About our Drug Discovery Webinar on Direct-to-Biology Services

In this webinar, leading scientists will focus on how a Direct-to-Biology (D2B) approach can accelerate drug discovery. First, an overview will be given including the benefits of the Direct-to-Biology services approach and the typical workflow using examples of internally-generated data on bifunctional degraders. Following this, a case study applying a D2B drug discovery approach to discover a CNS active GSK3 degrader will be presented along with future perspectives.

Register to Watch the Live Webinar

Attendees will gain a comprehensive understanding of:

An introduction to the Direct-to-Biology Services for drug discovery
- Overview of how D2B accelerates drug discovery
- Highlight the requirement for a high throughput workflow
- Case studies
- Highlight the wide range of D2B-compatible bioassays and chemistries
Discovery of bifunctional molecules for the central nervous system with a direct-to-biology approach

Meet our Speakers

Moderated by:

Joanne Wayne – Associate Director Drug Discovery at Pharmaron

Joanne Wayne joined Pharmaron in June 2023 bringing over 25 years of cellular and molecular biology experience in drug discovery having worked on projects from early discovery, target identification and validation to Phase 2 clinical trial support. Prior to joining Pharmaron, Joanne was a team leader and biology project lead at Amphista, supporting the protein degradation collaboration projects with large pharma. Before working at Amphista, Joanne spent over 20 years at Vernalis and at GSK supporting many different small molecule, structure-based drug design projects as both project and biology lead. She was instrumental in establishing the targeted protein degradation platform within Vernalis and has presented and been a member of expert discussion panels on the topic of targeted protein degradation.

Speakers:

Chris Wellaway – Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery at Pharmaron

Chris is a medicinal chemist who joined Pharmaron in June 2022 as an associate director. Prior to this, he spent 17 years at GSK and completed his PhD at the University of Strathclyde. Over his time in the sector, Chris has led molecular glue and PROTAC projects and worked on a range of target classes including E3 ligases, kinases, bromodomains and GPCRs and using various routes of administration. He has experience in phenotypic screening and target identification, hit identification (e.g. fragments and DEL), lead discovery and lead optimisation. Chris particularly enjoys applying contemporary approaches to drug discovery including machine learning and direct to biology, and has a keen interest in PROTACs and molecular glues.

William Farnaby – Principal Investigator at the University of Dundee Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation

Dr. William Farnaby is a Principal Investigator within the University of Dundee Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation and his group focuses on using induced proximity chemistry to address and understand diseases of the central nervous system. Previously, Will led a large Targeted Protein Degradation drug discovery team, as part of a collaboration between the University of Dundee and Boehringer-Ingelheim. He has been a key contributor to major advances in the field of targeted protein degradation and prior to this he co-invented multiple clinical candidates for CNS diseases as a medicinal chemist at Takeda, including the CH24Hi drug for Dravet syndrome, Soticlestat.