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University of Wisconsin-Madison

AAPS Distinguished Seminar – Dr. Alita Miller

April

6,

2018

Dr. Alita Miller
Head of Biology
Entasis Therapeutics

Pathogen-Directed Strategies at Entasis Therapeutics

Antibiotic resistance is a serious public health crisis.  Antibacterial regulatory guidelines have been recently updated to allow for more streamlined development of narrow-spectrum, precision therapies to treat highly problematic, multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Accordingly, various strategies are being pursued to develop candidate agents for narrower-than-usual or specific pathogen-directed indications.  Entasis Therapeutics has embraced this new paradigm as exemplified by two of its current clinical programs: (1) zoliflodacin, a novel oral antibiotic for the treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhea and (2) sulbactam-ETX2514, a novel combination agent targeting carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. Details around the discovery and development of each of these candidates will be presented. 

 

Seminar at 3:30 pm in 2006 Rennebohm Hall
Reception to follow in Rennebohm Hall Atrium

 

Alita Miller is the Head of Bioscience at EntasisTherapeutics, a small biotech focused on the discovery and and development of novel antibiotics to treat serious Gram-negative infections. Alita holds a BA in Chemistry from Kalamazoo College and a PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago. Her postdoctoral work was on bacterial pathogenesis at the University of Michigan with Vic DiRita.  Alita spent over a decade in the Pfizer Antibacterials Unit where she worked on both large and small molecule anti-infective projects.  Alita joined AstraZeneca in 2013 as an Associate Director of Infection and was a founding member of Entasis when it was spun out of AstraZeneca Infection in May of 2015. Alita serves on several scientific advisory and editorial boards and is a permanent member of the NIH grant review panel for Drug Discovery and Resistance. Her current research interests include understanding the molecular drivers of bacterial antibiotic uptake.

 

Host:  AAPS UW-Madison Student Chapter

Date
Friday, April 6, 2018
Time
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Location

2006 Rennebohm Hall

Madison, WI 53705

This event is brought to you by: Pharmaceutical Sciences Division