“SPARKing" New Antibiotic Drug Discovery

Kathy Talkington, Project Director from Pew Charitable Trusts, will discuss the "Shared Platform for Antibiotic Research and Knowledge" when she presents a keynote on "SPARKing" new antibiotic drug discovery at SMi’s 20th annual conference on Superbugs and Superdrugs next March in Central London.

With a background in managing and developing immunization and infectious disease programs and policies, Kathy Talkington is currently responsible for Pew’s work on antibiotics. Pew seeks to address the growing threat of antibiotic resistance by spurring the innovation of new antibiotics and ensuring the appropriate use of antibiotics in both human health care settings and in animals.

"SPARK" is a ground breaking and dynamic platform that brings together antibiotic discovery data and cutting-edge analytics to help scientists tackle the scientific barriers blocking antibiotic discovery.

While the global threat of antibiotic resistance continues to rise, nearly every antibiotic in use today is based on a discovery from more than 30 years ago. SPARK will focus on the unique challenges of finding and designing antibiotics that can defeat drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, which are among the hardest-to-treat superbugs.

Other presentations in the featured spotlight on the development of new therapeutics and drugs will include:

• Use of the Pasnas Platform to Enable High Quality Antibacterial Hit Finding presented by Domingo Gargallo-Viola, Chief Scientific Officer, ABAC Therapeutics
• Building a Detailed Computational Network Model of Cell Envelope Biogenesis: A Systems Biology Approach to Developing Antibacterial Drugs (Potentiators) presented by John George, CSO, Oppilotech
• Teaching Old Cephalosporin Dogs New Mechanistic Tricks against MDR Gram-Negative Bacteria Presented by Larry Sutton, Scientific Founder, Gladius Pharmaceuticals
• Novel Virulence Factors Of Acinetobacter Baumannii as Targets for Antibacterial Development presented by Daniel Zurawski, Head, Antibacterial Discovery and Development, Walter Reed Army Institute Of Research

SMi’s 20th Annual conference on Superbugs & Superdrugs will take place on 19th & 20th March 2018 at the Copthorne Tara Hotel, Kensington in London, UK.

Further details including a full speaker line-up and detailed programme are available at www.superbugssuperdrugs.com

--- end ---

Contact Information:

For all media enquiries contact Teri Arri on Tel: +44 (0)20 7827 6162 / Email: tarri@smi-online.co.uk
For exhibition and sponsorship enquires contact Alia Malick on Tel: +44 (0)20 7827 6168 / Email: amalick@smi-online.co.uk

About SMi Group:

Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the world’s most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at http://www.smi-online.co.uk