Anti-cancer treatment - 12th International Congress. 4-7 February 2002, Paris, France

The 12th International Congress on Anti-Cancer Treatment (ICACT), endorsed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, was held in Paris, France. Led by Gabriel Hortbagyi (MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA) and David Khayat (Hopital de la Pitie Salpetriere, France), the meeting was well organized and attended by several thousand participants from many countries. The list of members forming the Scientific Committee included well-known international experts whose involvement was reflected in the scientific excellence of the presentations.     

A report from the 2011 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (July 16-21 - Paris, France)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is indeed a source of sadness weighing on all those who after sharing a full life now depend on each other for the most basic functions. Nevertheless, besides the dramatic impact it imposes on the life of sufferers and their caregivers, AD, as well as other forms of dementia that affect the elderly, but also younger patients, also incurs in substantial healthcare costs for patients, their families and others, including society at large. The progressive aging of the population largely depending on improved preventive and curative healthcare is progressively worsening the situation because of the increasing number of elderly people and the consequent increase in dementia sufferers. Effective and cost-effective treatments are thus required for reversing, improving or preventing these cognitive impairments. Fortunately, research has resulted in therapeutic opportunities that were reviewed during the 2011 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in Paris, and will be briefly reviewed in the following report.     

Fifth International Workshop on Arylamine N-Acetyltransferases. University Paris Diderot, Paris, France, 1-3 September 2010

Arylamine N-acetyltransferases (NATs) are phase II xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes playing a key role in the detoxification and metabolic activation of aromatic amine xenobiotics. The triennial International NAT Workshop has been an important academic meeting where developments in the study of NATs and aromatic amine metabolism have been presented. The 2010 Workshop took place in University Paris Diderot Paris, France. Topics included: structures and functions of eukaryotic and prokaryotic NATs, gene regulation and expression of human NATs, polymorphisms and their effects, arylamine metabolism and toxicity. Nomenclature issues were also discussed.     

Clinical trials in neuroprotection. 23-25 January 2003, Key Biscayne, Florida, USA

Many common neurological and psychiatric disorders are accompanied by extensive neuronal loss, either acutely or chronically. These include stroke, head trauma, spinal cord injury, epilepsy, perinatal and perioperative hypoxia-ischaemia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and even some aspects of schizophrenia and depression. Despite considerable research effort, no agent has been found that can protect the brain from any of these neurodegenerative conditions. 'Clinical Trials in Neuroprotection,' sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, was held to address this situation in a unique way. Rather than focus on one neurodegenerative condition, the conference brought together researchers from a variety of neuroprotection areas. They reviewed basic mechanisms of neuronal injury, the animal models used in a variety of paradigms and the design and results of clinical trials in many neuroprotection areas. The presentations and extensive discussions focused on common issues encountered and lessons learned, and on developing innovative strategies for clinical evaluation of potential neuroprotective agents. Conference participants came to a general consensus that some mechanisms were the same for all conditions, models need to be improved, new clinical trial paradigms should consider drug combinations and/or sequential administration of neuroprotective agents, new biomarkers should be developed and a 'proof-of-principle' trial would be widely valuable and should be developed.     

Clinical trials in neuroprotection. 23-25 January 2003, Key Biscayne,FL, USA

The basis for this meeting ras the fact that many neurological and psychiatric disorders are accompanied by neuronal loss, either acutely or chronically. Furthermore, many of the underlying mechanisms of neural tissue damage are similar across a wide variety of neurodegenerative conditions, including stroke, central nervous system damage secondary to cardiac surgery,epilepsy, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and even some psychiatric diseases. Despite a large number of animal studies with promising neuroprotective agents, no successful strategy for neuroprotection from any of these conditions has been successfully demonstrated. The aim of the meeting was to review the current status of neuroprotection and provide new ideas on how to get further in research, preclinical and clinical study designs, and perhaps to generate 'out of the box' ideas for future progress by bringing together experts from different fields of neuroprotection.     

Beyond the genome--SMi Conference 27-28 January 2003, London,UK

Over a decade of astonishing developments, genomics and proteomics have promised a fundamentally new approach to drug discovery. Although there has been an undeniable increase in the range of potential targets available, this has not led to an increased output of the drug discovery pipeline into the clinic. With tighter markets and increasing competition, the major pharmaceutical companies are under intense pressure to achieve rapid, concrete delivery of those early promises, but there remain acute problems in the genes-to-drugs pipeline. This meeting showcased a range of novel approaches from proteomics and bioinformatics to address these problems. A common theme in the range of proteomics offerings was the prioritization of potential novel targets on the basis of their accessibility to drugs and their functional link to disease phenotypes. Informatics and in silico offerings also concentrated on fast, accurate, drug-focused workflows built on large integrative databases and novel data-mined algorithms.