Thursday, 20th of February
- 9:00 - 9:15 Welcome. Fabio Di Domenico. Sapienza University of Rome, IT.
- 9:15 - 9:30 Introduction Bench to Bedside Transition for Pharmacological Regulation of NRF2 in non-communicable diseases” Antonio Cuadrado. COST Action CA20121 chair. Autonomous University of Madrid, ES.
Models and tools to study NRF2 pharmacology
- 9:30 – 11:00 Scientific Session I Chair: Gina Manda. Victor Babes National Institute of Pathology, RO.
S1.01 Biomarkers for monitoring NRF2 activity and drug response in chronic diseases
Ian Copple
University of Liverpool, UK
Email: ian.copple@liverpool.ac.uk
The transcription factor NRF2 protects mammalian cells against chemical and oxidative stress. NRF2 is a therapeutic target of interest in a variety of diseases for many pharmaceutical companies. Whilst methods for determining if NRF2 has been activated in tissue samples are well established, these samples are difficult to access clinically. Instead, there is a need to develop a robust method for monitoring NRF2 activity non-invasively (e.g. using clinically accessible blood samples), but little work has been done in this area. This has limited our ability to demonstrate that drugs have the intended effect on NRF2 in humans, and to correlate this with therapeutic responses in clinical trials. In this presentation, I will describe non-clinical and clinical studies being conducted by my group to address this knowledge gap. The goal of this work is to determine the optimal strategy for monitoring the activity and therapeutic response of NRF2 non-invasively in humans, to support the development and use of NRF2 activators as novel therapies.

Ian Copple is Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology and currently holds a 5-year Senior Nonclinical Fellowship from the UK Medical Research Council. Ian leads the StressResponse Lab, a group of 8 pre/post-doctoral researchers interested in pharmacological and toxicological aspects of stress response pathways, and particularly the NRF2 oxidative stress response. He is also academic lead of the Human Liver Research Facility in Liverpool (www.liverpool.ac.uk/hlrf).
He works extensively with the pharmaceutical industry and has participated in several EU Innovative Medicines Initiative academic-industry research programs. Ian has received several awards for his research from national and international societies, including the 2023 Early Career Toxicology Award from the American Society of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) and the 2018 Early Career Investigator Prize from the British Toxicology Society. He is also a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and the current Chair of the Scientific Subcommittee of the British Toxicology Society.
- 11:00 - 11:30 Coffee Break
- 11:30 – 13:00 Scientific Session II Chair: Christina Morgenstern. Medical University of Vienna, AT
- 13:00 - 14:30 Lunch Break
- 14:30 – 16:00 Scientific Session III Chair: Brigitta Buttari. Istituto Superiore di Sanità, IT
- 16:00 - 16:30 Coffee Break
- 16:30 - 17:30 ROUND TABLE (Open to all participants) Chair, Ian Copple. University of Liverpool, UK.
Friday, October 11, 2024
Progress towards the clinic
- 09:00 – 10:30 Session IV Chair: Fabio Di Domenico. Sapienza University of Rome, IT
- 10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break
- 11:00 – 12:30 Session V Chair: Santiago Cuevas. BioMedical Research Institute of Murcia, ES
- 12:30 - 14:00 Lunch Break
- 14:00 - 15:30 Networking activities
- 15:30 - 16:00 Coffee Break
- 16:00 – 17:30 Session VI Chair: Rumen Kostov. Milonex, UK
- 17:30 - 18:00 CLOSING COMMENTS Fabio Di Domenico, Marzia Perluigy, Brigitta Buttari, Antonio Cuadrado