Precision Medicine & Ion Channel Retreat 2017

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

August 9th – 11th, 2017

Testimonials from the 2017 Meeting

"Precision Medicine & Ion Channel Retreat (PM & ICR) 2017 Conference was worth of attending
and I really enjoyed it. Aurora Biomed and the Conference Scientific Committee organized
an excellent scientific program covering various therapeutic areas. Moreover, this Conference
was a fantastic opportunity to meet new people, broaden my knowledge and initiate
collaborative discussions. I look forward to what new scientific breakthroughs will be
communicated at 2018 PM & ICR. "

Najah Abi-Gerges
Scientific Director
AnaBios Corporation, San Diego, CA
"This is the second time I attended the retreat hosted by Aurora. I really enjoyed the
meeting which covers the frontier topics in many research fields, and has a
well-integrated, mixture of topics ranging from cancer, immunotherapy for cancer,
ion channels and ion transporters in diseases, and new technology development
in the biosciences, etc. I also liked the platform for people from the biotech industry
and academics to interact and exchange."

Dandan Sun
Professor of Neurology.
University of Pittsburgh
"An excellent meeting focused on cutting edge industrial and academic research on
ion channel drug discovery. "

Robert Brenner
Associate Professor, Department of Cellular & Integrative Physiology
University of Texas Health at San Antonio
"The Ion Channel Retreat provides unique opportunities to interact with academic and
industry scientists all focused on similar work."

Alfred L. George Jr.
Chair, Department of Pharmacology, Magerstadt Professor of Pharmacology
Northwestern University Medicine
"This is a phenomenal meeting! The discussions are very engaging, exciting and focuses
on very important scientific topics. One of the major factors for the success of this meeting
is the relevant participation of members from industry. It is always nice and important to
have the chance to understand the development of specific technologies. At the same time,
academics are very well involved in discussing potential applications. Great meeting,
always worth it."

Saverio Gentile
Assistant Professor, Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Loyola University Chicago

Thank you for attending our 2017 Precision Medicine & Ion Channel Retreat!

For our 15^th Annual Retreat, we decided to bring the meeting back to Vancouver, Canada. It was met with a warm welcome, of new faces of Precision Medicine, to reunions of ion channel colleagues.

On the Ion Channel side, we incorporated new disease targets, as speakers introduced creative ways, and new drug discovery techniques with the latest technology in the field. We had a parallel session as well, that included new topics of ion transporters, and CiPA related cardiac toxicity.

We added new topics to this year’s Precision Medicine section, including immunotherapy, liquid biopsies, clinical applications of NGS, and our interdisciplinary session on novel perspectives of ion channels in Precision Medicine. This was nicely summarized by our panel discussion, looking at ion channel associations with oncology, and sharing the perspective from Precision Medicine researchers.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact our organizer, lance.bai@aurorabiomed.com

Before you know it, we’ll be organizing the 2018 Retreat very soon! We welcome your feedback, and any questions you may have.

About Us

Aurora’s Ion Channel Retreat (ICR) began in 2003 and has since become one of the most recognized events for Ion Channel scientists to share ideas and connect with each other. Due to the success of the inaugural Precision Medicine & Ion Channel 2016 last year in Guangzhou, Aurora is proud to continue the joint topic retreat this year.

Aurora’s history and experience in hosting Ion Channel conferences can boost potential new research opportunities and innovations for Precision Medicine. The PM&ICR2017 will showcase Ion Transporter technology in Pathogenesis and Drug Discovery. Likewise, the Precision Medicine session will also be refocusing the topics towards Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment, Liquid Biopsy, Clinical Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology, Immunotherapy, and Biotechnology.

Topics

Precision Medicine Session

Novel Perspective of Ion Channels in Precision Medicine
Molecular Diagnostic Technologies
Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
Liquid Biopsy in Oncology
Liquid Biopsy for Clinical Practice
Immunotherapy: emerging applications and challenges
Applications of Next Generation Sequencing
Microarray and Biotechnology

Ion Channel Session

Ion Channel Structure and Function
Ion Channels as Disease Targets
Ion Channels as Pain Targets
Drug Discovery & Drug Development
Screening Technologies
Cardiac Safety and the CiPA Initiative
Ion Transporters in Pathogenesis
Ion Transporters in Drug Discovery

Past Attendees

Craig January, MD, PhD – Professor at the School of Medicine and Public Health, at the University of Wisconsin
William Catterall, PhD – Professor and Chair of University of Washington Department of Pharmacology
Arthur Brown, PhD – CEO of MemChan; former founder & CEO of ChanTest
Yuko Sekino, PhD – Director of Pharmacology National Institute of Health Sciences, Japan
Edward Stevens, PhD – Head of Electrophysiology at Pfizer, Cambridge, UK
Dennis Lo, MD, PhD – Associate Dean, Faculty of Medicine at CUHK, Foreign Associate US Academy of Sciences
George Chandy, MD, PhD – Professor at NTU SG and UC Irvine
Kurt Stoeckli – President & CSO at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Switzerland
Hailin Zhang, MD, PhD – Vice President of Hebei Medical University
Richard Olsen, PhD – Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Yuklam Lo – Secretariat, and Honorary Chairman, Hong Kong Biotechlogy Organization
An Hailong – Hebei University of Technology; Professor
Dan Minor, PhD – Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California
Steve Goldstein, MD, PhD – Director at the Institute of Pediatric Sciences, University of Chicago
John Dunlop, PhD – VP, Neuroscience Research at Amgen, Professor of Neuroscience, University of St Andrews
Laszlo Urban, MD, PhD – Executive Director at Novartis
Jean-Pierre Valentin, PhD – Senior Director, Head of Investigative Toxicology at UCB