Inaugural New England Protein Science Forum
Protein Science Workshop — Overcoming the Challenges to Accelerate Drug Discovery

Bentley University
Waltham, MA 
Friday, November 16, 2012 
8:00 am - 6:00 pm

Schedule:

8:00 am Check-in and light breakfast
9:00 - 9:10 am Introduction
Rajiv Chopra
  Session I — Enhancing output with throughput
(Session chair: Stephen Chambers)
9:10 - 9:40 am Developing Methods for High Density Display of Proteins
Niroshan Ramachandran, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA
9:40 - 10:10 am High-throughput, Small-Scale Protein Expression Optimization in Baculoviral Expression System
Jim King, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Ridgefield, CT
10:10 - 10:40 am Automated Protein Expression Optimization with Piccolo®
Dawn L. Hall, Ph.D., Department of Structural Biology, Merck & Co., Inc., West Point, PA
10:40 - 11:00 am Coffee Break and Posters Session
  Session II — Overcoming the challenges in supplying proteins for drug discovery; tricks and lessons learnt in producing difficult to express proteins
(Session chair: Simon Low)
11:00 - 11:30 am Development of a Selenomethionine Labeling Protocol for PCSK9 Expressed by CHO Cells in BelloCell Bioreactor
Ing-Kae Wang, Pfizer Global Research & Development, Groton, CT
11:30 - 12:00 pm Baculovirus Generated Proteins for Structure Based Drug Design:
Lessons Learned
James M. Groarke, Protein Structure Group, Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA
12:00 - 12:15 pm A(nother) Difficult Protein for Crystallography
Mei Xu, Protein Structure Group, Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA
12:15 - 12:30 pm Improving Production of Protein Kinases by Co-Expression with Phosphatase
Meggin Taylor, Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, South San Francisco, CA
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
  Session III — New Expression Systems
(Session chair: Ian Hunt)
1:30 - 2:00 pm Engineering novel host strains of Kluyveromyces lactis for heterologous protein production
Christopher Taron, New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA
2:00 - 2:30 pm Wheat Germ Cell-free Technology for NMR-Based Structure-Function Investigations
John L. Markley, University of Wisconsin, WI
2:30 - 3:00 pm Cell-free Protein Production in 96 Well Format
Gregory Michaud, Developmental and Molecular Pathways, Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA
3:00 - 3:15 pm Break and Posters Session
  Session IV: Panel Discussion with Audience: CRO & Outsourcing
3:15 - 4:45 pm Panelists:
Stephen Chambers (Vertex)
George Karam (Pfizer)
Travis Stams (Novartis)

Discussion questions include:
  1. How many of us outsource?
  2. Is this a growing phenomenon?
  3. Can we ignore outsourcing?
  4. Does outsourcing really save, money and time, and how?
  5. What's the rational in out-sourcing? Increasing capacity or save money?
  6. Invest in automation to increase capacity/throughput or
    out-sourcing?
  7. Is outsourcing competition or complementary?
  8. How do we embrace outsourcing, while at the same time not making ourselves redundant in the process?
  9. How do we distinguish our product from the competition?
  10. How do we add value to our process?
  11. Are we ready to reinvent ourselves?
  12. Can proteins become a commodity?
  13. Are our end-users too entrenched to give us the flexibility to re-invent ourselves?
5:00 - 7:00 pm Mixer and Posters Session

Meeting Sponsors:

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