WRIB 2018 conference report
The 12th Workshop on Recent Issues in Bioanalysis (WRIB) was held from 10–12 April 2018 in Philadelphia, USA. The Bioanalysis and Bioanalysis Zone team were in attendance and had an exciting few days attending talks, viewing posters and networking with new and familiar faces. In this report Naamah Maundrell (Senior Editor, Bioanalysis Zone) and Sankeetha Nadarajah (Managing Commissioning Editor, Bioanalysis) discuss some of their highlights from the workshop and insights into upcoming features to look out for on Bioanalysis Zone.
Highlights from the workshop
PK Assays and PK, PD, ADA Data Correlation – As part of this session, João Pedras-Vasconcelos (FDA) highlighted FDA recommendations on integrated summaries of immunogenicity. He unravels this further in an exclusive interview with Bioanalysis Zone, as well as discussing the challenges he faces as an Immunogenicity Reviewer. Stay tuned for his interview, which will be published later on in the year.
Immunogenicity Assays – Immunogenicity certainly appeared a ‘hot topic’ with several sessions touching upon this underlying theme. In this specific session there were several insightful talks including Meenu Wadhwa’s (UK MHRA-NIBSC) discussion on ‘Towards harmonization of immunogenicity assays’, in which she explored the need for a standardized approach. Bioanalysis will be publishing a Special Focus Issue on ‘Bioanalytical Techniques in Determining Immunogenicity’ co-guest edited by Dr Wadhwa, so do watch this space.
The Decennial Index of the White Papers in Bioanalysis: ‘A Decade of Recommendations (2007–2016)’ – We were delighted to see the positive response to the printed copies of the Decennial Index of the White Papers in Bioanalysis at WRIB. After 10 years of publishing White Papers summarizing the conclusions and consensus points from each WRIB meeting, the publication acts as a general index organized by topic to easily consult all these recommendations and their evolution over time. We had a chance to catch up with Natasha Savoie (CFABS), one of the authors of the publication, which we look forward to sharing with you soon.
WRIB Outstanding Posters Awards – We are very proud to be supporting the WRIB Outstanding Poster Awards once again. WRIB has always provided a platform for upcoming scientists to showcase their work and we are delighted to be playing a part in ensuring their vision for the future reaches the global bioanalytical community. Each year the quality of the presentations increase and this year was no different, so congratulations to all presenters. Three winners were announced and presented with their prizes at WRIB, and we very much look forward to working with them on the Special Feature. Congratulations once again to the winners: Andreas Gloge (Roche, Germany), Susan Zondlo (QPS, PA, USA) and Ashley Frazer-Abel (University of Colarado, CO, USA).
Discussions with experts and key opinion leaders – Workshops and conferences provide us with an opportunity to meet many of our authors, readers, reviewers, editorial board members and Zone Leaders all in one place – often enabling us to place a face to the names. This year we had the chance to meet many experts to explore the progress and future perspectives of the field, and also to discuss whether we were covering the right areas, and at the right time. We look forward to incorporating our discussions and feedback in our future plans, and would like to thank everyone who stopped by for a chat.
Upcoming features on Bioanalysis Zone
Bioanalysis Zone Panel Discussions – We had the privilege of filming two panel discussions featuring key experts from CROs, pharma, biotech and academia. In these discussions we gain a 360° perspective on two key areas including: the sharing of scientific data and new technology integration in bioanalytical workflows. In these videos, we had the rare opportunity of hearing the open conversations and thoughts of leading experts, which we look forward to publishing over the summer. Our hope is that through having these open discussions, together we can progress the field of bioanalysis, and encourage dialogue among the bioanalytical community.
As the conference was walking distance away from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we filmed our conference report video at the Rocky Steps, so do click on the post below to check it out if you haven’t already.
