Symposium 8: Unveiling the next wave of therapies for chronic lung diseases
Tracks
Track 4
| Tuesday, December 3, 2024 |
| 11:15 AM - 1:15 PM |
| Courtyard Room 1&2 |
Details
The global pandemic has highlighted the extraordinary consequence of respiratory infections and disease on our overall health evidenced by an unprecedented reduction in life expectancy. Therefore, respiratory health is the gateway to overall health. This symposium will combine experts in respiratory diseases and drug discovery to highlight pivotal advancements in new therapeutic strategies and medical technology breakthroughs to improve overall health in people afflicted by lung diseases, and those afflicted by the long-term consequences of respiratory infections.
Advancements in transformational pharmacology can only occur with cutting-edge preclinical models of disease that consider organ crosstalk in both disease and drug development. Our discussions will explore how an enhanced understanding of the underlying mechanisms, facilitated by advances in pre-clinical disease models, is driving the development of novel pharmacologically targets for these complex and challenging diseases.
Our proposal will delve into novel therapeutic approaches for treating lung cancer (Zhai), asthma (Tran), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Wong) and interstitial lung disease (Lynch). This collaborative effort promises to advance the frontiers of knowledge and foster breakthroughs in the treatment of chronic lung diseases, resonating with the overarching goals of this year's conference.
Speaker
Dr Jiali (Maggie) Zhai
RMIT University
Cubic Nanostructure and Cholesterol Enhance Lipid Nanoparticle Mediated mRNA Transfection in Macrophages
11:15 AM - 11:45 AMBiography
Dr Jiali (Maggie) Zhai is a Senior Research Fellow in School of Science, RMIT University. Her research interests focus on developing lipid and polymer nanoparticle delivery platforms for targeted delivery of bioactives and therapeutics, including mRNAs, proteins, chemotherapeutics, antimicrobials and imaging agents. She has pioneered the use of high throughput materials screening approach and synchrotron time-resolved X-ray scattering technique to elucidate the mechanisms of drug delivery, endosomal escape and structure-function relationship of nanoparticle delivery platforms.
Prof W. S. Fred Wong
National University of Singapore
Developing calcaratarin D, a labdane diterpenoid, as therapeutics for chronic lung diseases
11:45 AM - 12:15 PMBiography
Professor W.S. Fred was the Head of the Pharmacology Department (2014-2020), and Assistant Dean and Vice Dean of Research (2009-2014) of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He is the Director of the Drug Discovery and Optimization Platform in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He is the Principal Investigator of the Singapore-HUJ Alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE). He is the founding President of the Singapore Pharmacological Society. His research interest is to identify therapeutic targets and to discover and develop novel drug molecules for the treatment of chronic airway inflammation including asthma, COPD and pulmonary fibrosis. Professor Wong is ranked the top 2% of scientists worldwide in 2022 and 2023.
A/Prof Thai Tran
National University of Singapore
Exploration of CD151 as a therapeutic target in asthma
12:15 PM - 12:45 PMBiography
Thai Tran is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Infectious Disease Translational Research Program at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She leads a dynamic research group investigating how the microenvironment (extracellular matrix including laminin and its adaptor protein, CD151) interacts with cells of the lung and how dysregulation of this interaction contributes to lung pathophysiology. Within this theme, her laboratory has two major areas of research focus: (A) Role of laminin and CD151 in lung disease pathophysiology (including asthma, influenza infection, and lung cancer) through molecular, cellular, and disease model approaches and (B) Identification of novel therapeutic targets of lung diseases. Thai is also the Education Director for the Life Sciences, Vice-President of the Singapore Pharmacological Society, NUS Medicine Faculty Academic Advisory Committee member, and Associate Professorial Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee member. She has won awards in research (NUS Medicine Young Researcher of the Year Award 2019), teaching (NUS Medicine Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, 2016 and 2019), and graduate mentoring (NUS Medicine Graduate Mentor of the Year Award 2018).
Dr Jason Lynch
Senior Scientist
AdAlta Limited
Clinical dose estimation for anti CXCR4 i-body-Fc fusion AD-214 for the treatment of fibrotic diseases
12:45 PM - 1:15 PMBiography
Dr Jason Lynch is a Senior Scientist at AdAlta Ltd based at La Trobe University’s Bundoora Campus. Jason leads several R&D initiatives at AdAlta, including steering the clinical advancement of AdAlta’s lead i-body, AD-214, for the treatment of fibrotic diseases. Jason has a BSc (Hons) degree in Pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh, UK and a PhD in Biomedical Science from the University of Queensland. Jason’s PhD studies and postdoctoral work at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute led to several novel insights into the pathogenic mechanisms underlying the development of severe bronchiolitis and its link to subsequent asthma. After completing his PhD, Jason undertook further postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where developed a designer probiotic bacteria for targeted drug delivery into the gastrointestinal tract and solid tumours.
Chair
Jane Bourke
Monash University
Daniel Tran
The University of Melbourne
