Coordinator: Leslie A. Shinobu

Third Rock Ventures, Boston, USA


The bench to bedside successful translation of basic research into safe and effective new medications is a major challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. The success rate of bringing new drugs to the market is very low and has steadily declined over the last two decades despite dramatic increases in companies' R&D budgets. For CNS diseases the success rate is particularly low considering that less than 10% of drug candidates in clinical studies will eventually become new medicines.

In this Course distinguished faculty coming from the heart of the R&D division of pharmaceutical companies will critically analyze the individual steps of the process of drug discovery and development. The vision and perspective of the faculty extends well beyond academia and incorporates the latest translational technologies. The process leading from target discovery to lead discovery will be dissected analyzing target identification, target validation and lead identification