New Directions in Small Molecule Drug Discovery (Z8) 2010

The purpose of this meeting is to highlight exciting new opportunities in the discovery of small molecule drug candidates, including the following: Novel targets for small molecules, including disruption of protein-protein interactions, allosteric modulation of receptors and enzymes, and direct interactions with transcription factors. Enabling technologies for the discovery of new small molecule leads, including diversity-oriented screening, fragment screening, and affinity screening. The most successful structure-based design approaches to the optimization of leads. A focus of the conference will be successful applications structure-based design in the discovery of therapeutics for the treatment of HCV infection (protease inhibitors) and cancer (protein kinase inhibitors). A session comprising first-time disclosures of Phase 2 clinical candidates will illustrate successful applications of structure-based design in drug discovery.