Piedmont Primer

There are many controversial topics in research including the use of stem cells and animals in research.  At the June 9, 2009 Science Cafe, Dr. David Friedman gave a talk entitled “Using Animals in Research: What are the Issues”.  The talk was presented as an informal discussion in which the audience was given the chance to ask any and all of their questions related to the use of animals in research.  Dr. Friedman provided both sides of the issue in order to help dispel some of the myths surrounding animal research.  Some of the major topics discussed included the following:

• The numerous regulations that oversee and govern animal research including the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and the United States Department of Agriculture.
• The types of animals used at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and his research.
• Where the animals used in research originate and what happens to them at the end of studies.
• Why it is important to use animals as well as the moral burden the people carry that work with these animals.
• The animal rights activists‘ viewpoints from both ends of the spectrum.
• The recent threats made against animal researchers.

Dr. Friedman did a good job at presenting information and viewpoints surrounding a controversial practice in research.  This was the fourth Science Cafe held in Winston-Salem and was jointly sponsored by Sciworks and Sigma Xi.  The Science Cafes are held at Foothills Brewing Co. in downtown Winston-Salem.  This particular event was a little more difficult to hear do to some other concurrent parties, but the event organizers are continually trying to improve the venue and are focusing on the sound for the next date.

Remember to come out to the next Science Cafe on August 18, 2009 at Foothills Brewing Co. to hear about “The Curiosities of Nanotechnology” by Dr. Kevin Conley.

Science Café, Winston-Salem Events

Should I eliminate my IT during this economic downturn to save money? The answer is suprisingly…No.  There are many ways that IT can help you become more efficient, save money, and actually come out ahead of your competitors during this difficult time.

This talk was part of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce Tech Council Speaker Series that was presented on June 4, 2009 at the Piedmont Triad Community Research Center building located within the Piedmont Triad Research Park.  This was a panel discussion from a group of IT professionals and was moderated by Martin Davis, Head of Integration Technology, Wells Fargo.  Martin did a great job of providing just enough input to get the most out of the panel as a whole.  The other panel members were Jim Capps, President and CEO of Solid Space Inc, Travis Hargett, President of Eastridge Technology, and Sean Scott, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice (Brian Platz, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of SilkRoad technology was unable to make it due to travel delays).  All panelists provided great information to the audience of 75+ people.  Below is a list of the discussion points addressed throughout the panel discussion.

1.  Discussed what the IT department can do during this economic downturn in order to keep increasing the productivity of the company.

2.  How do companies view innovation as a means of getting through this economic downturn?  They discussed:

• Bringing IT into the strategic plan of the company.
• Utilize IT to help with workflow automation such as managing employees (hiring).
• Develop and provide a means to continually show the data/progress.  Employees and especially customers like to monitor the progress.
• Utilize technology to be proactive in order to avoid problems from occuring in the future.

3.  They discussed technologies on the horizon:

• Cloud Computing
• Software as a Service
• Consolidation and Virtualization
• Growth of the fee for service companies for small to medium sized companies rather than having a full time IT employee/department.

4.  Discussed ways the IT department can help save money and gave examples of companies that leverage innovation to gain a competitive edge.

5.  What types of things are done that are not cost effective?

• Change for the sake of change.  They went into detail regarding the 80/20 rule.  This rule is in regards to the fact that when software packages are purchased, normally only 20% is used while 80% just “sits on the shelf”.

6.  Are there jobs out there for IT and how does one stay competitive?

• Based on employment data it is in the top 10 for job opportunities for the forseeable future.
• People can stay competetive by staying up on the technology changes that are normally occuring every 3 months.  Certification is also a key means of staying competitive.

7.  What are the upcoming skill sets and areas for IT professionals?

• Data/Network Security Field
• Programming/Development on the decline.
• Virtualization, including cloud computing will be the next big thing.

8.  Finally they discussed how networking/communications is normally taken for granted but underlies the success of the entire IT field.  They also discussed some of the open source platforms and felt they were getting attractive but were limited by the number of users.

Overall the panel discussion provided a wealth of information for IT professionals as well as those of us not in the IT world but always in need of these professionals.  The networking that followed was also equally as productive as it gave a chance for many of the audience members a chance to chat with each other as well as the panelists.

The next Tech Council Speaker Series will be September 15th from 9:00-10:00 at the Babcock Auditorium of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.  The speaker will be John McConnell MD, the Chief Executive Officer of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

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Winston-Salem Events

Does it take exquisite experimental design or simply luck to identify a lead compound, take it through pre-clinical and clinical studies, and ultimately provide a safe and effective drug in humans.  The answer is both…knowing the best way to screen lead compounds in cells and animals gets closer to predicting how it might react in humans but in the end it still takes a lot of luck to produce the next blockbuster drug.

Murty Arimilli from TMT Pharma Inc spoke about “Metabolism in Lead Optimization” at the March 12, 2009 Triad Drug Discovery Group meeting.  Dr. Arimilli was a good speaker and provided both general background information regarding the metabolism of drugs for the non-medicinal chemists in the room as well as some greater chemical details regarding metabolism to meet the needs of the medicinal chemists in the audience.  Some of the key points that Dr. Arimilli discussed were:

• It is good to run pharmacokinetics on the same species that is being used as the efficacy model.
• In order to reduce the attrition rates of drugs one needs to increase the success during the studies evaluating the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of the drug since 40% of drugs fail here.
• There is a lot of species to species liver enzyme variability.  So even after a drug is tested in mouse, rat, dog, and monkey to predict how it will interact in humans, it still takes luck!
• He recommended reading “The Discovery of Ezetimibe: A View from Outside the Receptor” by Clader JW in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2004, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 1-9) because it shows the struggle in trying to screen drugs.

The Triad Drug Discovery Group meetings are normally the second or third Thursday of the month and meet on the University of North Carolina Greensboro campus at the Sullivan Science Building in room# SCIE 103.  The meetings generally follow a similar agenda.  Dr. Lakshmi Kotra normally gives a brief statement at the beginning regarding any housekeeping issues.  Then he quickly goes around the room and everyone states their name and where they are from/what they do.  It is a good way to quickly learn the type of people in the audience.  The speaker will then give a 20-30 minute talk followed by questions/group discussion.  After the discussion there is normally time to do some networking with the speaker and other members of the audience.

The Triad Drug Discovery Group is a regional exchange group that was formed by Lakshmi Kotra PhD from University of North Carolina Greensboro and Morris Clarke PhD from Winston-Salem State University.  The group is now sponsored by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center which enables them to provide some refreshments for the attendees.  The group is interested in the fundamental sciences in the path from biological target and/or biologically active compounds to novel drug discovery.  This topic enables a broad pool of talks that range from producing the lead compounds to the intellectual property.  The groups goal is to engage the scientific community in the Triad area and beyond in regular meetings discussing topics of interest.   Ultimately this will expand the knowledge of the individual researchers who usually develop in-depth knowledge in one specific area, but would need a multidisciplinary footing for translational research as well to succeed in developing novel medicines.  The discussions are normally on par or higher than a typical graduate student course.

People that are interested in attending or have any other questions regarding the group are encouraged to send Dr. Kotra and/or Dr. Clarke an email.  They are extremely helpful and encourage anyone interested to attend.

The next Triad Drug Discovery Group meeting will be April 16, 2009.  Dr. Harel Weinstein from Cornell University will be speaking on “Identification of drug targets for synergy-based therapeutics: microarrays to drug design.”

Greensboro Event, Triad Drug Discovery Group

Science Café, Winston-Salem Events