Biopharmaceutical symposium to discuss musculoskeletal disorders

Dong Wang, PhD, and Martin Conda-Sheridan, PhD

The UNMC College of Pharmacy’s Annual Biopharmaceutical Research and Development Symposium returns later this month, bringing together prominent academic and industry leaders with the theme, “Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Fertile Field for Drug Discovery and Development.”

The event will be held Sept. 19-20 at the Truhlsen Campus Events Center on the UNMC Omaha campus. Those interested can go to the symposium’s website here for registration and more information.

The symposium, which went on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, returns for its seventh edition of bridging academia and the pharmaceutical industry. This year’s symposium takes on the field of musculoskeletal disease, with research especially focused on areas of major clinical implications, such as osteoporosis, bone repair, orthopaedic implants-associated infection, osteoarthritis and pain.

The two-day event is broken into three distinct sessions, each featuring multiple presentations. See the full list of scheduled presentations. This year, in addition to academic bench science and pharma perspectives, organizers have invited UNMC orthopaedic surgeons to present their clinical cases relevant to the theme of the symposium.

Symposium headliners include Kenneth Saag, MD, Anna Lois Waters Endowed Chair of clinical immunology and rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Anne-Marie Malfait, MD, PhD, Klaus E. Kuettner, PhD, Chair of Osteoarthritis Research at Rush University. Dr. Saag will speak on adventures and misadventures in osteoporosis drug development. Dr. Malfait is an internationally recognized authority on osteoarthritis associated pain.

Dong Wang, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical sciences, said he was most excited to hear Drs. Saag and Malfait speak. Dr. Wang is symposium program chair with co-chair Martin Conda-Sheridan, PhD, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences.

Multiple UNMC faculty serve as session chairs, and several others will give presentations, as will experts from the University of British Columbia, Vanderbilt University, Harvard Medical School and Angitia Biopharmaceuticals.

The symposium also is a great chance for young scientists to network and make an impression, said Ram Mahato, PhD, Parke-Davis Professor and chair of pharmaceutical sciences.

“This scientific event provides a fantastic opportunity to faculty, postdocs and graduate students of the University of Nebraska campuses and other Midwest universities to interact with scientists from industry and academia,” Dr. Mahato said.

Postdoctoral and graduate researchers will have the opportunity to present their own work in a poster contest.

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