The Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid AL Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences resumed organizing the 8th Dubai International Conference for Medical Sciences through 22 lectures held at AL Bustan Rotana Hotel, Dubai, with the participation of a galaxy of specialists, doctors, students, nurses and technicians. The participants will receive 18 CME hours accredited from the UAE University.

 

The conference discusses drug discovery, vaccines, cell therapy and targeted therapy by senior scientists and researchers from 12 countries all over the world including the United States of America, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, England, Germany, France, China, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Republic of Egypt.

 

Today, Prof. Majid Abou Gharbia, USA, the winner of Grand Hamdan Award, delivered an important lecture about breakthrough discoveries produced through the examination of biologically active small molecules include innovative treatment of cancer, immunoinflammatory diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders, and neurodegenerative conditions, and many others.  

 

Dr. Gilles Gosselin, the Research Director at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the co-inventor of the antiviral drug telbivudine, presented a lecture went through the whole journey of telbivudine; from the discovery of antiviral activity to a marketed drug for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B.

 

In a lecture by Prof. Paul Townsend, the associate dean of personalized therapy at the University of Manchester, some key and surprising findings from his lab’s work were presented. Of this is a chemical found in Chinese green tea, which reduces cell death that can ultimately lead to organ failure.

 

Prof. Townsend’s research focuses on cellular stress and survival mechanisms in cardiac myocytes, bone cells and cancers. In the lab he uses muscle cells of the heart undergoing oxygen deprivation as a model of study.

Prof. Stanley Plotkin, a winner of Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence in the topic of vaccines, delivered a comprehensive review about the past, present and future of vaccine development and various approaches for developing vaccines along with novel directions and challenges.

 

Prof. Ian Frazer, the co-developer of the virus-like particle technology which has become the basis of vaccines to prevent cervical cancer, shed light on the usage of vaccination to prevent cervical cancer and studies on the role of immunotherapy to prevent progression to cancer.

 

Prof. Adrian Hill, the director of Jenner Institute at Oxford University, presented the latest results from work on the highly alarming Ebola outbreak. The talk was of utmost importance not only because of Hill’s impressive work on malaria susceptibility in African children but also because his Institute at Oxford has been undertaking the first clinical trial of the leading candidate vaccine for Ebola.  

 

Prof. Harriet Robinson presented a lecture updated the audience about the current state of HIV vaccines. Prof. Robinson co-founded the biotech company GeoVax that is specialized in developing HIV/AIDS vaccines. 

 

Also, a lecture has been presented by Prof. Brian Druker, a winner of Hamdan Award for Medcial Research Excellence, the Director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Associate Dean for Oncology of the OHSU School of Medicine. He talked about the stages of his research journey from the laboratory bench till the marketing of Imatinib (Gleevec). 

 

Prof. Druker is well-known for making a paradigm shift in the treatment of cancer; his work led indeed to the establishment of targeted therapeutics. 

 

Prof. Moustafa Hassan from Karolinska University in Sweden gave an overview of the current challenges and future prospective in personalized medicine in cancer therapy.

 

Professor Wei Duan, a specialist in cancer therapeutics, discussed targeting cancer stem cells with repressors of gene expression using cutting edge technology.

 

Today’s lectures were concluded with a lecture by Prof. Ingegerd Hellstrom from the University of Washington. He focused on developing immunomodulatory antibodies for therapy of cancer.    

 

Prof. Hellstrom has been researching tumor immunology for a long time. Currently, she is involved in developing better diagnostics for cancer (especially ovarian cancer). 

 

It is worth mentioning that the 8th Dubai International Conference for Medical Sciences is held in conjunction with the ceremony held to honor the winners of the 8th term of Hamdan Medical Award. Yesterday morning and among the activities of the conference, 12 workshops were held with the participation of a galaxy of experts and researchers.