ICDDT2010: The 2nd International Conference on Drug Discovery & Therapy: Dubai, February 1st

The 2nd International Conference on Drug Discovery & Therapy: Dubai, February 1 - 4, 2010

Drug discovery, as a field, has evolved into a process that not only involves the scientist; but also many other tangential fields such as physicians, legal experts, business individuals, etc. One portion of the drug discovery effort that is of particular challenge is that pertaining to neuroscience. This is mainly due to the complexity of the nervous system; but also due to the relatively poor understanding of most psychiatric and neurological diseases. Despite this, the worldwide market for CNS disorders was estimated to be $50 billion in 2001 and is set to grow to the aging population, and due to better diagnostic procedures. However, although the process has become multi-variant over the years requiring billions of dollars to be spent for each successful launch of a drug; the heart of the matter still remains to be target identification/validation and lead discovery/optimization.

The 2^nd International Conference on Drug Discovery and Therapy to be held in Dubai in February 2009, CNS (Pre-clinical Section) will try to address the major contributions toward CNS research that arises both at the industrial setting as well as the academic setting. The section will try and have a cross-section of both basic research as well as more applied (translational) research that highlights the amount of work being produced at all research sites.

Corey R. Hopkins
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, TN USA

Biosketch and Research Interests:

I am currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry in the Vanderbilt Program in Drug Discovery. I obtained my Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002 in the lab of Prof. Peter Wipf. During my graduate career my research was directed toward the total synthesis of tetrazomine, an antitumor/antibiotic natural product in the naphthyridinomycin/bioxalomycin class of compounds. In addition to the total synthesis efforts, I also developed a novel ring expansion methodology which was used to make pharmacophore analogs of the natural product Dnacin.

Since leaving the University of Pittsburgh in 2001, I have worked in the pharmaceutical industry for Sanofi-Aventis and Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals. My work has been involved with all aspects of drug discovery from very early stage hit-to-lead analysis to later stage development candidate selection. I have been involved with a number of therapeutic targets including kinases, GPCR’s, ion channels, gap junctions and nuclear hormone receptors with application to a number of diseases including RA, osteoporosis, respiratory diseases, autoimmune diseases and CNS disorders.

My primary focus at Vanderbilt is drug discovery and medicinal chemistry to develop novel therapeutic agents for CNS disorders.

Selected Publications:

“Synthesis and SAR of a Novel Positive Allosteric Modulator (PAM) of the Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 4 (mGluR4)”, Williams, R.; Johnson, K. A.; Gentry, P. R.; Niswender, C. M.; Weaver, C. D.; Conn, P. J.; Lindsley, C. W.; Hopkins, C. R.* Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2009, 19, 4967-4970.

“mGluR4-positive allosteric modulation as potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease”, Hopkins, C. R.*; Lindsley, C. W.; Niswender, C. M. Future Med. Chem. 2009, 1, 501-513.

“Synthesis and Evaluation of a Series of Heterobiarylamides That Are Centrally Penetrant Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 4 (mGluR4) Positive Allosteric Modulators (PAMs)”, Engers, D. W.; Niswender, C. M.; Weaver, C. D.; Jadhav, S.; Menon, U. N.; Zamorano, R.; Conn, J. P.; Lindsley, C. W.; Hopkins, C. R.* J. Med. Chem. 2009, 52, 4115-4118.

“Is 2009 the year that Prasugel (Effient^®), Eli Lilly/Daiichi Sankyo’s antiplatelet agent gets approved?”, Hopkins, C. R.* Curr. Top. Med. Chem. 2008, 8, 1710-1711.

“Design and synthesis of novel N-sulfonyl-2-indole carboxamides as potent PPAR-γ binding agents with potential application to the treatment of osteoporosis”, Hopkins, C. R.*; O’Neil, S. V.; Laufersweiler, M. C.; Wang, Y.; Soper, D. L.; Ellis, C. D.; Kontoyianni, M.; Pokross, M.; Petrey, M. E.; Roesgen, J. T.; Obringer, D. M.; Richardson, E. C.; DeMuth, T. P., Jr. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2006, 16, 5659-5663.