The Medical School will host the Drug Discovery Forum Thursday to foster interdisciplinary discussion about the University’s pharmaceutical research. The forum will consist of multiple presentations on the phases of development of new medical drugs.
Keynote speaker Dr. Bryan L. Roth, who is also the Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at UNC Chapel Hill, will offer an overview of the process. His speech will highlight past successes at Chapel Hill as learning opportunities for attendees. “I will show various approaches for therapeutic drug discovery which can be accomplished in an academic/non-private sector arena,” he said in an email.
Roth has paired with the National Institute of Mental Health’s Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, a drug discovery program.
As expensive as drug research has become in recent years, it is increasingly important that programs such as the University’s — that are able to provide the funding and staffing — take the lead in research and make moves to increase dialogue for and interest in new drugs and technology. The event’s organizers, Associate Dean John S. Lazo, Medical Prof. Erik Hewlett and Cell Biology Prof. Rick Horwitz, said in an email the University is in an optimal position to begin this research.
“The forum is unusual in that it brings together people involved in all aspects of the process — from discovery to development to trials to commercialization,” the committee said.
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