San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/30/2011 -- Leslie J. Williams, President and CEO at ImmusanT will give a presentation on “ImmusanT’s Development of an Immunotherapeutic Vaccine for Celiac Disease” at the Immunotherapeutics Partnering and Deal-making Conference to be held in San Diego, CA on January 30-31, 2012 by GTC.

Celiac Disease is an inherited autoimmune disease triggered by the consumption of foods containing gluten. The chronic inflammation of the intestine in this disease is caused by the immune response to gluten. Untreated disease is associated with other health conditions such as osteoporosis, anemia and liver disease. ImmusanT is harnessing the specificity of the immune reaction to gluten (protein in wheat, rye and barley) to develop diagnostics and therapeutics. Their scientists isolated the three toxic peptides responsible for the damage to the intestinal lining and alteration of nutritional absorption. The Company has now translated the scientific discovery of these immunodominant T-cell stimulatory gluten peptides into a diagnostic and therapeutic. It is believed that upon repeated dose administration of Nexvax2, ImmunsanT’s peptide based immunotherapy, the number of gluten-specific T cells capable of triggering a pro-inflammatory response will subside and regulatory suppressor T cells will increase in number to establish tolerance to dietary gluten.

Leslie Williams has more than 20 years of industry experience in healthcare, management, commercial product development and marketing. In 2010 she founded ImmusanT, Inc. which subsequently acquired the assets of Melbourne, Australia based Nexpep after advising the company for a year. Prior to that she was President and CEO of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals and under her leadership the company became a significant player in the pulmonary drug-delivery market. Prior to Ventaira, Ms. Williams was director of marketing for INO Therapeutics, Inc., where she played a significant role in the NDA submission for INOmax (nitric oxide). Responsible for the commercial aspects of INOmax’s U.S. market introduction, Williams also assisted with expansion of the INO-therapy platform into the European marketplace. Ms. Williams’ prior pharmaceutical industry experience includes commercial positions at Merck and GSK, and drug-delivery and drug-monitoring experience at Datex-Ohmeda (formerly Ohmeda, Inc.).

The Immunotherapeutics Partnering and Deal-making Conference is an immunotherapeutics business development conference that gives global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies an opportunity to network with high-level executives from top pharma and various biotech/pharmaceutical companies, as well as explore potential collaborations, and learn about relevant immunotherapeutics issues and partnerships that will affect the industry. This event also provides a unique venue for attendees to learn about immunotherapeutics business development trends, the market, and novel technologies that shape up the industry.

This conference is also part of the Novel Immunotherapeutics Summit, which consists of this track and three other tracks:
1) 4th Immunotherapeutics and Immunomonitoring
2) 10th Cytokines and Inflammation
3) Allergy Drug Discovery and Development

For more information, please visit http://www.gtcbio.com