The first Southeastern Wisconsin Consortium for Drug Discovery and Development Meeting was held on the 22nd of July 2025 at the new UWM Chemistry Building. Representative from local industry and academic institutions attended this three hour meeting that was supported by the following presentations:
- Novel tools to study neurochemical processes presented by Hina Andleeb from the Cunningham group (Concordia University).
- Program in Chemical Biology at the Medical College of Wisconsin presented by Brian Smith.
- Information about BioForward Wisconsin presented by Michael Harrison.
- CU Ventures supporting tech founders in WI presented by Dan Sem.
- GPCR Target Engagement Platforms presented by John McCorvy (MCW).
- The Neuroendocrinology of Memory Lab presented by Karyn Frick (UWM).
- MCW Core Facilities were presented by Kristin Ciezki.
- The MCW Therapeutic Accelerator Program (TAP) presented by Kristin Cierzki.
- Simmaron Research and Simmpyra Pharmaceutics presented by Avik Roy (UWM).
- Computational Biophysics and Biomolecular Dynamics Lab presented by Tyler Trask from the Marinelli Lab (MCW).
- Next-gen human relevant Organoid & Organ- on-chip models for drug discovery: Embracing FDA Modernization Act presented by Subhajit Giri (MCW.)
The Meeting was well attended with more than 80 local scientist. Many stayed after the meeting to discuss partnerships between institutions and industry. The consensus of the meeting was that Southeastern Wisconsin has a significant number of program that are related to the development of new therapeutics. The challenge for the future is to develop a structure to connect these program and to develop a robust pipeline for the development of new inventions for the medical sector.