We invite you to submit an abstract for a presentation or poster at NCB 2013, which will be held October 15-17, 2013, in Villanova, Pennsylvania.  The conference’s theme is Nonclinical Statistics – Improving Pharmeceutical Discovery, Development & Manufacturing.  Its goal is to bring together statisticians working in nonclinical areas in industry, academia, and the regulatory agencies to exchange ideas and to network.

The deadline for submitting an abstract is Monday, June 10, 2013.

Submission Guidelines

Topics

In keeping with the theme of the conference we encourage the submission of abstracts from the entire range of topics of statistical and quantitative issues arising in the nonclinical areas of drug and biologics research and development.   The conference will be arranged around several topical areas, and you should submit your abstract with one of them in mind.  Here are the areas and examples topics in each:

Discovery/Biomarkers/Diagnostics

Examples: high-throughput and high-content screening; QSAR; assay development, optimization, and validation; analysis of time series (EEG, ECG) and imaging data (molecular, ultrasound, MRI, fMRI, PET); pathway and network analysis; omics-related methods and issues (microarrays, proteomics, metabolomics, microRNA, copy number variation, genome-wide association studies), discovery and validation of biomarkers, development, testing, and validation of diagnostic procedures and/or instruments.

Safety/Pharmacology

Examples: applications of statistics to pharmacology, preclinical safety, toxicology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, including scientific issues in a regulatory context.

CMC

Examples: applications or general methodology in the areas of Quality by Design, specification setting, bioassays, stability designs and their analysis, statistical process control and PAT.

Other, Methodology

Anything that does not fit into the other areas, such as general methodology, model based drug development, translational medicine and biomarkers.

Presentation Formats

Choose between an abstract for a poster or an oral presentation.  Each format has its advantages and disadvantages.  For example, it is more likely that your poster abstract will be selected, simply because there are many more slots for posters than for oral presentations.  Furthermore, posters may require less preparation and create less anxiety than oral presentations.  On the other hand, oral presentations will get wider exposure.

Oral Presentation

You should plan for a presentation of about ½ hour, including time for questions and answers.  Keep in mind that the conference has only one track, and everybody will attend all topical sessions. Your presentation should be understandable to non-clinical statisticians working in other areas.  Ideally you will provide an overview rather than technical details, and will give enough context for non-specialists to follow.  In general, expository presentations will be preferred over highly technical ones.  Copies of your presentation slides will be made available on our website after the conference.

Poster

Posters will be displayed during the conference within the lecture hall on standard poster boards.  Specific poster sessions will be scheduled so that authors can be available for face-to-face discussions. Posters can be more technical than oral presentations, but they should be self-contained and address an interesting and important question.

Submission Review

All submissions will be evaluated by the appropriate session committee once the submission period has expired.  All authors will be notified by e-mail about the status of their submission as soon as the nomination process is completed.  

Miscellaneous

Here are some noteworthy points:

• The conference language is English.  All abstracts, presentations and posters should be in English.
• Only abstracts submitted through the web-based service can be accepted.  
• After submitting an abstract you will receive a confirmation e-mail.
• You will be able to retract or change your abstract until the submission deadline passes (instructions will be in the confirmation e-mail).
• All selected abstracts will be published in the program booklet.
• An abstract has a lead author (usually the presenter) and possibly one or more co-authors.  The abstract title and the primary author’s e-mail identify the abstract.  All communication regarding an abstract will be with the lead author.
• The primary author needs to provide his or her full name, affiliation (company, institution, university, agency, etc.), and a valid e-mail address.  A telephone number and mailing address can also be provided.
• Once you have submitted an abstract we encourage you to register and reserve a room at one of the recommended hotels.

If you have further questions, please contact paul.lupinacci@villanova.edu

Submit:

Use this link to submit your abstract.  Immediately after you submit you will have the option to edit your response, but after closing your browser window, please contact paul.lupinacci@villanova.edu to change a response.