Newswise — PHILADELPHIA — The University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics’ 10th Annual International Symposium will cover translational science in academic medical centers and biotech along with the impact of innovative technologies such as super-resolution imaging, optogenetics, and the new gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9. Speakers will include experts in precision medicine, pharmacogenetics, RNA biology, DNA nanotech, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Robert Califf, MD, the recently nominated FDA commissioner, will speak about the role of the FDA in translating fundamental discoveries into therapies.

Date: Monday and Tuesday, October 12-13, 2015, starting at 8:30 am.Location: Smilow Center for Translational Research, Rubenstein Auditorium and Lobby, 3400 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Additional details:The symposium will feature presentations in six major areas:• Translational Science• The Evolving Search for Drug Targets• Big Data and the Phenome• Systems Approaches to Pharmacology• Parsing Variability in Pathogenesis of Disease• Emerging Therapeutic Paradigms in Cancer

Garret A. FitzGerald, MD, FRS, director of ITMAT, will host the event. Speakers and talks include:• Ronald M. Evans, PhD, professor, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology Nuclear receptors and the Hunger Games• Jason H. Moore, PhD, professor and director, Penn Institute for Biomedical Informatics, University of Pennsylvania

Combinatorial pharmacogenetics• Stefanie Dimmeler, PhD, Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Goethe University Frankfurt Non-coding RNAs: Therapeutic targets in cardiovascular diseases• Karl Deisseroth MD, PhD, D. H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University Optical deconstruction of fully-assembled biological systems• Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, director, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania Transmission of misfolded proteins in neurodegenerative disorders: A common mechanism of disease progression

For additional details and presentation times, visit the 2015 AgendaRegistration is required for attendance and for participation via web: • Follow this link to attend the 2015 ITMAT Symposium• Follow this link to participate via web in the 2015 ITMAT SymposiumFunding for this conference was made possible in part from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

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