Dear Colleague,

As more and more compounds derived from high throughput screening find their way into clinical trials, drug screening has become widely accepted as a critical path in the drug discovery process. After more than a decade of rapid growth, tremendous progress has been made in assay technologies, laboratory automation, and informatics. These technological developments have not only enabled a drastic increase in throughput and efficiency in drug screening, but have also provided novel solutions in other areas of drug discovery and development. In the last few years, there has been a growing trend of setting up screening facilities in academic institutions and universities. Screening has also become an important emerging tool for biological research.

As the pharmaceutical industry continues to face the challenges of developing more new chemical entities and reducing the cost of R&D, the demand for novel technologies and creative approaches for improving the efficiency of screening has intensified. An increasing number of cell-based assays are used in compound screening and high content screening technologies has gained popularity in the industry. After years of intensive research, label-free technologies have finally arrived in the drug screening market place. These technologies provide new ways of interrogating cellular and molecular binding events and enable orthogonal screening approaches to drug targets.

The goal of the 2010 5th annual Assay and Drug Discovery Technologies Conference being held on September 20-21, 2010 in San Diego, CA is to provide a venue for professionals in the drug discovery industry and academics to get an update of exciting new developments in assay technologies and exchange ideas in developing creative approaches in the drug discovery and development process to improve the efficiency and output.

It is our pleasure to welcome you to San Diego,, California for the 5th Annual Assay and Drug Discovery Technologies Conference where you will be joined by a mixture of academic, industry and public sector experts in an intimate setting that favors the showcase of data, the exchanges of ideas and networking.

Best regards,
2010 Assay Development & Screening Technologies Advisory Committee