BPI Contributor

November 1, 2016

3 Min Read
CASSS and Biophysics Working Group Aim to Increase Scientific Dialogue About Biologics

CASSS has partnered with the Biophysics Working Group to support its mission to bring together scientists from across public and private sectors to address challenges in biologics research and development.

The goals of the Biophysics Working Group are to provide guidance and best practices, support innovation, advance transformative ideas, and generally enhance the overall scientific dialogue through contributions in various publications and CASSS conferences around the world.

This group also aligns with CASSS’s purpose to enable a global community of industry, academic, and regulatory professionals to work together to resolve scientific challenges in the field of biopharmaceutical development and regulation.

William F. Weiss IV, Ph.D., principal research scientist with Eli Lilly and Company, and John P. Gabrielson, Ph.D., president of Elion Labs, shared their aspirations for the Biophysics Working Group.

Why does the Biophysics Working Group exist?
The Biophysics Working Group brings together scientists from across public and private sectors to foster collaboration and address unmet challenges in the application of biophysical methods to biologics research and development. As a diverse group of scientists with common interests and a common goal, we seek to further CASSS’s purpose to enable a global community of industry, academic, and regulatory professionals to work together to resolve scientific challenges in the field of biopharmaceutical development and regulation. The group will work to execute and publish highly collaborative, non-proprietary studies focused on applications of biophysical methods.

What do the members of the Biophysics Working Group ultimately hope to achieve for biopharmaceutical development?
We hope to provide guidance and best practices on the application of biophysical techniques, support innovation and advance transformative ideas, and enhance the overall scientific dialogue within the biopharmaceutical industry. We hope to look back in a few years and realize that because of the work of the group, the amount and quality of scientific dialogue between private companies, government labs, and regulatory agencies in this space has increased. This would be our definition of success.

Who is currently participating in the Biophysics Working Group? Who would you like to become involved?
The Biophysics Working Group has members from a variety of different companies as well as academia and government labs. The group has an open enrollment policy, accepting any scientist at any level in either a public or private organization. We just ask that members of the group be willing to take an active role in improving the application of biophysical methods to biologics research and development. We welcome new scientists at any time, so please join the group and bring your ideas!

Where and when do you hope to publish research results?
The Biophysics Working Group seeks to publish research results in leading scientific journals and share learnings in CASSS conferences worldwide. We seek to produce tangible results through execution of lab work and publication of results with clear scientific merit and industry-wide value. The timing of disclosures is expected to vary based on the scope and complexity of the project, but the group will work diligently to share learnings with the broader scientific community as quickly as possible.

What does CASSS support mean to the Biophysics Working Group?
Support from CASSS is essential to the success of the Biophysics Working Group. CASSS staff are deeply capable and knowledgeable and support the group in a wide variety of ways, from organizing and hosting teleconferences to help with strategic direction and disclosure planning. We sincerely thank CASSS for their willingness to support our efforts.

For more information or to become involved in the Biophysics Working Group, visit http://www.casss.org/page/bwg.

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