Dr Kimberly Rockley
Talk title: In vitro methods for seizure liability screening
Biography:
Dr Kimberly Rockley is currently a Senior Scientist at ApconiX where she develops in vitro assays for early detection of seizure liability. Following completion of her degree in Biomedical Sciences and Masters in Cancer Pharmacology at the University of Bradford, Kim worked as a clinical trial co-ordinator within an oncology department in the NHS. Working with patients increased Kim’s awareness of potential drug side effects and drug safety, and inspired her to focus her PhD research on improving the safety of anti-cancer drugs. Kim completed her PhD within the Pharmacy department at Durham University under the supervision of Dr Jason Gill. Her doctoral research focussed on using novel in vitro methods to evaluate anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity and its mitigation by perturbation of angiotensin signalling. Since joining ApconiX in 2019, Kim has developed 2 novel in vitro assays for early detection of seizure liability screening that have now been launched commercially. This early high-throughput screening approach will save time, reduce animal use and improve patient safety.
Dr Maxx Holmes
Talk title: Use of computational approaches to identify cardiotoxicity risk
Biography:
Maxx is an early career researcher, having graduated with his doctorate in 2021 from the University of Leeds, focused on spatio-temporal cardiovascular cell modelling and mechanistic research. He now works at the University of Oxford as a member of the Computational Cardiovascular Team, working as part of a fellowship to develop organ-scale multi-physics electromechanical models of human hearts in health and post-myocardial infarction. This entails the development, calibration and validation of our novel human biventricular electromechanical platform. He intends to use this new methodology to perform in-silico drug trials to dissect key factors determining arrhythmic risk, and the effects of pharmacological interventions in modulating mechanical dysfunction post-MI.
Henk Van Der Linde
Talk title: Integration of multiple safety endpoints into the same animal model or toxicology studies
Biography:
Henk van der Linde graduated and received his Bachelor of Science at the Dr. Ir. W.L. Gijsen Institute, Utrecht, the Netherlands, in 1989. Thereafter, he joined the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Pathophysiology at the University of Utrecht from 1989 until 1997, and investigated virus-induced airways inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in guinea-pigs
in vitro and
in vivo, supported by the Dutch Asthma Foundation. In 1997, he joined the Preclinical Development & Safety department at JANSSEN Research & Development, pharmaceutical companies of Johnson and Johnson in Belgium where he developed to principal scientist within the global safety
in vivo group.
Dr Andrea Greiter-wilke
Talk title: Advances in Safety Pharmacology for improved risk assessment and translation of cardiovascular and CNS adverse events
Biography:
Dr. Andrea Greiter-Wilke is a board certified safety pharmacologist, working for F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel. All in vivo safety pharmacology related topics on study design, interpretation, regulatory interactions and assessment of due diligences are under her responsibility. Her main focus is on the cardiovascular area, but her expertise also includes CNS and abuse liability assessment. She is an active member of the safety pharmacology society, contributes to many of its committees, and was elected as the upcoming president in 2025. Andrea has authored and co-authored many publications and serves as a reviewer for several journals. She is a veterinarian by training (Univ. of Vienna) and worked in private and university animal hospitals in Germany, the UK and the US, before joining Roche.
Dr Alexandra Schaffert
Talk title: Developing Cardiotoxicity Testing Strategies based on Non-Animal Methods - Current Regulatory Challenges and Needs
Biography:
Dr.Alexandra Schaffert is a postdoctoral researcher at the Medical University Innsbruck in Austria. She has a background in toxicology and systems biology and her career has been focused on advancing human-relevant in vitro experimentation and reducing reliance on animal testing. Her current work under the EU Horizon 2020 Project "ALTERNATIVE" intersects regulatory science and cutting-edge toxicological research by developing and Adverse Outcome Pathway network for cardiotoxicity and an Integrated Strategy for Testing and Assessment.
Dr William Proctor
Talk title: Noncinical Saftey Considerations for Discovery and Development of Targeted Protein Degraders
Biography:
Will Proctor, PhD, DABT is a Senior Director, Toxicology Program Specialist at GSK. Will earned his BS in Chemistry from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in laboratory of Dr. Dhiren Thakker with a focus of drug transport and pharmacokinetics. He then performed postdoctoral training at the National institutes of Health in the laboratory of Dr. Lance Pohl, with research centered on immune mechanisms of drug-induced liver injury (DILI). Will started his indusrty career in 2013 at Genentech in the Investigative Toxicology group. Over the 8-years in the organization, grew from Scientist to Senior Director and Head of the Predictive Toxicology Orgnization, where he oversaw the investigative Toxicology Laboratory, Complex In Vitro Systems Laboratory, and non-clinical safety support for the Small-Molecule Drug Discovery (SMDD) organization. In 2021 Will joined Kymera Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech focusing on discovering and developing targeted protein degraders as a Senior Director in Preclinical Saftey. In May 2023, he joined GSK as a Senior Director as Toxicology Program Specialist, where he supports both discovery and development programs.
