2024 In-Person Breakouts

In-Person Breakouts are informal, moderated discussions, allowing participants to exchange ideas and experiences and develop future collaborations around a focused topic. Each breakout will be led by a facilitator who keeps the discussion on track and the group engaged. To get the most out of this format, please come prepared to share examples from your work, be a part of a collective, problem-solving session, and participate in active idea sharing.

All Breakouts – including Wednesday’s Diversity Discussion – will be offered IN-PERSON ONLY.

PART A CONFERENCES: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2:50-3:35 PM

Degraders and Molecular Glues – Part 1

BREAKOUT 1: Structural and Mechanistic Characterization of Degraders and Glues

Moderators:
Ralph Mazitschek, PhD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Co-Director of the Chemical Biology Platform, Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Hua Xu, PhD, Director, Mechanistic Biology & Profiling, AstraZeneca

In vitro characterization to develop new degrader/glue modalities
Developing assays that are sensitive and unbiased in finding the right targets and ligands
Overcoming limitations in current biochemical and cellular assays

BREAKOUT 2: Tackling Transcription Factors and Other Difficult-to-Drug Targets

Moderators:
John Brognard, PhD, Senior Investigator, Laboratory of Cellular & Developmental Signaling, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Wankyu Lee, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
Peng Wu, PhD, Professor, Chemical Physiology, Scripps Research Institute

When to classify a target as being challenging or difficult?
How to find tools and assays that will work with challenging targets?
Examples of how difficult targets are being pursued using new approaches and modalities

Lead Generation Strategies

BREAKOUT 3: Affinity Selection-Mass Spectrometry (AS-MS) for de novo Hit Generation and DEL Hit Verification

Moderators:
Allen Annis, PhD, Independent Consultant, former SVP Research, Aileron Therapeutics
Hans-Peter N. Biemann, PhD, Distinguished Scientist, Integrated Drug Discovery, Sanofi

AS-MS and DEL as synergistic tools for hit generation and verification of on- and off-DNA hit structures
Where does AS-MS fit in the HTS toolbox vs. DEL and other biophysical/biochemical screening technologies?
How do we access AS-MS for hit-finding and verification? Outsourcing options vs. in-house platform development

BREAKOUT 4: Hit Validation Strategies

Moderator: Mitchell H. Keylor, PhD, Associate Principal Scientist, Merck

Eliminating false positives
Data analysis formats
Binding methods: How important is it? Favorite biophysical tools?

Small Molecules for Cancer Targets (3:05-3:35 pm)

BREAKOUT 5: Covalent Approaches for Drug Discovery

Moderator: Paul E. Gormisky, PhD, Senior Director, Enabling Sciences Chemistry, Odyssey Therapeutics

Strategies to prioritize targets for covalent drug discovery
Assessing if a covalent ligand or fragment for a novel target can be progressed to a drug (e.g., sufficient pocket, supportive biology)
Role of covalency in other new modalities (degraders, macrocycles)

Antibodies Against Membrane Protein Targets

BREAKOUT 6: Avoiding Roadblocks: Maneuvering the Challenges of Difficult Targets

Moderator: Joseph Rucker, PhD, Vice President, Research and Development, Integral Molecular, Inc.

Antigen design: antigen strategies and engineering for optimal target presentation
Antibody sources: pros and cons of naive and immune libraries, and the benefits of using divergent species for targets that are highly conserved
Screening: best approaches to identify diverse antibody panels, and merits of B cell cloning vs. display technologies
Specificity: how to assess off-target binding

Small Molecules Targeting RNA

BREAKOUT 7: Challenges and Opportunities in Pursuing RNA as a Drug Target

Moderators:
Generoso Ianniciello, Chief Business Officer, Anima Biotech
Karthik Iyer, PhD, Director, Head of Medicinal Chemistry, Arrakis Therapeutics
Marla Weetall, PhD, Senior Vice President, Pharmacology and Biomarkers, PTC Therapeutics

Emerging techniques for probing and modulating RNA
Correlating RNA binding with function and physiological response
Designing and optimizing small molecules targeting various RNA moieties
Leveraging AI/ML, RNA degradation tools and other drug development strategies

AI/ML-Enabled Drug Discovery – Part 1

BREAKOUT 8: How to Quantify Biology to Inform AI/ML-Driven Decisions in Drug Discovery

Moderators:
Arvind Rao, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan
Yuan Wang, PhD, Head of Research Analytics, UCB Pharma

Improving training sets and building better AI/ML models
Using deep learning, neural network analysis and imaging for drug discovery
Using large language models to help translational research and decision-making
Novel machine learning models for hit-finding and structure-activity predictions

Physiologically Relevant Translational Models

BREAKOUT 9: Standardization of Complex in vitro Models (CIVMs) in Drug Development

Moderators:
Linda Griffith, PhD, Professor, Biological Engineering & Teaching Innovation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
James Hickman, PhD, Professor, NanoScience Technology Center, University of Central Florida
Stephanie Kourula, PhD, Principal Scientist, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
Lindsay Tomlinson, PhD, Global Pathologist Resource Lead, Pfizer Inc.

Opportunities and/or needs for standardization of in vitro models/microphysiological systems (MPS)
Ways to increase model utilization in the context of regulatory decision-making
Readiness of CIVM/MPS models for gaining acceptance in drug development
Drafting broadly applicable standards that can be applied regardless of context-of-use (COU) and/or organ system

PART B CONFERENCES: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 5:15-6:15 PM

Diversity Discussion

Fostering Diversity through Mentoring

Moderators:
Angelo Andres, Senior Scientist, Chemical Biology, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
Carolyn Cuff, PhD, Head of Rheumatology, Translational Science, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
Saudat Fadeyi, PhD, MBA, Director, Business Development, Ovid Therapeutics, Inc.
Minji Kim, PhD, MBA, Chief Business Officer, Mineralys Therapeutics, Inc.
Fred Manby, DPhil, Co-Founder & CTO, Iambic Therapeutics
Joel Omage, Research Scientist II, CVM Disease Area, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc.

Join us for this interactive, informal, candid discussion on embracing and increasing diversity in the life sciences. We have invited some engaging speakers to share their stories and experiences on understanding the importance of mentoring. How can we improve diversity—gender, racial, economic, and others—by being a mentor and reaching out as a mentee? As a group, we can share various initiatives that have been launched in different environments and discuss how well they have worked. We are hoping that this event will motivate the audience to learn, think, and execute on ways to improve diversity in their own environments. This discussion will not be recorded nor available for on-demand access.

Topics for discussion will include, but certainly not be limited to:

How to increase awareness and address hidden barriers and biases in life sciences
How to motivate early-career scientists to seek out mentors and resources
How to convince senior leadership to take time for coaching the next generation of leaders and support DEI initiatives
How to create simple and impactful opportunities and metrics for mentors and mentees to connect and collaborate

PART B CONFERENCES: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 10:20-11:05 AM

Degraders and Molecular Glues – Part 2

BREAKOUT 10: Novel Modalities, E3 Ligases and Ligands for Induced Proximity

Moderators:
Tauseef Butt, PhD, President & CEO, Progenra, Inc.
Rick Ewing, PhD, Vice President and Head of Chemistry, Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals

Technologies enabling future induced proximity work
Improving potency, modularity and utility of degraders and glues
Discovery and validation of new degrader chemistries and functionality
Pursuing new E3 ligases and cellular pathways
Red Flags in PROTACs and Pink Flags in molecular glues

BREAKOUT 11: Discovery and Optimization of Molecular Glues

Moderators:
Yong Cang, PhD, Professor, ShanghaiTech University; Co-Founder & CSO, Degron Therapeutics
Murali Ramachandra, PhD, CEO, Aurigene Discovery Technologies, Ltd.

From induced proximity to glues
Strategies to identify and screen molecular glues
Value of serendipitous discovery versus rational design
Determination of selectivity of molecular glues
Importance of species selectivity for degraders

Target Identification Strategies

BREAKOUT 12: Leveraging Covalent Chemistries, Phenotypic Screening, Chemoproteomics Tools

Moderators:
Alexander Federation, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, Talus Bioscience
Denise Field, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist, Chemical Biology and Proteomics, Pfizer
Steve Gygi, PhD, Professor, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School

How can proteomics be best used in the drug discovery pipeline?
Can traditional chemoproteomics and orthogonal methods help deconvolute “undruggable” targets?
What improvements are needed in developing good proteomic assays and screening platforms?
Leveraging covalent chemistry and induced proximity for drug discovery

GPCR-Based Drug Discovery

BREAKOUT 13: Peptide Agonists for GPCRs

Moderator: Florence Brunel, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist, Novo Nordisk Inc

How will small molecule GPCR agonists compete with peptides?
What are the next GPCRs to be blockbusters?
What is the limitation to developing more peptide GPCR agonists? What are the new techniques to help solve these issues?

BREAKOUT 14: Innovations in GPCR-Hit Discovery

Moderator: Evan O'Brien, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Laboratory of Brian Kobilka, Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Stanford University

Role of cryoEM
Impact of AI
DNA-Encoded Libraries (DEL) & GPCRs
New biophysical tools: SPR microscopy, single-molecule FRET

Cancer Antibodies

BREAKOUT 15: Strategies for Enhancing Antibody Efficiency and Selectivity

Moderator: Thomas Nittoli, PhD, Senior Director, Therapeutic Proteins, R&D Chemistry, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Improving tissue penetration and targeting
Reducing immunogenicity and off-target effects
Optimizing antibody-drug conjugate design and development

Targeting Transcription Factors

BREAKOUT 16: Leveraging Novel Strategies for Transcription Factors and Undruggable Targets

Moderators:
Kristy Stengel, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Asad Taherbhoy, PhD, Director, Drug Discovery, Foghorn Therapeutics
William Tansey, PhD, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, Professor of Cell & Development Biology, Vanderbilt University
Pamela Ting, PhD, Associate Director, Hematology, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Assays and screening strategies to identify modulators of transcription factors
Structural and mechanistic approaches for underlying mechanism of action
Emerging transcription factors as viable drug targets for the various indications
Designing potent, orally bioavailable drugs that target co-activators and inhibitors
Pursuing degradation as a therapeutic strategy for targeting transcription factors

AI/ML-Enabled Drug Discovery – Part 2

BREAKOUT 17: How Successful Are AI/ML Approaches in Drug Development Today?

Moderators:
Shruthi Bharadwaj, PhD, Global Lead, Digital & Analytics, R&D Global Operations, Sanofi
Sean Gardner, MS, Scientific Program Manager, Office of Special Initiatives, NCATS, National Institutes of Health
Dmitri Kireev, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri

How to develop AI/ML models able to predict outcomes that matter most (activity in animal models and, ultimately, in clinics)?
Can AI/ML make drug discovery more deterministic?
Is AI useful in improving the efficiency of virtual screening?
What support does this field need in order to thrive and succeed?

BREAKOUT 18: Using AI/ML for Lead and Target Discovery

Moderators:
Diane M. Joseph-McCarthy, PhD, Professor of the Practice, Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
Petrina Kamya, PhD, Global Head of AI Platforms, Vice President Insilico Medicine; President, Insilico Medicine Canada, Insilico
Harpreet Saini, PhD, Senior Director, Informatics, Astex Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Areas where AI is highly impactful in drug discovery pipeline
Explainable/interpretable AI to understand model predictions/decisions
Strategies for reducing chemical search space
Scalable visualization techniques for large-scale data, e.g., single-cell data, spatial omics, cell-painting