Dr. Suso Platero of Janssen Research & Development Speaking at the Biomarker Conference in San Diego, CA

San Diego, November 6, 2015 (Newswire.com) - R&D spending in biomarkers coupled with increased healthcare expenditure and growing utility of biomarkers for diagnostics is driving the biomarkers market worldwide. Growing at a CAGR of 13.58% from 2015 to 2020, the global biomarkers market is estimated to reach $45.55 billion by 2020. Aiding the growth are new developments in biomarker research and minimal costs of clinical trials in developing nations. The Biomarker Conference, organized by MnM Conferences, to be held on 18-19 February 2016 in San Diego – USA, will gather global experts to discuss the latest advancements and address challenges in biomarker discovery, validation, regulations and clinical applications.

Speaking at the conference are organizations such as Pfizer, Merck KGaA, Roche, Novartis, FDA | CDRH, Astrazeneca, Eisai, Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School and NCI/NIH to name a few. The team at the Biomarker Conference recently conducted a short interview with Dr. Suso Platero, one of the speakers at the conference. Dr. Platero, currently working as Sr. Director of Translational Research Oncology at Janssen Research & Development, spoke about his areas of interest in biomarker technologies and the topic that he will be covering at the conference.

Shedding light on his topic ‘Translational Medicine: Using biomarkers in clinical trials’ he said, “I will present some work of how we discover biomarkers, including using cell lines and then incorporate them to a clinical trial”. The core focus of his presentation will be on use of pharmacodynamics and predictive biomarkers, to find mechanism of action of the compounds and which markers will predict patient response to drugs. Dr. Platero further added, “During the course of the clinical trials, we are developing new hypothesis for biomarkers and applying them in the ongoing studies. NGS, IHC and flow are some of the technologies that we are applying in clinical trials”. 

Talking about the most interesting aspect of Biomarkers, Dr. Platero said, “It is the ability to straddle the bench and clinic, developing a hypothesis in the laboratory and applying them in clinical trials and also developing the hypothesis in the clinical trial and going back to the lab. This way we are helping a lot of patients.” One of the challenges of the biomarker industry according to him is the speed at which clinical trials are being run today and the approach to biomarkers has to be very specific and focused to overcome such challenges.

The conference will also feature case studies on Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease: From mice to men to trials and clinical practice by Dr. Johan Luthman, VP - Neuroscience Clinical Development, Eisai Pharmaceuticals, Discovery of Circulating Biomarkers for Lung Cancer Early Detection by Dr. Qihong Huang, Associate professor in the Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis Program, The Wistar Institute and Plasma Lipidomics: Stratification of Patient Subgroups in MCI and LOAD by Dr. Paul L. Wood, Director, Professor, Physiology and Pharmacology, DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The Biomarker Conference will give attendees an opportunity to network with experts from pharma, biopharma companies and research institutes, and share their experiences. The conference is co-located with the Genome Editing & Engineering Conference and NGS Data Analysis and Informatics Conference.

​Ajay Nimbalkar
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