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Webinar Series | new approaches in toxicology

Drug Discovery and Development:  Challenges and Opportunities in Toxicology

 

The first webinar in this series on new approaches in toxicology was presented by Professor Ruth Roberts from ApconiX.


About the Webinar

 

Ruth will present lessons learned from >20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry focusing on attrition, prediction and the challenges posed by non-clinical to clinical concordance. Several case studies that focus on science-driven design will be shared for discussion. Chemical liabilities should be eliminated early in discovery while there are still options in chemistry. Equally important is a thorough understanding of potential target-related risks and their likelihood of occurrence. The triple challenge of attrition, concordance and the 3Rs should drive us to take a longer term, strategic approach to drug discovery and safety testing. New technologies such as micro physiological systems (MPS), artificial intelligence and big data all offer opportunities to do things differently. But are we ready for change?  These issues and potential solutions will be presented for discussion. 


About the Speaker

 

Ruth Roberts

 

Professor Ruth Roberts PhD, ATS, FBTS, ERT, FRSB, FR CPath
Director and Co-founder | ApconiX

Ruth is chair of drug discovery at Birmingham University, UK and Co-founder of ApconiX, an integrated toxicology and ion channel company that brings together a team of world-renowned nonclinical safety experts with over 300 years of drug discovery and development experience.  Before that Ruth was Global Head of Regulatory Safety at AstraZeneca and Director of Toxicology for Aventis in Paris, France. With >150 publications in peer reviewed journals, she is interested in developing and implementing new models to increase success rates in drug discovery and development. Ruth is former president of EUROTOX, former past president of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences and was recently elected to vice-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI), based in Washington, DC. She was the recipient of the SOT Achievement award in 2002, the EUROTOX Bo Holmstedt Award in 2009 and the SOT 2018 Founders award, given in recognition of outstanding leadership in fostering the role of toxicological sciences in safety decision making.    


Watch the webinar