The Workshop

Pre-conference Workshop:

hERG in Cardiac Safety
DATE TBC

Led by:	Jules Hancox Professor of Cardiac Electrophysiology, University of Bristol	Harry Witchel Senior Research Fellow at School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:

The hERG potassium channel is recognised as one of the major mediators of toxicity that must be assessed in drug discovery and development programmes. This workshop reviews the physiology of hERG, surveys the technologies used to probe hERG, and presents a drug-development discussion on hERG and arrhythmia risk within cardiac safety. This workshop will be suitable for pharmacologists, safety specialists, clinicians, and managers of drug development.

WORKSHOP AGENDA:
12.30 - 13.00	Registration
13.00 - 14.00	Session 1:	Basic physiology of ion channels The hERG channel in relation to ventricular repolarisation and the QT interval Technologies for probing hERG channel pharmacology and function
14.00 - 14.20	Refreshments
14.20 - 15.00	Session 2:	Early detection: methods, criteria, risks Compare and contrast hERG channel blockers Relation between hERG and clinical outcomes: QT prolongation, Ventricular arrhythmia and Torsades de Pointes
15.00 - 16.00	Session 3:	Role of hERG’s structure in drug toxicity: channel promiscuity Limitations on acute hERG assays — other pre-clinical markers of arrhythmogenic risk. Interactive moderated discussion: what constitutes safe? What does the hERG liability mean in terms of risk? What is an appropriate arrhythmia surrogate?
16:00	Close of Workshop

ABOUT YOUR WORKSHOP LEADERS:

	Jules Hancox is Professor of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the University of Bristol. He has published extensively on a range of ionic currents involved in cardiac electrogenesis. A major strand of his research, conducted as a jointly-led collaboration with Dr Harry Witchel, centres on the physiology and pharmacology of hERG, with particular interests in the roles of hERG in drug-induced long QT syndrome and in the recently identified short QT syndrome.

	Dr. Harry Witchel is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Bristol. His research interest is the molecular pharmacology of hERG in long QT syndrome, and with his collaborator Jules Hancox he has published over 25 papers in this field. In 2004 he was given the national honour of being awarded “The Charles Darwin Award Lecture” by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.