LDS Sponsor at the XI European Workshop in Drug Design

Lead Discovery Siena is Sponsor of the 11th EWDD. The workshop will be held in Certosa di Pontignano at the Conference Center of the University of Siena.

First in this kind, the European Workshop in Drug Design has always been a unique opportunity for graduate students, postdocs and scientists from both Academia and Pharma Industry to celebrate computer-aided drug design and discovery in an exciting and collaborative environment, looking at an impressive sight of the city of Siena from a monastic complex in the heart of the Chianti and Tuscany, and participating to highly interactive hands-on case studies.

LDS is pleased to support this workshop which offers an updated view on most recent modelling techniques and approaches together with the opportunity to meet representatives from both university and pharma industries. LDS will be present during the event and available to talk about the available range of research services and its drug discovery programmes.

www.ewdd.it

On May 21-26, 2017

LDS at the TLS Day 2016

LDS has participated to the Toscana Life Sciences Day 2016, the annual event organized by the Foundation to promote the exchange and contamination of ideas, foster mutual knowledge and the confrontation among the companies and research groups hosted by TLS.


LDS gave a presentation to show its corporate and research activities, competences and platforms, to keep updated the other companies working in the Life Science area and identify potential common interests. It has been a great opportunity to strengthen the existing relationships and to build new potential collaborations with the several differing realities relating to TLS, from biotech to medical devices, medicinal chemistry, ICT, research services and nutraceutics.

 

 

Twenty companies participated to the event together with LDS, such as Pharma Integration, Liquidweb, T4All, egoHealth, Microbiotec, Exosomics Siena, CNR – IFC Siena, Fondazione NIBIT, Università di Siena – Dip. Scienze della Vita, Fondazione di Mario, Ebios Futura, TLS-Lab ERC, Kedrion, VisMederi, Bioscence Research Centre, Polo GGB, Epigen Therapeutics, Istituto Tumori Toscano, Università di Siena – Quantitative Neuroimaging Laboratory.

In this scenario, LDS is the only company working in the Medicinal Chemistry area by providing support to drug discovery projects.

At the end of the event, LDS Project Manager Laura Maccari gave an interview about the potential synergies of LDS with the other companies hosted by TLS.

FULL TLS DAY PROGRAM

 

Farewell to Dario Fo

We are all very saddened to hear that the Nobel prize winning playwright and actor Dario Fo has died.

We have all lost a great protagonist of the theatre, of culture, of the civic life of Italy. LDS team feels much more involved since the incredible opportunity we had to personally meet him last May.

Dario Fo and Franca Rame – his wife, muse and leading actor – captured the hearts and minds of Italians, writing and performing for stage, radio and television, and regularly skewering political leaders with deft dialogue.

 

Art, he said, had to have a “very strong relation to the facts of life”, and this was also demonstrated by his interest to our work. Thank you Maestro, for the enthusiasm you had in supporting the research on DDX3 inhibitors both through economic support and by giving us the strength and the courage to carry on the project.  We will remember you with affection and admiration.

http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2016/10/13/news/addio_a_dario_fo_premio_nobel_per_la_letteratura_uomo_delle_arti_a_tutto_tondo-149664086/

Maurizio Botta Guest of Honour at the Evening for Science and Society 2016

Maurizio Botta, LDS CEO, was invited to the annual Evening for Science and Society in the Netherlands.

He was personally welcomed by the Secretary of State for Education as the special guest of the event. Every year the event hosts the prestigious Huibregtsen Award for the best academic scientist of the Netherlands during an impressive gala diner in the medieval Hall of the Knights, the official throne hall of the governmental see of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The event promotes the interaction between science and society by inviting a selection of some of the most important academic scientist of the Netherlands and mixing them up with political decision makers, captains of industry and representatives of important institutions.

Maurizio Botta was honoured to participate and to be at the table with some of the key people involved in the First Health group, which actually sponsors the research on DDX3 inhibitors also involving LDS.

On the group photo above we see Prof. Maurizio Botta next to Mickey Huibregtsen (L), the president of the First Health United Foundation and Maurice de Hond (R), who together with Huibregtsen is a board member of both the First Health United Foundation, as well as the First Health Capital investment fund. On the far left and right we see Alessia Tarditi, the scientific director-, and Jan Willem Bakker, the general manager of First Health Pharmaceuticals.

The Huibregtsen Award of 2016 went to Prof. Dr. Ronald Hanson for his groundbreaking research in quantum physics, where he investigated the capabilities of particles to communicate at distance. On behalf of Mickey Huibregtsen himself and Professor Maurizio Botta we congratulate Professor Hanson with his admirable achievements.

UNAVIR at SMAU Florence 2016

Smau is the matching platform for innovation and professional continuous training.  For over 50 years, Smau supports Italian companies and professionals to innovate, and it is an opportunity for entrepreneurs, managers, companies, and public administrations to grow up and to catch up on innovation, technology, and ICT.  Smau is a national event roadshow helping public actors and companies willing to look beyond the present and opportunities offered by new technologies, digital world, and most promising start ups.

The event of this year is also dedicated to the synergies among research centres, companies and public funding in the Life Sciences areas as experienced in Fas Salute 2014 Call of Tuscany Region which UNAVIR is belonging to.

UNAVIR is a project aimed at identifying new therapeutic treatments for rare viral infections, such as Dengue, Chikungunya and West Nile and brings together Universities of Siena, Pisa, and Florence and companies, Lead Discovery Siena and VisMederi, to develop innovative treatments of personalised medicine. LDS will contribute to the projects by supporting the design, synthesis and ADMET characterization of new molecular entities active against these virues.

Maurizio Botta, LDS CEO, was the rapporteur on this project at Smau Florence to show its background, the research strategy and its potentialities.

http://www.smau.it/firenze16/schedules/sinergia-tra-centri-di-ricerca-imprese-e-fondi-pubblici-per-le-scienze-della-vita-lesperienza-del-bando-fas-salute-2014-di-regione-toscana/

http://www.meetthelifesciences.it/it/archvio/436-il-bando-fas-salute-2014-protagonista-a-smau-firenze

LDS at BIO USA Convention 2016

We are proud to announce the participation of Lead Discovery Siena at the BIO USA 2016 convention which will be held in San Francisco, CA, USA, from 6th to 9th June 2016.

The BIO International Convention is hosted by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.

Through attending the BIO International Convention LDS benefits from accessing to global biotech and pharma leaders via BIO One-on-One Partnering, exposure to industry though-leaders with over 1,500 education sessions at your fingertips, and unparalleled networking opportunities with 16,000+ attendees from 76 countries.

Our delegates are hosted at Italy Pavilion 2529.

Maurizio Botta interview at Italian TV programme Elisir

Maurizio Botta, LDS CEO, gives an interview on a popular television programme in Italy, dedicated to health and welfare.

Maurizio talks about the project on DDX3 inhibitors as antiviral agents active against HIV and Hepatitis C, among the others.

Maurizio’s research group together with the Molecular Genetics Institute of CNR in Pavia, identified the first molecules targeting DDX3, a human protein involved in the replication of many viral pathogens. During its interview, Maurizio outlines the innovative strategy which underpins the research project on DDX3 inhibitors, and recalls the history of this exciting discovery which mainly involved Italian research groups.

LDS is now taking part to the development of these broad spectrum antiviral agents thanks to its expertise and competences in discovery and development.

The show aired on 23th May 2016.

http://www.raiplay.it/video/2016/05/Elisir-del-23052016-4fd64414-9968-4e37-bb56-f0b538d38e21.html

 

LDS at the VI European Workshop In Drug Synthesis

Lead Discovery is Sponsor of the 6th EWDSy (www.ewdsy.it). The workshop is held in Certosa di Pontignano at the Conference Center of the University of Siena, in May 15-19 2016.

The aim of this unique event is to provide a fertile ground for young chemists to share and exchange knowledge. These topics are covered by lectures of cutting-edge researchers in the mornings and dedicated sessions in the afternoon. There is also the possibility to attend to short talks from promising young researchers and shotgun presentations from selected posters.

The 2016 workshop is focused on: Novel Synthetic Procedures in Medicinal Chemistry, Neglected Diseases, HIV Research, and ADMET. All these subjects are strictly related to LDS research activities. The event provides a great opportunity to LDS to meet researchers from Universities and Pharmaceutical Industries and to get an update on most recent advances in the field

 

Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo meets Maurizio Botta research group

Maurizio Botta, and researchers from University of Siena and LDS, were really honoured they had the chance to tell their story about DDX3 to the Italian Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo.

The Italian recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature, Dario Fo, and his wife Franca Rame, privately contributed to support the DDX3-inhibitor project through the Rame-Fo Foundation. Soon after the publication of the important results achieved in the project, and published in PNAS publication, Dario Fo expressed his enthusiasm about it in his web page:

http://www.dariofo.it/content/comunicato-stampa-lettera-di-dario-fo-su-scoperta-delluniversit%C3%A0-di-siena-e-del-cnr

Unfortunately, Franca Rame passed away before learning the results of her efforts but the researchers working on DDX3 are all incredibly grateful for her support and for believing in this pioneering project.

On 6th May, Dario Fo invited the researchers working in the DDX3 Project for a meeting at the “Libera Università di Alcatraz” founded by his son Jacopo Fo and they spent a wonderful day they’ll never forget with him. Here is a video about the interview.

 

All the DDX3 researchers would like to express a huge thank you to Dario Fo and to his group for all the effort and the great support to this work, which LDS is also actively contributing to. This is a really precious endorsement for all of them.

UNAVIR

LDS is project partner in UNAVIR Project (Malattie Virali Rare: una strategia innovative per combatterle con un unico agente antivirale), together with University of Siena (lead institution), University of Florence, University of Pisa, and VisMederi.

UNAVIR is beneficiary of the “FAS Salute 2014” Call of Tuscany Region and is supported by Distretto Toscano Scienze della Vita.

The project aims at developing broad spectrum antiviral agents able to stop the progression of several viral diseases, such as Dengue and Chikungunya fever. By choosing a human protein as the biological target, it will be possible to overcome the resistance which is commonly developed by viral proteins against drugs. It is an innovative therapeutic approach for the treatment of rare viral infections including Dengue, Chikungunya fever, and West Nile viral disease, and whose incidence is constantly growing.

Within UNAVIR, LDS will guide the design and synthesis of new molecules which will be then tested in vitro by the other partners.

http://www.meetthelifesciences.it/it/archvio/398-fassalute-malattie-virali-rare-come-combatterle-con-un-unico-agente-antiviral