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Microbiology: Current Research 2017 | Volume 1, Issue 2
allied
academies
Joint Conference
GLOBAL APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY CONFERENCE
MICROBIAL & BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGIES
&
October 18-19, 2017
Toronto, Canada
International Congress on
B
locking the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway recently emerged as a
‘game changer’ in cancer immunotherapy, leading to the
selection of monoclonal-antibodies (MABs) targeting PD-1 as
‘drug of the year’ for 2013. Although these antibodies restored
exhausted T cells’ function to recognize and kill tumor cells,
these MABs have numerous disadvantages. These include their
very high cost and very severe side effects. Our team has been
focused on designing small molecule inhibitors for this pathway.
Compared to available MAB therapies, our small molecules
may offer a more affordable; more easily administered and
better controlled treatment for a variety of cancers. Here,
we demonstrate our efforts toward this goal and summarize
preliminary data on one of our promising compounds, a small
molecule inhibitor for the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway that binds to
PD-1 and restores the polyfunctionality of exhausted T cells..
Speaker Biography
Khaled Barakat is the Leader of a multidisciplinary world-class research team to
develop novel immunotherapy drugs targeting the immune checkpoints’ proteins. He
received his PhD in Biophysics from the University of Alberta in 2012 followed by a
Post-doctoral fellowship in Professor Michael Houghton’s Lab for two years. During
his career, he received numerous awards including the CIHR and AIHS Post-doctoral
fellowships, the prestigious UofA dissertation award, the ACRI Studentship and many
distinction awards throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies. He also served
as an editor for a number of journals. His lab is supported by different funding agencies
including the Alberta Cancer Foundation, Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute, Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology
and IC-IMPACTS Centres of Excellence.
e:
kbarakat@ualberta.caKhaled Barakat
University of Alberta, Canada
Rational design of small molecule immune checkpoints’ inhibitors: The PD-1 challenge