Webinar on
Pharmacology
August 28, 2021
Scientific Program
Keynote Session:
Oral Session 1:
- Pharmacology| Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamics | Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics | Immunopharmacology
Title: Biomarkers as Key Drivers of Drug Development in Gene Therapy
Biography:
Oscar Segurado is an executive veteran of the biopharmaceutical industry with extensive global leadership experience in translational science, clinical development and medical affairs. Dr Segurado is the Chief Medical Officer for ASC Therapeutics, and formerly held CMO positions for Symvivo, Myriad Genetics-Crescendo and CellMax Life, as well as roles such as Vice President for Becton Dickinson and Global Medical Head for Abbott/AbbVie. Dr Segurado is a senior medical leader experienced in matrixed, line management and consulting for biotechs, midsize and large pharma companies. He has extensive expertise in gene therapy (ASC, AveXis, UCLA Ventures, UniQure, Symvivo), immuno-oncology (Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bellicum, Jazz), immuno-therapy (Bristol-Myers Squibb, Macrogenics, TriSalus), genomics (Freenome, Myriad) and protein/cell diagnostics (Abbott, BD, Crescendo), predominantly focused on oncology, hematology and autoimmunity, including personalized medicine, molecular and cellular biomarkers. Dr Segurado holds a tenured Professorship of Immunology at the University of Leon, Spain, currently on leave. He received his PhD from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany and MD from the University of Salamanca, Spain. Prior to this, he was an associate professor at the Faculties of Medicine in the University of Munich, Germany, and University Complutense of Madrid, Spain. Dr Segurado has authored and co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, including Nature, Lancet and Journal of Experimental Medicine, as well as books and medical articles and is a member of several scientific and medical societies, including ASCO, ASH, ESMO, AACR and SITC.
Abstract:
Title: A DNA Nanodevice Simultaneously Activating the EGFR and Integrin for Enhancing Cytoskeletal Activity and Cancer Cell Treatment
Biography:
Dr. Baig, MMFA is a registered pharmacist, and currently a post-doctoral fellow (PDF) at the Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Chengfei Zhang. He received his Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), and MPhil (Pharmaceutical Chemistry) degrees from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Pakistan, and a Ph.D. degree from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University (NJU), China under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Xing-Hua Xia. During his PharmD research, he worked on a clinical trial in the Cardiology Ward of Nishtar Hospital, Multan, Pakistan (2009-2011). Later, he worked as a “Research Assistant” on a breast cancer project in the Department of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, BZU, Pakistan (2011-2012). His task was to analyze genetic polymorphism in the DNA extracted from the WBCs of the freshly collected blood samples. Then, he joined “Novartis Pharma, Pakistan” as a “Medical Information Officer” in the cardiovascular group (2012-2015) and won the “National Performance Award” in 2015. After that, he switched to academia in 2015 and worked as a “Lecturer of Pharmacology and Biochemistry” in Multan Medical & Dental College, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. He also taught Pharmacology and Physiology as a visiting lecturer at China Pharmaceutical University, and Nanjing Medical University in summer 2019. His MPhil research was focused on DNA Nanotechnology, Polymers, Material Chemistry, Drug Delivery, Biomedical Engineering, and Molecular Pharmaceutics. During his PhD, he won an excellent PhD student award in 2019 and worked on MechanoPharmacology, Advanced DNA NanoTherapeutics, Developmental Biology, Neuroscience, Biophysics, Bio-sensing, Bio-imaging, and Diagnostics. Currently, his research focus is designing DNA-based novel functional & bio-active nanomaterials to apply in Restorative Dentistry, Oral Microbiology & Oncology, Regenerative Therapeutics, and Stem Cells Research. He has published 50 peer-reviewed articles, and 3 book chapters including 19 publications as a first author in prestigious biomedical and nanotechnology journals such as Nano Letters (ACS, USA), indexed in Harvard University Library Press, USA. He has an H-index of 12, and a total of 425 citations (google scholar) with a cumulative impact factor of 173.
Abstract:
A DNA Nanodevice Simultaneously Activating the EGFR and Integrin for Enhancing Cytoskeletal Activity and Cancer Cell Treatment
Cell-surface receptors (e.g., EGFR and integ-rin) and their interactions play determining roles in signal transduction and cytoskeletal activation, which affect cell attachment/detachment, invasion, motility, metastasis (intra-cellular), and cell−cell signaling. For instance, the interactions between the EGFR and integrin (α6β4) may cause increased mechanical force and shear stress via enhanced cytoskeleton activation. Here, we design a DNA nanodevice (DNA-ND) that can simultaneously target the EGFR and integrin receptors on the caveolae. The piconewton (pN) forces in response to the EGFR−integrin coactivation can be sensed upon the unfolding of the DNA hairpin structure on the side arm of the device via changes of the fluorescence and plasmonic signals. We find that simultaneous activation of EGFR−integrin receptors causes enhanced signal transduction, contractions of the cells, and initiation of the biochemical pathways, thus resulting in a change of the cell division and endocytosis/exocytosis processes that affect the cell proliferation/apoptosis. The DNA-ND further enables us to visualize the cointernalization and degradation of the receptors by lysosomes, providing a novel approach toward bioimaging and mechano-pharmacology.
