Drug discovery symposium to explore giant leaps in treatment of disease

Bold questions and bold ideas: "What if we could treat all diseases?" "What if we could bring more treatments to people in need?" Purdue's Institute for Drug Discovery will address such questions and ideas on Friday (Sept. 28) during its annual symposium, part of the University's Ideas Festival.

The institute, which describes its one dimension of its work as "accelerating the translation of scientific discoveries into life-saving treatments," has invited high-level speakers to consider its questions. The Fifth Annual Institute for Drug Discovery Symposium will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 218. The event is free but registration is required.

The event will include featured talks, quick talks, poster sessions and mingling events. It is designed to be of interest to Purdue faculty, staff and students with interest in drug discovery.

Featured invited speakers are:

* Min Li, senior vice president, global head of the Neuroscience Therapeutic Unit, GlaxoSmithKline.

* Philip Cole, professor of medicine and biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, and senior investigator in the Division of Genetics, at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

* Shaomeng Wang, Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in Medicine; professor of medicine, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry; co-director, Molecular Therapeutics Program; and director, Cancer Drug Discovery Program, at the University of Michigan.

More about the symposium is here and the program schedule is here. For questions, contact Karson Putt, the institute's managing director, at puttk@purdue.edu.

The symposium is an event in Purdue's celebration of its 150th year, which began last week at Homecoming, and specifically of the anniversary's Ideas Festival, the centerpiece of Purdue's Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign. The Ideas Festival will feature a series of events that connect world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation on the most critical problems facing the world. Health and longevity is one of the Ideas Festival themes.