We are privileged to extend a warm welcome to the acclaimed Noble Laureates, researchers, clinicians & leaders from the pharmaceutical industry across the globe to the United Arab Emirates for the 6th International Conference on Drug Discovery & Therapy (ICDDT).
This paramount conference which will introduce the delegates to the new developments and breakthroughs in many disciplines of drug discovery and therapy, will be an exciting step forward to the improved health & wellness of humanity.
We feel proud to host such an auspicious event where a large number of world’s leading scientists, researchers, industrialists and academicians will be exchanging new scientific ideas and sharing their innovative research and experiences in their respective fields.
The United Arab Emirates, being the leading global trading and cultural hub, is an obvious choice to host a prestigious scientific conference which will have global implications. As H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the HCT said at the opening of the 2013 ICDDT in Dubai: “We are a country that promotes creativity and values innovation – a country committed to building a knowledge society where ideas drive economic success and help affect positive change. The improvement of the health of our citizens is one of our nation’s highest priorities”.
Moreover, the UAE’s geographic location puts it at the center, or nexus, of the very populous and developing Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, providing enormous opportunities and new markets for scientific research and for new products and solutions.
In today’s world, some of the most daunting challenges the researchers, technologists and innovators are being faced with, are to design, develop and distribute products and solutions which are accessible and affordable to the masses of the world’s less affluent population. A dire need for research efforts in drug discovery and therapy to be further focused towards the treatment of specific diseases afflicting this part of humanity & to also continue the ground breaking work to improve the standards of health all over the world, quite demanding.
Furthermore, visionary efforts, combined with innovative technologies, are needed to address the gap between supply and accessible treatment. Other challenges faced by the scientific and research communities include meeting the demands of an increasing ageing population, dealing with lifestyle diseases in both developing and developed economies and slowing the inexorable spread of communicable diseases. But ultimately the most significant challenge may be addressing and defeating the presence of ‘resistance epidemics’. At the 2012 ICDDT conference, H.E. Sheikh Nahayan highlighted the need for the development of new drugs, through different business models of research and development.
“It is critical, therefore, that we encourage close partnerships between drug companies, physicians, bio-medical engineers, hospitals, and colleges of medicine, in order to ensure the development and delivery of new drugs and medical treatments,” Sheikh Nahayan said.
“Drug design and discovery is a global issue, and nations all over the world share the same challenges and concerns that surround this important topic,” he said.
As we face such major challenges, pharmacological researchers also have tremendous opportunities and tools today in utilizing advances in biotechnology, health informatics and biomedical engineering as a result of an unprecedented integration of engineering and technology with health and life sciences in the last decade. “It is critical that we promote regional and international cooperation to ensure that you have the means to do your work, and that we, and indeed, the world will be the beneficiaries of your efforts and accomplishments,” Sheikh Nahayan said at the 4th ICDDT.
The deliberations and recommendations of this conference will have a significant impact on the future directions of the drug development and on the improvement towards the health and wellness of humanity, as a whole.
“This conference highlights the importance of your innovation to the future of humankind and expresses our strong belief that all of you, working together, represent the highest and best ideals of a global society that measures its success by the quality of life of its citizens,” Sheikh Nahayan said in his 2012 conference opening speech.
Dear Colleagues,
As the previous conferences held in Dubai in February 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, which were attended by many Nobel Laureates, and 1500 eminent
scientists,the 6th ICDDT is also augured to be a mega event with over 300 lectures over 40 thematic sessions, poster
presentations and an associated exhibition planned. The conference
will host leading scientists from academia and industry worldwide,
to discuss the latest developments in drug discovery and therapy.
The major topics of discussion related to drug, discovery
and therapy will include: Pharmaceutical Research & Development, Translational Medicine, Regenerative Medicine, Enabling Technologies, Structural Biology, Drug Delivery & Targeting, Antiinfectives, Biologics, CNS Drug Discovery & Therapy, Diabetes and Obesity Drug Discovery & Therapy, Women’s Health Drug Discovery & Therapy, Drug Discovery in Preclinical Research, Cardiovascular Drug Discovery & Therapy, Oncology, Process Chemistry and Drug Manufacturing, Pulmonary Drug Discovery & Therapy, Recent Advances in Patient Treatment and Care, Inflammation and Immunology, Innovative Drug Discovery and Nanotechnology, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Proteomics & Bioinformatics, Pharmacogenomics, Protein and Peptide Sciences, Drug Metabolism, Hot Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, Medical Imaging, Hot Topics in HIV Research, In-silico Drug Design and in-silico screening, Combinatorial Chemistry, High-throughput Screening & Laboratory automation, Hot Topics in Drug Targets, Hot Topics in Natural Products, Stereoselective Synthesis of Bioactive Compounds, Recent Advances in Spectroscopy, Academic CRO/Industrial collaborations in drug discovery.
The conference aims to provide many interesting perspectives
on how science and technology of drug discovery and drug therapy
are changing rapidly, thereby providing new opportunities
and challenges to the scientists and medical doctors.
I look forward to welcoming the participants to this exciting
conference which will bring together world leaders in their
respective fields in the fascinating environment of Dubai. The
city has become a great tourist attraction because of the
range of facilities that it offers to the visitors, warm clean
beaches, traditional bazaars and modern shopping centers which
are a shopper's paradise, culinary delights from the East
and the West, and top class hotels which can provide you with
very comfortable accommodation at reasonable rates.
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is a
Fellow of Royal Society (London), and Honorary
Life Fellow of Kings College Cambridge University.
He is the author/editor of 105 books published
by major US/European presses and has 874 research
publications, 59 chapters in books and 15 patents
to his credit. He is the Editor-in-Chief of a
number of European Chemistry journals including
Current Medicinal Chemistry, Current Organic Chemistry,
Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry, Letters in
Organic Chemistry, Studies in Natural Products etc.
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman has been awarded Doctor of
Science degrees by a number of universities including
Cambridge University and UNESCO Science Prize
(1999) as well as the highest civil awards of
the Government of Pakistan and Austria for his
contributions to medicinal chemistry and education. |
Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad, M.D. is Director Emeritus of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the prevention of Human Diseases, Director of the IMM Center for Cell Signaling, Regental Professor and John S. Dunn Sr. Distinguished Chair in Physiology and Medicine, Texas Nobel Scholar at the University of Texas at Houston, and Director of the UT Health Science Center at Houston Program in Intracellular Signaling.
Dr. Murad completed his undergraduate work at DePauw University and received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. He had a medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship at NIH in the Heart Institute. He was on the faculty at the University of Virginia 1970-81 as Director of the Clinical Research Center and Director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology with appointments in Medicine and Pharmacology. He was the Chief of Medicine at Palo Alto Veterans Hospital 1981-88, Associate Chairman of Medicine 1982-86 and Chairman of Medicine 1986-88 at Stanford University. He was the Vice President of Research and Development at Abbott Laboratories 1988-93 and Professor at Northwestern University.
Dr. Murad has been active in both academic medicine and industry throughout his distinguished career. He has founded or co-founded five biotechnology companies and has advised many cities and government leaders about technology development. His work has concentrated on the field of cell signaling and signal transduction systems.
In 1998, Dr. Murad received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work with nitric oxide – a colorless, odorless gas that signals blood vessels to relax and widen, which in turns lower blood pressure. He continues research which leads to a better understanding of how information is transmitted between cells.
Among his many other awards and honors, Dr. Murad received the prestigious Albert and Mary Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1996, the American Heart Association Ciba Award in 1988, and the Baxter Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences from the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2000. He also received the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology Distinguished Research Prize in 2005 and the President’s Scholar Award from the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center in 2006.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science Technology. He is also a member of several foreign academies and is an Honorary or Adjunct Professor at a number of universities. Dr. Murad also serves on the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Boards of a number of public and private companies and various foundations and universities. About 140 trainees have worked in his laboratories who are currently academic or pharmaceutical industry leaders around the world.
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