Molecular Bioprocessing as a New Paradigm for Drug Discovery

Dr. John Dordick, Howard P. Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Biology; Director, Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 2:00-3:00PM EDT

Download the slides and Q&A here.

The archived webinar here.

About this Webinar

The drug discovery process is expensive and often inefficient. With the emergence of genomic and proteomic information, the growth of critical molecular targets is rapid. Nevertheless, the development of active, selective, and safe drug candidates (small molecule or biopharmaceutical) has not kept pace with such advances. For small molecules, a core problem is the lack of high-throughput and accurate methodologies for ADME/Tox, which forces comprehensive toxicology studies to be performed only on later stage lead compounds and preclinical candidates. For biopharmaceuticals, the ability to accurately reproduce the human protein with correct posttranslational modification is limited by lack of knowledge of cellular machinery and then the efficient scale up of protein production and purification. Professor Dordick will detail his research in the design and optimization of high-throughput, microscale discovery and development platforms and the emergence of using bioprocessing strategies at early stages of drug discovery.

Jonathan S. Dordick received his B.A. degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has held chemical engineering faculty appointments at the University of Iowa (1987-1998), where he also served as the Associate Director of the Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1998-present) where he is the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Professor of Biology. In 2008 he took over as Director of Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies. Prof. Dordick has received numerous awards, including the 2007 Marvin J. Johnson Award, the 2007 Elmer Gaden Award, the 2003 International Enzyme Engineering Award, the 1998 Iowa Section Award of the American Chemical Society, and an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1989. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2004 and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers in 1996. He presently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards for several biotechnology companies and venture capital firms. Dr. Dordick was a cofounder of EnzyMed, Inc. a pharmaceutical and agrochemical discovery company acquired by Albany Molecular Research in 1999, and is a cofounder of Solidus Biosciences, Inc. a venture-stage human drug and cosmetics toxicology company. Dr. Dordick has published over 250 papers and is an inventor/co-inventor on 32 patents and patent applications.