Ronald Swanson to Speak at ImmunoTherapeutics & ImmunoMonitoring Jan 31–Feb 1, 2013

Nov. 21, 2012 - PRLog -- Ronald Swanson, Senior Director, Janssen R&D Will Give a Featured Presentation on “Engineering Novel Therapeutics Targeting the Ion Channel Kv1.3” at the 5th ImmunoTherapeutics & ImmunoMonitoring Conference (Jan 31 – Feb 1, 2013 in San Diego, CA)

Kv1.3 is a homotetrameric voltage-gated K+ channel expressed on T cells. To explore the potential of inhibition of Kv1.3 activity for the treatment of T cell mediated immune disorders it is necessary to develop potent selective inhibitors suitable for use in animal models.  Discussion will explore how Janssen R&D applied their in-house gene synthesis capabilities and robust semi-automated mammalian expression platform.  There are observations from these studies that even fairly conservative changes to the parent peptide sequence can dramatically improve potency and selectivity towards the target of interest, and that these properties can be maintained in the context of a fusion protein.  These capabilities have been applied to peptides active against Kv1.3 to engineer robust tools to address the role of this channel in models of immune disease.

Benefits of talk:
- Appreciation for the potential for venom peptides as tools and drugs
- Understanding of the potential for venom peptide engineering
- Awareness of tools for probing Kv1.3 biology

Ronald V. Swanson, Ph.D. is Sr. Director of Biologics Research-West Coast within the Janssen Pharmaceuticals Biotechnology Center of Excellence. Located in San Diego, CA and Radnor, PA, his group focuses on identifying and optimizing antibody as well as peptide therapeutics within four therapeutic areas: Immunology, Oncology, Neuroscience, and Cardiovascular/Metabolic.

Leading experts from the scientific and clinical arenas and industry will present on novel findings and developments in the constantly changing area of immunological assays and procedures. They will also discuss recent advances in immunotherapy, as they relate to various immunotherapy modalities, specific cancers, cell subsets, animal models, and tumor microenvironment. Potential clinical feasibility and commercial potential of the newest data obtained from leading biomedical research laboratories will also be discussed.  Participants will receive an update on the state of the art immunomonitoring techniques, novel strategies to identify and validate biomarkers predictive for clinical efficacy, novel strategies to identify and clinically develop synergistic combination therapies, and insights on novel druggable targets for immunotherapy.

This conference is part of the 2nd Novel Immunotherapeutics Summit, which consists of three other concurrent conferences and an optional workshop:

2nd Novel Immunotherapeutics Summit:
Workshop: Immune Responses in Tumor Microenvironment
Track: 5th Immunotherapeutics & Immunomonitoring
Track: 11th Cytokines & Inflammation
Track: 2nd Allergy Research & Drug Discovery |
Track: Immunotoxicity & Immunogenicity

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