February 25 - March 1, 2023
San Diego, CA, USA
February 25 - March 1, 2023
San Diego, CA, USA
Phenotypic screening is experiencing a renaissance within the pharmaceutical industry due to its successful track record in delivering first-in-class medicines stemming from novel biology. Although phenotypic screening may appear to be similar to target-based screening, there are fundamental differences between these two approaches.
This course will cover a range of relevant topics with a goal of providing practical information to help prosecute phenotypic projects more effectively from assay design all the way to clinical trials.
Morning Session:
What is the rationale for conducting phenotypic screening?
When does phenotypic drug discovery provide the most value? What may be the best indications for this strategy?
Not all phenotypic assays are created equal: what are the characteristics of the best assays?
Which libraries should be screened and why? Small molecule, antibody and/or genetic screening?
Afternoon Session:
What are key considerations and strategies for phenotypic screening hit triage and validation?
How do we best approach target/mechanism identification and validation
Polypharmacology: friend or foe?
Safety de-risking and clinical progression in the absence of a target: considerations and practical approaches
Fabien Vincent, Ph.D
Pfizer
Fabien Vincent, Ph.D., is an Research Fellow in the Hit Discovery and Lead Profiling Group at Pfizer. His laboratory provides molecular pharmacology support for the small molecule project portfolios of the Immunology & Inflammation research unit. This work includes designing hit identification strategies and screening funnels, developing assays for high throughput screening as well as additional assays to elucidate the structure activity relationship of active compounds, understand their mechanism of action and facilitate translation to pre-clinical models. His main research interests are centered on improving the translation of discovery research to patients and specifically include phenotypic screening and atypical molecular mechanisms of action.
Fabien Vincent received a Diplôme d’Ingénieur in organic chemistry from CPE Lyon (France) before conducting graduate research in the fields of chemical biology and enzymology in the laboratory of Harold Kohn at the University of Houston. He later became a post-doctoral fellow in chemical biology at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego. He entered the field of drug discovery as both a drug discovery research project leader and molecular pharmacology-biochemistry group leader.
Fabien recently led a team of Pfizer scientists in analysis of how best to approach phenotypic screening, and specifically how to design the optimal phenotypic assays, those which can best predict compounds and mechanisms that will be effective in patients (Sci. Trans. Med., 2015, 7, 293ps15) as well as how to approach the triage and validation of phenotypic screening hits (Cell Chem. Bio., 2020, 27, 1332).
He was also a co-organizer of the 2019 Keystone Symposium “Phenotypic Drug Discovery: Recent Advances and Insights from Chemical and Systems Biology” surveying progress and advances in the field of phenotypic drug discovery. (Nat. Rev. Drug Discov., 2022, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41573-022-00472-w)