The annual CDDI symposium invites guest speakers and researchers working in drug discovery disciplines, from fundamental disease research to commercialisation, to discuss advancements in the space.
This year's full-day program is based on three sessions, focusing on critical turning points in the drug discovery pipeline:
Each session will spotlight relevant University facilities, talks by CDDI priority-driven program and cluster leaders, and EMCR abstract presentations.
| Date | Thursday, 20 November |
| Time | 10 am - 5 pm |
| Location | Messel Lecture Theatre, Sydney Nanoscience Hub (SNH), Physics Road, The University of Sydney |
| Registration | Free, registration essential by 18 November |
| Catering | Morning tea, lunch and networking session refreshments |
Chris Burns is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Amplia Therapeutics, an ASX-listed clinical stage and drug development company he co-founded. He is a drug discovery leader with 25 years in various roles across pharma, biotech and academia. He is the lead inventor of the drugs momelotinib (recently approved by the US FDA) and lexibulin (underwent Phase 2 trials), and the inventor on over 30 patents and a co-author on over 60 scientific publications.
He has previously worked at Pfizer, Cytopia, Gilead, and currently acts as a consultant to selected biotech companies, VCs and academic groups.
Maree Smith AC FTSE FAHMS is an Emeritus Professor, researcher and Director of the Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development (CIPDD), at The University of Queensland.
Professor Smith has considerable expertise in biomedical discovery/translation with specialist expertise in the novel pain therapeutics discovery/translation field encompassing a portfolio of 16 rodent pain models that mimic individual human pain conditions. This portfolio of models conducted in a purpose-built facility operated in accordance with the requirements of our Quality Management System, making the CIPDD unique in Australia and rare internationally.
Mark von Itzstein AO is the founding Director of Griffith University’s Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics. The Institute’s researchers collaborate with leading scientists around the globe to build a critical mass around various scientific disciplines including carbohydrate-based research, to investigate clinically-significant diseases.
Professor von Itzstein AO has a major research effort in the area of drug discovery, with a carbohydrate-based drug candidate against sepsis in phase 2 human clinical trials. He led the team responsible for the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of the anti-influenza drug, Relenza®, which has been approved for the treatment of influenza worldwide since 1999.
