Robert Hertzberg of GlaxoSmithKline to Give Keynote Presentation at GTCbio’s 3rd Assay Conference

San Francisco, CA, March 28, 2008 --(PR.com)-- High throughput screening (HTS) is a maturing field which is embedded into the drug discovery process at most pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Dr. Hertzberg will offer a perspective on the technological and cultural challenges that he has observed as a screener privileged to have ridden this wave over the past 15 years. While we can now declare victory on many technological challenges such as assay miniaturization and automation, many unanticipated challenges remain over the cultural aspects of screening. HTS is easy to understand, easy to love and easy to hate – and it always evokes an opinion whether the person is a vendor, practitioner or customer in need of hits. Dr. Hertzberg’s talk will reflect on how the field has overcome these challenges and achieved success – and then will focus on the future of HTS. It’s obvious that screening in some form will be required well into the future, since our ability to predict successful targets and compounds is still rudimentary. But it’s equally obvious that the field will undergo further change. A few current harbingers of change will be discussed, including the move from single targets to complex cellular pathways and the advent of new ultra-large compound libraries such as those provided by encoded library technologies.

GTCbio's 3rd Assay Development and Screening Technologies conference will provide attendees with critical information to utilize in the discovery and development of assays, while keeping them informed about the latest screening technologies for both high-throughput screening and high-content screening. Topics being covered include cell based assays, high throughput screening, high content screening, in vitro assays and screening, novel assay and screening technologies, and target validation. For more information visit www.gtcbio.com.

ABOUT GTCbio
GTCbio organizes conferences specifically for the biomedical and biopharmaceutical industries. Their 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, nina.tran@gtcbio.com

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