SCD-Workshop

This highly interactive workshop uses Sickle Cell Disease as the central case study throughout the entire training, making it immediately relevant to clinicians, researchers, students, pharmaceutical scientists, and innovators attending the symposium. Rather than offering a generic AI-for-drug-discovery session, participants explore how artificial intelligence transforms each stage of the complete drug discovery pipeline while working through real SCD therapeutic examples. The workshop emphasizes hands-on learning, group collaboration, and real-world application using practical exercises and case studies demonstrating how AI tools accelerate African-led therapeutic innovation for SCD.

This beginner-friendly workshop introduces participants to computational and in silico approaches in drug discovery and development, with a focus on Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). It provides foundational knowledge of how bioinformatics, molecular modeling, and computational tools are used to identify targets, screen compounds, and support early-stage drug development.
Participants will be guided through key concepts and practical frameworks that underpin modern digital drug discovery workflows, with emphasis on accessible tools and real-world applications.

This workshop provides an understanding of preclinical evaluation in drug development, with a focus on safety and efficacy assessment for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) therapeutics. Participants will explore key experimental models, assay design principles, and translational considerations that support progression from laboratory discovery to clinical development.
The session will emphasize how preclinical data informs decision-making in drug development pipelines and supports regulatory expectations for early-phase therapeutic candidates:

This interactive workshop will explore how formulation-related considerations influence decision-making from the earliest stages of drug discovery. Through real world examples from SCD drug development, participants will learn how physicochemical properties, pharmacokinetics, dosage form design, patient needs, and implementation constraints can determine the success or failure of a therapeutic candidate

This workshop introduces participants to the foundational principles of clinical protocol development and research study design. It focuses on how well-structured protocols are developed to guide clinical trials and biomedical research, ensuring scientific validity, regulatory compliance, and operational feasibility.
Participants will be guided through key components of protocol development, including study objectives, endpoints, methodology, ethical considerations, and overall trial design within the context of clinical research and drug development for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD).