Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad to Give Plenary Keynote Address at 3rd Modern Drug Discovery & Development Summit

MONROVIA, CA – Dr. Ferid Murad who received a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine and who is currently a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology and Director of the Brown Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School will be among the plenary keynote presenters at GTCbio’s 3rd Modern Drug Discovery and Development Summit on November 28-30 in San Francisco, CA.

Dr. Murad will give a presentation entitled “The Nitric Oxide and Cyclic GMP Signaling System in Drug Discovery and Development.”

The role of nitric oxide in cellular signaling in the past three decades has become one of the most rapidly growing areas in biology. Nitric oxide is a gas and a free radical with an unshared electron that can regulate an ever-growing list of biological processes. Nitric oxide is formed from L-arginine by a family of enzymes called nitric oxide synthases. These enzymes have a complex requirement for a number of cofactors and regulators including NADPH, tetrahydrobioterin, flavins, calmodulin and heme. The enzymes are present in most cells and tissues. In many instances, nitric oxide mediates its biological effects by activating the soluble isoform of guanylyl cyclase and increasing cyclic GMP synthesis from GTP. Cyclic GMP, in turn, can activate cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) and can cause smooth muscles and blood vessels to relax, decrease platelet aggregation, alter neuron function, etc. These effects can decrease blood pressure, increase blood flow to tissues, alter memory and behavior, decrease blood clotting, etc. The list of effects of nitric oxide that are independent of cyclic GMP formation is also growing at a rapid rate.

Dr. Murad’s lecture will discuss the discovery of the first biological effects of nitric oxide and how the field has evolved since our original reports in 1977. The possible utility of this signaling pathway to facilitate novel drug development and the creation of numerous projects in the Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries will also be discussed.

The 3rd Modern Drug Discovery & Development Summit features over 150 speakers participating in 6 concurrent conferences, 6 study sessions and 3 pre-conference workshops. Other Plenary keynotes include Mahdi Fawzi, EVP of Preclinical Research at Wyeth and Keith James, SVP and Site Head of Pfizer La Jolla. Tracks include Biological Therapeutics, Drug Delivery Technology, Translational Medicine, Drug Design and Lead Optimization, Emerging Targets, and Pharmaco – Kinetics, Dynamics, Genomics and Genetics. For more information, visit www.gtcbio.com


ABOUT GTCbio

GTCbio organizes conferences specifically for the biomedical and biopharmaceutical industries. The company’s goal is to facilitate the exchange of biopharmaceutical and biomedical intelligence between industry leaders, academic and government organizations, and the financial community.

GTCbio is a subsidiary of Global Technology Community, LLC, a privately held company founded in 2002.

Contact: GTCBIO (626) 256-6405, (626) 256-6460 fax, raniah@gtcbio.com