Exclusive Speaker Interview with Brent Cezairliyan for SMi’s Superbugs & Superdrugs USA
Exclusive Speaker Interview with Brent Cezairliyan for SMi’s Superbugs & Superdrugs USA
SMi are delighted to have interviewed, speaker, Brent Cezairliyan, Senior Scientist, Octagon Therapeutics regarding his thoughts and experiences before the upcoming Superbugs and Superdrugs USA Conference.
Dr. Cezairliyan is Vice President of Microbiology at Octagon Therapeutics. He has studied bacterial pathogenesis as a geneticist and a biochemist for over 15 years. Prior to Octagon, Dr. Cezairliyan worked at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he studied the regulation of bacterial virulence under fellowships from the NIH and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Dr. Cezairliyan received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied signaling mechanisms in bacterial proteostasis.
Snapshot of Interview:
Q. What would you say is the biggest barrier to implementation of novel anti-infectives in common treatment plans and the commercial market?
A. I firmly believe that the novel anti-infectives of the future will be those that target a limited number or single pathogens. These new drugs may have potential for both pre-emptive therapy (e.g. passive therapy) as well as treatment therapy. The pathway forward for the latter is likely to remain unchanged as doctors are quite familiar with treating infections. However, in the former case of preventing infections (with the exception of vaccines), this is a paradigm change among physicians. Such a mindset change will require strong evidence of clinical efficacy to drive usage.
Q. What do you think has been the greatest innovation within the anti-infectives space over the last year or two?
A. The greatest innovation in my opinion is not necessarily with drugs themselves but with technology that will help drive new anti-infective drug discovery. Some of these include new or improved microscopic methods such as the advancement in intravital microscopy. This technology enables the study of host-pathogen interactions during an active infection in a live animal. This technology could enable better understanding of how infections escape immune intervention and lead to recurrent infections. In addition, while still in its infancy, better human physiological models are being developed to better enable drug candidates. These include organoid systems or organs on a chip.
Q. What is your role and what do you hope attendees to take away from your talk?
A. My role is as VP of Clinical Development for Motif Bio, and I would like for the attendees to be further educated on the role of iclaprim within the context of the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections due to drug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens.
Check out the full interview in the download centre online: www.superbugs-usa.com/prpj
Brent Cezairliyan will be presenting: ‘Discovery and evaluation of inhibitors of intermediary metabolism as novel antibiotics against Gram-negative bacterial pathogens’
Further information is available at: www.superbugs-usa.com/prpj
Date: Workshops: November 14th
Location: Iselin, New Jersey, USA
Website: www.superbugs-usa.com/prpj
About SMi Group:
Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the world’s most forward-thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at http://www.smi-online.co.uk