institute, UK
15.15
Closing remarks and announcement of poster prize winners
15.30
Close

SCI’s Fine Chemicals Group are committed to promoting diversity and equality in the chemical sciences. We aim to identify high quality speakers for all our conferences with full inclusivity where attendees from all backgrounds are welcome. We are open to offering flexible presentation options. 


Sponsorship and exhibitor information
For further information and prices, please email conferences@soci.org.
Call for posters and flash presentations

Opportunities are available to present a poster. Interested applicants should submit a one A4-page abstract (or 300 words) indicating title and authors to conferences@soci.org by Friday 19 April 2024 with "Anti-Infectives 24 – poster abstract" in the subject line.  Selected poster presenters will have the opportunity to give a flash presentation. An abstract template can be downloaded here.

A limited number of bursaries are available as a contribution to the cost of registration fees, travel and accommodation.  See below for more details.


Venue and Contact

Francis Crick Institute

1 Midland Rd
London
NW1 1AT

Conference Team

Tel: +44 (0)20 7598 1561

Email: conferences@soci.org


Fees
Early bird - ends Monday 8 April 2024
*RSC/SCI Member - £225
Non-member - £300
*RSC/SCI Student Member - £75
After early bird
*RSC/SCI Member - £275
Non-member - £350
*RSC/SCI Student Member - £125

 *RSC members should enter the Event discount code EJRFCHEM232 and select "Guest member" under the section member type. Delegates will be contacted for their membership number after successful registration. 

*RSC student members should enter the Event discount code EJRFCHEM232S and select "Guest member" under the section member type. Delegates will be contacted for their membership number after successful registration.

All registrations will automatically receive a confirmation within 24 hours of registering for the event. Should you not receive written confirmation of your booking, please email conferences@soci.org.

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Booking Process/Deadlines

Booking terms and conditions


Bursaries

A limited number of bursaries for early-career researchers are available as a contribution to the cost of registration fees, travel and accommodation. For more information and to receive an application form, please contact conferences@soci.org with “Anti-Infectives 24 – early-career bursary” in the title.


Partners

Exhibitors

Sponsors

Organising committee

Liam Cox - University of Birmingham
Pascal Savy - Isomorphic Labs
Daniel Jones - Nxera Pharma
Caroline Low - Isomorphic Labs
A Ganesan - UEA
Francis Wilson - Avacta
Felix Calderon - GlaxoSmithKline