Biomarkers for Personalised Health Care: Need, development and use

Biomarkers identify patients who are most likely to benefit from a drug leading to effective targeted treatment and a reduction of human and financial cost of the administration of inappropriate medication. This conference will bring together experts from Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Industrial and Academic sectors in a forum of academic presentations and discussion sessions to review what are the current issues surrounding the need, development and use of biomarkers for personalised health care.  

 We include a troubleshooting panel session in this event, so that delegates can discuss their work directly with a panel of experts.

 This event has CPD accreditation

Meeting Chair: Dr Tony Warford, Warford Technology Ltd, Newmarket, Suffolk, UK

9:00 – 9:40            Registration

9:40 – 9:50            Introduction by the Chair:  Dr Tony Warford,  Warford Technology Ltd

9:50 – 10:20         Personalised medicine in oncology – how is it different to current best drug development practice ?   

Dr Darren Hodgson, Principal Scientist, AstraZeneca UK Ltd, R&D Drug Development, Oncology and Infection Therapy Area, Macclesfield, Cheshire 

10:20 – 10:35      Talk title to be confirmed

10:35 – 11:05       Biomarker validation for clinical use - how to go from bench to bedside   

Dr Hayley Whitaker, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, Cambridge

Using well defined questions academic laboratories have the means to identify large number of potential biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and disease monitoring. Validating these biomarkers to demonstrate that they are robust and fit for purpose is a major challenge in translational research. The pipeline from bench to bedside will be demonstrated with examples and key milestones. Overall the talk will aim to give a structured method for taking novel targets from the laboratory setting to pharma and the clinic by providing high quality, reproducable data.

11:05 –11:35        Mid-morning break and  trade show

11:35 – 11:50       Talk title to be confirmed

11:50 – 12:20       Talk title to be confirmed

Dr Peter H Bach, Director: BioPharmaLogic LLC, Cambridge..

12:20–13:10        Lunch, posters and  trade show

13:10 – 14:10       Question and Answer Session

Delegates will be asked to submit questions to a panel of experts.  Questions can be submitted before the event or on the day

14:10 – 14:25       Talk title to be confirmed

14:25 – 14:55       Prognostic and predictive biomarkers for breast cancer

 Professor Anthony Rhodes, University of West of England, UK

14:55   – 15:25     Afternoon Tea/Coffee and  trade show

15:25 – 15:55       Talk title to be confirmed

Dr Mark Cunningham, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne¸UK

15:55 – 16:25       Blood born nucleic acids biomarkers in oncology

Dr Ged Brady, Paterson Institute for Cancer Research,UK

16:25 - 16:55        Biomarkers for personalised healthcare: human biosample considerations

                Professor  Christopher Womack, Principal Clinical Histopathologist at AstraZeneca, Cheshire

About the Chair

Anthony Warford DPhil, CSci, FIMLS

Warford Technology Ltd, Newmarket, Suffolk, UK

Anthony (Tony) Warford expertise is in molecular histopathology.  He has set up and managed laboratories in the UK health service, academic institutions, biotechnology and Pharmaceutical companies. Technology developments he has spearheaded include the introduction of diagnostic immunohistochemical methods, validation of antibodies for use as biomarkers, production of probes and methods for in situ hybridisation and supervision and interpretation of GLP tissue based safety studies of potential therapeutic antibodies.  Concurrently he has championed quality assurance programmes in histopathology and automation of immunohistochemistry coupled with image capture and analysis.  He has also run laboratory safety and human bio-banking programmes. He has published in these fields and shared experience with fellow scientists by organising wet workshops, chairing symposia and lecturing in many countries.

About the Speakers

Hayley Whitaker is currently a Research Associate at Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute, University of Cambridge.  Previously, Dr Whitaker was a Research Assistant/PhD student at Imperial College London.  

Her research focus is on prostate cancer biomarkers for improving diagnosis and monitoring disease. She is currently beginning to work on other tissues, including pancreatic cancer.  She has developed a robust and efficient biomarker pipeline to allow rapid, accurate validation of tissue, serum and urinary biomarkers. 

Anthony Rhodes research focuses on the discovery, development and validation of prognostic and predictive cancer biomarkers important in the field of breast cancer and prostate cancer. This has contributed to the evidence base and co-authorship of national and international guidelines for the clinical testing of breast cancer biomarkers [see NHS Breast Screening Programme Publication No 58, Jan 2005, American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists guideline recommendations for HER2, J Clin Oncol 2007; 25: 118-145, and estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor testing in breast cancer , J Clin Oncol 2010; 28: 2784-2795]. Current breast cancer research focuses on the molecular pathways and biomarkers implicated in tumours that do not respond to current treatment, either through lack of expression of HER2 and oestrogen and progesterone receptors or through resistance to drugs such as Tamoxifen and Herceptin; this is in collaboration with workers from Bristol University and both Bristol NHS Trusts, Cardiff University, the University of Exeter and the University of Malaya Medical Centre, Malaysia. Another main area of research evolves round the role of the TMPRSS2/ERG fusion gene in prostate cancer; part of ongoing collaborative work funded by the Bristol Urological Institute, North Bristol NHS Trust. In addition we are interested in investigating the role genes and the environment play in determining whether men die ‘with’ prostate cancer or from it, as investigating these differences may give a better understanding of the factors influencing prostate cancer progression.