The West coast regional safety pharmacology society meeting update: Filling translational gaps in safety assessment

Abstract The Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) held a West Coast Regional Meeting in Foster City, CA on November 14, 2018 at the Gilead Sciences Inc. site. The meeting was attended by scientists from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, contract research organizations (CROs) and academia. A variety of scientific topics were presented by speakers, covering a broad variety of topics in the fields of safety risk assessment; from pro-arrhythmia and contractility risk evaluation, to models of heart failure and seizure in-a-dish; and discovery sciences; from stem cells and precision medicine, to models of inherited cardiomyopathy and precision cut tissue slices. The present review summarizes the highlights of the presentations and provides an overview of the high level of innovation currently underlying many frontiers in safety pharmacology.