Dr. Gary Piazzo, Program Director of the Southern Research Molecular Libraries Screening Center at Southern Research Institute will be giving a presentation at GTCbio’s 3rd Assay Development & Screening Technologies Conference on June 5-6, 2008 in San Francisco, CA. Dr. Piazzo will be speak on “HTS to Identify MRP1 Inhibitors for Reversal of Multidrug Resistance.”

Multi-drug resistance (MDR) is a phenomenon by which tumor cells display or develop resistance to a number of structurally and functionally distinct anticancer drugs and is a major clinical obstacle that contributes to the marginal efficacy of cancer chemotherapy. A significant factor that contributes to MDR is the over expression of certain ATP-dependent transporter proteins in tumor cell membranes that cause the efflux of cytotoxic drugs; thereby reducing their intracellular concentration and limiting their effectiveness. The development of a cell-based assay to identify compounds that reverse MRP1-mediated drug resistance will be presented along with results from a HTS campaign. This assay was conducted by the Southern Research Molecular Libraries Screening Center as part of the NIH Roadmap Molecular Libraries Screening Initiative.

GTCbio's 3rd Assay Development and Screening Technologies conference will provide attendees with critical information to utilize in the discovery and development of assays, while keeping them informed about the latest screening technologies for both high-throughput screening and high-content screening. Topics being covered include cell based assays, high throughput screening, high content screening, in vitro assays and screening, novel assay and screening technologies, and target validation.