14
May

08:00 AM ET

Medicinal Chemistry

Name: Medicinal Chemistry Strategy Meeting East Coast 2025
Start: 2025-01-06T08:00
End: 2025-05-14T18:00
Location: Hyatt Regency Princeton

&

Drug Discovery Biology

Strategy Meeting East Coast USA 2025

Reinvigorating Productivity in Pharma & Biotech R&D Through Advanced Technologies and Innovative Techniques that Interrogate Activity and Mechanisms

Hyatt Regency Princeton

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A MEETING EXPERIENCE UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Fresh Medicinal Chemistry Insights

Tired of the same conference experience? Real discussions and genuine networking are often promised, but not always delivered. Proventa International’s R&D Strategy Meetings are designed to avoid the pitfalls of a typical conference, by providing the right environment to make those important connections through interactive roundtable discussions, exclusive networking and keynote panel debates. Join Medicinal Chemistry professionals from across the East Coast, in Princeton, New Jersey, to discover new insights and take your company’s mission to the next level.

What makes our strategy meetings unique?

Roundtable Discussions

Intimate discussions led by renowned industry experts. Have your voice heard and debate alongside like-minded life science executives.

Unrivalled Networking

With senior delegation from big pharma and innovative biotech from across the East Coast, you can network with peers from different locations, all in one place.

Personalised Agenda

Choose the topics that matter to you. Reserve your place at the roundtable discussions and ensure your whole day delivers the insights you need to hear.

Solutions to your Problems

We've partnered with the best solution providers to solve your biggest challenges. Engage in pre-arranged, private meetings to address your specific needs and find a tangible solution.

Industry Researched Topics

We guarantee our agenda is up-to-date and mission critical because its designed by you. We speak to our extended network of senior decision makers to ensure the most important topics are discussed.

Senior Decision Makers

The entire strategy meeting is specifically tailored to the needs and challenges of senior life science professionals. Discover how your peers are dealing with the same challenges as you.

Our Past Facilitators

Our panel of facilitators play a key role in shaping the agenda for the day. See who will be bringing their expertise to the table at our Medicinal Chemistry strategy meeting.

Abhijat Vatsyayan

Head of Artificial Intelligence Taiho Oncology

Andrew Zhang

Director, Head of Chemical Biology AstraZeneca

Christopher Conway

President, Research and Development Curia

Chris is a seasoned business executive with a 25 year strong track record across a variety of industry verticals including aerospace, pharmaceutical/biotech and contract research, development, and manufacturing. Chris is highly experienced in P&L leadership, sales, and marketing having worked in large and small, public and private equity backed companies. Currently, Chris serves as President and R&D Business Unit Head at Curia, a global top ten organization in contract research, development and manufacturing services, serving the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. Chris also currently serves as a Director on the board of two Life Sciences organizations including Viyash Life Sciences Private Limited, a Carlyle owned company, as well as the Drug, Chemical & Associated Technologies Association, Inc. (DCAT). Chris received his B.S. in Marketing & Management from Siena College and his Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Mark Wolf

Director, Medicinal Chemistry Curia

Mark Wolf, Ph.D. is Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Curia and has over 27 years of drug discovery and development experience. He has led interdisciplinary scientific teams to support large pharma, biotech collaborations and Curia R&D programs. His research has spanned several therapeutic areas including oncology, CNS, pain/inflammation, and respiratory. Mark has experience establishing practical screening strategies to identify drug candidate compounds with a first-in-class or best-in-class product profile. He led Curia’s Tubulin Inhibitor Program which discovered and advancedALB-109564 into a Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of solid tumors. His CNS experience includes targets in the areas of pain management (GPCR targets) and antipsychotics based on the hypoglutamate hypothesis (GlyT1 inhibitors). Mark has extensive experience managing multiple external providers and Curia assets in support of discovery and pre clinical development programs. He is named as an inventor/co-inventor on five patents and co-author on 25 peer reviewed publications.

Matthew Surman

Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry Curia

Matt Surman, Ph.D. is Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Curia Global and has over 20 years of industry experience. He joined the Curia Medicinal Chemistry department in 2002 and worked on contract research projects spanning a variety of therapeutic areas including oncology, anti-infectives and CNS disorders. From 2005 to 2011, he was part of the Curia internal Discovery Research and Development department. His efforts were focused in the area of metabolic disorders, particularly in obesity. He served as the project leader for the Curia MCH-1 antagonist program from 2008 until returning to the Medicinal Chemistry department in late 2011. During that time, the project culminated in the discovery and development of a successful Phase I clinical candidate. Since returning to the Medicinal Chemistry department, Dr. Surman has led the discovery efforts on a number of programs including projects involved in oncology, neurological disease, and pain. Multiple pre-clinical and clinical candidates have arisen from these efforts. Dr. Surman has over 40 peer reviewed publications and patent applications

Helena Almqvist

Project Advisor, Business Development Pelago Bioscience

Rick Ewing

VP, Head of Chemistry Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals

Rick Ewing is VP, Head of Chemistry at Rapafusyn, a platform company focused on Type I molecular glues. Previous to Rapafusyn, Rick held the position of VP, Head of Drug Discovery at the Barer Institute. Prior to Barer, Rick was a senior director in Discovery Chemistry at Bristol Myers Squibb where he led medicinal chemistry teams to deliver 15 development candidates in the therapeutic areas of cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity, and heart failure. Among the development candidates is Milvexian, a first in class Factor XIa inhibitor currently in PIII 
development. Rick is coinventor on 79 patents, and co-author on 77 publications. In 2023, Rick was awarded the ACS Philadelphia Section Award for distinguished achievement in medicinal chemistry. In 2023, Rick also received the Edison Patent Award in Biotechnology Innovation with colleagues from BMS and Scripps Research. In 2021, he was awarded the ACS Fellow by the American 
Chemical Society and in 2018 received the Ondetti-Cushman award for leadership of the FXIa drug discovery team. Prior to Bristol Myers Squibb, Rick spent 12 years at RPR (now Sanofi). Rick received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from U. Penn.

Danny Talati

VP, Corportate Development Psychogenics

David James

Senior VP Business Development eMolecules

Ernane Souza, PhD, RPh

Assistant Director, Translational PKPD and DMPK Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc

Eileen Carry

Chief Scientific Officer Zena Therapeutics Inc

Frank Leu

Founder & Managing Member/ Managing Member BioPharMatrix LLC/ Novapeutics LLC

Gunaretnam Rajagopal

Venture Partner Samsara Biocapital

Guna’s expertise encompasses the fields of Data Sciences, AI/Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, Computational, Systems Biology & Pharmacology, Genetics & Genomics, High Performance Computing and Theoretical & Computational Physics. He has led global initiatives focused on advancing cross-disciplinary basic research, translational & clinical programs in collaboration with academia and national/international pre-competitive consortiums. Guna’s academic career spans undergraduate degree from the University of Malaya (1986), PhD in Computational & Theoretical Physics from Georgia Tech (1987-1991), post-doctoral training at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, rising to Assistant Director of Research and elected a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge (1991-2000). He was the founding Executive Director of the Bioinformatics Institute at the BIOPOLIS, Singapore (2000-2007), led the Bioinformatics & Systems Biology program at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey with a joint appointment as Adjunct Professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and as a Member of Advanced Studies in Princeton (2007-2012). He joined Janssen R&D to lead efforts to develop and deploy Computational Analytics, Informatics and Data Science capabilities to support global discovery, translational, development and clinical programs (2012-2022). He retired as Scientific Fellow and Global Head of Computational Sciences and joined Samsara Biocapital as a Venture Partner.)

Huijun Wang

Head of Computational Drug Design Deerfield Management

ML Ujwal

Associate Director, Data Science Johnson & Johnson

Jim LaRocque

Senior Research Scientist III, Assay Development & Screening Curia

James LaRocque, Senior Research Scientist III, is leading a team of Curia’s biologists focused on providing state of the art screening and compound characterization platforms, including high content screening and cellular imaging analysis along with traditional cellular and biochemical technologies and label free screening by mass spectrometry detection as part of Curia’s integrated drug discovery center in Buffalo, NY. Previously he focused on the development and implementation of screening platform technologies and led characterization initiatives to identify selective inhibitors of critical Ubiquitin pathway enzymes. He led efforts in assay development, compound management, screening and hit characterization on hundreds of exploratory projects for Wyeth over his 20 year career which started with antiviral research and later diversified in to a wide variety of therapeutic areas while contributing to Wyeth’s and later Pfizer’s lead identification programs.

Tanweer Khan

Senior Director, Head of Discovery Chemistry aTai Life Sciences

Dongming Shen

Vice President Chemistry Viva Star Biosciences

Yushma Bhurruth-Alcor

Executive Director, Chemistry Remedy Plan Therapeutics

Our Agenda

See Which Topics Are Discussed at the Strategy Meeting

08:30 - 09:00

Non-Degrading molecular Glues for Discovering Inhibitors for Hard to Drug Targets

PRESENTER: Rick Ewing, VP, Head of Chemistry, Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals

09:00 - 10:00

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML and Design & Synthesis
Advancing The Frontier Harnessing Deep Learning And Generative Ai For Molecule Design And Optimization In Chemistry

-Abhijat Vatsyayan
Head of Artificial Intelligence
Taiho Oncology

Innovative and Emerging Modalities
Examining The Mechanism And Effects Of Induced Proximity Modalities

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation & Undruggables
Pioneering Chemical and Proteomics Approaches: Unraveling Efficacy and Safety in Small Molecule and Protein Degradation Across Multiple Therapeutic Frontiers

-Andrew Zhang
Director, Head of Chemical Biology
AstraZeneca

Hit Identification / Lead Optimization
Using Computational Methods To Improve Precision And Efficiency In Lead Optimization And Hit Identification

-Huijun Wang
Head of Computational Drug Design
Deerfield Management

Integrated Drug Discovery
Integrated Drug Discovery for Maximal Real-World Clinical Impact

-Eileen Carry
Chief Scientific Officer
Zena Therapeutics Inc

11:10 - 12:10

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML and Design & Synthesis
The Utility of Ultra-Large Virtual Chemical Spaces Opportunities Challenges And What's Next?

-David James
Senior VP Business Development
eMolecules

SPONSOR - eMolecules

Innovative and Emerging Modalities
Investigating The Application Of DELs For The Discovery Of Other Modalities

SPONSOR

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation & Undruggables
Overcoming Drug Resistance And Undruggable Targets With Chemical Biology And Targeted Protein Degradation

-Mark Wolf
Director, Medicinal Chemistry
Curia

SPONSOR - Curia

Hit Identification / Lead Optimization
Understanding The Future Of High Throughput Screening And How We Might Be Able To Reach Undruggable Targets

-Jim LaRocque
Senior Research Scientist III, Assay Development & Screening
Curia

SPONSOR - Curia

Integrated Drug Discovery
The Future Of Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD) In Various Stages Of The Drug Development Pipelines As Well As Pharma Technological Advances

-Matthew Surman
Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry
Curia

SPONSOR - Curia

12:15 - 13:15

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML and Design & Synthesis
Disruptive techs: Blockchain

-Frank Leu
Founder & Managing Member/ Managing Member
BioPharMatrix LLC/ Novapeutics LLC

Innovative and Emerging Modalities
Unveiling the Next Wave of Drug Discovery: Discovering Cutting-Edge Technologies and Approaches

-Tanweer Khan
Senior Director, Head of Discovery Chemistry
aTai Life Sciences

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation & Undruggables
Identifying “Difficult-to-Drug” Targets with Chemical Biology Approaches

-Andrew Zhang
Director, Head of Chemical Biology
AstraZeneca

Hit Identification / Lead Optimization
Efforts For "Failing Fast And Failing Early" ie., What To Do Early In Lead Generation And Lead Optimization

-Dongming Shen
Vice President Chemistry
Viva Star Biosciences

Integrated Drug Discovery
Breaking Boundaries in Drug Discovery: High-Throughput Phenotypic Screening for Identifying Transformative Molecules and Novel Mechanisms for Clinical Translation

-Yushma Bhurruth-Alcor
Executive Director, Chemistry
Remedy Plan Therapeutics

14:40 - 15:10

Opportunities & Challenges Today for Medicinal Chemistry in Drug Discovery

Curia PRESENTER: Mark Wolf, Director, Medicinal Chemistry, Curia

15:10 - 16:10

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML and Design & Synthesis
AI/ML in Drug Discovery - Exploring The Role Of GenAI In Medicinal Chemistry

-ML Ujwal
Associate Director, Data Science
Johnson & Johnson

Innovative and Emerging Modalities
Innovating The Future Of Healthcare:
Integrating AI, Data Science, Genetics And Genomics Into Biotech & Pharma R&D Strategies

-Gunaretnam Rajagopal
Venture Partner
Samsara Biocapital

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation & Undruggables
Methods Of Computation And Cheminformatics For Chemical Synthesis And Hit Finding For Tough Targets And New Therapeutic Approaches

Hit Identification / Lead Optimization
From design to clinical candidate - efficient strategies for lead optimization

-Yushma Bhurruth-Alcor
Executive Director, Chemistry
Remedy Plan Therapeutics

Integrated Drug Discovery
From Molecules to Medicine: A Deep Dive into the Integration of Cheminformatics, Computer Aided Drug Design, AI/ML, PBPK modeling, and Big Data Analytics for Transformative Advances in Drug Discovery

-Ernane Souza, PhD, RPh
Assistant Director, Translational PKPD and DMPK
Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc

16:15 - 16:4

Drug Discovery at the melting point: CETSA

Pelago Biosciences PRESENTER: Helena Almqvist, Project Advisor, Business Development, Pelago Bioscience

16:45 - 17:15

Bridging Science and Investment: A Dialogue on Drug Discovery, Venture Strategies, Biotech Progress, and the Revolutionary Landscape of Pharmaceuticals

PRESENTER: Gunaretnam Rajagopal, Venture Partner, SamSara Biocapital PANELIST: Christopher Conway, President, Research and Development, Curia PANELIST: Danny Talati, VP, Corporate Development, Psychogenics

See the agenda and facilitator line-up. Download the strategy meeting brochure for full details.

DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE

Reasons To Attend Our Strategy Meetings

Fully Interactive Format

There's only so much you can learn from presentations and lectures. Instead our interactive Roundtable Discussions let you debate the topics that really matter

Senior Decision Makers

All our Strategy Meetings are aimed at director level and above. Discover how your peers are tackling the industries biggest challenges and have your thoughts heard

Personalised Agendas

Pick the roundtable discussions that you want to be part of. Simply choose your sessions and we'll create a personalised agenda just for you

Private and Intimate Networking

Small group discussions, private meetings, networking drinks - however you choose to make those important connections our Strategy Meetings have the solution

Become an official strategy meeting partner

Whatever your business needs, we can help. Get in touch for partnering opportunities

I'D LIKE TO PARTNER

Press play to hear what your colleagues had to say...

Hotel & Venue

Hyatt Regency Princeton

Hyatt Regency Princeton hotel is conveniently located near corporate offices and attractions, as well as the Mercer County Airport.

Hotel Details Map & Directions Parking

Quick Links

Want to find out more?

Find out more details about our Strategy Meetings and other news and events.

Here To Help

Want to know more? Interested in sponsoring the event? Need help registering your team? Just get in touch and a member of the team will be happy to help.

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Drug Discovery Biology & Bioinformatics Strategy Meeting East Coast 2024

&

Strategy Meeting East Coast USA 2025

<img class="lazy" decoding="async" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E" data-src="https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/location.png" >Hyatt Regency Princeton

Fresh Medicinal Chemistry Insights

What makes our strategy meetings unique?

Roundtable Discussions

Unrivalled Networking

Personalised Agenda

Solutions to your Problems

Industry Researched Topics

Senior Decision Makers

Our Past Facilitators

Abhijat Vatsyayan

Andrew Zhang

Christopher Conway

Mark Wolf

Matthew Surman

Helena Almqvist​​​​

Rick Ewing

Danny Talati

David James

Ernane Souza, PhD, RPh

Eileen Carry

Frank Leu

Gunaretnam Rajagopal

Huijun Wang

ML Ujwal

Jim LaRocque

Tanweer Khan

Dongming Shen

Yushma Bhurruth-Alcor

Our Agenda

See Which Topics Are Discussed at the Strategy Meeting

BREAKFAST & REGISTRATION

Opening Keynote

Non-Degrading molecular Glues for Discovering Inhibitors for Hard to Drug Targets

Roundtable ( Pharma/Biotech )

Roundtable Tracks

Refreshment Break

Networking/1-1 Meetings

Roundtable ( Solutions )

Roundtable Tracks

SPONSOR - eMolecules

SPONSOR

SPONSOR - Curia

SPONSOR - Curia

SPONSOR - Curia

Rountable Discussion ( Pharma/Biotech )

Roundtable Tracks

Networking Lunch

Networking/1-1 Meetings

Keynote Presentations

Opportunities & Challenges Today for Medicinal Chemistry in Drug Discovery

Roundtable ( Pharma/Biotech )

Roundtable Tracks

Afternoon Refreshment Break

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Drug Discovery at the melting point: CETSA

Panel Discussion

Bridging Science and Investment: A Dialogue on Drug Discovery, Venture Strategies, Biotech Progress, and the Revolutionary Landscape of Pharmaceuticals

DRINKS & CANAPES RECEPTION

Reasons To Attend Our Strategy Meetings

Fully Interactive Format

Senior Decision Makers

Personalised Agendas

Private and Intimate Networking

Our Past Sponsors

Lead Sponsor

Co-Host Sponsor

Partnering Sponsors

Key Opinion Leader

Media Partners

Hyatt Regency Princeton

Helena Almqvist