Drug discovery and genetic engineering: Science Cafe series scheduled
Medical College of Wisconsin
Office of Public Affairs
8701 Watertown Plank Road
Milwaukee, WI 53226
Fax (414) 955-6166
For more information, contact:
Maureen Mack (mmack@mcw.edu)
Director of Media Relations
Office: 414-955-4700
For Immediate Release: September 19, 2014
The Community Engagement program of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin will hold a series of Science Cafés at the UWM Innovation Campus that are free and open to the public. Topics will include the drug discovery process and information about therapeutic targets, genomics, and genetic engineering. Each café will run from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
On September 23, Daniel Sem, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Concordia University Wisconsin will lead a discussion on the drug discovery process. He also will give attendees a tour of the new UW-Milwaukee Innovation Campus, just recently opened.
Tim Herman, Ph.D., the director of the MSOE Center for Biomolecular Modeling, will lead a discussion entitled “Drugs as magic bullets…and shape-shifting targets” on Tuesday, October 7th. Dr. Herman will explore various drug and protein complexes with physical models.
Tuesday, October 21, Chris Cunningham, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacy science at Concordia University Wisconsin, will present “Opioids: God’s greatest gift to man.” Dr. Cunningham is a medicinal chemist who designs drugs that bind to opioid receptor proteins and relieve pain. He will discuss the history of opioids and current efforts to design new drugs that relieve pain without becoming addictive.
Dr. Herman presents again on November 4th with an engaging discussion entitled, “Isn’t it about time we fixed your genome?” Mistakes in DNA will lead to mistakes in proteins. Scientists have tried for years to fix defective proteins with drugs. Dr. Herman will explore the idea of “correcting” DNA.
The fall series wraps up November 18th with a presentation by Aron Geurts, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Geurts uses a variety of engineered proteins to modify the genomes of rats, zebra fish and other animals. By “knocking in” or “knocking out” specific genes, he creates useful new animal models that can be used to study hypertension and renal disease.
The Science Cafes will be held at the UWM Innovation Campus, located at 9480 Watertown Plank Road in Wauwatosa. The discussions are designed to engage and involve members of the community, and all are free and open to the public. Registration is now available at https://ctsi.mcw.edu/community/science-cafe/register-for-upcoming-science-cafes/if-proteins-are-drug-targets-why-are-they-so-hard-to-hit/, or contact Anne Kissack at (414) 955-5754 or akissack@mcw.edu.
Science Cafés are a production of the Community Engagement program of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) of Southeast Wisconsin. Funding for this program comes in part by the CTSI of southeastern Wisconsin and in part by Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Research and Education Initiative Fund, a component of the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin endowment at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
CTSIis part of a national consortium of top medical research institutions. Working together, the CTSI institutions are committed to improve human health by streamlining science, transforming training environments and improving the conduct, quality and dissemination of clinical and translational research. The CTSI program is led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.
The eight member organizations of the CTSI are the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the BloodCenter of Wisconsin, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Hospital and the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center.
