Frontiers of Personalized Medicine: A Fresh Look Ahead

What is Personalized Medicine
In a nutshell, personalized medicine refers to a health care approach where a person’s individual genetic makeup informs the course of treatment or disease prevention. Genes influence many processes, like predisposition to specific health conditions and how body metabolizes and reacts to certain chemicals (such as drugs). Personalized medicine (PM) can also help predict whether you will have an adverse reaction to certain drugs and/or dosage amounts based on your genetic profile, so that doctors can make more informed decisions about what medications to prescribe. This can greatly reduce the time, effort, risks and costs associated with treatment, especially with something as serious as cancer treatment.

Event Description
This is a full day Personalized Medicine event. We will have 1 keynote speaker (Dr. Wiliam Nelson, Director of JHU Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center) and 4 other speakers from academia, government, and industry focusing on how the development & progresses thus far in PM has tranformed public health and patient’s healthcare outcome (click here for speakers' bios). The speakers will cover topics ranging from research science breakthrough in academia, promising drug stories in clinical trials from pharma as well as their partnership models with other stakeholders, and also government/payer healthcare representatives bringing these topics in relations to how to build polices and models for public health/payers.

This event will bring light to the current progress and development in personalized medicine in relations to the academia, industry, and payer. HBN members and attendees will learn perspectives from each major stakeholder in this field and understand our potential roles in facilitating & realizing the full potential of personalized medicine thus improving the society.

There will also be networking breaks and sessions so that students/attendees will have the opportunity to mingle and exchange contacts with leaders from academia, industry, and government. The location is set in Montgomery County because of its approximate location to the biotech hub and Washington D.C, in order to attract more industry/government crowds and bring additional value for students from JHU Baltimore/MC attending this event.

Traveling Arrangement / Carpool
For Baltimore HBN members who need traveling assistance, please E-mail connect@hopkinsbio.org. Include the subject headline "Personalized Medicine meeting travel help". Please also provide your name, phone number or contact information, and your location. HBN will provide transportation on a first come first serve basis. Be sure to send your E-mail request as soon as possible. If you have a car and would like to provide carpool availability to other HBN members from Baltimore, please also send an E-mail to connect@hopkinsbio.org, and include the subject headline "PM Driver" and your contact information.

Please RSVP for this event now! Space is limited. Refreshments and lunch will be provided to all HBN members.

Direction/Parking Information:Plenty of parking for speakers and guests (Enter from Broschart Rd. to avoid construction)

Program Agenda

8:30 Registration – Check In : Coffee & Refreshments

9:25 AM “HBN Welcome Opening”
Richard Tsai, President, Johns Hopkins Biotech Network

9:30 AM “Reaching Beyond the 3P’s  (Personalized, Predictive, & Preemptive medicine)”
“The Science of Personalized Medicine” – Keynote Speaker
William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D
Professor & Director, The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins

10:30 AM Break Session

10:45 AM “Companion Diagnostics: Forging Sustainable Strategic Partnerships between Pharma and Diagnostic Companies to Improve Patient Outcomes”
Yves Dubaquie, Ph.D
Director, Business Development & Licensing, Novartis Molecular Diagnostics

12:00 PM Lunch Break

1:00 PM “Advancing Payer’s Healthcare: Medco’s Personalized Medicine Program Concept, Advantage & Value”
Gabriela Lavezzari, Ph.D, MBA
Director, Extramural Development, Medco

2:00 PM Break Session

2:15 PM “Advances on Biomarker Development for Personalized Healthcare Applications”

Brandon W. Higgs, Ph.D
Senior Scientist, Translational Sciences, MedImmune

3:15 PM “Commercializing Diagnostics: Opportunities and Challenges in the Personalized Medicine”
Jianrong Long, Ph.D
Director, Research & Product Development, Cylex

4:00 PM “ Closing Remarks”
 

Co-Organizers: JHU Postdoc Association (JHUPDA), JHU Healthcare Business Association (HBA)

In-Kind Supporters: RGI, JHU MCC, PMC