Mini-Symposium on Pathways to Translational Biology: Neglected Tropical Diseases, Biodiversity based Drug Discovery, Metagenomics and Bioinformatics

Date/Time: 20 June 2011, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Speaker: Symposium
Speaker Affiliation: University of Hawaii
Venue: John A. Burns School of Medicine, Kaka’ako, MEB Auditorium (Room 315)

For more info: mahdi@hawaii.edu
Description: One of the 21st century challenges is how we will control diseases with increased climate and biodiversity disturbance. This challenge is further complicated by factors such as the continued increase in population movements; whether through global air travel or migrations towards cities in emerging economies in search of more sustainable livelihoods, fleeing conflict or to natural disasters. In this context, how should we be innovating to discover new drugs that address neglected tropical diseases? Why is biodiversity so critical in this discovery process and how can bioinformatics and metagenomics ensure that knowledge from these pathways are harnessed and not lost? This mini-symposium will look at the challenges and opportunities for translational biology from field to novel natural product based drug discovery and how bioinformatics can support and accelerate capacity building in biomedical research in this context.