chemie

Mini-Symposium on New Synthetic Opioids and BLT General Assembly on April 30, 2024: final program available

Mini-Symposium on New Synthetic Opioids and BLT General Assembly on April 30, 2024: final program available

  16 April 2024

On Tuesday April 30th, 2024, the BLT will have its General Assembly, at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ghent University (Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Ghent). The final program is now available.

The Mini-Symposium on New Synthetic Opioids, with a total of 6 speakers (program below), taking place from 13:45 to 18:00 and offered in a hybrid format (in person & online), will be followed by a sandwich lunch and then the BLT General Assembly (only in person; with 7 presentations – see below), from 19:00-20:45.

Registration (for the Symposium and/or the General Assembly) is possible until Apr 23rd via this LINK.

Program of the mini-symposium:
13:30-13:45 Registration
13:45-14:00 Welcome and introduction (Christophe Stove, Ghent University, Belgium)
14:00-14:30 Mu-opioid receptor pharmacology: lessons learned and challenges ahead (Meritxell Canals, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom)
14:30-15:00 New synthetic opioids in Europe: situation and responses (Michael Evans-Brown, EMCDDA, Portugal)
15:00-15:30 Activity-based characterization, prioritization, and detection of new synthetic opioids (Marthe Vandeputte, Ghent University, Belgium)
15:30-16:00 Break
16:00-16:30 Cardiovascular and reinforcing effects of fentanyl analogs found in clandestine drug markets (Mike Baumann, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore, United States)
16:30-17:00 Cardiorespiratory effects of novel synthetic opioids (Matteo Marti, University of Ferrara, Italy)
17:00-17:30 A lipid nanoparticle fentanyl vaccine (Bruno De Geest, Ghent University, Belgium)
17:30-18:00 Open discussion

Presenters at the General Assembly:

  • Update on NPS and the Belgian drug market by the BEWSD – results from the latest data collection (Maarten Degreef, Sciensano, Belgium)
  • Impact in Belgium of the opium production ban in Afghanistan: results of a foresight exercise with scenario development (Bert Hauspie & Shona Cosgrove, Sciensano, Belgium)
  • Detection and characterization of N-desethyl etonitazene in a powder sample from a Swiss drug checking service (Liam De Vrieze, Ghent University, Belgium)
  • Semi-synthetic cannabinoids: prevalence in Belgium and their detection in oral fluid (Ashley Haeck, NICC, Belgium)
  • Hemp-derived or semisynthetic cannabinoids: pharmacology of isomers and how it matters for the harm potential of seized drugs (Liesl Janssens, Ghent University, Belgium)
  • Another new addition to the SCRA landscape: in vitro characterization of the functional activity and -metabolites of CHO-4’Me-5’Br-FUBOXPYRA (Marie Deventer, Ghent University, Belgium)
  • Identification of synthetic antioxidants and insights into their metabolism (Maarten Roggeman, University of Antwerp, Belgium)