Seminars

Improving Preclinical Decision-Making in Obesity and CKD with Translational In Vivo Phenotyping


Title : Improving Preclinical Decision-Making in Obesity and CKD with Translational In Vivo Phenotyping

Subtitle : Join us to learn how in-depth in vivo phenotyping using patient-relevant models can improve preclinical decision-making.

Time : 8:00 am PT | 11:00 am ET | 5:00 pm CET

Webinar Overview :
Translational risk remains a major challenge in obesity and kidney disease drug development. In obesity programs, reliance on body weight and food intake alone can obscure whether observed effects reflect true pharmacological efficacy or are driven by tolerability or other adverse effects. In kidney disease, conventional preclinical models may not fully reflect human pathology, limiting confidence in efficacy translation.

In this webinar, we will discuss how in-depth, patient-relevant in vivo phenotyping and advanced tissue analysis approaches can improve interpretation of preclinical efficacy signals and enable more robust candidate selection.

For obesity, we will explore how integrated in vivo profiling—including body composition imaging, energy expenditure, and rodent-compatible approaches to evaluate GLP-1-related emesis and muscle-related liabilities—can strengthen efficacy interpretation and support safer candidate selection. For kidney disease, we will highlight patient-relevant CKD models, including Axcelead’s proprietary models for Alport syndrome and FSGS, and show how advanced tissue analysis approaches such as spatial transcriptomics, single-cell and single-nucleus analysis, and multiplex IHC can provide deeper insight into drug response within complex renal tissue.

Key topics include:

  • Strengthening anti-obesity efficacy assessment beyond body weight and food intake
  • Early identification of GLP-1-related emesis and muscle-related liabilities
  • Distinguishing true efficacy from adverse effect-driven signals through integrated MOA analysis
  • Improving CKD efficacy evaluation using patient-relevant disease models
  • Characterising renal drug responses through advanced tissue analysis approaches

Presenters

Kosuke Hitaka is a pharmacologist specializing in metabolic diseases. After obtaining a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Kyushu University in 2012, he spent over a decade in the pharmaceutical industry, where he was engaged in drug discovery research targeting metabolic diseases, including chronic kidney disease. In 2023, he joined Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc., where he supports pharmacological research in the fields of obesity and renal diseases. His work focuses on the design and execution of preclinical studies with a strong emphasis on clinical translatability, contributing to the acceleration of drug discovery programs.
Dr. Shuichi Takagahara is a research scientist in the Translational Research Business Unit at Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc. He earned his PhD from the University of Tokyo. Dr. Takagahara has over 20 years of experience in vivo and in vitro pharmacology across Takeda, Cardurion Pharmaceuticals, and Axcelead, supporting translational drug discovery programs. His research expertise focuses on cardiovascular, metabolic, and renal diseases including atherosclerosis, heart failure, obesity, and kidney disease.