Bayer Conference on Protein Engineering Promotes Scientific Exchange and Advancement
1/12/2009 8:08:32 PM
Recently, Bayer HealthCare conducted a Life Science Workshop for colleagues, academic thought leaders and industry peers titled “Protein Engineering and the Design of New Therapeutic Proteins.” The meeting was co-organized by Bayer’s John Murphy, PhD, director of Molecular and Antibody Biology, Protein Therapeutics, and James Wells, PhD, an internationally recognized biochemist and chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Following on the heels of Bayer’s acquisition of DIREVO Biotech, and acquisition of a portfolio of hemophilia drug candidates and molecular shuffling technologies from Maxygen, the conference was held to further strengthen the company’s biologics discovery platform and provide a stimulating environment for scientific exchange and discussion. Speakers came from such academic centers as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, University of Texas at Austin, University of Toronto, UCSF, and leading biotech companies such as Genentech, Catalyst Biosciences, Maxygen and Ambrx. The next generation of scientists was represented by post-doctoral fellows from UCSF.
The meeting kicked off with an evening reception, which featured a keynote address by Anthony Kossiakoff, PhD, University of Chicago. His talk highlighted the importance of understanding a protein’s structure in order to determine its function. “Dr. Kossiakoff underscored that ‘confirmation always prevails over sequence’,” explained Murphy.
