講演者

Yasmina is an internationally recognized and innovative scientific leader in the field of antibody discovery and biosensor technology with twenty years of experience in protein engineering and biopharma. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications, had 25 patents granted in the therapeutic antibody space including a market-approved drug for migraine (Ajovy) and a Phase 3 investigational drug for bladder cancer (Sasanlimab), presented over 60 times as an invited speaker globally, and has been involved in numerous industry-wide collaborations and scientific advisory groups. After a twelve-year career at Pfizer where she held positions of increasing responsibility from Principal Scientist to Research Fellow, more recently, Yasmina has held senior management roles at biotechnology companies and contract research organizations including Carterra (CSO), ImmunoPrecise Antibodies (CSO), ALX Oncology (VP Protein Science), Revelar (CSO and Co-Founder), and FairJourney Biologics (CTO). During her time as CSO at Carterra, she co-founded its antibody screening biosensor platform (the LSA) which has helped transform label-free interaction analysis in early-stage drug discovery. Yasmina has a master's degree in chemistry and a PhD in biological chemistry from Oxford University and did post-doctoral studies in biophysical interaction analysis at the University of Utah.

• SC10: Best Practices and Advanced Applications for Label-Free Interaction Analysis in Therapeutic Antibody Discovery

Chloé Ackaert is a pharmacist by training (Catholic University of Leuven 2009) and obtained her PhD at the University of Salzburg (Austria) for the research on the impact of nitration on the immunogenicity of birch pollen allergens in 2013. She first joined ImmunXperts in the start-up phase and continued academic research at the Free University of Brussels (2015-2018) working on the immunogenicity of Nanobodies. Afterwards, she joined ImmunXperts again where she is a senior scientist in the immunogenicity team, collaborating both on the client-based projects as well as on the continuous basic research projects to elucidate immunogenicity-related questions.

• TS7A: Introduction to Immunogenicity

Dr. Prasad Adusumilli is a thoracic surgeon in New York, New York, and is affiliated with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Sepi is driven by an unwavering commitment to establishing novel drug discovery platforms. As a strategic and translational scientific leader, she channels her collaborative nature into steering cross-functional projects with an innovative edge. With a diverse scientific background in peptides, large and small molecules, Sepi effortlessly forges unforeseen connections to generate novel and practical approaches to influence the drug discovery practices. As the leader of the Peptide Discovery Group at Eli Lilly, Sepi embodies commitment to excellence, adaptability, and vigor. These qualities resonate within her teams, fostering motivation and high performance to tackle challenging endeavors and deliver results on projects with no precedent. Notable examples include navigating the complexities of hard-to-drug protein-protein interactions and leveraging peptides for therapeutic delivery across biological barriers. Positioned at the forefront of innovation, these efforts lay the groundwork for transformative breakthroughs in drug discovery. Sepi stays abreast of industry shifts, blending forward-thinking approaches with conventional practices. This synergy severs as a catalyst for establishing disruptive platforms in the discovery of next generation drugs.

• TS11B: Introduction to Peptide Therapeutics

Dr. Ahmed is the CSO and co-founder of VITRUVIAE, a privately held biotechnology company developing immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases. He was formerly the SVP and CSO of Y-mAbs Therapeutics and a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Ahmed is an expert in protein and antibody engineering based on in silico modeling. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Structural Biology from Stony Brook University, followed by post-doctoral training in cancer immunology at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Alain Ajamian, Ph.D., Director of Business Development, Chemical Computing Group

Alain Ajamian joined CCG in January 2011, bringing more than 10 years of proven experience in pharmaceutical research and development. Prior to joining Chemical Computing Group, Alain served as Managing Director at BioChemia where he played an integral role in establishing the North American operational business. Before this, Alain was a medicinal chemist at MethylGene, now Mirati Therapeutics, where he made significant contributions to the development of HDAC, HAT and Sirtuin inhibitors and is an inventor on several related patents.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Sherin Al-Safadi is currently pursuing her passion for innovating in oncology healthcare to help individuals with cancer live longer and better. She brings over 15 years of experience in developing early- and late-stage precision oncology drugs, with a focus on radiopharmaceuticals over the last several years. Previous to her current role of Vice President Medical Affairs at Radiopharm Theranostics, she held several executive leadership and managerial roles in Oncology Medical Affairs at Bayer Canada, Bayer Global and POINT Biopharma.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Rich Altman has 30 years of experience in protein expression and production. In early 2019, he joined Thermo Fisher Scientific as a Field Application Scientist. Previously, he worked for several pharmaceutical companies, including Amgen, Alexion, Bayer, and Upjohn, on the cloning, expression, purification and characterization of recombinant proteins. This work supported both small-molecule high-throughput screening and protein therapeutic efforts. He received his MS degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Dr. Zhiqiang An is Professor of Molecular Medicine, the Robert A. Welch Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry, Director of the Texas Therapeutics Institute, and Vice President of Drug Discovery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. His laboratory focuses on antibody drug resistance mechanisms, biomarkers for therapeutic antibodies, and antibody drug discovery targeting human diseases. During the last five years, more than 12 novel antibody drug leads discovered in his laboratory were licensed to eight biotechnology companies, and six (6) have advanced to clinical trials for diseases ranging from acute myeloid leukemia (IO-202), breast cancer bone metastasis (ALMB-0168), solid tumor (IO-108), spinal cord injury (ALMB-0166), COVID-19 (IGM6268), and solid tumor (PRTH-101). Previously, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Epitomics, Inc. and was Director of Biologics Research at Merck Research Laboratories. He has authored over 200 journal articles including more than 30 papers in Nature, Science, and Cell journal series; and two books including the award-winning “Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies: from Bench to Clinic.” He is an elected fellow of Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB), the American Academy of Microbiology (ASM), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Dr. An received his PhD from the University of Kentucky and his postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• TS11A: Antibody Drug Discovery: From Target to Lead

James Andorko holds a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, where his research focused on understanding the interplay between injectable materials and immunological responses. Prior to joining Interius in July of 2020, Dr. Andorko completed his postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University investigating regenerative medicine and immunology in the context of a wound healing model where he utilized flow cytometry readouts and next-generation sequencing to identify cells and pathways of interest. With over 12 years of experience in bioengineering, immunology, cancer biology, and material science, Jim has led the Discovery research efforts at Interius. During his tenure with Interius, Jim has designed and developed constructs, explored cell-based assays and preclinical animal models, and led a team to evaluate INT2104, the lead clinical candidate based on a lentiviral based gene delivery system for treating B cell lymphomas.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

I got my start in cryoEM in 1998 in the lab of Dr. Alok Mitra at the Scripps Research Institute. I then went to work for Dr. Ron Milligan, also at Scripps. I worked for Dr. Milligan looking at acto-myosin complexes and kinesin-microtubule complexes for a number of years. In 2003 I moved to Boulder to complete my Ph.D. in the lab of Dr. Michael Stowell. After that I returned to Scripps to do a joint postdoc with Dr. Nigel Unwin at the MRC and Dr. Ron Milligan at Scripps. In 2011 I left academia to take a position as a Titan Krios applications engineer with FEI. From 2011 to 2016 I worked my way up to applications manager for North America and finally to Customer Success Manager for cryoTEM. Then in late 2016 I was recruited to Genentech as a Principal Systems Specialist to build and run their cryoEM group. After great success there, I was recruited to Altos labs in 2022 as Director of CryoEM to build and lead their cryoEM group. I joined FairJourney Biologics in March of 2025 as the CSO of the Structural Biology Division.

• Display of Biologics

Natalie Artzi is a biomedical scientist and engineer whose work in structural nanomedicine is reshaping therapeutic and diagnostic strategies. Her research centers on engineering nanostructures with precise molecular and cellular architectures, enabling targeted, responsive, and effective treatment delivery. Natalie is a Hansj?rg Wyss Associate Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School, Head of Structural Nanomedicine at Mass General Brigham's Gene and Cell Therapy Institute, and Associate Institute Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Natalie has earned numerous honors, including the 2025 Dr. Alexander M. Cruickshank (AMC) Lecturer at the Gordon Research Conference on Cancer Nanotechnology, 2024 Rosemary Schnell Distinguished Lecture Award from the International Institute for Nanotechnology, 2024 Acta Biomaterialia Silver Medal, the 2024 Clemson Award for Applied Research, and the Society for Biomaterials Mid-Career Award.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Tony Arulanandam, DVM, PhD, is CEO /Founder Synaptimmune Therapeutics, Developing the next generation "Conditionally active and Costimulatory T cell engagers (TCE)" for Autoimmune and Solid tumor indications. Senior Vice President and Head of Preclinical Research and Development at Cytovia Therapeutics focused in developing NK Cell engager bispecific antibodies and iPSC derived CAR-NK therapies for cancer. He is also the Co-Founder of NextPoint therapeutics, an MPM capital-funded IO checkpoint immunotherapy company. He is an immunologist with 20+ years of research and development experience developing multiple immunotherapies for autoimmune/inflammatory diseases and cancer (5 BLAs and multiple INDs). He is also currently a mentor for postdocs at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Post-Graduate Association.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

John Babich is the Co-Founder, President, and Chief Scientific Officer of Ratio Therapeutics, Inc. He previously worked at Weill Cornell Medical College as a Professor and Chief of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences in Radiology. John obtained his PhD from the University of London.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Dr. Patrick A. Baeuerle is the co-founder of six MPM oncology portfolio companies including Harpoon Therapeutics, iOmx Therapeutics, Maverick Therapeutics, TCR2 Therapeutics, Werewolf Therapeutics and Cullinan Oncology, where he is the acting CSO of Biologics. Patrick serves on the board of directors of Harpoon, TCR2 and iOmx, is a scientific advisor to Harpoon, iOmx, Werewolf, and TCR2, and an investment committee member of the UBS Oncology Impact Fund (OIF), an oncology-only crossover fund (both private and public equities) managed by MPM. Prior to joining MPM as an Executive Partner in 2015, Patrick served as Vice President of Research and General Manager of Amgen Research Munich GmbH and as CSO for Micromet, where he was responsible for the development of BiTE antibody Blincyto®, which was approved by the U.S. FDA in 2014 in less than three months as a therapy for relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He earlier headed small-molecule drug discovery at Tularik, a publicly traded biotechnology company acquired by Amgen. Prior to this, he was Professor and Chairman of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Medical Faculty of Freiburg University, Germany, where he did groundbreaking research on transcription factor NF-kappaB. Patrick is the recipient of Xconomy’s 2019 “X of the Year Award”, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s 2019 Lennart Philipson Award in recognition of his many contributions to the development of cancer immunotherapies. To date, he has published 243 PubMed-listed papers that have been cited more than 72,500 times. He has a Hirsh index of 129 and was rated to be among the top 0.01% of most frequently cited scientist (Stanford study by Ioannides et al., 2019). Patrick holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Munich (LMU) and performed post-doctoral research with Dr. David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an Honorary Professor of Immunology of the Medical Faculty of LMU.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

No bio available.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Dr. Balthasar is the David and Jane Chu Endowed Chair in Drug Discovery and Development and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Balthasar received a B.S. in Pharmacy (1991) and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics (1996) from the University at Buffalo. He served as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University at Buffalo from 1996-1997 and, from 1997-1999, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Utah. Dr. Balthasar rejoined the University at Buffalo as an Assistant Professor in 1999, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2003 and to Full Professor in 2008. Dr. Balthasar also serves as the Director of the Center for Protein Therapeutics and as UB’s Executive Director for Research Initiatives. Dr. Balthasar’s research utilizes pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analyses to guide the development of new immunotherapies. Current research in the Balthasar Lab, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Center for Protein Therapeutics, focuses on the development of new platform strategies to improve the safety and efficacy of antibody-based treatments for cancer. Balthasar’s Payload Binding Selectivity Enhancer (PBSE) platform is under development by Abceutics Inc., a UB start-up company, and the lab’s Anti-Idiotypic Distribution Enhancer (AIDE) platform is being pursued via the Empire Discovery Institute.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Sathy Balu-iyer is a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at SUNY - University at Buffalo and is an Associate Dean for Research, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is an elected fellow of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (FAAPS). His interdisciplinary research involves biophysical, immunological and Pharmacokinetic/dynamic approaches to rationally develop immunotherapy modalities. He is recipient of NIH sponsored projects as principal investigator. He has authored about 100 peer-reviewed publications, over 200 meeting abstracts/presentations and is an inventor over 50 patents/patent applications. The Awards he received include Biotechnology Innovation Award from American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and Inventor of the year Award from Niagara Frontier Intellectual Property Law Association. His University awards include University at Buffalo Sustained Achievement Award and Teaching innovation Award. He is one of the Editors of Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and serves on editorial boards of several international journals including Biodrugs. He is a member of American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists AAPS and American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS.

• SC2: AI-Driven Predictive Preclinical Models: Rethinking the Role of Animal Testing

Kasia is a Technical Program Manager at The Align Foundation, where she leads the GROQ-seq platform. She works to translate complex scientific ideas into actionable programs that generate scalable, shareable and reproducible datasets. Kasia started her scientific career studying the mycobacterial cell wall (Harvard). Since then, she has worked in synthetic biology as a yeast strain engineer (Zymergen), a CRISPR platform biologist (Inscripta) and a scientific project manager (Cemvita).

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Joel Bard has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University, Bachelor of Music in oboe from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Master of Music in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School. He originally joined Genetics Institute in 2001 as an X-ray crystallographer and ended up at Pfizer through the acquisition of GI by Wyeth and the subsequent acquisition of Wyeth by Pfizer. He leads a Bioinformatics group within the BioMedicine Design organization at Pfizer.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Dr. Beaulieu is the co-founder and CDO at Peptomyc, a biotech company developing mini-protein therapeutics for cancer treatment. PhD in Pharmacology with a focus on structural biology of proteins, Marie-Eve has led the preclinical pharmaceutical development of OMO-103, the first direct MYC inhibitor to successfully complete a clinical trial showing safety and clinical activity in human patients. As co-founder, Marie-Eve built the team and fundraised public >11MEur and private ~30MEur capital. She is now in charge of the company's innovative pipeline and of CMC incl. new process development. Marie-Eve has co-authored 8 patent applications, 31 peer-reviewed publications, and 4 book chapters (ORCID 0000-0001-5224-8436). She was awarded several competitive fellowships (incl. MITACS, and FRSQ postdoctoral fellowships) and contributed to the company’s scientific and business excellence as testified by several local and international awards (e.g., BioFit, best company initiative at AJIEC, EIT Health Headstart, J&J StartUpSlam at BioEurope, and the highly competitive H2020 SME Instrument and EIC Accelerator).

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Manu Ben Johny is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University. He obtained his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. His lab is focused on studying how ion channel dysfunction contributes to cardiovascular and neurological diseases, with the focus on employing protein engineering approaches to restore ion channel function in disease.

• Engineering Antibodies

Cory Berkland is the Mark and Becky Levin Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry at Washington University in Saint Louis. Previously, he was the Solon E. Summerfield Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and in the Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Kansas. He received MS and PhD degrees from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University in Ames. His lab studies pharmaceuticals and materials with an emphasis on molecular design and transport in the human body. He is a co-founder of Orbis Biosciences (acquired by Adare Pharmaceuticals), Savara Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SVRA), Bond Biosciences, Kinimmune, Axioforce, and other start-ups. He has served as a board member, executive, and fundraiser for these companies. He also has experience in Biotech investing and worked as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Sofinnova Investments.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Matthew Bernett, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Protein Engineering at Xencor, where he has spent over two decades advancing antibody and protein therapeutics. A co-inventor of tafasitamab (Monjuvi), he helped establish Xencor’s Fc engineering and bispecific T-cell engager platforms, contributing to more than 15 clinical programs. His expertise spans structure-guided design, developability optimization, and the translation of discovery concepts to IND candidates. Dr. Bernett has led cross-functional discovery teams and strategic collaborations with industry partners including Genentech and Amgen. His current work focuses on engineering antibody mechanisms to enhance potency, selectivity, and manufacturability in oncology and immunology.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Having completed my PhD in Biophysics from the University of Osnabrueck, Germany, in 2012, I carried out my first postdoctoral stint at the Department of Bioengineering, UC Berkeley, USA, where I focused on conformational dynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins. In 2015, I moved back to Germany and joined the Institute of Biochemistry, University of Muenster. Here, with support from an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship, I developed intein-based technologies for application in chemical biology. Since 2020, I have been a part of the Large Molecule Research (LMR) unit at pRED, Roche, where I have been delving into different aspects of biotherapeutic discovery and development, with a focus on biochemical and functional characterization.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Ashok Bhandari is Executive Vice President, Chief Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development officer at Protagonist Therapeutics with over 25 years of experience and drug discovery of peptide therapeutics. Dr. Bhandari has served as SVP/VP of Chemistry and Process Research in prior roles at Protagonist. Ashok Joined Protagonist in 2011 and focused on the discovery of novel peptide therapeutics leading to Protagonist's clinical pipeline. Dr. Bhandari received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and conducted his post-doctoral work also at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Surge is a co-founder and the CEO at Nabla Bio, an antibody design company. Surge received his PhD from George Church’s lab. There, he and his colleagues pioneered the development of protein language modeling, a technology that has been central to state-of-the-art protein structure prediction and machine learning-guided protein design. Outside of Nabla, Surge enjoys hanging out with his wife and Nabla co-founder, Frances, and their two dogs, Archie and Riley.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

As Head of Computational Science & Data Strategy, Research at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Hans leads a talented team of scientists and engineers with the aim of becoming the most impactful data science organization in pharmaceutical research. In Hans’s 20+ years of experience, his work has spanned the disease areas of oncology, immunology, and virology; early target identification/validation to translation work in the clinic; various areas of data science including bioinformatics, cheminformatics, and machine learning; and small, mid, and large companies. Previously, Hans led computational sciences at MOMA Therapeutics, where he built a cutting-edge function focused on integrating and mining biological and chemical data to deepen the understanding of molecular machines and to progress the drug discovery portfolio. He contributed to the development of the Knomatic Platform, which was integral for MOMA’s collaboration with Roche and supported the two lead assets in clinical trials. Prior to MOMA, Hans led data sciences at bluebird bio, a pioneering gene therapy company, developing gene therapies for severe genetic diseases and cancer. He built an integrated data science function comprised of scientists, biostatisticians, and engineers that supported both clinical and pre-clinical research and development. One area of focus was investigating from a correlative and translational perspective bluebird’s CAR T therapies, including idecabtagene vicleucel (Abecma) for multiple myeloma. Previously, he was global head of bioinformatics oncology at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research (NIBR) leading a team of 40+ scientists and engineers, where he oversaw work across the oncology portfolio ranging from target identification (including Project Drive, a systematic interrogation of cancer dependencies across cancer subtypes) to translational biomarker research (including identification of biomarkers of response and resistance to the CD19-targeting CAR T Kymriah). Prior to NIBR, he was head of bioinformatics for virology and immunology at Roche. Hans began his career at two San Francisco area start-ups and received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and his AB from Princeton University.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Nina Blazeska is a Senior Project Manager with over eight years of experience leading cross-functional teams in science research, technology, and financial sectors. At present, Nina leads a portfolio of immunology-based projects at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology with Principal Investigators, Dr. Alessandro Sette and Dr. Bjoern Peters, including the Immune Epitope Database (IEDB - iedb.org) and the Cancer Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (CEDAR - cedar.iedb.org). These databases and bioinformatic tools are used to further our understanding of cancer, autoimmune conditions, infectious diseases, allergies, and transplants. With an MBA in Business Analytics and a strong commitment to continuous improvement, Nina aims to make science accessible to all people by bridging expert and non-expert audiences and fostering community collaborations.

• SC4: Unlocking Immunity: Mastering Epitope Analysis and Prediction with IEDB and CEDAR Tools & Insights

Laird Bloom is a Senior Director in the BioMedicine Design Department at Pfizer, where he heads a group focused on identification and engineering of antibody-based therapeutics, high-throughput production of microgram-to-milligram-scale quantities of purified antibodies, and high-throughput antibody screening. Since joining the company in 2003, he has managed the antibody engineering activities in numerous therapeutic programs supporting all Pfizer research units, with an emphasis on allergic and inflammatory diseases and cancer. From 1999-2003, he led a cell biology and assay group involved in mRNA display and screening at Phylos, Inc.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

David Boggs is Senior Scientist in Protein Analytics at the AbbVie Bioresearch Center, where he champions novel approaches for characterizing proteins and advancing therapeutic discovery. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from Boston University, with a master’s thesis investigating the kinetics of a pterin-dependent mononuclear iron enzyme. His published doctoral work at the University of Michigan sought to understand and engineer proteins involved in chlorophyll metabolism, pollutant degradation, and clinically-focused artificial metalloproteins. At AbbVie, David leverages a foundation in protein chemistry, biophysics, and structural biology to characterize antibody-antigen, lipid nanoparticle, and virus-like particle platforms. He has developed and deployed methods for particle size and count analysis through robust synergistic techniques, and continues to expand the group’s capabilities to pursue challenging targets. David finds energy turning complex data into real progress on therapeutics and is committed to sharing excitement for scientific discovery.

• Biophysical Methods

No bio available.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Andrew Bradbury is Chief Scientific Officer of Specifica. He trained in medicine at the universities of Oxford and London and received his PhD from the university of Cambridge at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology under the guidance of Nobel Laureate, Cesar Milstein. He has worked in the fields of phage and yeast display, library generation, antibody engineering and Next Generation Sequencing for over thirty years. He was a Group Leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory before founding Specifica. Specifica's mission is to enable companies developing therapeutic antibodies with the world’s best antibody discovery platform.

• Display of Biologics

Rachael Brake brings more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry building and leading cross functional teams across basic and applied research, clinical and business development. Dr. Brake joined Abdera from Zephyr AI where she served as chief scientific officer. Previously, Dr. Brake was the chief scientific officer at Corbus Pharmaceuticals where she built and led a research and development team and advanced multiple oncology programs into clinical development. Prior to her work at Corbus, Dr. Brake spent 11 years at Takeda Oncology, most recently as head of U.S. medical affairs, oncology business unit and as vice president, global program leader, oncology therapeutic area. In these roles, Dr. Brake managed a portfolio of programs and cross-functional teams responsible for the preclinical and clinical exploration of various solid tumor drug candidates spanning diverse mechanisms of action. Prior to joining Takeda, Dr. Brake was a research scientist at Amgen where she held increasing levels of responsibility culminating in the site lead in Cambridge, MA for the therapeutic innovation unit.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Dr. Bramhill has over 20 years’ experience in biologics, both in large biopharma and startup biotech companies, and currently consults as a scientific-technical expert. He has expertise in isolating and improving antibodies using phage display and other display systems and is an inventor on library design for small scaffolds and bi-specific formats. He also has experience in diverse expression systems for producing antibodies, antibody fragments and scaffolds. Additionally, Dr. Bramhill has extensive experience in ADC development including diverse chemical and biochemical conjugation methods. He has taught numerous technical courses for over 20 years at international conferences and served as a Key Opinion Leader for major BioPharma companies.

• TS10A: Introduction to Protein Engineering

Dr. Ulrich Brinkmann is a member of Roche’s Large Molecule Research organization within Pharma Research & Early Development at the Roche Innovation Center Munich (Penzberg, Germany). His work focuses on protein & antibody engineering, bispecifics, and on delivery platforms for targeted payload delivery. Prior to joining Roche, he served as CSO in functional genomics and pharmacogenetics companies Xantos and Epidauros. His previous work in Ira Pastans Molecular Biology Lab at the NIH/NCI in Bethesda, USA focused on antibody stabilization and engineering technologies, and on generating recombinant immunotoxins for cancer therapy. Dr. Brinkmann is author of numerous publications and inventor of many patents covering recombinant antibodies, pharmaco- & functional genomics, immunotoxins and protein engineering technologies and applications.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Mary Ann Brown joined Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) in 1992 as a Data Entry Associate. At that time CHI was a start-up company with many roles to fill and explore. She quickly realized that conference production which combined creativity and love of learning was the path for her. Mary Ann’s conference portfolio is varied from biologics to batteries where she is organizes over 15 scientific meetings a year along with being a Team Lead for several Key Events. Mary Ann graduated from Doane College in 1978 with degrees in Biology, Environmental Studies, and Geology.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

An experienced multidisciplinary team leader and inspiring scientist. A track record of leading and motivating innovative, matrixed, global complex project and platform technology teams. As a member, leader, or mentor of teams, Andrew has contributed to more than 20 drugs entering first-time in human clinical studies. Of these, three are marketed medicines benefiting patients. With colleagues, he has published over 35 original manuscripts and patents.

• Engineering Antibodies

Christian Buchholz, PhD, heads the Section of Molecular Biotechnology and Gene Therapy at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut and is Associate Professor for Biochemistry at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt. At the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Dr. Buchholz combines responsibilities in gene therapy medicinal product regulation with the maintenance of a research laboratory active in studying the safety and efficacy of viral vectors. Dr. Buchholz has published more than 100 articles in his research area, which focuses on the engineering of the surface of viral vectors to improve their applicability in modern molecular medicine. Most notably, Dr. Buchholz’s team has provided proof-of-principle for in vivo generation of human CAR T cell thereby making use of viral vectors targeted to T cell surface markers. Dr. Buchholz holds a PhD from the Max-Planck-Institut for Biochemistry and a diploma in Microbiology from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

John's research interests include protein biochemistry, structural biology and antibody discovery. At Pheast, John oversees research, data analysis, and project direction for the Protein Sciences team. Prior to joining Pheast, John led a team at Ligand Pharmaceuticals supporting antibody discovery, with a focus on antigen production and validation. Prior to Ligand, he served as Director of Biochemistry at Ab Initio Biotherapeutics, where he led protein biochemistry and molecular pharmacology efforts. John received his postdoctoral training at the Stanford University School of Medicine and his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

David R. Bush received a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Pennsylvania State University where had co-op rotations at Merck, Supelco and GSK. He earned his Ph.D. in Vicki Wysocki’s group at the University of Arizona. David then worked on developing top-down CE-MS methods for biotherapeutic characterization on a prototype CE-MS instrument for a post-doctoral project in Barry Karger’s group at Northeastern University. David joined Genedata in 2015 supporting the adoption and development of the enterprise Expressionist MS data analysis system for biotherapeutic applications. David has worked at Novartis for >3 years as the characterization lead supporting the needs of numerous multispecifc and fusion Abs, ADC’s, radioligand therapies, and gene therapy programs.

• Biophysical Methods

No bio available.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Alejandro Carpy is a Senior Director of Protein Sciences & Analytics at AstraZeneca, where he leads a high-performing team of scientists and managers in Biologics Engineering R&D. With a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Tübingen and over 15 years of experience in the biopharma industry, Dr. Carpy has established himself as a recognized authority in the end-to-end development of biologics, from target assessment through IND submission. His expertise spans protein engineering, molecular cloning and expression, advanced cell line engineering, next-generation sequencing, and biologics supply optimization. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he served as Principal Scientist and Lab Head at Roche Innovation Center Munich, where he directed protein engineering efforts for therapeutic antibodies, multispecifics, ADCs, and protein fusions, successfully advancing eight molecules into clinical stages. His work has been instrumental in the discovery and development of multiple groundbreaking biologics, including several T-cell bispecific antibodies now in clinical development. He is passionate about leveraging strategic leadership, technical innovation, and cross-functional collaboration to advance transformative therapies that address unmet medical needs.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Adam Carr earned BS and PhD degrees from Brigham Young Univerisity and Iowa State University, both in Chemical Engineering. During his PhD he worked in Nigel Reuel's group, focused on biosensors at the intersection of dielectric transduction and synthetic biology. In 2020 part of his PhD work was spun out as a startup, Frugi Biotechnology, with the goal of developing frugal synthetic biology solutions for diagnostics and research focused initially on developing cell-free protein synthesis platforms for high throughput screening applications. After collaborating with AI drug discovery company BigHat Biosciences Frugi Biotechnology was acquired by BigHat in 2022 where he initially the led scale up of CFPS reagent manufacturing and oversaw development of high throughput expression workflows using automation. Adam currently is the Associate Director of Cell-Free Production at BigHat Biosciences where he works with programs, platform, and AI/ML teams to ensure high quality production of in silico designed antibody sequences for training and validating ML models as well as increase the capabilities of CFPS systems to express complex antibody formats for screening.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Liz earned a BS in Bioengineering from Rice University in Houston, TX. Afterward she went to University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for her MD during which time she worked at the National Institutes of Health, designing complement targeting antibodies. She then completed residency in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and fellowship in Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she is now an Instructor in the lab of Eric Smith MD PhD. Her scientific interest is in nucleic acid- and cell based immunotherapies in solid malignancies.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Dr. Carter received a B.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology under Sir Greg Winter at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Jim Wells at Genentech, now a member of the Roche Group. Dr. Carter has nearly forty years of experience in biotechnology, focusing on the discovery of antibody therapeutics. He played a key role in the creation of antibody humanization methods at Genentech utilized over many years for nine approved antibody products used to treat millions of patients worldwide. Dr. Carter and collaborators invented ‘knobs-into-holes’ technology and common light chains between them used in at least six approved bispecific antibodies. He is currently a Genentech Fellow in the Department of Antibody Engineering.

• Display of Biologics

Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D., is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University and completed his internship/residency in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital. Afterwards he completed specialty training in Infectious Diseases at Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Montefiore Hospital and postdoctoral training with Dr. Matthew Scharff. The author of over 1000 papers, his major research interests are in fungal pathogenesis and the mechanisms of antibody action. He has served on several NIH committees including the NIAID Strategic Plan, the Blue-Ribbon Panel on Biodefense Research, the NAS panel that reviewed the FBI investigation on anthrax attacks, the National Commission on Forensic Science, and the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. He has received numerous honors including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, AAI Distinguished Fellow in Immunology and the Council for Foreign Relations.

• Display of Biologics

No bio available.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

I am a passionate drug developer, with wide range experience in protein chemistry, structural biology, protein engineering, computational biology & biophysics. I lead team combining data science and experimentation to accelerate biologics discovery and development for unmet medical needs.

• Engineering Antibodies

Ross is the Vice President of Antibody Discovery at Integral Molecular. He has over 20 years of experience in antibody discovery, including pioneering the use of DNA immunizations and high-throughput antibody discovery for challenging targets. Ross earned his Ph.D. from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and did post-doctoral studies at UC Davis and Berkeley. Before joining Integral Molecular, he was the Director of R&D at SDIX and directed the discovery of thousands of commercial antibodies.

• Display of Biologics

Megha Chandrashekhar is a Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetic scientist at Amgen in South San Francisco. She specializes in mechanistic ADME, biotransformation, and bioanalysis of small molecules and oligonucleotides. Her work integrates experimental and translational approaches to understand disposition pathways and support development of novel therapeutics.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Dr. Yvonne Chen is a Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics at UCLA. She is the co-director of the Tumor Immunology program in the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, and a member researcher of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. The Chen Laboratory applies biomolecular engineering techniques to the development of novel mammalian-cell systems for clinical use, and Dr. Chen led the first investigator-sponsored clinical trial on CAR-T cell therapy at UCLA. The Chen Lab’s work has been recognized by the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award, and the Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old STAR Award, among others. Prior to joining UCLA in 2013, Yvonne was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. Yvonne received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Jianzhu Chen is Professor of Biology at Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Department of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Chen received a Ph.D. degree in genetics from Stanford University. He was a postdoctoral fellow and then an instructor at Harvard Medical School before he joined the faculty at MIT. Dr. Chen’s research seeks fundamental understanding of the immune system as well as its application in disease intervention. Over the years, Dr. Chen has made significant contributions to a broad area of research in immunology, cancer research, infectious diseases, and animal models of human diseases. Recently, Dr. Chen’s research has focused on development of tumor-specific CAR-NK cells and re-programming macrophages for disease intervention, including cancer, metabolic diseases and infectious diseases.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Zhilei Chen is a Professor in the Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology Department at Texas A&M University. She earned PhD in Biophysics and Computational Biology from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign (advised by Huimin Zhao) and performed postdoctoral research in the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease at Rockefeller University (mentored by Charles M. Rice). The Chen Medicinal Protein Lab aims to accelerate the discovery, development and clinical translation of protein therapeutics through innovative protein engineering research. We are particularly interested in the engineering of protein theranostics to prevent, treat and diagnose infectious diseases and the development of new protein engineering platforms. Dr. Chen is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2012), US Air Force Young Investigator Award (2012) and the NIH New Innovator Award (2017).

• Engineering Antibodies

Ashutosh Chilkoti is the Alan L. Kaganov Professor and of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. His areas of research include genetically encoded biomaterials and the development of synthetic biomolecular condensates for synthetic biology. He has published ~350 papers, has been cited ~43,000 times, has a Google Scholar H-index of 110, and has 40 patents and 60 patent applications in process. Prof. Chilkoti was awarded the Clemson Award for Contributions to the Literature by the Society for Biomaterials in 2011, the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecture award by the Biomedical Engineering Society in 2013, was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2014, received the Distinguished Alumni award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2015, and the Diamond award from the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in 2017. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the founder of six start-up companies: (1) PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded company on NASDAQ (sticker: PHAS) that is taking drug delivery technology that he developed into clinical trials; (2) Sentilus, a clinical diagnostics company that was acquired by Immucor in 2014; (3) BioStealth, a spinoff of Sentilus; (4) GatewayBio, that is commercializing a next-generation PEGylation technology for biologics; (5) Isolere Bio that is developing a non-chromatographic technology for purification of biologics; and (6) inSoma Bio that is developing a recombinant protein matrix for tissue reconstruction.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Hongyoon Choi, MD, PhD, is a nuclear medicine physician-scientist specializing in theranostics and AI. He is an Associate Professor at Seoul National University Hospital, Visiting Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital, and CTO & Co-founder of Portrai Inc. He integrates clinical expertise with data science and AI to advance precision radiotheranostics, also leads AI and technology strategy, combining molecular imaging, spatial transcriptomics, and large-scale human tissue data to uncover novel radiopharmaceutical targets. His research spans from molecular target discovery to clinical translation, developing in silico frameworks that accelerate the design of next-generation first-in-class theranostic agents. Through this integrative approach, Dr. Choi aims to redefine how human data and AI shape the future of RPT-driven oncology

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Affilogic is a privately-owned biotech company specialized in discovery and development of a novel class of protein therapeutics called Nanofitins. Since joining Affilogic in 2011, Dr. Mathieu Cinier successfully led 60+ Nanofitin generation programs for a wide range of applications, and Nanofitin-based biotherapeutics are currently being developed in collaboration with Sanofi, Takeda Pharmaceutical and other undisclosed international pharmaceutical companies. He also applied its extensive protein engineering knowledge to expand the potential of the Nanofitin technology and is now assuming the position of Scientific Director.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Dr. Daniela Cipolletta is Senior Director of Immunology at Seismic Therapeutic, developing a new generation of immunology therapies enabled by machine learning. Daniela has 20 years of immunology-focused research experience, with an emphasis on bridging immunology with oncology, metabolism, and tissue regeneration. Before joining Seismic, she held roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis, where she led and supported several novel immune modulatory programs from early target identification through drug candidate selection and biomarker research. Daniela has also held positions at Amgen and Tempero (a GSK company). Daniela earned her PhD in Immunology from the European School of Molecular Medicine and completed her postdoctoral training with Drs. Diane Mathis and Christophe Benoist at Harvard Medical School, working on tissue-resident regulatory T cells.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Starlynn Clarke leads the preclinical biology group at Rondo Therapeutics, an IO-focused biopharmaceutical company developing innovative bispecific therapeutic antibodies for treating solid tumors. Starlynn has worked in discovery and preclinical development in the fields of oncology and immunology at several biotechnology start-up companies, including Frontier Medicines and Caribou Biosciences. As a founding member of the preclinical biology team at Teneobio, a highly successful multispecific therapeutic antibody company, she contributed to several bispecific antibody programs currently in clinical trials. Starlynn completed her PhD in the lab of Charles Craik at UCSF, where she studied novel viral and fungal host-pathogen interactions.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Jennifer Cochran is the Shriram Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. She is a Professor of Bioengineering and, by courtesy, Chemical Engineering and a member of the Cancer Biology, Biophysics, and Immunology graduate programs. Dr. Cochran serves as the Director of the Stanford/NIH Biotechnology pre-doctoral training program, and co-Director of the Stanford NIST pre-doctoral training program. Her research group uses interdisciplinary approaches in chemistry, engineering, and biophysics to study complex biological systems and to develop new tools for basic science and biomedical applications. Dr. Cochran translational interests span protein-based drug discovery and development for applications in oncology and regenerative medicine, and development of new technologies for high-throughput protein analysis and engineering. Dr. Cochran obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biological Engineering.

• Display of Biologics

Prof David Cole has >20 years’ experience in developing unique immunotherapies and has contributed to several novel clinical assets, including a marketed first in class bispecific T cell engager. In his current role, David has established an exciting platform of protein-based immunotherapies, including reagents with broad specificities that can only be administered to patients using Accession Therapeutics patented tumor selective viral gene expression platform (TROCEPT).

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Adriana Coll De Peña is a Dominican Ph.D. Candidate in Tripathi Laboratory (Center for Biomedical Engineering) at Brown University. Prior to joining Brown, she completed a B.S. in Biotechnology and Molecular Bioscience, a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, and an M.S. in Science, Technology and Public Policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her research currently focuses on the development of miniaturized platforms for the detection and analysis of biomolecules.

• Biophysical Methods

Lucy Colwell is a researcher on the Science team at Google DeepMind and a faculty member in chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Her primary interests are in the application of machine learning approaches to better understand the relationship between the sequence and function of biological macromolecules. Before moving to Cambridge Lucy received her PhD from Harvard University and held an EPSRC fellowship at the MRC-LMB and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

• Display of Biologics

Frank is a Senior Director, Head of Degrader Antibody Conjugates, at Quarry Thera. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, in 2000, where he studied under Professor Gerald Hart to elucidate the roles of intracellular O-GlcNAc glycosylation. He moved to the National Cancer Institute where he completed post-doctoral studies in Carole Parent’s laboratory, studying the role of the PI3 kinase pathway in spatial sensing and chemotaxis. Frank then joined Wellstat Therapeutics in 2007, where he led and contributed to several projects ranging from conjugate vaccines to therapeutic proteins, prior to joining AstraZeneca in 2012. Since joining AstraZeneca, he held positions of increasing responsibility, with a research focus on antibody-drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies. His current work at Quarry Thera is focused on building a portfolio of degrader antibody conjugates (DACs). He has served as a session organizer/chair in the “Advancing Bispecific Antibodies” track at PEGS since 2018.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Tim is an experienced protein scientist with a background in membrane proteins, completing his BS in both Biochemistry and Neuroscience from Brandeis University, before continuing on to receive a PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and a postdoctoral fellowship at GNF/Novartis, all focused on integral membrane proteins. After completing his postdoc, he continued on to work for both small CROs and large pharmaceutical companies delivering high quality recombinant proteins to support both diagnostic and pharmaceutical discovery efforts.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Ryan Crisman is the co-founder and Chief Technical Officer at Umoja Biopharma. Before starting Umoja in 2019, Ryan served as the Executive Director for the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility, where he was responsible for building out and staffing this protein and cell therapy CDMO. He was instrumental in growing the facility’s cGMP capabilities and delivering many first in human therapeutic products to patients. While at Juno Therapeutics, Ryan led the JCAR017 CMC program and was the Head of Late Stage Process Development. He has also held scientific leadership positions at Zymogenetics and CMC Biologics. Crisman holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Washington State University.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Rebecca is an innovative leader responsible for the implementation of novel and disruptive in silico technologies to increase the speed of discovery and quality of biologics therapeutics. She is an experienced antibody engineer with structural biology expertise and was co-inventor of the CrossMab technology that is now leading the way in approvals for multi-specific antibody therapeutics. She has authored 30+ patents and publications in the field of antibody engineering.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

David DiLillo is a Senior Director in the Immuno-Oncology department at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in New York, where he leads a team developing novel immunotherapies to treat cancer. His team is responsible for target discovery and the preclinical development of immune cell-engaging multi-specific antibodies to treat liquid and solid tumors. His team also develops cell-based therapies and works to understand detailed mechanisms-of-action of immunotherapies in order to advance next-generation therapeutics. Dr. DiLillo holds a PhD in Immunology from Duke University, where he studied non-classical B cell effector functions, and he completed his postdoctoral studies in Fc-receptor biology at the Rockefeller University.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Dr. DiPaolo earned his B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1995, where he conducted research under Dr. Jeffrey Bluestone, and his Ph.D. from Washington University School of Medicine in 2001 with Dr. Emil Unanue. He completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health with Dr. Ethan Shevach before joining Saint Louis University in 2007, where he is now Professor and Chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and a Fellow of the Saint Louis University Research Institute. The DiPaolo Laboratory investigates how immune cells and cytokines drive chronic diseases such as autoimmunity and cancer, with a particular focus on the immunosuppressive functions of regulatory T cells (Tregs) induced by IL-2 and TGFß. His research aims to translate these insights into novel immunotherapies for inflammatory diseases and has been supported by major national agencies and industry collaborations.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Andrew Dippel is Associate Director in the Analytics and Developability group within AstraZeneca's Biologics Engineering department, where he has been advancing biotherapeutic development since 2019. He earned his PhD in Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley, bringing deep expertise in molecular sciences and protein engineering to his current role. Andrew leads the high-throughput developability team, focusing on early-stage developability screening of biologics and developing machine learning models to predict developability properties. His work combines automated assay technologies with predictive analytics to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of drug development decisions across AstraZeneca's diverse pipeline.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Rakesh Dixit is an accomplished executive, inventor, and scientist with over 35 years of success with top biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Medimmune - AstraZeneca. Currently, he is President and CSO of Regio Biosciences and Bionavigen, LLC. He is a Board Member of Regio Biosciences and a key member of multiple scientific advisory boards. Rakesh is also a chief adviser and consultant for more than 20 companies worldwide. His biopharmaceutical peers selected Rakesh as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Pharmaceutical Industry by PharmaVOICE in 2015. Rakesh received the Most Prestigious Award of Long-Standing Contribution to ADCs by World ADC (Hanson-Wade), 2020. From 2006 to 2019, Rakesh was a Global Vice President of the Biologics R&D at Medimmune - AstraZeneca. Rakesh has unique expertise in developing biologics (e.g., monoclonal antibodies, bispecific biologics, antibody-drug conjugates, fusion proteins, peptides, gene and cell therapies, etc.) and small-molecule biopharmaceuticals. His areas of expertise include discovery, early and late preclinical development, safety assessment, DMPK, and translational sciences. Dr. Dixit conducted extensive graduate and post-graduate training in Pharmacology/Toxicology-Biochemistry with both Indian and USA institutions (e.g., Case Western Reserve University, Medical College of Ohio, University of Nebraska) and is a Diplomate and Board Certified in Toxicology from the American Board of Toxicology, Inc. since 1992.

• SC5: Safety & Efficacy of Bispecifics and ADCs

Matthew is currently the head of the Eukaryotic Expression Group for Protein Expression Laboratory (PEL) at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research in Frederick, Maryland. The Eukaryotic Expression Group expresses a variety of proteins in support of the NCI RAS Initiative and for investigators at the National Institutes of Health. The Eukaryotic Expression Group also focuses heavily on inventing and developing novel technologies to improve protein expression and production with a focus primarily on baculovirus production. Matthew received his undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland and then went to work as a Production Scientist at Trevigen, Inc. where he helped to express and produce the company’s large portfolio of products as well as help in the development of many of their new products. Matthew joined the PEL in 2015 and has since helped the PEL and RAS Initiative to improve the overall expression of numerous proteins and complexes.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Leader of a small team responsible for discovery biologics HTP production. Over 15 years of protein production experience in the biotech industry. Experience utilizing multiple host systems, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic, to produce incredibly diverse proteins native to bacteria, plants, and humans.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

The COO of GeneFrontier Corporation (GFC) since 2010, with a focus on advancing cell-free protein expression technologies, particularly the PURE system. Earned a Ph.D. in cell-free protein synthesis from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2000, and played a key role in the establishment of GFC in 2003, leveraging his deep expertise in cell-free protein synthesis following experience in life science venture capital.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Sasha Ebrahimi earned his B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016 with in Chemical Engineering. He then went on to earn his PhD in 2021 at Northwestern University working with Professor Chad Mirkin. Sasha joined GSK in 2021 where he is currently a Scientific Leader in the emerging drug delivery platforms team. Sasha’s research at GSK has focused on finding new strategies to enhance the biochemical properties of protein- and oligonucleotide-based therapeutics, thereby boosting these molecule’s clinical efficacy and prospects for successful development. His work has been recognized with >20 awards of national and international scope, including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 35 Under 35 award, the CASSS Next Generation Investigator award, and selection as a STAT Wunderkind.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

No bio available.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Hunter is an interdisciplinarian with a decade of experience developing machine learning tools to solve biomedical research problems. Moving from biophysics into computer vision during his PhD research at The Scripps Research Institute and Harvard Medical School, he then founded and led the Image and Data Analysis Core at Harvard Medical School. He was an early member of PathAI where he helped build the machine learning tech, platform, and team and led ML research. At BigHat he has developed novel predictive and generative methods for antibody engineering before recently taking on leadership of ML.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Senior Principal Scientist at UCB BioPharma based in the UK. I have over 30 years experience as a Molecular Biologist working in the biopharma industry on both E. coli and mammalian expression systems, antibody engineering, and cell engineering.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

CEO & Cofounder of Adaptyv Bio. Protein designers should be designing, not pipetting. We build automated wet labs to allow you to synthesize and test any protein you design!

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

M. Frank Erasmus is the head of bioinformatics at Specifica, Inc. where he specializes in the use of next-generation sequencing technologies and software development to aid in the design of and selection from therapeutic antibody libraries. Formerly, Frank was awarded a national fellowship from the National Cancer Institute for his translational research associated with B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia conducted at the Spatiotemporal Modeling Center and Los Alamos National Labs. He brings over 13 years of experience in both biotechnology and academic settings in the development and characterization of therapeutic antibodies using theoretical modeling, bioinformatics, and experimental approaches.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Joseph Erhardt, PhD is the Chief Research and Development Officer at Third Arc Bio, Inc. Dr. Erhardt was one of the original employees at Third Arc, where he has built a highly experienced team driving the preclinical and clinical development of novel multi-specific candidates for oncology and immunology applications. Dr. Erhardt has spent over 20 years in oncology drug development, having recently served as Vice President and Head of Oncology Discovery and External Innovation Strategy at Janssen R&D, where he and his teams delivered multiple new targets, platforms and proof-of-concept medicines to the J&J portfolio. Under Dr. Erhardt’s leadership, J&J discovery and clinical pipelines advanced a significant number of internal and external candidates across diverse modalities, including T cell redirection, T cell co-stimulation, ADCs, and targeted radiotherapy. Prior to J&J, he was both clinical project leader and Head of Cancer Research Strategy and Operations at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Over his career, Dr. Erhardt has played a critical role in the development of numerous approved drugs, including SYLVANT®, RYBREVANT®, TAFINLAR® and MEKINIST®. Dr. Erhardt earned his PhD in pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania and completed his postdoctoral research at GSK.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Justin Eyquem, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hem/Onc at UCSF. He is also an Investigator at the Gladstone-UCSF Institute for Genomic Immunology and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. He holds Master’s degrees in bioengineering and genetics from the Paris School of Agronomy (AgroParisTech) and the University of Paris. He earned his PhD in immunology and molecular biology from University of Paris and trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Michel Sadelain at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2019, he joined UCSF as a Parker Fellow and became an Assistant Professor in 2021. Dr. Eyquem’s research focuses on optimizing genetically modified immune T cells, known as CAR-T cells, to fight cancers and other diseases. He has pioneered methods to edit the genome of human CAR-T cells and developed techniques to reprogram their functions both outside the body (ex vivo) and inside the body (in vivo). Additionally, he leads a preclinical team dedicated at designing the most effective therapies for a UCSF clinical pipeline. Finally, he participated in multiple collaborations to facilitate the manufacturing of CAR-T cells for clinical use. His work has earned him several awards, including the 2019 Parker Fellow Award, the 2023 ASGCT Outstanding New Investigator Award, and the 2024 Pew-Stewart Award.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Born in Australia, Walter earned his PhD in Immunology at the University of California, Davis, and conducted research at the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. In 2003, he joined Novimmune to lead the anti-interferon gamma antibody program (NI-0501), which ultimately became Novimmune’s first approved drug and remains the only treatment for primary Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). Over the course of his career, Walter has built and led preclinical and translational sciences teams advancing monoclonal and, more recently, bispecific antibodies in immuno-oncology, contributing to multiple programs that have progressed from discovery to clinical development. In 2019, he became Chief Scientific Officer of Light Chain Bioscience, where he continues to drive the company’s pipeline of novel bispecific antibodies for cancer immunotherapy.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Dr. Ricardo Fernandes leads the Immune Receptor Signalling Group at the CAMS Oxford Institute and the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford. After completing his PhD with Prof. Simon Davis (Oxford), focusing on the T cell receptor (TCR) triggering mechanism, he pursued postdoctoral research at Stanford, developing novel methods for antigen discovery and checkpoint inhibition via phosphatase recruitment. His current research combines protein engineering, structural biology, and immunology to dissect T cell signalling and design innovative approaches for modulating immune responses in autoimmunity and cancer.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Dr. Ferreira's goal is to control how the immune system recognizes self and non-self. He is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the Hollings Cancer Center. He obtained a B.Sc. in biochemistry at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. As a Ph.D. student at Harvard University with Dr. Jack Strominger and Dr. Chad Cowan, he was the first to report the use of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in primary human cells - hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and CD4+ T cells - ablating CCR5 and B2M expression and demonstrating that edited HSCs generated lymphoid and myeloid cells in humanized mice. He also helped generate hypoimmunogenic human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) via CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene knock-out and knock-in and demonstrate protection from immune attack in vitro and in humanized mice and uncovered a novel enhancer element regulating the expression of HLA-G, a non-classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecule key to maternal-fetal tolerance. As a postdoctoral scholar with Dr. Qizhi Tang and Dr. Jeffrey Bluestone at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), he created an anti-HLA-A2 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and used CRISPR/Cas9 to knock it in the endogenous T cell receptor (TCR) gene locus in human regulatory T cells (Tregs). HLA-A2 CAR Tregs were suppressive and trafficked to human HLA-A2+ islets in humanized mice. In his laboratory at MUSC, together with his trainees and his collaborators, he is designing and developing the next generation of engineered regulatory T cell therapies for autoimmune disease, cancer, and aging.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Felix Findeisen is a Principal Scientist II, leading the Membrane Protein Production group at Gilead Sciences since 2024. He obtained his doctorate degree in the lab of Irmgard Sinning at the University of Heidelberg in Structural Biology, elucidating mechanistic insights through structural biology on G-protein coupled receptors and pathogenic signaling pathways. His post-doctoral studies on the regulation of voltage-gated ion channels were conducted with Daniel Minor at UCSF. In 2014, he joined Achaogen as an antibody engineer to help build out a large molecule therapeutic antibody department. From 2018 to 2024 he lead several groups in Protein Purification and Protein Sciences at BMS.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

With 25 years in large pharma and cell therapy, Damien specializes in large molecule and cell therapy Bioanalysis (PK/PD) and drug product release (ADQC) by setting strategy, delivering data interpretations, and representing bioanalytical/analytical interests on cross-functional teams. Outside work, he enjoys lake time-water-skiing, fishing, and floating in quiet coves with his wife, two daughters, and dog.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Nicolas Fischer obtained a PhD in Biology from the Department of Molecular Biology University of Geneva on the structure and function of photosynthetic complexes. As a postdoctoral fellow he joined the Group of Sir Greg Winter at the MRC Department of Molecular Biology in Cambridge UK to study protein folding and Antibody engineering using phage display. In 2001 he joined NovImmune and led several therapeutic antibody discovery programs that have reached clinical development stage and developed next generation bispecific therapeutic antibodies. After the successful divestment of the FDA approved anti-INFg antibody Emapalumab, Novimmune now focuses on its bispecific technology under the brand Light Chain Bioscience in which Nicolas serves as CEO.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Kevin began his career at Cambridge Antibody Technology (now part of AstraZeneca) when CAT was still in its start-up phase. He went on to found and manage Isogenica Ltd and has since held CEO positions with PhosImmune Inc., Activiomics Ltd and F-star GmbH. Kevin studied for his PhD in the laboratory of Sir Gregory Winter at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge and for his MBA at Aston Business School.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Dr. Yves Fomekong Nanfack is the Head of AI/ML - Research at Takeda, where he leads the integration and application of artificial intelligence and machine learning across drug discovery. Before joining Takeda, he served as Head of AI End-to-End Foundations at Sanofi, where he launched the BioAIM program to transform biologics research through data and AI. Earlier in his career at Merck/EMD Serono, Yves led teams in computational chemistry and computational biology, advancing digital and data-driven approaches to discovery. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Amsterdam and brings more than 15 years of experience at the intersection of AI, data science, and pharmaceutical research.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Rachel Fong is the Senior Director of Commercial Operations, Membrane Proteome Array, at Integral Molecular, with over 10 years of experience at the company. Rachel manages relationships with customers, collaborators, and partners for MPA projects. As a founding member of the scientific team that launched this platform, she brings a unique perspective that helps guide partners from initial discussions to successful project completion. Rachel joined Integral Molecular in 2010 and is a co-author on over a dozen publications.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Shelley Force Aldred, Ph.D., is Co-Founder and CEO of Rondo Therapeutics. Prior to starting Rondo, Dr. Force Aldred was a member of TeneoBio’s founding team where she led preclinical development for the company’s CD3 T-cell engager platform which ultimately generated $1.5B in up-front payments through partnerships and an acquisition by Amgen. Early in her career, Dr. Force Aldred developed a passion for starting companies when she co-founded SwitchGear Genomics and later sold it to Active Motif. Dr. Force Aldred earned a Ph.D. in Genetics from Stanford where she continues to be involved as an advisor for Stanford’s SPARK translational medicine program and as a member of the Board of Governors for the Stanford Medicine Alumni Association.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

No bio available.

• SC2: AI-Driven Predictive Preclinical Models: Rethinking the Role of Animal Testing

Eric C. Frey, Ph.D. is the current CSO, and co-founder of Rapid, LLC. He retired as a Professor from the Radiological Physics Division of Johns Hopkins Russel H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science. He has been involved in nuclear medicine imaging research since 1988 and has made contributions in the areas of scatter compensation, dual radionuclide, quantitative reconstruction in SPECT and task-based image quality assessment. He is a fellow of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and was a recipient of the SNMMI’s Edward J. Hoffman Award in 2018. He has been an advisor to 21 Ph.D. students and has authored more than 150 journal publications. Software written by him and his students was licensed to GE Healthcare and was part of the Evolution reconstruction package; a more advanced version was also licensed to Rapid. He was the architect and author of the curve fitting, error propagation, and dose calculation engines in 3D-RD-S, Rapid’s FDA-cleared organ dosimetry product.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Kevin Friedman is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Kelonia Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering in vivo gene delivery to expand the therapeutic impact and accessibility of transformative CAR T cell medicines. An accomplished drug developer and recognized leader in cell and gene therapy, Kevin brings more than twenty years of experience spanning scientific innovation, translational development, and executive leadership. Prior to founding Kelonia, he served as Vice President of Oncology Research and Development at bluebird bio, where he led the development of multiple programs including Abecma, the first approved anti-BCMA CAR T cell therapy for multiple myeloma. Kevin holds numerous patents and publications in the fields of immune-oncology and gene therapy. He earned his Ph.D. from Oregon Health & Science University and completed postdoctoral training in the Surgery Branch at the National Cancer Institute.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Mark received his PhD from University College London in 2003. His post graduate research in the laboratory of Professor Karl Hale was synthesising the antitumour macrolide Bryostatins resulting in the enantioselective formal total synthesis of Bryostatin 7. Mark has worked in various roles at KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, Pharminox and more recently PolyTherics/Abzena. He is an expert in the design and development of Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) linkers and was instrumental in building Abzena’s site-specific ThioBridge conjugation technology platform now in Phase II for the production of stable and homogeneous ADCs, as well as Abzena’s site-specific polymer PEGylation linker technology including TheraPEG, CyPEG and HiPEG, for the half-life extension of peptides and proteins. Mark joined Bicycle Therapeutics in 2022 heading the Peptide, Organic and Medicinal Chemistry Groups in the UK, involving the design and development of bicyclic peptide drugs and conjugates. Mark’s focus is in developability assessment and he has 42 publications and patents in the field of early stage drug discovery.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Upon finishing his studies in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr. Furtmann pursued his interdisciplinary Ph.D. thesis in Computational Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Bonn, focusing on computer-aided design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of protease inhibitors. After starting his professional career at Merck KGaA as Principal Scientist, he joined Sanofi in 2016 as Lab Head for Bioinformatics within the Biologics Research department. Currently, Dr. Furtmann is heading the Data Science & Computational Design group to support the discovery of next-generation protein therapeutics.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Dr. Gajewski directs the Melanoma Oncology Clinic and leads the Immunology and Cancer Program of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his BS, PhD in Immunology, and MD degrees from the University of Chicago, and remained for a residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology. His PhD mentor was T cell immunologist Dr. Frank Fitch, and he went on to do a post-doctoral fellowship at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels with Dr. Thierry Boon for studies in anti-tumor immunity. After returning to Chicago, Dr. Gajewski joined the faculty in 1997. The focus of Dr. Gajewski’s work has been on understanding fundamental aspects of anti-tumor immunity and bringing these concepts forward from the laboratory into clinical trial testing in patients. While working on melanoma vaccine strategies, his laboratory uncovered a role for downstream resistance pathways allowing tumor evasion from the immune response. Gene expression profiling and IHC approaches have identified the T cell-inflamed and non-T cell-inflamed tumor microenvironment phenotypes. The T cell-inflamed tumors contain tumor antigen-specific T cells but also negative regulatory pathways that have been moved forward as drug targets, including blockade of PD-1/PD-L1 interactions and of IDO. Strategies to promote T cell priming and infiltration into non-T cell-inflamed tumors have led to STING pathway agonist development, currently in clinical testing. Genomic characterization of non-T cell-inflamed tumors has revealed oncogene pathways that mediate T cell exclusion, the first of which was the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. Recent work has also identified germline polymorphisms and evidence for commensal microbiota that also regulate anti-tumor immunity, and microbiota interventions such as FMT have also moved into the clinic. Dr. Gajewski has published more than 240 manuscripts and 20 book chapters in these areas, and has presented data at more than 400 scientific conferences. He is past president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, is founding editor of the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer, is past chair of the Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy grant review study section at NIH, has served on the program committees for ASCO and AACR, and is a grant reviewer for the Melanoma Research Alliance and Cancer Research Institute. In 2016 he became the first recipient of the American Cancer Society-Jules L. Plangere Jr. Family Foundation Professorship in Cancer Immunotherapy, and was designated a Distinguished Professor at the University of Chicago. Among other recognitions, he was named the AbbVie Foundation Professor for Cancer Immunotherapy, received the William B. Coley Award for contributions to the field of cancer immunology, the ESMO award in Immuno-oncology, and was inducted into the American Association of Physicians. He has had continuous NIH funding for 20 years, and is scientific co-founder of Jounce Therapeutics and Pyxis Oncology.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Dr. Natalie Galant is the CEO and co-founder of Paradox Immunotherapeutics, a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the creation of antibody therapies for the treatment of rare protein misfolding diseases, especially those characterized by amyloidosis, using a platform with a proven track record of success. Prior to this role, Natalie received her PhD from the University of Toronto's Department of Medical Biophysics, where her PhD work helped lead to the development of a monoclonal antibody currently in FDA clinical trials for the treatment of cardiac amyloidosis. She is the recipient of numerous academic fellowships, awards (incl. winner of BIO 2023 Start-Up Stadium), and has co-authored several scientific publications in research areas ranging from chemical informatics and cryo-EM to immunotherapy drug development.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Mayank Gandhi, M.D. is CEO of NEOK Bio. Mayank is MD by training with over two decades of professional experience spanning biopharma-focused finance roles (equity research, public/private equity) and operational roles in large and small biopharma companies (commercial ops, medical affairs, clinical development, business development).

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Francis obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from University of Sherbrooke in 2015, during which he developed a molecular docking program for docking small molecules to flexible protein or RNA targets. While doing his PhD studies, Francis co-founded a successful IT company for automating the management of scientific conferences. Francis joined the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada in 2016, where he has taken part in and led various efforts in the discovery and engineering of antibodies or other biologics. In such efforts are included the structure prediction of antibodies alone or in complex, the affinity assessment of antibody-antigen complexes, and the detection of antibody developability issues. Francis is leading the technical efforts in using artificial intelligence for antibody discovery.

• TS9A: Introduction to Machine Learning for Biologics Design

Melissa is the Vice President of Drug Discovery at Diagonal Therapeutics. She has over 15 years of industry experience in the discovery and development of innovative antibody drugs. Melissa has also worked at Biogen, Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals in their early discovery groups. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute and received her PhD in Biochemistry from Emory University.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Dr. Gee received his B.S. degree in Biology at the California Institute of Technology in 2013, where he published and patented work engineering T cell receptors for adoptive T cell therapy in the laboratory of David Baltimore. Following that, he received his Ph.D. in Immunology with an additional core focus in Computational Immunology at Stanford University in the laboratory of K. Christopher Garcia in 2017, publishing his main work on novel technology to identify the specificities of T cell receptors for application in oncology. He completed further work on characterizing the structural basis of T cell receptor recognition of immunological targets and T cell receptor cross-reactivity. Dr. Gee has had prior work experience at the National Cancer Institute, where his primary focuses were in immunology, structural biology, protein engineering, systems biology, bioinformatics, and algorithms for the application of therapeutic- and early- discovery in immuno-oncology. He is currently VP, Target Discovery at 3T Biosciences since co-founding the company in 2017.

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Nimish Gera is an independent consultant and biotech executive with broad experience across antibody-based modalities including mono- and bispecific antibodies, protein fusions, and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) across several therapeutic areas such as oncology, immunology, autoimmune, and rare diseases. He has held scientific and/or leadership roles at companies ranging from early-stage startups like Mythic Therapeutics and Oncobiologics to large organizations such as Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Genentech. With more than fifteen years in drug development, Nimish has successfully advanced complex bispecific and ADC programs from concept through preclinical and early clinical stages. He serves as Associate Editor of the journal mAbs, hosts the Chain Protein Engineering podcast, and teaches the Developability of Bispecific Antibodies short course at the PEGS Boston and Europe conferences. Nimish has a proven track record of bringing multiple drug candidates to clinical trials, publishing peer-reviewed articles, building IP portfolios, and chairing national and international meetings on antibody therapeutics. He holds a PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from North Carolina State University and a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Hans-Peter Gerber brings 30 years of R&D experience in oncology drug development, specializing in antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), redirected T-cell targeting compounds (bispecifics), and adoptive T-cell therapies (TCR-T and CAR-T cells). He has built successful drug development teams across pharma, biotech, and startups, overseeing preclinical development with low clinical attrition rates. Notably, he has contributed to the development of 6 of the 15 approved ADCs. In September 2023, Hans-Peter joined Sutro Biopharma as CSO, leading a research team of 80 FTEs. He co-founded Codeable Therapeutics in 2022, focusing on next-generation ADCs that induce immunogenic cell death, and successfully secured seed funding in 2023. Hans-Peter also serves as Chairman of the Board at T-CURX, a startup in Wuerzburg, Germany, developing next-generation CAR-T cell therapies, and serves as a board member at Athebio in Zurich, Switzerland, which develops biotherapeutic compounds using Darpin technology. From 2018 to 2022, he was CSO and SVP at 3T Biosciences, where he expanded the research organization to over 30 FTEs and raised over $50M in an oversubscribed Series A round as interim CEO. He also served as an independent director at NBE Therapeutics, acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim for $1.5B in 2021. Previously, Hans-Peter built the R&D organization at Maverick Therapeutics, leading to its acquisition by Takeda for $525M in 2021. He is a consultant to VC firms, evaluating therapeutic modalities including ADCs, bispecifics, and T-cell programs. Between 1995 and 2017, Hans-Peter held increasing responsibilities at Genentech, Seattle Genetics, and Pfizer, overseeing multiple oncology biotherapeutic programs from discovery through IND filings. His work led to over 10 IND filings, including 7 ADCs and contributions to 3 BLAs, including Avastin and 2 ADCs (Mylotarg, Besponsa). As an internationally recognized leader in oncology R&D, Hans-Peter has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers and holds over 100 patents. He received his MS in Biochemistry and PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Zurich, Switzerland

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Saba Ghassemi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and serves as a Principal Investigator at the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on developing novel CAR T cells with enhanced potency through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates engineering with CAR T cell immunology. Dr. Ghassemi pioneered the development of an abbreviated culture paradigm, resulting in less differentiated progeny with improved potency. This breakthrough led to a successful clinical trial at UPenn utilizing a 3-day manufacturing process. Additionally, she has devised a novel method for delivering CAR transgenes into quiescent T cells, enabling the generation of highly potent CAR T cells within 24 hours. Dr. Ghassemi is currently spearheading efforts to transition this innovative platform into an upcoming clinical trial at Penn. Her groundbreaking work has garnered recognition through several research grants and patent applications aimed at enhancing CAR T cells' efficacy, expansion, and fitness for adoptive immunotherapy. Dr. Ghassemi's ongoing research endeavors focus on optimizing, streamlining, and automating the manufacturing process of CAR T cells, with the overarching goal of enhancing the translational applicability and accessibility of these novel therapies to a broader range of geographical locations and patient populations.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Dr. Ghayur retired from AbbVie (July 2021) and works as an independent consultant. He has 30+ years’ experience leading multi-disciplinary and cross-therapeutic area Biologics discovery programs and developing novel Biologics platforms. Several biologics programs resulted in clinical development candidates. Dr. Ghayur led the team that pioneered the discovery and development of the Dual - variable - Domain -Ig (DVD-Ig) and other multi-specific platforms. Dr. Ghayur also led the team that defined the uptake, intracellular trafficking, and lysosomal degradation of anti-TNF mAbs/DVD-Ig, resulting in the concept of anti-TNF-ADC (next-Gen anti-TNF). In addition, Dr. Ghayur proposed and helped implement several corporate-wide (Abbott & AbbVie) initiatives to foster cross-functional/cross-TA collaborations to bring forward innovative concepts/programs.

• SC7: Targeting the Target: Aligning Target and Biologic Format Biology to Achieve Desired Outcomes

Nathan C. Gianneschi is a Professor and entrepreneur with a B.Sc(Hons) from the University of Adelaide, Australia in chemistry and biochemistry (1999), a Ph.D in chemistry at Northwestern University (2005) and postdoctoral training in chemical biology at The Scripps Research Institute. In 2008 he began his career at the University of California, San Diego. Since 2017, Gianneschi has been Jacob & Rosaline Cohn Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science & Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Pharmacology at Northwestern University.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Dr. Patricia Giblin is the Chief Scientific Officer of Ability Biotherapeutics, a company developing next-generation logic-gated therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Patti brings extensive experience in research, development, and clinical translation to this role with a focus on advancing highly differentiated immune cell engagers and immune cell depletion therapeutics. Dr. Giblin earned her Ph.D. in Immunology from Yale University and completed her postdoctoral training at UCSF before beginning her industry career at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. There she built a strong foundation in R&D from target identification through Phase I clinical development. Since then, she has led teams across both biotech and pharmaceutical organizations, successfully advancing multiple therapeutic candidates into clinical development. At this conference, Dr. Giblin will discuss how Ability’s AI-guided AbiLeap™ platform can be applied to engineer novel capabilities-such as pH sensing-into simple, fully human, and highly developable therapeutic formats designed to overcome longstanding challenges in T cell engager development.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Sebastian Giehring earned his PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of Hamburg. He subsequently worked in a scientific role at a spectrometry company before transitioning to a venture capital firm as an investment manager for life sciences. In 2006, he chose to change to the startup sector, taking on various management roles in life science tool companies. In 2014, he invented the PAIA microplate technology and founded PAIA Biotech GmbH, where he has served as CEO ever since.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Jochem is currently at Johnson and Johnson focused on non-clinical immunogenicity of biologics Before that he was at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 14 years in different roles of responsibility focused on biologics drug development. For the last 8 years he has been focused on building a group for pre-clinical immunogenicity risk assessment and mitigation. He received his training at the University of Groningen and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

• SC2: AI-Driven Predictive Preclinical Models: Rethinking the Role of Animal Testing

Zinaida Good, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology and the Center for Biomedical Informatics Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Director of the Cancer Cell Therapy Data Hub at the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy. Her research program focuses on understanding and enhancing engineered T cell immunotherapies for cancer and immune-mediated diseases through innovative computational approaches and systems immunology. During her postdoctoral training with Drs. Crystal Mackall and Sylvia Plevritis, Dr. Good performed fate mapping studies to identify features of optimal CAR T cells in large B cell lymphoma (LBCL) and diffuse midline glioma (DMG), and discovered the role of CAR T regulatory cells in resistance to CD19-CAR in LBCL. She earned her Ph.D. in Computational & Systems Immunology from Stanford University, where she trained with Drs. Garry Nolan and Sean Bendall and developed methods to build and leverage lymphocyte differentiation trajectories in health and cancer. Dr. Good's background in experimental immunology and oncology combines two years of experience in Discovery Oncology at Genentech with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of British Columbia, where she investigated mechanisms of T cell memory with Dr. Michael Gold. Dr. Good’s work includes 4 first-author papers (Nature Medicine 2018 & 2022, Nature Biotechnology 2019, Trends in Immunology 2019), 17 co-authored papers (including Nature 2019, 2022, 2024, Science 2021, Nature Methods 2016, 2022, and NEJM 2024), and a multinational patent. Her research is supported by the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Bridge Fellowship, American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant, and Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Innovation Challenge Grant. Dr. Good has been named an Arthur & Sandra Irving Cancer Immunology Fellow in 2022 and an AACR-Woman in Cancer Research Scholar in 2024.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Neal Goodwin is the Chief Scientific Officer at Immuto Scientific, with responsibility for drug discovery programs. With over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development, Neal has contributed to successful IPOs, multiple technology deals, and award-winning research projects. Neal’s core competencies include advanced translational platforms, drug discovery and development, and gene delivery technologies. Neal received a Ph.D. in Microbiology from The University of Montana and served an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at The Jackson Laboratory with John Schimenti (now at Cornell).

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Dr. Victor Greiff is Associate Professor for Computational and Systems Immunology at the University of Oslo. His work focuses specifically on the development of machine learning, computational and experimental tools for the analysis, prediction and engineering of adaptive immune receptor repertoires.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Physician-scientist, clinical leader, and entrepreneur with a proven track record of translating breakthrough immunology into curative therapies. Ricardo Grieshaber-Bouyer, MD PhD is Professor of Clinical Systems Immunology and Head of the Clinical Trial Unit. He leads a dynamic clinical and translational research team. His team has pioneered the first-in-patient applications of T-cell redirecting therapies for autoimmune diseases, with seminal studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Medicine. Professor Grieshaber-Bouyer serves as a Global Principal Investigator for innovative, early-phase trials and manages a portfolio of cutting edge immunology studies focused on precision cell depletion. Academically, he leads a 15-member research group that works on developing new precision cell depleting therapies and understanding immunological hallmarks of therapy response and relapse. This research program is supported by nearly $10 million in secured PI funding. Bridging academia and industry, Professor Grieshaber-Bouyer leverages his dual background in medicine and business to drive the development of innovative therapeutics by serving on Scientific Advisory Boards and advising on preclinical benchmarking, asset acquisition and clinical strategy. For his impact at the intersect of clinical, scientific, and private sectors to build programs that deliver cures for autoimmunity, Professor Grieshaber-Bouyer was honored as Forbes 30 Under 30.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Dr. Groaning received his PhD in Organic Chemistry at Colorado State University before moving on to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland for his postdoctoral research in natural product total synthesis. From there he started his career at Roche initially in medicinal chemistry before moving to Roche Colorado where he transitioned to process research. In 2008, he moved to Endocyte and began his tenure there in process development before transitioning into regulatory affairs and finally clinical development. He lead the prostate cancer program exploring EC1169, a PSMA targeted small molecule drug conjugate, before Endocyte in-licensed PSMA-617 which became the approved drug Pluvicto. After the acquisition of Endocyte by Novartis, Dr. Groaning spent three years at Amgen working on the STEAP1 targeted T-Cell engager program before moving back into the radioligand space. He joined Fusion in January, 2024 as the Global Program Leader for the Ac-225-PSMA program until Fusion was acquired by AstraZeneca. In September 2025, he began his tenure at Soricimed Biopharma as their CSO focusing on the development of TRPV6 targeted radioligand therapies.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Carissa Grose has more than 25 years of experience in biotechnology with a focus on molecular biology and genome engineering. In her current role as Co-Director of the Protein Expression Laboratory at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, she oversees the design, expression, purification, and quality control of a wide variety of difficult protein targets to serve the RAS Initiative as well as other NIH organizations.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Maria is an industry recognized expert and leader in antibody display technologies and protein engineering and has >20 years of experience in this field. Maria has worked in Academia, Biotech and Biopharmaceutical roles and has diverse knowledge base which spans from molecular biology through to large scale protein production. As a project leader, she has also successfully led antibody therapeutics from research phase into clinical trials. As Laboratory Head for the CRUK AstraZeneca Antibody Alliance, she collaborates with CRUK and the academic community to deliver a portfolio which spans different types of cancer with mAbs carrying antagonistic, Immuno-oncology, agonistic and ADC mechanisms of action. The Alliance team are working to get the best possible outcome for therapeutic and diagnostic programmes with the long-term goal of benefiting cancer patients.

• Display of Biologics

Haotian Guo is the founder and CEO of Ailurus Bio, driving innovation at the intersection of synthetic biology and AI to advance life sciences and biotechnology. He has pioneered synthetic organelle technologies leveraging liquid-liquid phase separation to transform applications ranging from metabolic engineering to recombinant protein production, with his work featured in Cell and major media outlets. Haotian earned his Ph.D. from the University of Paris and has contributed to research and education at leading institutions, including INSERM, Tsinghua University, MIT, UCSF, and Fudan University.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Dr. Priyanka Gupta is a Scientist in the Biotherapeutics Molecule Discovery group at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. She has several years of experience in the discovery and optimization of antibody-based therapeutics. Her interests lie in engineering and developability of early antibody candidates to become therapeutics. Priyanka earned her Ph.D in Biochemistry & Biophysics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and M.S in Biotechnology from Texas Tech University.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Michael is a trained immunologist specialized in immunogenicity profiling with over 6 years of expertise in immunogenicity risk assessment of biologics. He joined Novartis in 2017, applying his expertise to improve various immunogenicity profiling assays. As part of the cross-functional Immunogenicity Hub, Michaels team supports biotherapeutic projects by addressing mechanistic questions and providing Immunogenicity profiling utilizing an ever expanding in silico and in vitro assay toolbox.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Andreas Hald was originally trained as an in vivo neurobiologist at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, but changed his focus to investigating tissue-regenerative processes and cancer. After taking on various responsibilities in biotech and the pharma industry, Andreas now manages the Department of Research Bioanalysis at Novo Nordisk, Denmark. Throughout his career, Andreas has developed, implemented, and utilized analytical methods to assess biological readouts for disease models, with a particular emphasis on using antibodies to isolate or detect proteins and peptides from various sources including liquid and solid biopsies, as well as cultured cells. In response to the increasing diversity and complexity of drug modalities, and the time constrains in a competitive industry, Andreas and his team have established novel automated digital processes and end-2-end analytical platforms for drug-exposure analysis.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Leading the Biologics Characterization, Expression and Purification group for US research at Sanofi in Cambridge MA since 2021. Previous spent 5 years at Merck and 9 years at Amgen in similar protein production leadership roles.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Bonnie Hammer, PhD, currently serves as Executive Vice President, Research & Development at Invenra. She brings more than 20 years' experience in cell biology, disease modeling, applications development, and assay development for drug discovery to the role. Prior to joining Invenra, Bonnie held a research and development leadership role with Life Technologies (now Thermo Fisher Scientific), where she worked on cellular models for oncology, Parkinson's disease, and aging. In addition, she previously served as a research area manager for membrane targets including G protein coupled receptors and ion channels. She holds PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oregon.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Lora Hamuro is the Senior Director of Clinical Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics at Bristol Myers Squibb, with a robust background in clinical oncology drug development. She holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Shippensburg University, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Penn State University College of Medicine, and an M.S. in Pharmacometrics from the University of Maryland. Her career spans roles at Provid Pharmaceuticals and Merck, and she has extensive experience at BMS, contributing to over 15 INDs and leading strategies for multiple regulatory submissions for oncology agents like Opdivo®, Yervoy®, and Augtyro™. Lora has designed numerous clinical pharmacology studies, published 47 peer-reviewed articles, and actively participates in professional societies. She is a member of ASCPT, ISoP, and SITC, and hosted the ISoP Sheiner lecture series podcast "Table Talk". Her interests focus on quantitative methods to understand immunogenicity impact, to enhance drug development and to optimize oncology dosing strategies.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Yi is a Principal Scientist - Data Science in Quantitative Sciences, PIDT, Biologics Development at Bristol Myers Squibb in New Brunswick, NJ. She focuses on clinical method trending and monitoring, data analysis and visualization, and the development of data strategies and automation techniques. She also serves as co-chair of the BD Data Science Forum, supporting data science and digitalization initiatives. Previously, Yi worked at Protheragen Inc. She holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from University of Connecticut.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Rami Hannoush is a Venture Partner at Versant Ventures, where he leads life science investments and company creation initiatives. As an investor, he focuses on building and scaling early-stage biotech ventures, driving scientific strategy, and shaping high-impact partnerships with leading global pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Versant, Rami was a General Partner at Mubadala Capital, where he led investments across a portfolio of early- and late-stage biotech companies. Rami also brings over two decades of hands-on drug development experience spanning large pharma and emerging biotech. He was the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of EpiBiologics, where he also served as its founding Chief Scientific Officer. Earlier in his career, he held R&D leadership roles at Genentech, overseeing preclinical and translational strategies for advancing multiple drug candidates in immunology and oncology, with a strong focus on innovative drug modalities. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry from McGill University and did his postdoctoral training in chemical biology and cell biology at Harvard.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Dr. Brittany Hartwell is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Her lab’s research in immunoengineering combines perspectives from biomolecular engineering, drug delivery, and immunology to develop molecular platforms that can target specific cells and tissues of the immune system to direct the immune response, with a particular focus on targeting and 'tuning’ the mucosa. This work has broad applications ranging from the development of antigen-specific immunotherapies that induce immune tolerance against autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases, to development of targeted vaccines that activate immune protection against cancer and infectious diseases. For this work she was recently selected as one of four researchers worldwide to receive a 2022 Michelson Prize, awarded to early career investigators in human immunology and vaccine research. Prior to starting her faculty position at the University of Minnesota in fall 2021, she completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Darrell Irvine at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2021) in immunoengineering, where she worked on developing mucosal vaccines. She received her PhD in biomolecular engineering with Dr. Cory Berkland from the University of Kansas (2016), where she worked on developing multivalent antigen-specific immunotherapy platforms for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis. She received her BS in chemical and biological engineering from Iowa State University (2011).

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Dr. Hastie uses high-resolution structural analysis to design better therapeutics and vaccines against viruses that threaten global health. She is a leading expert on the hemorrhagic fever virus Lassa virus and serves on international task forces to steer thought about how to better elicit and detect the right responses to Lassa virus and to deliver a much-needed vaccine to endemic areas. Most recently, Dr. Hastie has worked with the Coronavirus Immunotherapeutic Consortium (CoVIC) to compare leading therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 and illuminate surfaces on the Spike protein that are less likely to escape antibody-mediated neutralization. Dr. Hastie further spearheads antibody discovery efforts at La Jolla Institute for Immunology to find antibodies against emerging viruses and other therapeutic targets.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Winston is the VP Computational Sciences and Engineering at LabGenius, where he leads a team of experts in data science, machine learning, and software development to expand LabGenius’ ML-driven discovery platform capabilities. He has extensive experience leading the development and application of computational tools to advance both antibody therapeutics (BigHat Biosciences) and diagnostics (Serimmune). Winston holds a PhD in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford University, where he was a NSF GRFP fellow.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Dr. N Lance Hepler, PhD, is CIO and a Founding Scientist at Infinimmune. He received his PhD from UCSD, where he worked within the Center for AIDS Research on epitope discovery tools and applications of high-throughput sequencing. Thereafter he joined PacBio as a Software Engineer and developed and implemented algorithms for variant discovery and sequence consensus. Following his time at PacBio, he joined 10x Genomics as a Computational Biologist, where he worked on the development and productization of new assays for single-cell RNA-seq, copy number variation, and spatial RNA-seq. Today, Dr. Hepler is leading AI efforts at Infinimmune, among other responsibilities.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Tim has 15 years’ experience contributing to immunogenicity risk and mitigation strategies for large molecules and advanced therapies at Roche and Pfizer, from early discovery projects to those in clinical development and post-marketing. During the last ten years he has contributed immunology expertise to the development of an in silico immunogenicity model, with the purpose of improving predictions of clinical immunogenicity for drug candidates. Tim previously worked on vaccine development and holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Oxford.

• SC2: AI-Driven Predictive Preclinical Models: Rethinking the Role of Animal Testing

Dr. Ho is a Senior Investigator, the Deputy Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, the Head of the Antibody Therapy Section, and the Director of the Antibody Engineering Program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH. Dr. Ho received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Ira Pastan's lab at the NIH. Dr. Ho is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Antibody Therapeutics (Oxford University Press) and serves on the Boards of Directors for the Antibody Society, the Chinese Antibody Society, and the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES). Dr. Ho has garnered multiple accolades, including the Asian & Pacific Islander American Organization (APAO) Scientific Achievement Award, the Dr. Francisco S. Sy Award for Mentorship Excellence at HHS, the NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research (DDIR) Innovation Award, and the NCI Director's Innovation Award. In 2023, he was honored with induction into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows, recognizing his outstanding contributions to the development of glypicans as cancer therapeutic targets and antibody engineering methodologies for cancer therapy.

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Kerstin Hofer is a Principal Scientist at Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, where she leads the bioconjugation lab. She has extensive experience in the delivery of oligonucleotide-based therapeutics to target tissues, such as the brain.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Robert Hofmeister is Chief Scientific Officer at CREATE Medicines, where he leads the development of multi-immune cell in vivo mRNA CAR products for the treatment of cancer and autoimmunity. He has over 25 years experience in immuno-oncology, gene therapy, and drug discovery. Previously, he served as CSO at Resonance Medicine and TCR2 Therapeutics, and held R&D roles at EMD Serono and Micromet, contributing to the development of Bavencio and Blincyto.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Zicheng Hu is a Principal Scientist in the Department of BioAnalytical Sciences (BAS) at Genentech. He studied T cell immunology and received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He received postdoctoral training at the University of California San Francisco and conducted research in computational immunology. Zicheng joined Genentech in 2022. He leads data mining efforts to understand the anti-drug antibody responses and develops predictive models to evaluate the immunogenicity risk of protein-based therapeutics.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Dr. Jailkhani currently serves as CEO of Matrisome Bio. She is a biotech entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in oncology, extracellular matrix (ECM) biology, and radiopharmaceutical research across MIT, the Broad Institute, Harvard, and ICGEB. As founding CEO, Dr. Jailkhani has led Matrisome since its inception, raising venture capital seed financing, building a world-class team, and driving the company’s vision to develop first-in-class targeted therapies for cancer by leveraging disease-restricted ECM proteins. Prior to Matrisome Bio, Dr. Jailkhani was a Research Scientist at the Koch Institute at MIT, where she oversaw development of the platform technology that now serves as the company’s foundation. She is an inventor on Matrisome Bio’s core intellectual property, and her work on ECM-targeted nanobody therapies has resulted in multiple publications and patent applications for cancer detection and therapy. Dr. Jailkhani earned her PhD in Immunology from the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), completed her postdoctoral fellowship at MIT as a Mazumdar-Shaw International Oncology Fellow, and has been recognized as a 2025 Henri Termeer Fellow.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Shashi Jatiani is Director of Strategic Partnerships at SeromYx, driving growth through key technical and commercial collaborations. He bridges science and business by shaping partnership strategies and translating complex concepts into actionable plans. Shashi represents SeromYx at scientific meetings and leads technical discussions with clients and partners. Previously, he led oncology drug discovery teams in biotech and was faculty at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He completed postdoctoral training at Temple University School of Medicine and earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, University of Mumbai.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Vibha brings more than 20+ years of experience in supporting biologics, vaccine development, and gene therapy with contributions to multiple IND, BLA, and MAA filings. She is a recognized leader in the area of Bioanalysis and Immunogenicity with more than 50 peer-reviewed publications. In her current role as an Executive Director for Biotherapeutics Bioanalysis at Bristol Myers Squibb, Vibha is responsible for leading biotherapeutic and cell therapy bioanalytical (BA) functions.

• SC2: AI-Driven Predictive Preclinical Models: Rethinking the Role of Animal Testing

Moonsoo Jin, Ph.D. serves as Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Radiology at the Houston Methodist Research Institute. He earned his doctorate in bioengineering from MIT and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. His current research focuses on engineering CAR T cells for cancer therapy and developing antibody-based platforms for cancer imaging and targeted drug delivery. Dr. Jin’s innovations have led to CAR T cell therapies now in clinical trials for advanced thyroid cancer, with additional studies launching soon for gastric and breast cancers. Beyond his academic contributions and mentorship of emerging scientists, he has successfully founded three biotech companies, each driven by a mission to create safer, more effective, and broadly accessible treatments.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Geoffrey B. Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Radiology, is board-certified in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine and recently rotated out of an 8-year tenure as Chair of Nuclear Medicine at Mayo Clinic. Under his leadership, Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN has become the largest theranostic center in the world, averaging 40 therapies per week for 2023. Dr. Johnson now serves as Associate Director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center (MCCCC) and as Chair of Radiopharmaceutical Therapy. Dr. Johnson is founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Nucleus RadioPharma, a CDMO for radiopharmaceutical development, production, and delivery. Dr. Johnson was the top-recruiting physician in the MCCCC in 2022 and has enrolled over 140 patients on radiopharmaceutical cancer therapy trials in the last 3 years, serving as overall PI and local PI. He also serves as Co-PI on multiple active theranostic trials. Dr. Johnson is a co-inventor of Alpha-PET Double-L.E.T. theranostic technologies, the first of which is now licensed to Perspective Therapeutics. Dr. Johnson served as Medical Director of the Nuclear Medicine Technology Program, Program Director of the Nuclear Radiology Fellowship Program and Chair of PET/MR research and development committee. Dr. Johnson earned his B.S. in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving Tau Beta Phi academic honors. He completed his M.D./Ph.D. in the Mayo Medical-Scientist Training Program as the Davis Physician-Scientist Scholar. He completed postdoctoral training in immunology and surgery in the Mayo Graduate School. He went on to complete an internship in internal medicine, a residency in diagnostic radiology and a fellowship in nuclear radiology in Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education. In recognition of his work, Dr. Johnson has received awards and honors, including the Roentgen Resident Research Award and the twice the Honored Educator Award, conferred by the Radiological Society of North America; Physician/Scientist of the Year, conferred by Mayo School of Health Sciences; and the Carman Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice, conferred by the Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic. Dr. Johnson is active in research and education, garnering more than 30 awards with trainees on projects at national and international meetings. Dr. Johnson’s memberships with 13 professional organizations include the AAI, ACR, ABR, ARRS, RSNA, ASNC, SNMMI and STR.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Post doc in tumor immunotherapy at Surgery Branch Chief Dr. Steven Rosenberg’s lab in NCI/NIH Over 30 years of experience in the R&D of innovative drugs, particular in antibody drugs Previously served as Principal Scientist and Senior Group Leader at Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals, and contributed to the development and successful launch of Erbitux® MS in Hematology from Tongji Medical School, PhD in Biologic Medicine from North Texas University

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

I am currently Director of Protein Analytics and Developability at AstraZeneca, where I lead the development and implementation of analytics and developability strategies for biologics. My expertise spans antibody engineering and development for therapeutics, beginning with my PhD at Tel Aviv University investigating conformational changes in HIV gp120 with sensitive antibodies, followed by postdoctoral research at the National Cancer Institute designing advanced anti-cancer immunotoxins. Since joining AstraZeneca, I have driven progress in biologics engineering and contributed to several pipeline projects, notably including the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody cocktail AZD7442 (EVUSHELD).

• Engineering Antibodies

Ashty Karim is an assistant professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University. With a foundation in chemical engineering and synthetic biology, he has worked in cell-free systems for >10 years at the intersection of biology and chemistry developing technologies to efficiently harness biological systems to convert waste to value. His research group develops biological molecules, systems, and processes to enable global sustainability, with a particular focus on increasing our ability to biorecover critical minerals, biorecycle carbon, and biomanufacture new materials and medicines. He earned his B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University. Embracing the academic mission of developing both knowledge and people, Ashty has also spent the last several years co-developing new educational frameworks, courses, and workshops for learning and teaching synthetic biology.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Developability Analytics of Biologics at Research Scale: The emphasis on developability assessment of large molecules in early research is becoming increasingly important with the advent of highly engineered antibodies. I have had the unique opportunity to study the diverse modalities of antibody formats in the Sanofi pipeline and am eager to learn more about molecular attributes that result in the development of successful therapeutics.

• Biophysical Methods

As Vice President, Antibody Technologies & CMC for Marengo Therapeutics, Madan Katragadda leads the group responsible for discovering, designing, and delivering biotherapeutic candidates with optimal biophysical and manufacturable properties. He has more than 15 years of experience discovering and developing a wide range of biotherapeutic modalities spanning peptides, fusion proteins, antibody-drug-conjugates, and multi-specific antibodies. His first foray into biotherapeutics started with the discovery of peptide-based complement inhibitors during his postdoc tenure at the University of Pennsylvania. His work led to out-licensing of an anti-C3 peptide to Apellis pharmaceuticals, who are currently testing it in several inflammatory diseases. At Pfizer, Madan led an Antibody Engineering group, built cross-functional teams to deliver on innovative ideas and new technology platforms and managed several biotherapeutic projects through internal and external collaborations. He delivered several biotherapeutic candidates to treat Inflammatory and oncology indications for preclinical/clinical development. His work at the University of Pennsylvania and Pfizer resulted in several patents and publications.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Mary Keir is a Distinguished Scientist and Director in Immunology Discovery at Genentech, where she leads the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) research strategy. She completed her PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by a successful post-doctoral fellowship with Arlene Sharpe at Harvard Medical School studying the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway. Her interests in immunology and translational science took her next to Genentech, where she has led biomarker and research projects from early discovery all the way through to Phase 3 studies. While at Genentech, her work has resulted in five granted patents more than 40 papers over interests spanning mucosal immunology, the microbiome, host-microbe interactions predictive biomarkers and IBD biology.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Rick Kendall is the Chief Science Officer at CateniaBio developing novel dual payload ADCs. He has over 30 years of experience in biotechnology and the biopharmaceutical industry. Rick has focused his career developing innovative oncology therapeutics and has a deep understanding of small and large molecule therapeutics, oncolytic viruses as well as engineered T-cell therapies. Prior to CatenaBio, Rick held the positions of Chief Executive Officer/ Chief Science Officer at ImmPACT-Bio USA Inc. developing novel logic gated CAR T therapeutics, Vice President of Cell Therapy Research at Kite, A Gilead Company, Executive Director and Global Head of Oncology Research at Amgen Inc. and Research Fellow at Merck Research Laboratories.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Zahid Khan is a Scientific Investigator working in Analytical R&D at GSK, located in the greater Philadelphia area. With nine years of experience in supporting the analytical development of pharmaceuticals, Zahid has been involved in the higher-order structure characterization of biopharmaceuticals, forced degradation studies to evaluate structure-function relationships, and support comparability for monoclonal antibodies and other therapeutic proteins. He holds a master’s degree in pharmaceutical analysis from Campbell University, NC, and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from India.

• Biophysical Methods

No bio available.

• SC2: AI-Driven Predictive Preclinical Models: Rethinking the Role of Animal Testing

Trained as an immunologist with passion for CAR T therapy and immuno-oncology.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Takanori Kigawa, Dr. Sci., is Senior Scientist of RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS), Japan. He graduated from Graduate School of Science, the University of Tokyo in 1994 and started his professional career as a research scientist in RIKEN. He has developed a variety of technologies related to the cell-free protein synthesis system and NMR-based structure biology, and most of them were patented and commercialized.

• Biophysical Methods

Dr. Yejin Kim is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and Associate Director of the Center for Secure Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare at UTHealth Houston. She received her PhD in Machine Learning from POSTECH in 2018 and leads a multidisciplinary lab developing AI/ML models for therapeutic antibody discovery and validation. Her group recently ranked among the top five teams globally in the IQVIA AIntibody Challenge for AI-based antibody design. Dr. Kim has secured over $8 million in extramural funding, including multiple NIH R01s as principal investigator, and published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers in top biomedical informatics journals and AI conferences. She serves on numerous NIH study sections and international grant panels, and as an editor for PLoS Biology and BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. Her work bridges experimental biology and AI to accelerate therapeutic innovation.

• Engineering Antibodies

A Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Kimball’s is an internationally renowned researcher in inflammatory skin diseases, especially psoriasis and hidradenitis suppurativa. She has published over 385 papers (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/alexa.kimball.1/bibliography/public/), conducted over 150 clinical trials and has extensive experience in drug development and innovation, including two patents and licensing agreements. She is the lead author for all 3 programs that led to approval for biologic agents for Hidradenitis Suppurativa and was recently recognized with the American Skin Association 2025 Research Achievement Award in Inflammatory Skin Diseases. She is also CEO and President of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an academic multi-specialty 501(c)3 physician organization with over 2400 employees, over 1 billion in revenue, and recognized by the Boston Globe as a top 10 Woman Led Business in Massachusetts. The group employs physicians and providers who practice in the Boston area, two-thirds of whom are Harvard Medical School faculty. She co-chairs the Beth Israel Lahey Health Performance Network Board (1.3 million members) and is on the Board of Trustees of Beth Israel Lahey Health.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Laura Kingsley is a Principal Scientist in the Protein Engineering group at Boehringer Ingelheim. Laura earned her Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry from Purdue University and brings over 12 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including several years in small-molecule research before transitioning to biotherapeutics. Laura' group specializes in integrating in-silico approaches and machine learning with high-throughput experimental platforms to design and optimize multispecific antibodies and novel biologics. She is passionate about ensuring computational models and machine learning strategies are grounded in experimental feasibility.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Christian Klein is specialized in the discovery, engineering and preclinical development of (bispecific) mAbs for immunotherapy. He is CSO and co-founder of a biotech startup. Previously, he was CXO and Drug Maker @ Curie.Bio where he worked with founders of seed stage biotechs. As a distinguished scientist, research project/program leader and mentor he made essential contributions during 22 years @ Roche pRED to the preclinical development of 32 NMEs entering clinical trials of which GAZYVA, VABYSMO, COLUMVI, and TEPEZZA are approved. He led research teams developing Roche’s novel bispecific antibody technologies, e.g., the CrossMAb technology and the immunocytokine and T cell bispecific antibody platforms. He obtained his diploma in biochemistry from University Tübingen and his doctorate in biochemistry from Technical University Munich. In 2017 he completed his habilitation in Biochemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, and since then is an external lecturer there.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Prof. Kobold is a board certified clinical pharmacologist and immunologist. He studied medicine in Germany, Switzerland and France. His postgraduate and residency training took him through Hamburg and Boston to Munich. In Munich, he established his research group focussing on cancer immunotherapy with a focus on T cells and antibodies. Since 2016, he serves as an attending physician in the division of clinical pharmacology at the University hospital of the LMU where he was appointed full Professor and deputy director of the division in 2019.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Harald Kolmar is full professor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany where since 2005 he heads the Department of Applied Biochemistry. He holds a PhD and habilitation in biochemistry and molecular genetics from University of Tübingen and Göttingen. His current scientific interests mainly focus on protein engineering and design, nanobiotechnology, antibody engineering, chemical biology and development of tailor-made peptides and proteins for applications in diagnostics and therapy.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Dr. Alan Korman is a world-leading pioneer in developing cancer immunotherapies and is currently SVP, Immune Targeting at Vir Biotechnology. As Vice President for Immuno-Oncology Discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), he led the development of biologics for tumor immunotherapy. Prior to BMS, Dr. Korman held various positions at Medarex. His tenure at BMS and Medarex led to the development of three approved drugs for oncology, ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4) and nivolumab (anti-PD-1), and their combination, which initiated the approach of checkpoint blockade, as well as relatlimab (anti-LAG-3) in combination with nivolumab. Dr. Korman received his PhD in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University and was a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was also a staff scientist at the Institut Pasteur prior to moving to the biotechnology sector.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Dr. Zeynep Kosaloglu-Yalçin is an Instructor and computational cancer immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. She develops advanced machine learning methods and bioinformatics tools to predict T cell recognition of epitopes and support the development of personalized immunotherapies. As the tools lead for the Cancer Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (CEDAR), she designs user-friendly, accessible resources that empower researchers across disciplines to explore cancer immunity at scale. Her work bridges computational immunology and clinical oncology by integrating large-scale patient data with a focus on translational applications. Dr. Kosaloglu-Yalçin works closely with clinicians, immunologists, and data scientists to perform multidisciplinary, integrated analyses with the goal of advancing precision cancer immunology.

• SC4: Unlocking Immunity: Mastering Epitope Analysis and Prediction with IEDB and CEDAR Tools & Insights

Dr. Chris Koth is the Vice President of Biotherapeutics and Discovery Sciences at Denali Therapeutics where he oversees the discovery, engineering and advancement of large molecule therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases using their blood-brain-barrier transport vehicle platform. Prior to joining Denali in 2021, Dr. Koth was the Director of Structural Biology at Genentech where he initiated and oversaw various drug discovery research efforts, as well as the optimization of challenging membrane, soluble and secreted proteins for structural studies, assays and small molecule, macrocycle and antibody discovery. His work at Genentech spanned many therapeutic areas, including neurobiology, metabolism, infectious diseases, and immunology. Dr. Koth received his PhD from the University of Toronto where he worked on the structure and function of transcription elongation factors, in the lab of Dr. Aled Edwards.

• Engineering Antibodies

With nearly two decades of pioneering experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical research, I am currently serving as Senior Director of Small Molecule Discovery at Leash Bio. My career has been marked by groundbreaking contributions in high-throughput protein expression and production, protein design and characterization, and advancing hit-to-lead programs. Prior to Leash Bio, I held pivotal roles including at Recursion Pharmaceuticals, where I spearheaded ultra-high-throughput screen development for novel oncology drug discovery, leveraging high dimensional maps for drug discovery and launching programs for hit-to-lead. At Genentech, as Senior Scientific Manager and Group Lead, I led teams in high-throughput protein design, screening and production across E.coli, insect cells (baculovirus), and mammalian cells. This significantly enhanced efficiency and throughput through automation and innovative workflows while contributing to launching early projects into the portfolio. While at Monsanto, I contributed to and led discovery and collaborations in high throughput protein design and production, phenotypic screen development and receptor discovery. My expertise spans the integration of advanced technologies to accelerate drug discovery, from computational modeling and protein engineering to high-throughput screening methodologies. I continue to drive innovation at the intersection of biology and technology, aiming to unlock new therapeutic possibilities and advance healthcare globally.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Konrad Krawczyk specializes in computational methods to develop antibody-based therapeutics. He obtained doctorate and pursued a postdoc at the Oxford Protein Informatics Group, contributing to leading software currently used by academia and pharma industry alike. He was a postdoc and Assistand Professor of Precision Medicine at the University of Southern Denmark. Currently he is the technical founder of NaturalAntibody, company that is focused on development and implementation of computational innovations in the pharma sector focused on antibody-based therapeutics.

• Engineering Antibodies

Rohith's research interests lie at the intersection of AI and biological discovery. During his Ph.D. with Dr. David Baker at the University of Washington, he initiated the first efforts to model and design biomolecular interactions beyond proteins using AI, including small molecules, nucleic acids, and post-translational modifications. This work led to several AI models, including RoseTTAFold All-Atom (Krishna et al.), RFdiffusion2 (Ahern et al.), and RFdiffusion3 (Butcher et al.). He has spoken at well-known venues across the world, including the White House and the University of Cambridge. He holds a B.A. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Chemical Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Dr. Cosimo Kropp is the Chief Executive Officer of 2bind Pharma Services, a biotechnology contract research organization focused on early-stage small molecule drug discovery and antibody development. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of Regensburg, focussing on protein engineering. After joining 2bind in Business Development, he advanced through several leadership roles to become CEO. During this time, he also completed an Executive MBA, combining scientific expertise with a strong focus on strategy and commercialization.

• Biophysical Methods

Anneliese Krueger is a Cell Line Development Project Leader at ProBioGen. She is a biotechnology professional with extensive research experience in protein binding modulation and protein expression optimization of pore-forming toxins.

For over six years she has been deeply engaged in cell line development at ProBioGen, successfully engineering high-expressing cell lines for IgGs, bispecifics, and enzymes. She is actively involved in continuous optimization efforts in ProBioGens cell line development. As a Project Leader, she has successfully led projects focusing on high-quality expression, glycoengineering, and biosimilar development. A key aspect of her work is leveraging transposase integration technology of the DirectedLuck Transposase to consistently achieve high-yield protein expression.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Sandeep Kumar, PhD is a Distinguished Research Fellow at Biotherapeutic Discovery in Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical, Inc. Sandeep is interested in discovery and development of biotherapeutics and has been conducting research in this area for more than 20 years. More recently, Sandeep is building a vision of Biopharmaceutical Informatics that supports end-to-end discovery and development of biologic medicines. So far, Sandeep Kumar has contributed towards 100 research articles and book chapters. He has also edited a book entitled "Developability of Biotherapeutics: Computational Approaches.” At BIPI, Sandeep leads a computational biochemistry and bioinformatics group within Biotherapeutics Discovery.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Krishna Kumar is Robinson Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. He is a Member of the Cancer Center at the Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He received his PhD from Brown University in 1996 and after postdoctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute joined Tufts in 1998. Kumar’s contributions to science, and in particular chemistry and medicine, have been recognized widely. He was named a DuPont Young Professor, recognized as one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by MIT Technology Review magazine (TR35), awarded a Global Indus Technovator award from MIT-IBC, is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, Technology award from the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, Excellence in Chemical Sciences Award from the Indian Society for Chemistry and Biology and was elected a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK). His contributions to science range from the origin of life, peptide and protein design, medicinal chemistry, biophysics and cell and molecular biology. In particular, he is credited with developing therapeutics for a wide range of infectious and metabolic diseases.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Vinodh Kurella is a Research Scientific Associate Director in Biological Engineering and Antibody Discovery within Global Biologics at Takeda (Cambridge, USA). He utilizes structure guided and ML driven approaches for discovery, design (lead optimization) and developability for biologics. Previously he has worked at various biotech/pharma companies in different modalities such as Gene-therapy (Voyager Trx), Biologics (Merrimack Pharma) and CAR-T engineering (Intrexon/Precigen). His post-doctoral training was at Harvard Medical School/Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in antibody engineering and his graduate training was from Louisiana State University (LSU-HSC) in the field of protein X-ray crystallography.

• SC1: In silico and Machine Learning Tools for Antibody Design and Developability Predictions

Dr. Labanieh is an Assistant Professor in the Icahn Genomics Institute (IGI) and the Precision Immunology Institute (PrIISM) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. As a bioengineer with expertise in synthetic biology, immunoengineering, and T-cell biology, Dr. Labanieh is developing next-generation high performance platform technologies to address the most pressing challenges for cell therapies for cancer. He developed SNIP-CAR, a drug-regulated CAR platform that enhances the safety and efficacy of CAR-T cells. The findings from his work credentialed this platform as best-in-class and laid the foundational preclinical studies to support a Phase I clinical trial of the SNIP CAR platform in relapsed/refractory solid cancers at Stanford. He has also developed technologies for drug-regulated control over cytokine signaling in engineered T-cells as well as a platform for purification of multi-engineered, sophisticated cell therapies. He has worked collaboratively to create logic-gated T-cells, injectable hydrogels for delivering cell therapies and cytokines, and technologies for imaging cell therapies in vivo. Dr. Labanieh is a co-inventor of 13 technologies spanning the fields of cell therapy, diagnostics, and high-throughput drug discovery. These technologies have been licensed to five biotechnology companies, including CARGO Therapeutics, a publicly traded and clinical stage CAR-T startup that Dr. Labanieh co-founded. The Labanieh Lab focuses on the development of biotechnologies that allow for precision genetic engineering and control of cell functions in vivo, with a particular focus on platforms that enhance the efficacy and safety of cell and gene therapies for cancer and other diseases.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Dr. Pin-Kuang Lai is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Stevens Institute of Technology. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 2011 and 2013, respectively, and completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 2018. His doctoral research focused on developing computational and experimental approaches to study antimicrobial peptides. From 2018 to 2021, Dr. Lai conducted postdoctoral research at MIT, where he investigated antibody stability at high concentrations. Dr. Lai has collaborated with leading pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Merck, Sanofi, and Takeda, as well as national laboratories such as NIST and Brookhaven. His work focuses on advancing computational tools, including machine learning and molecular simulations, alongside biophysical characterization methods such as NMR and SAXS, to predict and analyze antibody aggregation and viscosity at high concentrations. He also explores the underlying mechanisms driving these phenomena. In addition to his academic and research endeavors, Dr. Lai serves as an Assistant Editor for the mAbs journal.

• Biophysical Methods

Christopher James Langmead is the Executive Director for AI & Data for Engineered Biologics at Amgen. His team at Amgen develops and uses AI/ML methods to design and optimize of biologics. He earned his PhD in computer science from Dartmouth and then spent the next 18 years as faculty in computer science and computational biology at Carnegie Mellon University where his group developed a variety of generative models relevant to protein design, including GREMLIN. Dr. Langmead joined Amgen at the beginning of 2022.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Lee received his Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at The Ohio State University and obtained his postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard Medical School, UCSF and Stanford University. He earned his M.S. in Developmental Biology and B.S. in Biology Education from Seoul National University. Dr. Lee also brings years of experience from global biopharmaceutical companies, including Chiron (Novartis), AstraZeneca, Genentech and Exelixis, where he gained cross functional knowledge in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development of therapeutic antibodies. Dr. Lee founded ABL Bio in February 2016 with the vision to build a company that offers patients a better life based on innovative science and led to publicly traded biotechnology company listed on the KOSDAQ market (ticker 298380) of South Korea in December 2018. Dr. Lee has focused on diversifying ABL’s portfolio of bispecific antibody-based treatments for cancer and neurodegeneration. Under his leadership, ABL has advanced multiple 4-1BB based bispecific antibodies into clinical trials and announced multiple licensing agreement with Sanofi (ABL301, a bispecific antibody targeting alpha-synuclein and containing BBB shuttle), GSK (Grabody-B Brain Delivery BBB Platform License Agreement), Compass Therapeutics (VEGF /DLL4 BsAb), CStone (ROR1 ADC jointly developed with LigaChem Biosciences) and Yuhan Corporation (Her2x4-1BB and EGFRx4-1BB BsAb). Dr. Lee also brings years of experience from global biopharmaceutical companies, including Chiron(Novartis), AstraZeneca, Genentech and Exelixis, where he gained cross functional knowledge in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development of therapeutic antibodies. Dr. Lee received his Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at The Ohio State University and obtained his postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard Medical School and UCSF. He earned his M.S. in Developmental Biology and B.S. in Biology Education from Seoul National University.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Jaeweon Lee, MSE, is a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, working in Dr. Seongkyu Yoon’s laboratory. His research focuses on upstream monoclonal antibody (mAb) manufacturing process development, including perfusion media recycling, process analytical technology (PAT), and continuous processing. Prior to beginning his Ph.D., he contributed to an FDA project investigating the relationship between API localization in lipid bilayers and the toxicity of the liposomal drug AmBisome®. He later trained at the U.S. FDA in both upstream and downstream mAb bioprocessing, gaining hands-on experience in bioreactors, purification, and critical quality attribute (CQA) analysis. During his doctoral studies, he has been developing an integrated upstream platform designed to control CQAs in steady-state perfusion processes. In his talk, he will share his experience with the three commercially available CHO cell culture media and their impact on the glycosylation patterns of mAbs.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Scott Lesley is InduPro's President and Chief Scientific Officer leading all platform and drug discovery functions at the Company. Prior to joining InduPro, Scott was Vice President of Discovery Biologics at Merck and was responsible for a broad preclinical pipeline of molecules across all therapeutic areas within Merck. This included diverse modalities such as multifunctional antibodies and engineered proteins, ADCs, oncolytic viruses and cell therapies. Prior to his role at Merck, Scott was at Novartis. There, he established research and technology platforms in biotherapeutics, protein engineering, protein structure and function, and high-throughput technologies. In his role as the Executive Director of Biotherapeutics and Biotechnology he oversaw scientists and engineers responsible for biotherapeutics discovery and optimization, structural biology, HTS, functional genomics, automation and engineering. Scott also maintained a faculty appointment at The Scripps Research Institute from 2005-2016 and led an independent research lab as Co-PI of the Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG) studying protein structure and function with an emphasis on host/microbe interactions. The JCSG was responsible for over 1600 novel protein structures. He has over 200 publications to date and has contributed to novel therapeutic targets, therapeutic modalities, small molecule and biotherapeutic clinical candidates and registered drugs, as well as developing platform technologies in HTS and other automation for drug discovery.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Daniel Leventhal, Ph.D. has over 6 years of experience working at the intersection of immunology and machine learning to predict and mitigate unwanted immunogenicity. Daniel has led teams at Xaira Therapeutics and Generate Biomedicines developing machine learning models and experimental systems to understand and control key immunological processes underpinning the immunogenicity of biotherapeutics. Prior to entering the immunogenicity field, he worked in immune oncology, advancing T-cell receptor therapies and immune-engineered bacteria for cancer treatment. Daniel holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology and an M.S. in Translational Sciences from the University of Chicago, where he studied tumor-associated regulatory T-cell development and antigen specificity.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Dr. Lewis is a Professor of Pediatrics and Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego. He received his BS in biochemistry at Brigham Young University, and his PhD at UC San Diego, where he focused on proteomics and developing novel approaches for analyzing biological big data using genome-scale systems biology modeling techniques. Dr. Lewis completed his postdoctoral training at the Wyss Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he worked on genome editing and the use of systems biology for the interpretation of genetic screens. Dr. Lewis' lab integrates all of his previous work by focusing heavily on the use of systems biology and genome editing techniques to map out and engineer the cell pathways controlling mammalian cell growth, protein synthesis, and protein glycosylation.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

For more than 35 years, I have headed a tumor cell biology/preclinical drug development lab in Genentech Research. I was hired at Genentech to investigate cytokine-mediated tumor cell killing and mechanisms of resistance thereof. Our lab discovered that activated tyrosine kinases conferred resistance to tumor cell killing by TNF-a. One of the receptor tyrosine kinases we investigated was HER2/erbB2, which had recently been cloned at Genentech. Simultaneous to our studies, Dennis Slamon at UCLA published his pivotal findings that 20% of breast cancer harbors erbB2 gene amplification, which was associated with poor clinical outcome in breast cancer patients. In our preclinical studies, not only did we demonstrate that anti-HER2 antibodies reversed resistance to TNF-a, but also that the antibodies inhibited growth of cancer cells that overexpressed HER2. We quickly pivoted our focus to HER2 as an attractive cell surface target for antibody therapy. The outcome of this work, in collaboration with UCLA and MSKCC, was the development and approvals of trastuzumab (Herceptin®) and pertuzumab (Perjeta®) for treating HER2-positive breast cancer. Following the approval of trastuzumab, we focused our efforts on the nascent field of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). We investigated different targets, antibody formats, as well as different combinations of linker-drugs, with the focus of my lab primarily on HER2. Our work led to development and approval of trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla®). We have continued our work on ADCs, for HER2 as well as additional targets, with an expanded arsenal of novel linker-drugs. My lab’s expertise now encompasses not only HER2+ breast cancer but other solid tumor types as well as hematologic malignancies. I received my undergraduate degree in Microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin, and performed my graduate work in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Myles Lewis studied preclinical medicine at Cambridge University, and clinical medicine at Oxford University. During his Rheumatology clinical training at multiple London teaching hospitals, he has worked extensively on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and other connective tissue diseases. He was awarded a Clinical Research Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust in 2005, for his PhD at the Hammersmith Hospital/Imperial College London, focused on understanding the causes of accelerated heart disease in SLE. In 2011 for his ongoing lab research on the role of ubiquitination in SLE and autoimmune disease, he was awarded a Clinician Scientist Fellowship by Arthritis Research UK. In 2015 he was awarded the Lancet Prize for Clinician Scientists at the Academy of Medical Sciences for his research on ubiquitination genes in SLE.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Bian Li is a Senior Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., responsible for developing machine learning algorithms for predicting antibody developability. Before joining Regeneron, Bian was a Data Scientist at Roivant Sciences and was responsible for building computational pipelines and mining structural databases and proteomics datasets. Prior to joining Roivant, Bian was an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University and was working on the problem of genetic variant effect prediction. Bian obtained his PhD in Computational Structural Biology from Vanderbilt and has broad interests in applications of machine learning in structural biology and genomics.

• Engineering Antibodies

Xinbi Li is an Associate Principal Scientist in the Protein Analytics and Developability group at the department of Biologics Engineering (BE), where he focuses on protein analytics, developability assessment, and LC-MS work. Xinbi earned a BS degree in Pharmacy from Fudan University and a PhD in Chemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Before joining AstraZeneca, Xinbi was a Senior Scientist at Dragonfly Therapeutics.

• Biophysical Methods

Dr. Li is the founder and CEO of VelaVigo. Prior to founding VelaVigo, he served as Senior Vice President in WuXi Biologics. Before joining WuXi Biologics, he worked for Novartis Biologics Center as Senior Manager of Portfolio & Alliance Management. Before that, he worked for Novartis Oncology as Lab Head and Program Team Head. Prior to Novartis, he worked for Wyeth (now Pfizer) as Senior Scientist and Project Leader. Dr. Li received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in molecular immunology and oncology from Peking University Health Science Center (the former Beijing Medical University), and MBA degree from Yale University School of Management. He completed his postdoctoral training at Tufts University. With over 25 years of professional experience in antibody engineering and more than 20 years of industry experience in the drug discovery and development field. He is a member of AACR (American Association for Cancer Research), ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) and FOCIS (Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies). Dr. Li has filed over 70 patent applications and authored more than 20 publications.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Yingzhong Li earned his Ph.D. on Biotechnology from Peking University & National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China in 2010. Dr. Li got further trainings on Immunology, Synthetic Biology, Cancer Biology, and Cancer Immunotherapy at MIT. Currently Dr. Li holds 6 PCT patents at MIT and 5 PCT patents at SunVax mRNA Therapeutics in the field of cancer immunology and mRNA techniques. Dr. Li left MIT on October 30, 2021. Dr. Li is President of SunVax mRNA Therapeutics Inc. since then.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Zeran Li is a Data Scientist at Moderna focused on laboratory automation and modeling for biotherapeutic analytics. She earned a B.S. in Biology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis, where her research centered on genome- and transcriptome-wide analyses to discover risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. She completed postdoctoral training at GSK, developing high-throughput cell-imaging assay analytics for oncology drug screening. Her current work spans end-to-end automation-integrating instruments, standardizing data pipelines, and recording data lineage/audit trails-to accelerate and ensure reproducible research, and statistical/ML modeling to reveal the underlying analyte profile in noisy signals, delivering accurate, actionable, and often hidden insights.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Mandy Li is a Scientist II in Protein Design & Production, part of Protein Sciences within Discovery Biologics at Merck. She is responsible for high-throughput protein expression, purification and characterization of traditional antibodies, multispecific antibodies, and other novel modalities to support early discovery and lead optimization. She also provides protein production functional representation in pipeline programs in various therapeutic areas, such as oncology and ophthalmology. Her process development work involves incorporation of automated systems to optimize protein production, including liquid handlers such as Tecan, Hamilton, and Lynx.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Dr. Shion A. Lim is a Principal Scientist and Group Leader in Antibody Engineering at Genentech, where she leads cross-functional teams in developing novel therapeutic antibodies across a variety of therapeutic areas. Dr. Lim has a keen interest in engineering multispecific antibodies and molecules with novel mechanisms of action, and establishing new technology platforms to accelerate antibody discovery against challenging targets. Dr. Lim holds a Ph.D. in Molecular & Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and prior to joining Genentech, completed a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. Jim Wells.

• Engineering Antibodies

Zhihong Lin, Ph.D., is the Volwiler Associate Research Fellow at Abbott Laboratories in the Abbott Diagnostics Division. Since joining Abbott in 2008, Dr. Lin has led innovative work in antibody engineering, expression, purification, and stable cell line development. His contributions have enabled the development of more than 300 biologics supporting key immunoassays, including BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag, high-sensitivity Troponin, and HIV Combo Next. Dr. Lin earned his Ph.D. in Japan and completed postdoctoral training in Canada and the United States. He has authored 44 scientific publications and was inducted into Abbott’s prestigious Volwiler Society in 2025.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

A. James (Jamie) Link earned a PhD from Caltech and carried out postdoctoral work at the University of Texas. He is currently a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University. The Link lab works on the discovery and engineering of ribosomal natural products. Work from the group has been recognized by national awards such as a Sloan Fellowship, the DuPont Young Professor award, and an NSF CAREER grant.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Dr. Amelia Linnemann is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) in Indianapolis, IN. She is a member of both the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research and the National Institutes of Health-funded Indiana Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases (CDMD). She is the director of the CDMD Microscopy Core and the Associate Director of Pipeline Program Development at IUSM. Research in Dr. Linnemann’s laboratory is focused on the study of the insulin-producing pancreatic beta-cells under conditions of inflammatory stress. Dr. Linnemann is particularly interested in how higher-level metabolic signals contribute to molecular crosstalk within the islet and influence beta-cell adaptation to stress, specifically through studies focused on autophagy and the antioxidant response. Her team uses cutting-edge imaging approaches to study these pathways and has developed a series of novel tools for use with intravital microscopy. Her lab was the first group to demonstrate defective autophagy in human type 1 diabetes, and their observations suggested lysosomal dysfunction prior to diabetes onset in autoantibody positive individuals. Thus, many of the current studies in the lab are focused on biological processes in early diabetes development, as well as developing and optimizing tools for in vivo imaging of pancreatic islet function associated with diabetes pathogenesis.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Dr. Xiaole Shirley Liu is the co-founder and CEO of GV20 Therapeutics, a clinical-stage AI-based next-generation cancer biotherapeutics company. Dr. Liu graduated summa cum laude from Smith College, double majoring in biochemistry and computer science, and is now a member of the Smith College Board of Trustees. She received her PhD in Biomedical Informatics and PhD minor in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2002. Before joining GV20, she was a Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at the Department of Data Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Harvard University. She is an expert on computational cancer biology, having published over 270 papers with an H-index of 131 and total citation of over 100K, and mentored 28 PhD and postdoctoral trainees to independent academic careers . She is a fellow of the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and was a Breast Cancer Research Foundation Investigator (2017-2021). She is a recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowship (2008), Weitzman Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award from the Endocrine Society (2016), ISCB Innovator Award (2020), and the Benjamin Franklin Award for Open Access in the Life Sciences (2020).

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Cassie Liu is a senior principal statistician in Biologics Development Department at Bristol Myers Squibb. Over the 10 years with BMS, she has provided statistical supports in various CMC projects, including stability analysis and specification assessment for IND/BLA filings, statistical and ML modeling, risk assessment, bioassay analysis, design of experiment, analytical method performance monitoring, dataflow integration, and automation, etc. She received a master’s degree in statistics from University of Connecticut and bachelor's degree in statistics from Nankai University in China. Prior to joining BMS, she was a statistician in a health-related research lab at Yale University.

• Biophysical Methods

Bin Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling and the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Houston. He also holds joint appointments with the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry. He is an active faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering program and the Center of Excellence in Polymer Chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and completed postdoctoral research at MIT. Dr. Liu’s research integrates chemistry, bioconjugation, protein engineering, and cancer immunotherapy to advance precision therapeutics. His work centers on the rational molecular design of next-generation antibody-based conjugates across multiple length scales, including small molecules, polymers, and nanoparticles, to enable targeted and effective cancer therapy.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Lonberg is currently CEO, Tripeaks Therapeutics, and Executive in Residence at Canaan Partners. Prior to 2020, he was Senior Vice President, Oncology Discovery Biology, at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he led drug discovery efforts for both targeted and immuno-oncology agents. Dr. Lonberg began his career in the biotechnology/ pharmaceutical industry, leading the GenPharm International research group that developed genetically engineered strains of mice with germline configuration human immunoglobulin genes. These transgenic animals have been used to discover more than three dozen clinical-stage human sequence antibodies, including 15 FDA-approved products. GenPharm International was acquired by Medarex in 1997, and then by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2009. In 1998, Dr. Lonberg’s drug discovery group at Medarex began to focus on antibody therapies that target and modulate immune-attenuating pathways to activate patient immune responses to cancer cells (so-called "checkpoint blockade" therapies). Ipilimumab, which began clinical testing in 2000, was the first-ever checkpoint blockade cancer therapy to enter clinical development and to gain regulatory approval. Ipilimumab, approved in 2011, was also the first drug to demonstrate, in a randomized clinical trial, a survival benefit for patients with metastatic melanoma. A second checkpoint blockade cancer therapeutic, nivolumab, entered clinical development in 2006 and gained regulatory approval in 2014. A third checkpoint blockade cancer therapeutic, relatlimab, entered clinical development in 2013 and gained regulatory approval as a combination product with nivolumab in 2022. Dr. Lonberg received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) in 1985, where he studied under Dr. Walter Gilbert. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY) and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2015.

• Display of Biologics

Heather Lopes currently leads protein sciences at Aera Therapeutics, bringing expertise in protein expression, purification, characterization and protein engineering. Prior to joining Aera, Heather was an Associate Director at Diagonal Therapeutics, working on bispecific agonistic antibodies. Prior to that, Heather led molecular biology and protein sciences at Immunitas Therapeutics, focused on antibody and ADC therapeutics for oncology. Previous roles also include Alkermes, where she focused on protein engineering and production of cytokine-based immunotherapeutics. These include Nemvaleukin Alfa, an IL-2 clinical drug, and an IL-18 discovery engineering effort. Heather also held roles at Aveo Oncology and Shire HGT. She received her M.S. in Chemistry from Northeastern University and a B.S. in Chemistry from University of South Carolina.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Bradley Lunde is a group leader in the Antibody Engineering department at Adimab LLC. He received his PhD from the University of Washington in 2009 and worked as a post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and in several biotech roles in Germany prior to joining Adimab in 2015.

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Bob has been an independent consultant in the biotech/pharma industry since 2015 and has worked with multiple clients providing strategic, tactical and operational input for their research and development efforts. Prior to initiating his consulting practice, Bob held various R&D roles over a 23 year span at ImmunoGen, Inc. In his most recent position at ImmunoGen, Bob was Vice President of Translational Research and Development with responsibility for all early stage antibody drug conjugate (ADC) development programs from lead identification through phase 2. He also served as ImmunoGen’s research lead on Genentech’s FDA-approved trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) program. Before the ADC research position, Bob was part of ImmunoGen’s Apoptosis Technology Inc subsidiary where he led the research collaboration leading to the discovery of the BH3 domain of the BCl-2 family of death regulatory proteins. Before ImmunoGen, Bob was a research and postdoctoral fellow at the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Colorado. He earned his doctoral degree in Biochemistry at Brandeis University.

• TS10B: Introduction to Antibody-Drug Conjugate Design: Targets, Payloads, and Linkers

Dr. John Majercak is Head of Antibody Discovery at LAMPIRE Biological Laboratories. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry from Rutgers, completed a postdoc at Novartis, and has held roles at Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim, J&J, BMS, and Molecular Templates before joining LAMPIRE in 2023.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Sara Mangsbo (PhD) is a Professor in antibody drugs at Uppsala University. Professor Mangsbo is a leader in the field of cancer immunotherapy and specifically in antibody-based drug delivery and synthetic long peptides and has been awarded the SITC team award within the SLP stream along with numerous awards for societal outreach activities. She is a serial entrepreneur and has founded Immuneed AB, a service provider of immunotoxicity measurements in human whole blood by the use of the ID.Flow system. She is the Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Strike Pharma AB. She drives a translational research project with the ambition and track record of taking research projects into clinical trial testing.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Paolo Marcatili is an associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark, where he leads the "AI for immunological molecules" group. He has developed many state-of-the-art tools for characterising the structure and function of molecules of immunological relevance, in particular antibodies and T cell receptors, by applying deep learning tools to integrate sequence and structural data.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Rita Martello received her degrees in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from University of Bologna, Italy, and her PhD in Biology from University of Konstanz, Germany. Rita gained experience in proteomics as postdoctoral fellow at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research in Copenhagen, where she investigated DNA damage repair mechanisms. Finally, she moved to industry (Bayer AG and Sanofi) where she started working in DMPK, developing assays for assessing PK/PD of biologics. Rita is currently DMPK Lead at EMD Serono, deeply involved in the preclinical and clinical evaluation of biologics.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Andrew Martin is Emeritus Professor of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at University College London (UCL). He obtained his undergraduate degree and DPhil from the University of Oxford. After some time self-employed developing scientific software, including working for Oxford Molecular on software developed during his DPhil, he joined Professor Dame Janet Thornton's group at UCL. He then went on to be Technical Director at Inpharmatica before joining the University of Reading and then returning to UCL on 2004. His interests have been in developing software and methods for application to protein sequence and structure. In particular he has focused on the effects of mutations and on antibodies. He developed one of the first methods for antibody modelling (AbM) and the first searchable antibody-specific sequence database (KabatMan) which has since developed into an integrated workbench for analysis of antibody sequence and structure (abYsis). He is co-founder of abYsis, Ltd. and consults for several companies. He has acted as an expert witness in a number of high-profile patent disputes and is an adviser to the WHO-INN on the naming and annotation of antibody-based drugs.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Sam Massa holds a PhD in Bio-engineering Sciences (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and has >15 years of experience in the discovery, engineering, and development of camelid single domain antibodies (sdAbs / VHHs). Prior to joining Precirix, Sam held a post-doc position at VIB in the context of an industrial collaboration. In 2018 Sam joined Precirix, a biotech company developing precision radiopharmaceuticals using sdAbs. Today he is heading the team responsible for antibody discovery, analytics and CMC activities.

• Display of Biologics

Dr. Yariv Mazor joined AstraZeneca in 2009 and is currently the Head of Protein Engineering & Novel Modalities. Dr. Mazor is the inventor and developer of several platform technologies, including DuetMab bispecific, Trispecific TriMab, Immune Engager TEDx, and guided-pMHC staging GPS. Dr. Mazor has advanced five DuetMab programs into clinical development: Volrustomig, Rilvegostomig, Sabestomig, Tilatamig Samrotecan, and AZD2068 (cMET/EGFR RC). He holds a PhD in Biotechnology from Tel-Aviv University and completed post-doctoral training in Chemical Engineering at UT Austin. Dr. Mazor has co-invented over 30 patents or patent applications and authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Dr. Amelia C. McCue is a postdoctoral fellow in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University specializing in the design of antibody-based molecular therapeutics for cancer and vascular disease. Dr. McCue earned her BA in chemistry from Saint Anselm College in 2018 and her PhD in biochemistry and biophysics at the University of North Carolina in 2024, where she developed tumor-sensitive prodrug T cell engagers to improve immunotherapy safety. Her research integrates protein engineering, structural biology, and translational immunology to design precision therapeutic platforms.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Megan is a postdoctoral scholar in the Jewett Lab at Stanford University. Her research focuses on using cell-free protein synthesis to study and engineer the bacterial ribosome. During her PhD at Georgia Tech in the Styczynski Lab, she used cell-free expression systems to engineer low-cost, point-of-care biosensors for protein and RNA detection.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Joshua Meier is the former Chief AI Officer at Absci, where he spearheaded the company's transformation into AI Drug Discovery and built robust departments of AI scientists and engineers. Under Joshua’s leadership, Absci pioneered groundbreaking generative AI models for the creation of novel protein therapeutics, closed deals with leading biopharmaceutical companies and published work on antibody design, antibody optimization, and codon optimization. Prior to Absci, Joshua was a senior researcher at Facebook AI Research, where he co-founded and led the platform for protein language modeling. At Facebook, Joshua was principal developer of the ESM-1b and ESM-1v models, which are widely utilized across the biopharmaceutical industry. In his earlier roles, Joshua developed language models & reinforcement learning at OpenAI, managed a virtual reality product at Google, and built MIT's CRISPR-ML design platform. Joshua completed his undergraduate and graduate work in computer science & chemistry at Harvard.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Gerold Meinhardt is currently Vice President, Asset & Portfolio Management, at Daiichi Sankyo, which he joined in June 2020. In this role, he is responsible for the development of Trastuzumab Deruxtecan (DS-8201, ENHERTU), the company’s leading ADC (co-developed with Astra Zeneca), that is already approved for different indications in multiple countries worldwide. Prior to Daiichi Sankyo, he served in different roles at Bayer Pharmaceuticals for over 15 years, most notably as Vice President Clinical Development leading development of the multikinase inhibitors sorafenib and regorafenib. Gerold Meinhardt is a board-certified Medical Oncologist and Hematologist. After graduating from the Medical School at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Germany, he practiced at academic centers for many years and after returning from 3 years as Research Fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, he also led a research laboratory at the University of Munich in parallel to his clinical responsibilities. Gerold Meinhardt has authored over 50 PubMed-listed publications.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Menacho-Melgar obtained his Ph.D. at Duke University, under Dr. Michael D. Lynch. After his graduate studies, he founded Roke Biotechnologies focused on advancing protein manufacturing. At Roke, he leads the manufacturing and commercialization of molecular biology reagents. Dr. Menacho-Melgar has 13 peer-reviewed publications and is co-inventor in 6 patents. His work includes developing readily scalable standardized processes for protein expression, eliminating the need for any process development. It also includes the engineering of novel E. coli strains with advanced capabilities such as enhancing protein titers or reducing downstream purification steps.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Dr. Miller is an image scientist and medical physicist whose research focuses on quantitative digital autoradiography for radiopharmaceutical therapy with alpha and beta emitters. He earned his Ph.D. in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona, where he developed the ionizing-radiation Quantum Imaging Detector (iQID) for high-resolution imaging of ionizing radiation. Dr. Miller later founded QScint Imaging Solutions to commercialize iQID technology for autoradiography applications, enabling high-sensitivity, high-resolution imaging and quantitative analysis of tissue activity distributions. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Medical Imaging at the University of Arizona and a clinical medical physicist at Banner University Medical Center. His ongoing work aims to advance quantitative imaging and microdosimetry methods to improve the accuracy and efficacy of targeted radionuclide therapies.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Dr. Sabiruddin Mirza is a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where he bridges the David A. Weitz Lab with the biopharmaceutical industry. His research focuses on microfluidic engineering of advanced drug delivery systems, including mRNA-LNPs, lab-on-a-chip platforms for toxicity testing, and tissue engineering. A recipient of the AAPS Outstanding Graduate Research Award, Dr. Mirza has authored over 70 publications and secured more than $550,000 in research funding in pharmaceutical materials science, nanomedicine, and biopharmaceutical engineering.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Dr. Carter Mitchell is the CSO for Kemp Proteins, leading a team of 40+ researchers in the rapid development of novel proteins in an ISO13485- and AAALAC-accredited lab. Dr. Mitchell is a protein chemist and structural biologist with 20 years of direct experience isolating and characterizing difficult proteins from a variety of recombinant and natural sources. Over more than 20 years, he has been exposed to a wide range of structural and biochemical techniques, and developed interests in understanding the development and manufacture of modern biotechnology products. He earned a PhD in Structural Biology where he enzymatically and structurally characterized multidomain proteins involved in metabolite biosynthesis. He developed and led a drug discovery pipeline with a team of scientists that isolated and characterized bioactive small-molecules and peptides from mammalian microbiomes. At the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Mitchell focused on the isolation of bioactive proteins from marine aqueous extracts, which required creative purification strategies earning the Director’s Innovation Award. Prior to joining Kemp Proteins, he was the CTO and Director of Structural Biology at a Biotech start-up where he built, developed, and implemented a protein expression and purification laboratory and managed the protein production and purification team. At Kemp Proteins, Dr. Mitchell acts as the Principal Investigator for numerous programs while striving to improve the technical understanding and capabilities of the group.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Dr. Moore is a Executive Director in the Protein Engineering department at Xencor, Inc. Since joining Xencor in 2004, Dr. Moore has made many contributions to the company’s technology platform, including antibodies with increased affinity for the inhibitory receptor CD32b, bispecifics with heterodimeric Fc regions, and antibodies with enhanced recruitment of complement. Currently, his work focuses on the design of antibody-based bispecifics and antibody Fc engineering, humanization, and affinity maturation. Prior to Xencor, Dr. Moore was a graduate student at Penn State University, where he developed computational models and optimization methods for protein engineering and directed evolution protocols. Dr. Moore holds a PhD and BS in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Deborah joined ProFound Tx in 2024 as the VP of Protein Sciences to lead protein and antibody development campaigns. Prior to ProFound Tx, Deborah was with Abcam for 5 years, leading the Protein Development and Sequencing Platforms, responsible for protein and sequencing needs for Abcam. Prior to Abcam, she spent 16 years working in both the reagent and therapeutic spaces. For many years she led Antibody Production at Cell Signaling Technology. From there she joined Merck Research Laboratories, where she led the team responsible for antigen & antibody generation within Biologics Discovery.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

No bio available.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Dr. Zachary Morris, MD/PhD is the Chair and Paul Harari Professor of Human Oncology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. His research lab is focused on the translational investigation of the radiobiology and immunologic effects of radiopharmaceutical therapies and the effective integration of these with immunotherapies.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Deborah earned her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has held scientific and leadership roles at several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Novartis, and SUGEN, Inc. An entrepreneur at heart, she co-founded and led Cell Assay Innovations, a drug discovery biotechnology company and contract research organization, for a decade. She now serves as Director of Antibody Characterization and Validation at the Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI), where she oversees rigorous quality control and application testing to ensure the reproducibility and reliability of IPI’s antibody reagents.

• Biophysical Methods

I am a biological engineer specializing in high throughput technologies for biotherapeutics discovery. In my work, I develop and subsequently apply platforms that can rapidly identify and advance therapeutic molecules with novel function. My graduate training was based in analytical chemistry at Florida State University where I focused on engineering of microfluidic devices to give us access to study new aspects of biology. After honing my hardware toolkit, I sought an opportunity to engineer biology itself and took a postdoctoral position at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where I engineered living biomaterials. Upon completion of my training, I found my passion in applying this training to advance human health. Towards this, I have been working in the field of Biotherapeutics Discovery with a focus on recombinant production and characterization. The first goal of my roles focused on helping my team and driving efficiency through generation of larger numbers of high-grade molecules. My second goal is to expand beyond the core engine, I strive to find disruptive opportunities through leveraging data, building new capabilities or contributing new modalities.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Francesco Muraca (Ph.D.) is the Head of Cell Biology at Tacalyx GmbH and leads many of the projects from mAb generation to testing of the new molecules with different modes of action in vitro and in vivo. He got his M.Sc. (Hon) in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Padova, Italy, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University College Dublin, Ireland. He then did a PostDoc in Molecular Biology at the Heidelberg University Hospital before joining Tacalyx in 2022.

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Thomas is Director and Group Leader in Biologics Engineering (BE) at AstraZeneca, Cambridge (UK), leading biologics discovery and development for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic (CVRM) diseases. With core expertise in protein engineering, antibody and peptide discovery, and hit-finding platform development, he builds and guides multidisciplinary teams to advance novel therapeutics from concept to candidate selection. Prior to joining AstraZeneca in 2015, he completed a PhD in Molecular Biology followed by two postdoctoral fellowships at King’s College London. Thomas is committed to translating cutting-edge biologics engineering into impactful medicines for patients with unmet CVRM needs.

• Display of Biologics

Jeremy Myers leads EvolveImmune’s biology and biotherapeutic research teams. Before joining EV Jeremy helped lead Pfizer oncology research and development in Pearl River, NY as senior director, head of the Integrative Biotechnology Group. He was a member of Pfizer Oncology Research and Development Leadership Team. During his tenure, Jeremy led development of tumor targeted immunotherapies leveraging antibody discovery and rational protein design, cell surface antigen discovery efforts and interrogation of biotherapeutic targets for antibody drug conjugates and T-cell retargeting bispecific antibody therapeutics. Before Pfizer, Jeremy was a research faculty member and AstraZeneca Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University Medical School. Jeremy received his BSc in biology from Bucknell University. He completed his Ph.D. studies in biochemistry and molecular biology at the LSU Health Sciences Center and Louisiana State University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Hiroaki Nagano is a researcher at Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which he joined in 2017. For over 8 years, he has been working on the development and evaluation of novel antibody technologies that exhibit superior efficacy and safety targeting solid tumors. Currently, he is involved in the preclinical evaluation and biological mechanism analysis of antibody projects in the immuno-oncology field, conducting both in vitro and in vivo studies.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

David is an expert in protein engineering and computational design, with extensive experience applying AI-driven modeling tools in an industry setting. He serves as Vice President of the Rosetta Commons Foundation and Industry Chair on the Rosetta Commons board, helping bridge academic advancements with industry applications. As Managing Member of Rosetta Design Group, he collaborates with companies of all sizes to tackle complex challenges in biologics design. David's deep expertise in leveraging cutting-edge tools like Rosetta, AlphaFold, and diffusion-based models for protein design make him an invaluable guide for participants looking to apply AI-driven biologics design in real-world settings.

• TS9B: AI-Driven Design of Biologics: A Hands-On Guide to Using State-of-the-Art ML Protein Models

Anand Narayanan is a Senior Scientist in the Biologics Discovery (BD) department at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine in Spring House, PA. Within Expression Sciences, he focuses on rapid, high-throughput protein production and characterization to fast-track hit-to-lead progression. Prior to joining J&J, he was a faculty member at Yale University, where his research applied genome engineering and next-generation sequencing to personalized medicine. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Section of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. He earned his doctoral degree in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology from the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Dr. Nastri is currently the VP of Protein Science and Technology at Incyte Corp. His group is responsible for end-to-end discovery and engineering of monoclonal and bispecific antibodies for oncology applications. His group uses both immunization, as well as display approaches for the generation of lead molecules, which are further optimized by a combination of in vitro and in silico approaches. Dr. Nastri started his career in the antibody field at Dyax Corp., where he developed and co-invented key technologies utilized to build the Dyax Fab libraries. He then headed the Antibody Technologies group at EMD Serono, where he implemented new approaches for selecting antibodies by single cell B-cloning and phage display. He became an Inventor of Avelumab, a clinical-approved anti PD-L1 antibody. He joined Pfizer CTI as a Biotherapeutic Site Head in NY, where he collaborated with local academic leaders to enable and advance novel therapeutic programs. During his career, Dr. Nastri became an inventor of multiple antibody therapeutic molecules and antibody discovery enable technologies, while participating in a number of projects resulting in IND applications.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Ornella D. Nelson is a Senior Scientist within the Biotherapeutics and Genetic Medicine department at AbbVie. She specializes in protein conjugations and in-depth analytical characterization of target antigens, fusion proteins and therapeutic reagents, supporting discovery programs across various therapeutic areas. Dr. Nelson remains actively engaged with professional organizations, including the American Chemical Society and the National Organization for Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, and is dedicated to mentoring undergraduate students through Project OnRamp. Ornella holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a B.S. in Chemistry from Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Dr. Nguyen is a member of the Bispecifics and Antibody Engineering Group at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. He holds a Ph.D. from Duke University and completed his postdoctoral training at Cornell University. With extensive expertise in biologics engineering and development, Dr. Nguyen has made significant contributions to the fields of genetic medicines, immunology, and inflammation. His work continues to drive advancements in therapeutic innovation and cutting-edge research.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Wenqin Ni joined Pfizer in 2013 and currently serves as a Senior Principal Scientist. In this role, Wenqin leads multiple development programs from early-stage research-prior to clinical studies-through to commercial approval, including multispecific projects. Wenqin’s core expertise lies in CMC strategy, with a focus on critical quality attribute (CQA) assessment, control strategy development, and specification setting across diverse projects and modalities. Prior to joining Pfizer, Wenqin earned a Ph.D. from Northeastern University, where research was centered on the characterization of post-translational modifications in biologics using LC/MS.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Lennart Nickel is a PhD candidate in Bioengineering at the école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering led by Prof. Bruno Correia. His research focuses on computational protein design, particularly on engineering molecular interactions for therapeutic and biotechnological applications. He co-developed the BindCraft platform for de novo protein binder design, published in Nature. Lennart obtained his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Biochemistry from Heidelberg University (Germany), where he conducted his master’s thesis in Prof. Kai Johnsson’s group at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, focusing on protein engineering of biosensor modules.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Dr. Nielsen holds a shared position as Professor of Immunoinformatics and Machine Learning at the Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, and the Universidad Nacional de San Martin, Argentina. He graduated with a Masters in Physics from the University of Copenhagen, and obtained his Ph.D. (also in Physics) from the McGill University, Canada. The core of Dr. Nielsen’s research deals with the development of novel and advanced data-driven prediction methods for pattern recognition in biological systems. He is a pioneer in the field of immunoinformatics and a key inventor of several state-of-the-art methods for T and B cell epitope discovery currently used worldwide. He has published more than 200 articles, books, and book chapters within the fields of immunology, immunoinformatics, computational biology, data mining, and machine learning.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Graduated in Molecular Immunology in 1992 from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and was trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering in Cambridge until 1995. During this period she developed phage display semi-synthetic human antibody library, the so call ‘Nissim’ library which has been used worldwide. In November 2000 was appointed at Queen Mary University. My studies are interdisciplinary and involve translational research at the William Harvey Research Institute and with intensive worldwide collaborations. My studies have been mostly focused on the mechanisms that lead to the formation of disease tissue-specific pathogenic post-translationally modified proteins and the exploitation of identified pathogenic proteins to develop platform technologies for novel disease - and tissue-specific, diagnosis and targeted treatment.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Dr. O'Donoghue is an Attending Physicist in the Department of Medical Physics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, primarily providing scientific support to the Molecular Imaging and Therapy Service of the Department of Radiology. His main scientific interests are imaging and treatment of malignant disease by molecular-targeted radionuclides. He has worked extensively on various aspects of theoretical and clinical radiation dosimetry and radiobiological modeling of these agents and is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed papers. He received the Loevinger-Berman Award of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging in 2016 for this body of work. At MSKCC, he is involved in a wide range of clinical studies of tumor imaging and therapy, with a role that extends from conception to outcome including protocol design, pharmacokinetic and radiation dosimetric analysis, and treatment planning/verification for molecular therapies.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Pierce Ogden is the Co-Founder and CSO of Manifold Bio and inventor of Manifold’s core technology. Pierce obtained a PhD in George Church’s lab at Harvard, where he developed novel methods of protein library design and assays leveraging multiplex DNA synthesis, sequencing, and machine learning. His work has been published in Science, Nature Biotech, and he is an inventor on several patents related to high-throughput protein engineering.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

After completing her undergraduate and masters degree in bioengineering at AgroParisTech in France, Carolina Orozco obtained her PhD in Biophysics at the University of Cambridge, where she investigated the key parameters which determine optimal affinity-based masks. She subsequently joined AstraZeneca in 2021 and is now a Senior Scientist working on the development of next-generation T-cell engagers strategies.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

My interest lies in using computational and experimental methods to interrogate the interactions between proteins and nucleic acids, and how we can accurately extract the dynamics of such interactions. I did my PhD in structural biology (cryoEM and crystallography) with Prof. Martin Jinek studying the mechanism of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editor activation and off-target tolerance. I then did my postdoctoral research in the lab of Prof. Bruno Correia, developing computational methods for the solubilisation of membrane proteins and the design of highly specific protein binders.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

After obtaining his medical degree at VU Amsterdam, Netherlands, and a few years in clinic, Dr. Pais moved to the life science industry. He worked about 20 years in medical, clinical research, marketing, and management roles with escalating responsibilities both in functions and territories in 3 different pharma companies (Sanofi, Synthon and Grünenthal). He got familiar with the possibilities of using radiation during his time as Global VP Medical at Elekta radiation. His radiopharmaceutical journey started at Ipsen, continued with several biotechs end lead to Nuclidium where he started in 2024 as Chief Medical Officer. Nuclidium pioneers a proprietary copper-based platform, CuTrace™, using Cu-61 and Cu-67 as a true theranostic pair in a number of preclinical and clinical programs.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Dr. Liqiang Pan is Vice Dean of the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Zhejiang University, Qiushi Distinguished Professor, and Full Professor. He also holds a joint appointment at the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Zhejiang University in 2014 and subsequently pursued postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School (2015-2018).His research focuses on novel biologics for cancer and other malignant diseases, including antibody/ligand-drug conjugates, nucleic acid and radiopharmaceuticals, TCR-mimic bispecific antibodies, and immune receptor activation mechanisms. He is dedicated to developing multifunctional biologics to precisely modulate immune cell activity and tumor microenvironment signaling, with the goal of designing clinically relevant and affordable therapies that address unmet medical needs. In 2021, he was named to MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific.” He serves as chair of the Zhejiang Pharmaceutical Association, founding member and vice chair of the Tumor Microenvironment Committee of the Zhejiang Anti-Cancer Association, and editorial board member of Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Hamideh Parhiz, PharmD, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where she leads the targeted LNP delivery program. Her expertise is developing novel nucleic acid delivery systems including a new generation of targeted LNP-mRNA therapeutics for a variety of non-vaccine applications such as blood gene disorders, cancer, fibrosis, and acute inflammatory conditions. Hamideh’s work has resulted in the publication of more than 40 papers including two papers in Science magazine and several patents. Her work in designing an efficient targeted LNP-mRNA platform is now the basis for industrial product developments as well as academic programs.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Betsy attended Rhodes College, where she obtained her B.S. in chemistry in 2010. She conducted graduate research with Prof. Paul Hergenrother at the UIUC on the synthesis and mechanisms of the deoxynybomycin family of natural products. After obtaining her Ph.D. in 2015, she performed postdoctoral studies with Prof. William Metcalf at UIUC studying the biosynthesis of phosphonate containing natural products. Betsy started her laboratory in the Departments of Chemistry and Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Purdue University in the Fall of 2018 and was promoted to associate professor in Fall 2025. In her lab, research focuses on the identification of novel bioactive peptide natural products from cryptic bacterial biosynthetic gene clusters. Additionally, she studies the unique and challenging chemistries performed by natural product biosynthetic enzymes, such as cyclization of small peptides.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Sofie Pattyn, CTO and founder of ImmunXperts, has over 20 years of experience in the field of immunogenicity assessment (vaccines and biotherapeutics) and in vitro assay development with a focus on functional assays for immunogenicity, immune oncology, and cell and gene therapy products. She has extensive hands-on lab experience and has managed and coached several in vitro teams over the last decade. From 2008 until 2013, she was Head of the in vitro Immunogenicity group at AlgoNomics (Ghent, Belgium) and Lonza Applied Protein Services (Cambridge, UK). Prior to that, she worked at Innogenetics in Belgium for over 15 years.

• TS7A: Introduction to Immunogenicity

I am a physician-scientist at Johns Hopkins, where I care for patients with leukemias and lymphomas. Despite advances in therapy, many patients experience relapse after initial treatment. My research laboratory is dedicated to developing next-generation antibody-based therapies to address this critical unmet need. We design and engineer novel bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates that selectively target cancer-specific antigens in leukemias and lymphomas. Our long-term goal is to translate these discoveries into early-phase clinical trials, bringing innovative therapies to patients with relapsed disease. Learn more about our work at www.sumanlab.org .

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Ryan Peckner has been the head of machine learning at Seismic Therapeutic since early 2022, where he leads a team focused on applying ML to develop next-generation classes of non-immunogenic protein therapeutics. He earned his PhD in theoretical mathematics at Princeton University in 2015 and, after deciding to transition to an applied field, completed his postdoctoral training at the Broad Institute with an emphasis on the intersection of proteomics, genomics, and machine learning. Since entering biotech in early 2019, he has focused on developing and applying new machine learning techniques to structural biology, immunology, and drug development, beginning with models to probe TCR-pMHC interactions at Repertoire Immune Medicines and continuing with his work at Seismic.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Matthias Peipp received his PhD at the chair of genetics, Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany in 2003. In 2004, he moved to the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (Kiel, Germany), where he studied effector mechanisms mediated by human EGFR antibodies. In 2006, Matthias moved to the Division of Stem Cell Transplantation and Immunotherapy (Kiel, Germany) where he is heading the research division and a research group interested in antibody-based immunotherapy of cancer. In 2015 Matthias was awarded an endowed professorship “Mildred-Scheel-Professorship for experimental antibody-based cancer immunotherapy” funded by the German Cancer Aid. Since 2022, Matthias has headed the Division of Antibody-Based Immunotherapy. His current work is focused on antibody engineering to improve cancer immunotherapy.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Dr. Dan Pereira brings >25 years of experience in oncology biologics drug discovery and development in biotech and pharma as a scientific leader, strategist, collaborator, consultant, and fundraiser. His career efforts have contributed to the discovery and development of a range of FDA-approved drugs for patients with cancer, including most recently Padcev. He currently serves as CSO for CrossBridge Bio and its efforts developing next-gen dual payload ADCs. Dan was also CSO for Invenra, leading efforts to advance novel bispecific antibodies into clinical trials for oncology. Preceding Invenra, Dan was CSO for Arch Oncology, heading a team focused on next generation I-O therapeutics including AO-176, a differentiated CD47 antibody which progressed to phase 1 trials. Prior to Arch Oncology, Dan was Vice President, Head of Discovery Research at Agensys Inc., a subsidiary of Astellas Pharma, Inc. where he oversaw research efforts to develop novel antibody based I-O therapies including antibody-drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies. Dan also served as VP, Research and site head at Roche/Arius and Director of Tumor Biology at ImClone Systems Inc. Dr. Pereira received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Manitoba and holds a doctoral degree from McMaster University. He has an extensive record of both peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations and is a named inventor on numerous patents.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

At AstraZeneca’s Department of Biologics Engineering (Gaithersburg, MD), Tony Pham works on establishing new high-throughput experimental methods for developability assessment to support early-stage lead identification. With a background in biochemistry, computational biology, and data analytics he also works on implementing new in silico methods to predict developability properties such as non-specific binding and reversible self-association and build tools for developability optimization. Specific interests include developability of VHHs, and design of antibodies against viral targets. He studied biotechnology, earning his master’s degree at Boston University.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Dr. Simon Plyte has over 20 years of experience in research and development in the Pharma industry, both in Big Pharma and small Biotech. He has worked on the discovery and development of NCEs and Biologics, predominantly in the field of Oncology but has also worked in cardiovascular, neurodegeneration, and metabolic disease drug discovery. For the last 12 years, he has focused on Biologics drug discovery, using mono- and multi-specific formats predominantly in the field of Immune Oncology.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Dr. Poole earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology in the Fritz B. Burns Cancer Research Laboratory at Brigham Young University from 2017-2022. After graduating, he joined the high-throughput protein expression team within biologics discovery organization at Johnson and Johnson Innovative Medicine.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Dr. Powell is a tumor immunologist with more than 20 years of experience in basic and translational tumor immunology. Dr. Powell was recruited from the National Cancer Institute to the University of Pennsylvania to develop a cutting-edge immunobiology and therapy program for gynecologic cancers, where he serves as Scientific Director of Immunotherapy for the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. His research program focuses on fundamental studies of the immunobiology of human cancer and the development of innovative immunotherapeutic strategies including cancer vaccination, immunomodulation, and adoptive immunotherapy using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and T cells engineered to express tumor antigen-specific TCRs and chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). His seminal studies of T cell phenotype and function in patients responding to adoptive cell therapy, which demonstrated that T cell persistence and differentiation status are major contributing factors to successful adoptive therapy, is now a widely-accepted concept in the field. Studies from the Powell lab have also illustrated the validity of biomarkers for naturally-occurring tumor-specific T cells in human cancer; defined a role for the CD27 costimulatory molecule in human T cell memory formation; and resulted in the development of universal immune receptors for multivalent T cell therapy. He serves on various academic, foundation and industry scientific advisory boards, and provides expert opinion in cancer immunotherapy as a member for the NCI’s Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy (CII) Study Section.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Dr. Sudhakaran Prabakaran is a computational biologist and biotechnology entrepreneur pioneering the application of AI and multi-omics integration to unlock the "dark proteome" for therapeutic discovery. Currently, he is CEO and Co-Founder of NonExomics Inc. and Associate Teaching Professor at Northeastern University. He serves on scientific advisory boards and has mentored over 50 students, postdocs, and researchers across academia and industry. His landmark 2014 Nature Communications publication provided the first large-scale proteomic evidence of translation from "noncoding" RNAs, establishing the dark proteome as a therapeutic frontier. His 2022 Molecular Psychiatry work revealed novel proteins in human accelerated regions providing new leads for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His research has resulted in six patent applications across oncology, neuropsychiatry, and rare diseases, and has been featured in Science, Bloomberg, Inside Precision Medicine, and The Times. From 2016 to 2021, Dr. Prabakaran was Assistant Professor and Fellow at the University of Cambridge, where he led research on novel open reading frames and their disease relevance. He has authored a comprehensive book, Eclipsed Horizons: Unveiling the Dark Genome (World Scientific Publishing, 2025), and has received recognition including the Cambridge-Hamied Visiting Lectureship, Illumina Accelerator acceptance, and AWS Research Award. Dr. Prabakaran has expertise spanning proteogenomics, systems biology, machine learning, and translational therapeutics development. His areas of focus include dark proteome target discovery, AI-driven drug development, immunotherapy design, and precision medicine. Dr. Prabakaran received his Ph.D. in Systems Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge and completed postdoctoral training in Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School.

• SC8: The Dark Proteome: Unlocking Novel Targets for Next-Generation Biologics

Philipp Probst is Director of Research at Araris Biotech AG, a Swiss biotech company located in Au ZH pioneering a novel linker technology for antibody-drug conjugates. He studied Pharmaceutical Sciences and received his PhD from ETH Zürich in 2018, where he worked in the group of Prof. Dario Neri on the generation of antibody-targeted therapeutics for applications in oncology. Philipp joined Araris in 2019 and oversees the design and preclinical characterisation of novel ADC candidates using the Araris Linker Technology.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Erik Procko completed his PhD in 2008 at Harvard University investigating mechanisms for antigen presentation to the immune system and was the first to computationally design a de novo protein with function (for the inhibition of a viral oncogene) under the mentorship of David Baker at the University of Washington during his postdoc. He was appointed as an Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he developed methods for deep mutagenesis of complex glycoproteins in human cells. In 2020, he founded a small startup company that merged with Cyrus Biotechnology, where he helped build their experimental platform for deimmunizing non-human proteins to enable their safe and effective use as therapeutics. He became the Chief Scientific Officer at Cyrus Biotechnology in 2024, where he continues to help build a pipeline of novel drug candidates for autoimmunity, inflammation, and infectious diseases.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Dr. Yang QIU joined the Group in 2021. She was appointed as chief scientific officer (CSO) and the general manager of Duality U.S. She is mainly responsible for directing the R&D, providing scientific insights and leadership, and progressing key assets of the Group. Dr. QIU brings over 20 years of global leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with a demonstrated track record of success in drug discovery, translational medicine and early clinical development. Prior to joining our Group, Dr. Qiu worked for GSK China, lastly as director, leading the progress of early drug discovery, Johnson & Johnson China, as Director of Biomarker Research, responsible for the design and delivery of multiple biomarkers studies in clinical development programs of the company's oncology portfolio and Daiichi Sankyo Inc., responsible for the development of global translational medicine and early development strategy for ADC programs. Dr. QIU obtained a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from University of Texas at Austin in the United States, respectively.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi has over 30 years of oncology research background in academia and leadership experience in leading a large cancer research institute as well as leadership positions in international pharma and biotech. He is currently a Professor in the Immunology Department at the University of Toronto where his research focuses on the role of non-coding regions, including retrotransposable elements and human endogenous retroviruses, in cancer development and as modulators of the immune response in cancer patients. Dr. Radvanyi served as President & Scientific Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR; https://oicr.on.ca/) from May 2018 to November 2024 overseeing all aspects of running the research institute, including its administrative functions its scientific research strategy and programs, and building national and international collaborations. OICR is one of the largest cancer research institutes in Canada (>340 staff) performing intramural cancer research and funding cancer research across Ontario as the second largest source of cancer research funding in Canada after the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Prior to this, Laszlo worked at EMD Serono (Merck KGaA) was Senior Vice President Global Head of the Immuno-Oncology Translational Innovation Platform and Senior Scientific Advisor for Immunology and Immunotherapy (2015-2018). Prior to this, Laszlo was a Professor in the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for 10 years (2004-2014) where he ran an integrated clinical and basic cancer immunotherapy research program focusing on adoptive cell therapy. He left MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2014 to become the founding Chief Scientific Officer of Iovance Biotherapeutics (2014-2015), a pioneering company commercializing tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) adoptive cell therapies for melanoma and other cancers which recently got its first TIL therapy product (lifileucel) approved by the US FDA in February 2024 under the product name AmtagviTM. Laszlo led the company in filing its first INDs and built its research and development team. Laszlo also sits on several national and international grant review panels and biotech advisory boards and is a sought-after expert in cancer biology and immunotherapy and a thought leader in the field of oncology research strategy. In January 2026, Dr. Radvanyi will be joining the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa as a Senior Scientist in the Cancer Centre as a nominee for a prestigious Tier I Canada Research Chair in Translational Biotherapeutics.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Dr. Rahimi holds a Ph.D. degree (2017) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University, USA. His research has explored development of innovative, scalable, multifunctional, microsystem platforms for medical applications, with emphasis on smart wearable and autonomous devices for wound monitoring and therapy. His work has been featured in various news media, including Science Nation, Science360, The Computer World, and Science X. Dr. Rahimi has led research teams on multi-institutional research endeavors with a focus on developing scalable manufacturing processes of flexible electronic devices that can empower technologies for health-care and environmental monitoring. Dr. Rahimi’s current research focus is on convergence of advancements in functional polymers and electrical engineering for developing innovative tools and technologies that can be utilized in solving various obstacles in healthcare, agriculture, and the environment.

• Biophysical Methods

Sima Rahimian is pharmacist by training and holds a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences. Since 2020, she is working as Pharmaceutical Project lead at Roche and leads formulation and process development biologics including antibody-nucleic acid based conjugates.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Jonah Rainey holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Tufts University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin and the Salk Institute. He has engaged in discovery, research, and development of bispecific antibodies for more than 15 years. He is an inventor on several patents describing novel bispecific platforms and current clinical candidates that exploit these platforms as well as an author on almost 30 publications. Jonah contributed to research and early development leading to multiple clinical candidates from Phase I and through approved products and led many advanced preclinical programs in oncology, infectious disease, autoimmunity, and other therapeutic areas. Previous industry experience includes MacroGenics, MedImmune/AZ, Oriole Biotech, Gritstone Oncology, and Alivamab Discovery Services. Currently, Jonah is a Senior Director in Protein Science at Eli Lilly & Co.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

No bio available.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Sandhiya Ravi, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, where she applies artificial intelligence and deep learning to advance gene therapy. Her research focuses on developing AI-based frameworks for AAV vector design, codon optimization, and truncation event prediction to enhance therapeutic gene expression and vector integrity. Dr. Ravi’s work bridges computational modeling and experimental biology, aiming to accelerate the design of next-generation gene therapy platforms for complex diseases.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Dr. Redmond received his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of California, Davis prior to pursuing a PhD in Immunology at The Scripps Research Institute. His doctoral studies focused on understanding how defects in the regulation of cytotoxic CD8 T cells leads to the onset of autoimmune (type 1) diabetes. Dr. Redmond completed his post-doctoral research on OX40 costimulation and tumor immunotherapy at the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute (EACRI) at the Providence Cancer Institute in Portland, OR. Currently, Dr. Redmond is a Full Member and Director of the Immune Monitoring Laboratory at the EACRI and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Oregon Health & Science University. The overall goal of his laboratory is to utilize preclinical models and human biospecimens to elucidate the mechanisms by which therapies including novel OX40 agonists, IL-2 agonists, and immune checkpoint blockade synergize to augment anti-tumor immunity. Furthermore, he seeks to identify biomarkers of response to immunotherapy treatments in patients to identify those most likely to benefit from this approach.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Christian Reichen, Associate Director Oncology Research at Molecular Partners, is co-project leader for the DARPin molecule-based T cell engagers platform and the MP0533 pre-clinical AML therapeutic program. In previous roles within Molecular Partners, he supported and lead several pipeline projects and was responsible for sequence optimization in the protein engineering subgroup. Christian completed his undergraduate studies at the ETH Zürich in Switzerland, then earned his Ph.D. at the University of Zurich in the group of Prof. Andreas Plückthun, where he established a novel binding scaffold based on armadillo repeat proteins using a computationally based design approach.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Rachel Rennard is Senior Vice President of Research at Stereo Biotherapeutics. With over 20 years of experience in protein discovery and engineering, Rachel has driven the development of innovative platforms that advance next-generation therapeutics. Prior to Stereo, Rachel served as Vice President of Research at Mosaic Biosciences, where she expanded and elevated the company’s antibody discovery capabilities to advance external therapeutic partnerships. Earlier, as Chief Technology Officer of Antibodies at Alloy Therapeutics, she architected the company’s discovery platform and led multidisciplinary teams delivering antibody solutions to partners. Rachel is passionate about building high-performing teams that thrive on collaboration, creativity, and scientific excellence.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Guilhem Richard, Ph.D., is the Chief Technology Officer of EpiVax, Inc. and has over 10 years of experience in computational immunology and vaccinology. Dr. Richard joined the EpiVax immunoinformatics team in 2014, developing new models for understanding the interaction between the immune system and protein sequences, while supporting EpiVax’s commercial and research programs. He spearheaded the development of a new computational platform for the development of personalized, neoantigen-based cancer vaccines (Ancer), and conducted subsequent translational work at EpiVax’s subsidiary company, EpiVax Therapeutics, Inc., from 2019 to 2024 where he served as Chief Scientific Officer/Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Richard has been leading innovation efforts at EpiVax since 2024 and is overseeing the development of its next generation of immunoinformatics tools. Dr. Richard holds a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Boston University and a M.Eng. in Bioinformatics and Modeling from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) of Lyon, France.

• SC2: AI-Driven Predictive Preclinical Models: Rethinking the Role of Animal Testing

Dr. Esperanza Rivera de Torre is an Assistant Professor at the Center of Antibody Technologies at DTU Bioengineering. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid (Spain), where she also completed research visits to UMass Lowell (Lowell, MA, USA) and the Åbo Akademi (Turku, Finland). Dr. Rivera de Torre is an accomplished researcher with expertise in toxinology, biophysics, and antibody technologies. In 2020, she joined DTU as a postdoctoral researcher, where she focused on developing protein design strategies for broadly-neutralizing antivenoms against snakebites, spider bites, and scorpion stings. Her research aims to understand the molecular basis of toxin-antibody interactions and develop novel therapies to combat venomous bites and stings. Dr. Rivera de Torre is currently starting her own research group, specializing in Immunological Biochemistry.

• Display of Biologics

Marc Robillard, CSO & founder of Tagworks Pharmaceuticals. Marc is founder and CSO of Tagworks, a pioneer of in vivo click chemistry, and the inventor of the now widely used Click-to-Release approach for improved systemic therapies. He spun the technology out of Philips Healthcare and then drove its development into a broadly applicable platform technology for systemic therapies, while building a broad IP estate, productive partnerships, and a strong team and blue-chip investor base. At Philips Marc worked on molecular imaging and drug delivery programs, eventually focusing on in vivo click chemistry applications in these domains. Prior to Philips, he worked at Kreatech Diagnostics on the development of probes for microarray-based detection of DNA, RNA and proteins. In addition, he was a visiting scientist at the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Marc obtained his MSc and PhD in bio(in)organic chemistry at, respectively, the University of Groningen and the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, The Netherlands. He has published 41 peer-reviewed papers and is a co-inventor on 22 patents.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

John Rossi is Capstan’s Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine. John has over 22 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry building robust clinical pharmacology, predictive biomarker, and correlative science processes to support oncology drug development. Prior to joining Capstan, John was Vice President of Translational Medicine at CARGO Therapeutics where he led a successful IND submission that enabled clinical trials of CRG-022, a novel anti-CD22 autologous CAR T cell product. At Kite Pharma, John served as a Senior Director, leading the clinical pharmacology and biomarker discovery team, supporting global approvals of Yescarta® and Tecartus®, and at Amgen, where he led biomarker development for early- and late-stage clinical trials as a Senior Scientist.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Jenna Rutberg is a PhD candidate in the Biomedical Engineering program at Brown University. Her research focuses on the development of microfluidic electrophoresis-based methods to characterize novel therapeutics and biomarkers. In collaboration with market leading companies, she leads a team to develop new microfluidic assays for its commercial and customer use. Prior to Brown University, Jenna received her Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering with a concentration in Molecular, Cell & Tissue Engineering from Northeastern University. During her time at Northeastern University, she had the opportunity to work full time in both the medical device and pharmaceutical industry.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Nicolas Sabarth is heading a biotherapeutics discovery group at Boehringer-Ingelheim Vienna, Austria. He received his PhD from the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Germany. Since then, he held positions of increasing responsibility in the R&D departments of GlaxoSmithKline, Intercell, and Baxalta. He is a drug discovery professional with emphasis on innovate biotherapeutics in immuno-oncology, immunology, and oncology. His expertise is therapeutic concept validation, antibody discovery, and antibody engineering. In particular, multi-specific antibody concepts and T cell engagers are at the center of his research.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Michel Sadelain is the founding director of the Columbia Initiative in Cell Engineering and Therapy at Columbia University, where he is Herbert and Florence Irving Professor of Medicine. He previously founded and directed the Center for Cell Engineering at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he held the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair. He received his M.D. from the University of Paris, his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, and trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. Sadelain has made numerous key contributions to the emergence and success of CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

As a Senior Lab Automation Engineer at the Institute for Protein Innovation, and with a Bachelor of Science in Robotics Engineering from UC Santa Cruz, I have a strong background in designing, onboarding, and maintaining integrated systems. My experience spans developing methods for various lab automation platforms and prototyping custom robotic solutions. I thrive on consulting the feasibility of automating assays and coding scripts to connect lab instruments to LIMS, enabling automatic data visualization. My previous roles involved designing real-time software and hardware control applications for field robots, integrating robots into customer applications, and significantly improving testing efficiency through automation. With a foundation in equipment engineering, including PLC programming and hardware design, and software engineering focusing on GUI development and legacy system upgrades, I bring a comprehensive skill set to tackle complex automation challenges.

• SC9: Automation in Action: Hands-on, Liquid Handling for Protein & Antibody Engineering

Devleena Samanta is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, an Associate Member of the Livestrong Cancer Institutes, and a member of the Texas Materials Institute at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). Her research centers on developing nanoscale tools to sense and control biocatalysis, advancing fundamental chemistry while enabling new applications in chemical synthesis, biology, and medicine. She is the first UT Austin faculty member to receive the prestigious Packard Fellowship in chemistry, and her contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including a Scialog Fellowship, the Outstanding Researcher Award from the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN), and selection as a Hanna Gray Fellow Finalist by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In addition to her research, Devleena is a dedicated teacher and mentor. She has received two teaching awards at UT Austin, as well as the Outstanding Mentor Award from the IIN. For her contributions to UT Austin, she was appointed the William H. Tonn Endowed Professorial Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. She also serves on the Early Career Advisory Board of the Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, a diamond open access journal. Devleena earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University in 2017 under the mentorship of Professor Richard N. Zare. She was supported by a Winston Chen Stanford Graduate Fellowship and a Center for Molecular Analysis and Design Fellowship. She then trained with Professor Chad A. Mirkin at Northwestern University as an IIN Postdoctoral Fellow.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Dr. Camille Samson is a structural biologist specializing in X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and protein engineering. With a focus on drug discovery, her recent work explores innovative strategies to enable high-resolution structural determination of small proteins, including oncogenic targets like kRasG12C. She currently leads projects integrating scaffold-based approaches to expand Cryo-EM applicability in pharmaceutical research.

• Biophysical Methods

Tanmoy Sanyal, PhD is a Principal Data Scientist in Amgen's Large Molecule Discovery group, where he develops data-efficient machine learning models to re-engineer biologics for affinity and developability. Prior to joining Amgen, Tanmoy worked in computational design of half-life extenders for peptide-based formats at Novo Nordisk. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering at University of Santa Barbara, California, and later worked as a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, San Francisco, developing Bayesian inference methods to determine macromolecular structure from chemical crosslink data.

• SC1: In silico and Machine Learning Tools for Antibody Design and Developability Predictions

Aaron is the Chief Strategy Officer at Adimab, with over 25 years of experience in biotechnology, focusing on discovering and developing novel first-in-class antibody therapeutics. Before joining Adimab, Aaron served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Twist Bioscience, where he led their Biopharma Solutions business. Prior to Twist, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of LakePharma, leading the California Antibody Center. He is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed papers and 70 issued patents in the antibody space.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Andrew J. Sawyer, Ph.D., Distinguished Scientist and Project Lead in Immune Cell Reprogramming, Oncology Research, Sanofi Andrew is a Distinguished Scientist and Lab Head in the Immune Cell Reprogramming Cluster within Oncology Research at Sanofi. Andrew received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Yale University with postdoctoral study in innate immunity and inflammation at the Yale School of Medicine. He has held leadership positions in oncology research and translation at Merrimack Therapeutics, Takeda, and Sanofi. Andrew led the preclinical research team for Sanofi’s lead mRNA LNP in vivo CAR T candidate and his lab continues to leverage multiple innovative research platforms to engineer novel therapeutics.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Dr. Schaffer has over 20 years of experience in driving innovation in life sciences technology and large-scale isotope production. Prior to Telix, Dr. Schaffer was CTO at ARTMS Inc. (ARTMS) (acquired by Telix in 2024), as well as Director, Life Science at TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator research centre, since 2012. He is widely recognized for his role in the buildout and transformation of the TRIUMF Life Sciences program, which included design and construction of a major multi-cyclotron radiochemistry facility and the development of the ARTMS QUANTM® Irradiation System (QIS®) for large-scale isotope production, which was commercialized and later acquired by Telix.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Volker Schellenberger is President and CTO of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, which he co-founded in 2006. He initially served as Amunix’s Chief Scientific Officer and is the lead inventor of the company’s XTEN as well as XPAT platforms of protease-activated T cell engagers. Volker has over 25 years of industry experience in protein engineering and drug discovery. Prior to co-founding Amunix he served as head of Genencor’s protein engineering department. Volker received his PhD from Leipzig University (Germany) in 1986. He is author of over 40 scientific papers and inventor of more than 70 issued or pending patent applications. He is a recipient of the Karl Lohmann prize of the German Society of Biochemists. Amunix was acquired by Sanofi in 2022. Since then, Volker has been Head of Discovery for precision-activated biologics.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Dr. Stefan R. Schmidt MBA, is CEO at evitria AG, a company dedicated to antibody discovery services in Zürich after leading operations at BioAtrium AG, a joint venture of Lonza and Sanofi in Visp, Switzerland as COO. Previously he held the position as CSO and other senior executive roles at Rentschler Biopharma, Germany with overall responsibilities for biologics development and manufacturing. Before that, he was CSO at ERA Biotech in Barcelona, Spain, directing the company’s R&D efforts based on fusion proteins. Prior to that, he worked at AstraZeneca in Sweden where he led the unit of Protein Sciences within Global Protein Science & Supply as Associate Director. He started his leadership career more than 25 years ago at Biotech companies in Munich, Germany where he built up protein biochemistry teams for Connex and GPC-Biotech. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Julius Maximilians University in Wuerzburg, Germany and an MBA from the University in Gävle, Sweden.

• Engineering Antibodies

Joel Schneider received a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Texas A&M University before moving on to the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow. After which, he joined the faculty at the University of Delaware (UD). As Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UD, he was recruited in 2010 to the National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research to serve as Chief and build their new Chemical Biology Laboratory. In his independent research, he develops biomaterials for use in the local delivery of therapeutics towards the treatment of cancer. He is particularly interested in peptide-based hydrogels and nanoparticles formed by assembly. His work establishes how material composition and structure influences material function, which lays the foundation to ultimately translate materials to the clinic. Joel also serves as a Deputy Director of the Center for Cancer Research as well as the past president of the American Peptide Society.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

With a background in biology, I began my scientific career at Vanderbilt University, where I focused on proteomics and studied antibody responses to flu vaccines. I later joined the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, developing high-throughput assays to support small molecule hit validation. Currently, I’m a Senior Scientist at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where I specialize in mass spectrometry-based characterization of therapeutic modalities, including antibodies, lentiviruses, and adeno associated viruses, across multiple pipelines.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Dr. Benedikte Serruys is the Global Head of the Biologics Innovation team at the Large Molecule Research Platform in Sanofi. After earning her PhD in Medical Sciences from Ghent University, she joined Ablynx in 2009 as a member of the Pharmacology department. Over the years, she led the non-clinical pharmacology assessment in support of IMPD filings for several projects and played a key role in the MAA/BLA submission process for Cablivi, coordinating the non-clinical pharmacology sections. Following Sanofi's acquisition of Ablynx in 2018, Dr. Serruys joined the Global Innovation team as Project Head and assumed leadership of the group in 2023. Under her leadership, the team's mission is to impact patients' lives by developing novel biologics approaches to address unmet medical needs-including tackling undruggable targets, increasing the therapeutic index, and exploring alternative delivery systems. The team leverages Sanofi's rich toolbox of advanced biologic modalities and combines these with cutting-edge technologies to advance innovative therapeutic solutions.

• Display of Biologics

Ayla Sessions is Associate Director of High Throughput Production in the Biologics Engineering department at AstraZeneca, where she leads the deployment and management of automated solutions to produce multi-milligram quantities of biologics. Her team is responsible for automating end-to-end biologics production at a range of fit-for-purpose scales, supporting the rapidly evolving multispecies space. With nearly a decade of experience in pharmaceutical companies and startups, Ayla draws on her PhD in Bioengineering to design and implement tailored automation strategies for biologics production and screening. Her teams have successfully delivered thousands of molecules across more than 30 pipeline programs, driving advances in hit screening, hit-to-lead conversion, and the development of automation solutions for AI and machine learning applications.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Andrew Sewell initially trained in Chemistry and undertook a PhD in Genetics at the University of Liverpool (1991) before embarking on postdoctoral training at the University of Utah. He returned to the UK in 1995 to research how the HIV virus evades the human immune system at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford where he became a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow. He relocated to Cardiff University in 2006 and became a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator and has been continuously Wellcome-funded for over 25 years. His research group focuses on T-cell ligands and the receptors that recognise them (αβTCR, γδTCR, CD4 and CD8). Most of the Sewell laboratory’s recent work is based around understanding the basic biology of antigen recognition by human T-cells using novel pipelines for the discovery of new T-cell targets. Current Sewell group research projects include: Dissection of successful immune responses after successful cancer immunotherapy; TCR gene transfer therapy (TCR-T); Novel CAR-T technologies; T-cell receptor-optimised peptide skewing or the repertoire of T-cells (TOPSORT); Artificial (non-biologic) T-cell antigens as vaccines; T-cell/TCR-based diagnostics in autoimmune disease; and unconventional (non-HLA-restricted) T-cell responses to infection and tumours.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Jagesh V. Shah is the Senior Vice President of Platform at a Flagship Pioneering Startup developing LNPs for targeted in vivo gene therapies. He spent 15 years as a faculty member at Harvard Medical school melding together the disciplines of engineering, cell biology and systems biology towards new technologies and therapeutics for patients. Most recently, Jagesh was at Sana Biotechnology where he led the discovery and early development of the Fusogen platform, a revolutionary technology to engineer targeted in vivo viral vector-based delivery of therapeutic payloads.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

I am Director of Data Strategy & Digital Transformation at Eli Lilly. Throughout my career I have worked on development of different technology platforms for biologics discovery such as implementation of immune in vitro phage display antibody libraries, droplet microfluidics for high-throughput sequencing of antibodies at single cell level, and Next-Generation-Sequencing for immune repertoire profiling. I have a BSc in Bioengineering from the Jacobs School of Bioengineering at University of California San Diego and a MSc in Biotechnology from Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble. During my PhD at the Enzymatic and Cellular Engineering Laboratory of Sorbonne University, I studied the presence and implication of catalytic antibodies in health and disease using mouse models and high-throughput in vitro display technologies. In my current role, I lead a team responsible for the establishment and execution of our Data Strategy at BioTDR, in line with our aspirations for Digital Transformation toward an AI-enabled biologics discovery process.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Dr. Rachel Shi is currently a Principal Scientist in the Department of Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology at Genentech Research & Early Development in South San Francisco, California. Rachel received her undergraduate degree from Tianjin University in China with a major in Pharmaceutical Science in 2011. Rachel then obtained her PhD in Analytical Chemistry with Prof. David Clemmer at Indiana University Bloomington and performed her postdoctoral research with Prof. Michael Gross at Washington University in St. Louis. Before joining Genentech in the summer of 2021, Rachel worked at Amgen and AbbVie where she provided analytical support for CQA assessment, extensive characterization, and comparability studies of therapeutic proteins. Rachel’s studies at Genentech focus on developing and applying mass spectrometry-based assays for bioanalytical and biotransformation studies in the large molecule drug portfolio.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Dr. Shi is the scientific leader of the Biological Therapeutic Discovery Platform in the Therapeutic Discovery Division at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In this capacity, he oversees multiple specialized teams in Protein Science, Antibody Discovery, In Vitro Pharmacology, and Cell Therapy, driving innovation in the preclinical development of therapeutic antibodies. Dr. Shi’s work spans a range of cutting-edge modalities, including ADCC, Bispecific Antibodies, ADC/ARC, and CAR-T therapies, all with the shared objective of advancing novel treatments for cancer patients. His leadership extends from preclinical research to clinical trials, contributing to the development of transformative therapies in the fight against cancer.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Jarrod has been part of ExpressionEdits since the beginning of the company’s journey to change how commercial gene expression is done, joining the founding team as Lead Scientist for R&D. ExpressionEdits has revised the design of the basic building block of the field, the transgene, which has remained essentially unchanged since the 1970s. Our technology incorporates both coding and non-coding DNA into transgenes through a process of ‘intronization’, which unlocks higher protein expression and other improvements that come from engaging cellular machinery that were overlooked by the cDNA transgenes of the past. Prior to ExpressionEdits, Jarrod developed innovative approaches to measure human cell surface proteins at scale in order to discover new drug targets based on cell-to-cell communication while working at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge for work at the interface of biochemistry, systems biology, and bioinformatics.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Dr. Shusta received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois where he studied the production and engineering of antibodies and T-cell receptors using yeast. He followed this with postdoctoral training at the University of California-Los Angeles where he helped pioneer molecular level analyses of the blood-brain barrier. Currently, Dr. Shusta is the Howard Curler Distinguished Professor in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also appointed in the Department of Neurological Surgery. His research focuses on the development of molecular and cellular engineering tools that can help gain a better understanding of blood-brain barrier transport, function and therapeutic delivery. He is a steering council member of the International Brain Barriers Society and has been recognized by an NSF Career award, the American Chemical Society BIOT division young investigator award, the Biotechnology Progress Award for Excellence in Biological Engineering Publication and is an elected fellow in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, among other awards.

• Engineering Antibodies

Accomplished scientist and mentor with nearly 2 decades of industrial experience developing protein therapeutics who leads a multi-disciplinary laboratory composed of diverse talents and educational backgrounds. Extensive experience in antibody discovery/engineering and proteomics who has worked across all phases of drug development from target identification to registration. Rob received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Biochemistry from Indiana University Bloomington and postdoctoral training at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he began his antibody engineering career that includes extensive work with both phage and yeast in vitro display systems. He has been with Eli Lilly and Company since 2007 and most recently has collaboratively devised and implemented the large molecule portfolio preclinical immunogenicity risk assessment strategy.

• Display of Biologics

Antonina Simakova, Ph.D., is Executive VP of Research and co-founder of Myris Therapeutics, a CMU spin-out pioneering polymer-enabled biologics. She leads development of ultra-high-DAR ADCs and long-circulating enzyme conjugates using advanced polymer architectures to improve stability and pharmacokinetics. Her work spans discovery through preclinical translation, with DoD-supported programs and collaborations across industry and academia. She is an inventor on multiple patents and a published author in polymer chemistry, protein engineering, and drug delivery.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

No bio available.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Dr. Eric Smith received his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Duke University in 1997. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at NYU he joined Regeneron in 2002 as a member of the Antibody and Trap Technologies group, where he worked on cytokine traps and related molecules. In 2008 he was a founding member of the Bispecific Antibodies team and is currently the Executive Director of Bispecifics at Regeneron.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Catharine Smith serves as inaugural Executive Director of the Termeer Foundation, which carries on the bold legacy of former Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer, who was committed to mentoring emerging leaders and whose dedication to patients resulted in groundbreaking treatments for rare diseases. By supporting biotech leaders, the Foundation seeks to increase the probability of creating cures and solving healthcare’s greatest challenges. Prior to the Termeer Foundation, Catharine served as the CEO of the Clinton Health Matters Initiative at the Clinton Foundation where she led a team focused on stigma reduction and overdose prevention related to the opioid epidemic. Prior to that, Catharine was the executive director of the Harvard Center for Primary Care. Catharine holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a graduate degree in social science research from the University of Chicago.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Dr. Jamie Spangler earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and went on to complete a PhD in Biological Engineering at MIT under the supervision of Professor K. Dane Wittrup. She conducted postdoctoral training in Professor K. Christopher Garcia’s lab at Stanford University School of Medicine, and then launched her independent research group at Johns Hopkins University in July 2017, jointly between the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. Dr. Spangler’s lab, located in the Translational Tissue Engineering Center at the School of Medicine, applies structural and mechanistic insights to re-engineer existing proteins and design new proteins that therapeutically modulate the immune response. In particular, her group is interested in engineering immune molecules such as antibodies, cytokines, and growth factors for targeted treatment of diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders. Dr. Spangler’s work has been recognized with honors including a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Career Development Fellowship, a V Foundation Scholar award, and a Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund Discovery award.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Dr. St. Croix is a Senior Scientist in the Mouse Cancer Genetics Program within the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, where he has led the Tumor Angiogenesis Section since 2002. A cancer biologist and molecular geneticist, he conducted the first systematic profiling of genes overexpressed in human tumor vasculature, leading to the discovery of ANTXR1/TEM8. His laboratory subsequently defined the mouse vascular transcriptome and its alterations under pathological conditions, identifying B7H3 (CD276) as a gene overexpressed in tumor-associated vasculature. Using genetically engineered mouse models, his group has since explored the function of these and related receptors in the tumor microenvironment. Dr. St. Croix’s current research leverages these insights to elucidate the physiological and pathological roles of these new signaling pathways. Recent findings from his laboratory have revealed an unexpected role for ANTXR1in cardiovascular biology, suggesting that anti- ANTXR1 antibodies may accelerate the development of novel therapies for both cancer and cardiovascular disease.

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Colin Stackhouse is a Senior Scientist in Biologics Analytical Development at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. He has nine years of biophysical characterization experience in industry spanning across a wide range of modalities, including various conventional and novel antibody constructs, conjugates, and gene therapy vectors such as AAVs and LNPs. He has contributed broadly across the CMC landscape, supporting key activities such as product characterization, method development, process development, investigations, comparability assessments, elucidation of structure-function relationships, and contribution/authorship of the S.3.1 sections of regulatory filings.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Valentin Stanev received an M.S. in physics from Sofia University, Bulgaria in 2000, and a Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University in 2010. After a postdoctoral position at Argonne National Laboratory, he moved to the University of Maryland at College Park, where he eventually became an Associate Research Professor at the Department of Material Science and Engineering. In 2021 Dr. Stanev joined the Biopharmaceutical Development Department at AstraZeneca, where he is currently an Associate Principal AI Scientist. His research interests include applications of machine learning methods to predict the developability of biologics.

• SC1: In silico and Machine Learning Tools for Antibody Design and Developability Predictions

Dr. Dan Stevens is a board certified pharmaceutical physician with a dedication to translational science and drug development. His industry career is underpinned by NHS clinical academic training and he is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians. His experience in industry has been focused on novel oncology drug development from lead identification through to NDA. Most recently, he has developed specific experience in targeted radioligand therapy, particularly focused on the clinical translation of novel compounds. He has led, or been part of, development teams which have taken novel molecules into the clinic in the US and Europe, successfully navigating manufacturing, operational and regulatory challenges.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Dr. Sun received his PhD in medical biophysics from the University of Toronto. He provides expertise in neurogenerative protein manipulation and target engagement assays. He leads both antibody design and the development of antibody-mediated immunotherapeutic-mediated clearance assays. Dr. Sun was the winner of the inaugural Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research ECHO 2019 $250,000 pitch competition. Dr. Sun was also awarded $165,000 by Brain Canada for his work on ALS. Dr. Sun’s ALS research provided new insights into the formation of TDP-43 protein assemblies in the molecular mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia as his PhD thesis. Dr. Sun also holds an MSc in biochemistry from the University of Toronto. Fun Fact: Dr. Sun is a connoisseur of rare and fine single malt scotch from Islay

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Vipin joined Clasp Therapeutics in April 2024. Along with his deep expertise in researching and developing cell therapies for cancer, Vipin has over two decades of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he was the Chief Scientific Officer at Catamaran, and previously co-founded and led Discovery Research at Obsidian Therapeutics. Vipin’s work at Obsidian led to the development of Obsidian’s cytoDRive platform, which broadened the therapeutic reach of cell and gene therapies. Prior to Obsidian, Vipin was a member of the founding team and Head of Biology at Serien (formerly Raze) Therapeutics and an Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture. At Raze, Vipin’s research was focused on discovering novel anticancer agents by targeting unique vulnerabilities of rapidly growing tumors. Earlier in his career, Vipin spent more than a decade working in the pharmaceutical industry at GSK, Pfizer, and Wyeth, where his research spanned novel small molecule, peptide, nucleic acid, and protein therapeutics across a wide range of therapeutic areas. Vipin holds a PhD in biochemistry from Brandeis University and an MBA from Yale School of Management.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

JoAnn Suzich is the Head of Research at Immunocore where she leads the design and discovery of bispecific soluble T cell engagers for the treatment of oncology, autoimmune disease, and chronic infections. Prior to joining Immunocore, Dr. Suzich was Vice President of Infectious Disease and Vaccines Research at MedImmune and then was the Microbial Sciences Therapeutic Area Head at AstraZeneca where she was responsible for the development of monoclonal antibody-based drugs including bispecifics to prevent and/or treat RSV, influenza, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Early in her career, Dr. Suzich led the R&D team developing virus-like particle technology for HPV vaccines used to prevent cervical cancer. Dr. Suzich received her PhD in biochemistry from Purdue University and did post-doctoral work at the University of Minnesota.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Alex has built his career around solving complex problems in biology with machine learning. He has over a decade of experience in computational biology and more than 30 publications spanning work at institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At RubrYc Therapeutics, Alex managed antibody discovery campaigns using machine learning to produce drug molecules with exquisite epitope-selectivity, helping drive the company’s acquisition by iBio in 2022. He now leads the development of iBio’s machine learning platform for epitope-steered antibody discovery.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Dr. Taylor is a medical oncologist specializing in drug development and early phase clinical trials with clinical expertise in advanced cutaneous malignancies and thyroid cancers.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Frank holds a Ph.D. in Computational Biology from the University of North Carolina, where he developed a requirement-driven protein design algorithm used to create the first fully rationally designed miniprotein libraries. As a founding team member and current Head of Computational Sciences at AI Proteins, he leads the development of both classical and AI-driven algorithms supporting protein design and optimization. His work spans generative models for novel protein scaffolds as well as predictive tools for protein expression, stability, immunogenicity, and developability, as well as the infrastructure required to deploy them across the organization. His experience sits at the intersection of AI strategy and experimental design, with a focus on building practical, scalable tools that accelerate therapeutic protein development.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Ariel is a PhD student with Sarel Fleishman at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He did his bachelor’s degree in chemical biology at UC Berkeley and moved to the Weizmann Institute in 2019. He is a member of the Teva National BioInnovators Forum and the Azrieli Fellows Program. His research focuses on developing one-shot computational methods to co-optimize antibodies for many properties critical for therapeutic development. He is now applying these methods to design synthetic antibody repertoires for accelerated discovery of developable antibodies. Broadly speaking, he is excited about using protein engineering and design to generate large-scale datasets to learn fundamental principles about proteins and biological functions.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Peter Tessier is the Albert M. Mattocks (Endowed) Professor in the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, and a member of the Biointerfaces Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware (2003, NASA Graduate Fellow) and performed his postdoctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT (2003-2007, American Cancer Society Fellow). Tessier started his independent career as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2007, and he was an endowed full professor at Rensselaer prior to moving to the University of Michigan in 2017. Tessier’s research focuses on designing, optimizing, characterizing and formulating a class of large therapeutic proteins (antibodies) that hold great potential for detecting and treating human disorders ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease. He has received a number of awards and fellowships in recognition of his pioneering work: Pew Scholar Award in Biomedical Sciences (2010-2014), Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (2014-2015), Young Scientist Award from the World Economic Forum (2014), Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society (2015) and NSF CAREER Award (2010-2015).

• Engineering Antibodies

Dr. Thiele has 15 years of experience in academic and big pharma R&D and has a broad knowledge of the drug development process, from early research to clinical development. He started his professional career at Baxter Bioscience and held various positions in research and development of therapeutics for cancer, inflammation, and hematologic disorders. Most recently, he was the Associate Director of Oncology Research at Shire Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Thiele graduated with a diploma in Technical Biology at the University of Stuttgart, Germany and gained a PhD in Biology from the university RWTH Aachen. He has an extensive knowledge of tumor biology, immunology, mechanisms of action of cancer therapeutics and identification of biomarkers. As co-founder and CSO of OncoOne, Dr. Thiele supported establishing a biotech company in Austria as well as a subsidiary in the USA. Equipped with a strong expertise in oncology drug development and a connection to a global network of key opinion leaders, academic institutions and CROs, Dr. Thiele contributes to develop innovative anti-cancer therapeutics at OncoOne.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Steven Thomas is Director of Business Development at Neochromosome (Neo), an Opentrons Labworks company. He brings 12+ years of hands-on and customer-facing experience spanning gene synthesis, variant library construction, phage and yeast display, and end-to-end antibody discovery workflows. Prior to Neo, Steven held technical and commercial roles at Twist Bioscience and SGI-DNA. Trained as a molecular biologist, he partners with biopharma, biotech, and academic teams to design practical campaigns that blend library strategy, selection, and sequencing analytics. In this webinar, Steven will introduce Neo’s Antibody Discovery Toolkit, including the neoSwitch switchable yeast display/secretion platform for accelerating antibody discovery, and discuss how protein-purification workflows are being automated on the Opentrons Flex.

• Display of Biologics

Tiffany Thorn is a biotech entrepreneur and ADC executive with >15 years in targeted oncology drug development. As Founder and CEO of BiVictriX Therapeutics, she developed the proprietary Bi-Cygni platform, pioneering the advancement of conditional logic-gated bispecific ADCs to broaden efficacy and achieve superior tumour selectivity. Previously, she trained as a Clinical Immunologist in the UK NHS, bringing a unique perspective that bridges clinical insight with next-generation therapeutic innovation.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

I have been working as Head of Immuno oncology at Orion Pharma, Finland since March 2020. I hold a PhD degree in Tumour Immunology from Imperial College London, where I studied mechanism involved in regulating tumour immune function. After completing my PhD I moved to biotech, my first industry job was at Kymab where I worked as a research scientist at Kymab, Cambridge, UK (now owned by Sanofi) I worked as pharmacology lead for several IO drug discovery project, most notably anti-ICOS treg cell depleting antibody. In summer 2019, I joined as Group Leader in Translational Biology at Microbiotica, Cambridge, UK. my team is focused on building novel in vivo models to study role of gut bacteria in cancer and ulcerative colitis.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Dr. Will Thrift is a Senior Artificial Intelligence Scientist in the Computational Sciences Department at Genentech. Will's PhD focused on developing deep machine learning methods for surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensors to enable applications in metabolomics. Will joined Genentech in 2019 where he focuses on developing deep machine learning methods for peptide-protein interactions in immunology. His state-of-the-art MHC class i model was the first machine learning model created by Genentech that has been used in a clinical trial to select drugs for personalized medicine.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Professor at Michael Smith Laboratories, with expertise in evolutionary biochemistry.

• Display of Biologics

I hold a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from UNICAMP in Campinas, Brazil. I subsequently joined the MacCoss Lab at the University of Washington in Seattle, where I worked close with the team responsible for developing the Skyline software. Following my postdoctoral training, I led the Mass Spectrometry group within the Discovery Biologics Department at Merck for several years. Currently, I serve as Senior Director of the Protein Therapeutics department at Gilead Sciences, overseeing the Molecular Assessment group.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Sophie received her PhD in Immunology from the Université Paris Cité, France. She has over 20 years of experience in vaccine, immunotherapy and biologics research and development. She joined Pfizer in 2017 where she leads a group focused on immunogenicity risk assessment and mitigation of Pfizer’s biologics and is co-chair of the Immunogenicity Advisory Council. Sophie acts as Director of Scientific Affairs for the European Immunogenicity Platform.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Nathan is a co-founder of Rondo Therapeutics and currently serves as President and CSO. Prior to starting Rondo, Nathan was Chief Technology Officer at Teneobio where he played a key role in starting the company and led the team that was responsible for lead discovery, lead optimization, and development of the T-cell engager platform that was acquired in 2021. Prior to Teneobio, Nathan was a co-founder and CEO of SwitchGear Genomics, a venture-backed HTS platform company that was acquired in 2013. Earlier in his career, Nathan served as the Technical Director of the Stanford ENCODE project and received his Ph.D from Stanford University. Nathan also serves on the Board of Governors for the Stanford Medicine Alumni Association. Nathan has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers and is an inventor on over 15 patents.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Anubhav Tripathi is a Professor of Medical Science and Engineering at Brown University. At Brown, Tripathi’s research group develops new biotechnology platforms by integrating biological and engineering principles. This work has a broad impact on scientists, engineers, physicians, and entrepreneurs. He holds more than 20 patents (issued or filed), has over 160 peer-reviewed publications, delivered more than 130 invited talks, and co-founded four companies. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and has won multiple recognitions from the scientific community. Prior to Brown, Tripathi led the development of microfluidics chips for protein and DNA sizing at Caliper LifeSciences (now Revvity).

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Bernhardt L. Trout is the Raymond F. Baddour, ScD, (1949) Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. He received his S.B. and S.M. degrees from MIT and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, he performed post-doctoral research at the Max-Planck Institute. Trout’s research focuses on the development of advanced manufacturing processes and rational tools for formulation and product design, primarily liquid formulations, but also lyophilized formulations. A major aspect of his research focuses on developing both microscopic and macroscopic models to design stable formulations efficiently. In addition, he is Co-Chair of the International Symposium on Continuous Manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals. He has published over 200 papers and has 18 patents issued or pending.

• Engineering Antibodies

Kyle has led research for Sana’s Fusogen Platform since the foundation of the company. Currently Executive Director and Co-Head of Sana Innovation, Kyle oversees the research team driving advancement of the Fusogen Platform for in vivo delivery, including development of the lead in vivo CAR-T candidate. Prior to this he had been a Senior Scientist at Cobalt Biomedicine, a Flagship company.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Dr. Kyoji Tsuchikama is an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Texas Therapeutics Institute (TTI), the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston). Dr. Tsuchikama received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from Waseda University in March 2010 and completed postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in 2014. He leads multidisciplinary research programs focused on next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). His laboratory integrates chemical biology, protein engineering, and translational pharmacology to develop ADC conjugation platforms that improve drug delivery, enhance therapeutic index, and enable new biological mechanisms of action. His work is internationally recognized for pioneering advances in ADC linker design, including homogeneous enzymatically cleavable tripeptide linkers, dual-payload conjugation technologies, which have been patented and exclusively licensed to CrossBridge Bio, where he serves as a scientific co-founder and board member. His research program is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIGMS R35 MIRA, NCI R01), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), and multiple collaborative awards.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Koji Tsuda received B.E., M.E., and Ph.D degrees from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1994, 1995, and 1998, respectively. Subsequently, he joined former Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL), Tsukuba, Japan, as Research Scientist. When ETL was reorganized as AIST in 2001, he joined newly established Computational Biology Research Center, Tokyo, Japan. In 2000-2001, he worked at GMD FIRST in Berlin, Germany, as Visiting Scientist. In 2003-2004 and 2006-2008, he worked at Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany, first as Research Scientist and later as Project Leader. Currently, he is Professor at Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo. He is also affiliated with National Institute of Material Science (NIMS) and RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

L. Nathan Tumey is joined Binghamton University in 2017, following 15 years of medicinal chemistry experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. His research focuses on the design of antibody-drug-conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancer, auto-immune disorders, and rare diseases. Specific research projects include immune-stimulating antibody conjugates, glucocorticoid-antibody conjugates, legumain-cleavable linkers, and site-specific conjugation technology. He is a frequent consultant at various biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and serves on the scientific advisory board of multiple ADC-related organizations. Dr. Tumey received his PhD in chemistry from Duke University in 2001, under the supervision of Michael Pirrung. During his years in the pharmaceutical industry, Tumey was a key leader in multiple drug-discovery programs including the development of 5HT2c agonists for obesity, PKC-theta inhibitors for asthma, IRAK4 inhibitors for rheumatoid arthritis and antibody-drug-conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancer.

• TS10B: Introduction to Antibody-Drug Conjugate Design: Targets, Payloads, and Linkers

Felix Unverdorben, a protein engineer by training, joined Immatics in 2015 to set up a next-generation bispecifics platform leveraging T-cell receptors to expand the therapeutic space beyond cell therapies. Felix lead the establishment of Immatics’ TCR engineering expertise for the XCEPTOR® platform and is one of the key innovators behind the TCER® molecules. Felix holds a Ph.D . in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart in the working group of Prof. Dr. Kontermann where he applied phage display to improve binding properties of half-life extension moieties of bispecific molecules

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Joe Vacca spent 12 years at Cambridge Healthtech Institute, supporting commercial efforts for conferences in the life science industry, most of which focused on biomarkers and diagnostics. He then joined Perceptive (formerly Invicro) in 2020 and is currently the VP of RLT Solutions. I n this role, he is responsible for all commercial activities related to clinical radioligand therapy clinical trials. In his 5 years at Perceptive, Joe has been involved in contracting, account management and executive management of over 100 preclinical and clinical RLT trials, including several that have led to the approval of diagnostic and therapeutic agents.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Dr. Ahmet Vakkasoglu is Associate Director of Biologics Discovery and Innovation at Cue Biopharma. In this role, he has led the protein engineering and development efforts for the company's Immuno-STAT and Neo-STAT platforms, driving advancements in biologics targeted at both autoimmune (AI) and oncology indications. Dr. Vakkasoglu earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and brings over a decade of industry experience to his position.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Joseph Valente is an accomplished scientific leader specializing in analytical and biophysical characterization of protein-based drug formulations. He earned a Ph.D. in Analytical/Physical Chemistry from Colorado State University. Currently Associate Scientific Director at Bristol Myers Squibb, he drives strategic initiatives in biologics drug product development, data management, and talent cultivation. With over 19 years of industry experience, Joseph is recognized for his technical expertise, leadership in interdisciplinary teams, and commitment to mentoring emerging scientists. He actively collaborates with numerous academic institutions, leads departmental university engagement, and has delivered invited presentations at major scientific forums.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Professor of Radiation Oncology and member of the NCI-designated Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Currently, Lion Scholar. PhD from Ohio State University in Immunology and Oncology. Past Leukemia Society and ACS scholar. Over 200 career publications on PubMed. Specialist in the genetic engineering of new anti-cancer drugs designed to use antibodies to selectively target carcinoma and leukemia.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Dr. Anastasiia Vasiukhina-Martin (Vasiukhina), Ph.D., is an Advisor in Bioproduct Research and Development Analytical Development at Eli Lilly and Company. She joined Eli Lilly in 2023 after earning her doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University. Her professional responsibilities encompass characterization of higher-order structure and molecular interactions of therapeutic products, development of analytical methods, and establishment of analytical control strategies, with a focus on monoclonal antibodies and adeno-associated viruses.

• Characterization for Novel Biotherapeutics

Francisca Vazquez is the director of the Cancer Dependency Map Project (DepMap) at the Broad Institute, a programmatic effort that she co-leads to systematically identify all cancer dependencies in human cancer. The DepMap project is an effort to comprehensively identify genetic dependencies and small molecules sensitivities and the molecular markers that predict their response across thousands of cancer cell line models to accelerate precision cancer medicine. To accomplish this goal, Vazquez works with a large interdisciplinary team of project managers, basic scientists, and computational biologists that uses state-of-the-art genome-scale functional genomics, including CRISPR and high-throughput small molecule screening technologies, to systematically profile hundreds of cellular models of cancers. Vazquez also leads DepMap’s target discovery and advancement team, which focuses on developing methods to systematically identify the most promising therapeutic targets and translate the findings to therapeutics. Vazquez launched the Pediatric and Brain Tumor dependency maps, which she co-leads to more rapidly advance therapeutic discoveries in those tumor types. Her main goal is to help accelerate precision cancer medicine by both creating resources for the scientific community, such as DepMap, and identifying and validating the most promising targets and biomarkers. Prior to joining the Broad Institute in 2011, Vazquez worked as a research scientist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the center for chronic disease, studying cancer metabolism; her postdoctoral work, which focused on tumor suppressor genes, was also undertaken at DFCI. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illes Balears in Spain, while performing most of her work as a visiting student at Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Gian Marco Visani is currently a PhD Candidate at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle, advised by Dr. Armita Nourmohammad. He works on machine learning methods for protein design, and for predicting the effect of mutations on protein stability and protein-protein binding affinity.

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Mr. Walfish is Principal Science & Standards Liaison at United States Pharmacopeia (USP) responsible for the Statistics Expert Committee. Prior to this role Mr. Walfish was Principal Statistician at Becton Dickinson in Franklin Lakes, NJ responsible for supporting continuous improvement efforts and process development for worldwide operations. Mr. Walfish has held roles at GE Healthcare, Human Genome Sciences and Chiron. Steven was President of Statistical Outsourcing Services, a consulting company that provides statistical analysis and training to the FDA regulated industries. Mr. Walfish brings over 30 years of industrial expertise in the development and application of statistical methods for solving complex business issues. Steven has experience applying statistical methods to analytical method verification and validation and stability analysis. Mr. Walfish holds a Bachelors of Arts in Statistics from the University of Buffalo, Masters of Science in Statistics from Rutgers University and an Executive MBA from Boston University.

• TS7C: Bioassay Development and Analysis

Curtis Walton, Ph.D. is the Director of Automation and Process Optimization at the Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI). He brings deep expertise in laboratory automation, bioinformatics, and protein engineering, with a strong track record of building scalable workflows that accelerate scientific discovery. Curtis holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Ottawa, where he developed novel biocatalysts for pharmaceutical applications. At IPI and in previous roles, he has led multidisciplinary teams and spearheaded the integration of cutting-edge automation platforms, transforming research pipelines through innovative, data-driven approaches.

• SC9: Automation in Action: Hands-on, Liquid Handling for Protein & Antibody Engineering

Hong I. Wan, Ph.D. is president, chief executive officer and co-founder of Tallac Therapeutics. Dr. Wan is a life science leader with over 20 years of drug development experience and expertise in multiple therapeutics areas in biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Previously as chief scientific officer and a member of the founding management at ALX Oncology, she led the team to advance ALX148, a best-in-class myeloid checkpoint inhibitor, for multiple tumor indications. Prior to ALX Oncology, Dr. Wan held various leadership positions at Pfizer and Wyeth Research, where she was responsible for the early development and translational medicine strategy and execution across various therapeutic areas. Dr. Wan started her career at Renovis where she led discovery programs in neuroinflammation. Dr. Wan received her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from University of California, Berkeley and A.B. degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard University.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Hans H. Wandall, MD, PhD, is a Professor and Director of the Copenhagen Center for Glycocalyx Research at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Copenhagen, and the scientific co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of GO Therapeutics. His research focuses on the genetic and cellular mechanisms underlying human protein glycosylation and its roles in health and disease, particularly in oncology. He has pioneered the translation of glycoscience into precision cancer therapies, including the development of novel antibody-drug conjugates and immunotherapies targeting cancer-specific glycans. A former Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Wandall continues to define the molecular mechanisms encoded by human glycoproteins and their potential for therapeutic intervention in cancer biology.

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

Leo Wang (Legal first name: Lei) is a Senior Scientist at Takeda, where he leads mass spectrometry-based characterization of novel biologics. His expertise spans LC-MS assay development, host cell protein profiling, proteinaceous particle analysis, structure-function studies, and full analytical characterization for both early- and late-stage programs. He earned his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut, specializing in proteomics and metabolomics.

• Biophysical Methods

Amy is a computational researcher focused on accelerating drug development by integrating biological data with scalable machine learning. As a Senior ML Scientist at Prescient Design (Genentech), she develops platforms supporting multiple discovery programs and works closely with experimental teams. She earned her PhD at Stanford studying cell adhesion proteins and collaborating on protein modeling and simulation, following earlier research in protein-polymer systems at MIT. Her combined expertise in AI/ML and biophysics drives innovation and adoption of new methods in biotech.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

Wanlei is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Human Health Therapeutics Research Center at the National Research Council Canada, located in Montreal, Canada. In this role, he develops and employs computational tools for antibody engineering. Before working in the antibody space, he worked on computer-aided drug design of small molecule inhibitors against RNA, force field development, and computational enzymology. To date, he has published more than a dozen papers in computational chemistry.

• TS9A: Introduction to Machine Learning for Biologics Design

Kipp Weiskopf, M.D., PhD, is a Valhalla Fellow at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA. He is a leader in the field of macrophage-directed therapies and oversees a research laboratory that studies novel macrophage and myeloid immune checkpoints for the treatment of cancer. Dr. Weiskopf is concurrently appointed as a Hematology and Oncology fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. Dr. Weiskopf earned his medical and graduate degrees at Stanford University. As a member of Dr. Irving Weissman’s laboratory, he characterized the CD47/SIRPa interaction as an immune checkpoint that regulates macrophages in cancer. He engineered therapies that stimulate macrophages to attack tumors and showed these could be effective for many types of cancer. Dr. Weiskopf is an inventor on over 15 U.S. patents pertaining to macrophage-directed therapies. He co-founded ALX Oncology, a biotech company that is investigating macrophage-directed therapies in multiple Phase I and II trials for cancer. Other technology that Dr. Weiskopf invented has been licensed to Forty Seven, Inc. (acquired by Gilead). More recently, he co-founded DEM Biopharma to identify novel “don’t eat me” signals that can be targeted for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Dr. Weiskopf completed his medical training in the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is board certified in Internal Medicine. He has previously been awarded a Winston Churchill Scholarship, an NCI Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Fellowship, the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, and first place in the Collegiate Inventors Competition. Dr. Weiskopf previously earned a B.A. from Amherst College and an M.Phil. in genetics from University of Cambridge.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Nina Weisser is Director of Multispecific Therapeutics at Zymeworks where she leads a research team in the development of multispecific antibody therapeutics with a focus on mechanism of action studies. Since joining Zymeworks in 2012, she has led several research programs, including zanidatamab from discovery to early development. She received her PhD from the University of Guelph and held a post-doctoral fellowship at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Wells’s group pioneered the engineering of proteins, antibodies, and small molecules that target catalytic, allosteric, and protein-protein interaction sites; technologies including protein phage display, alanine-scanning, engineered proteases for improved hydrolysis, bioconjugations, N-terminomics, disulfide “tethering” (a novel site-directed fragment-based approach for drug discovery); and more recently an industrialized recombinant antibody production pipeline for the proteome. These led to important new insights into protease mechanisms, growth factor signaling, hot-spots in protein-protein interfaces, role of caspases in biology, and more recently to determining how cell surfaces change in health and disease. His team was integral to several protein products, including Somavert for acromegaly, Avastin for cancer, Lifitegrast for dry eye disease, and engineered proteases sold by Pfizer, Genentech, Shire and Genencor, respectively. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Science, American Association of Arts and Science, and the National Academy of Inventors.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

No bio available.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Tim Whitehead is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He has won an NSF CAREER award, holds 6 patents (5 licensed), and has published over 50 research articles in journals like Science, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Methods.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Kathryn Whitehead is a third-year PhD student at Brown University in the Tripathi Lab for Microfluidic Diagnostics and Biomedical Engineering. Prior to joining Brown, she obtained her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she was involved in research developing exoskeleton robotic devices for rehabilitation post stroke. At Brown, she leads a team focused on developing cutting-edge assays for automation in microfluidics, Next Generation Sequencing, and new systems for point of care diagnostics. She collaborates closely with industry partners to advance the field of biomedical diagnostic devices, with a particular focus on enhancing research accessibility and development. Her work aims to bridge the gap between academic research and practical applications in the biomedical industry.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Ian Wilkinson is the Chief Scientific Officer at mAbsolve. Ian has a background in the engineering and development of therapeutic antibodies. He started his career at MedImmune, working on a number of early stage projects covering technology validation, drug discovery and optimisation. In 2012 he joined the new start-up Absolute Antibody as CSO and built the company up from the ground to an established CRO offering a suite of recombinant antibody services and products to pharma, biotech and academic clients worldwide. Following the sale of Absolute Antibody, Ian span out his idea for Fc silencing into a new company mAbsolve, which has pushed forward their development and commercialisation to the point they are now being used by over 20 different companies on active therapeutic programs. More recently he also founded Gamma Proteins as a reagent provider for Fc receptors.

• Machine Learning for Protein Engineering

I joined the Oxford Protein Informatics Group (https://opig.stats.ox.ac.uk/) in January 2025 as a research software engineer, supporting the development and deployment of the group's tools, including SAbDab, the Structural Antibodies Database. You can use and learn about many of OPIG's freely available tools and resources here: https://opig.stats.ox.ac.uk/webapps I have a doctorate in condensed matter physics from the University of Oxford and spent several years developing software and methods for data analysis at Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron X-ray source and electron microscopy facility.

• SC1: In silico and Machine Learning Tools for Antibody Design and Developability Predictions

Dr. Williamson is the head of US Protein Sciences at UCB and has been with the organization since joining as a research scientist in 2015. She currently leads a team of scientists who provide non-antibody protein reagents for global preclinical discovery projects. Prior to their acquisition by UCB, Jess and the Protein Sciences team were part of Beryllium Discovery, a CRO specializing in gene to structure services. She completed her PhD at Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and a postdoc at Harvard Medical School, during both she studied the structure and assembly of challenging systems, like amyloid and membrane proteins. In addition to her role, Jess advocates for DE&I (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), Women in Leadership, and environmental sustainability practices at UCB.

• Maximizing Protein Production Workflows

Before joining Voximetry, Mr. Wilson led the medical physics functions at Blue Earth Diagnostics/Therapeutics and then at Telix Pharmaceuticals. Wilson began his career as a medical physicist with the UK National Health Service (NHS) and subsequently held roles focused on applying medical imaging techniques to early clinical studies of novel drugs, with significant contributions at major pharmaceutical companies including GSK and Pfizer. He currently serves as Deputy Chair on the National Measurement System’s Life Sciences and Health Programme Expert Group (NMS LS&H PEG) for the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and co-chairs the Strategic Advisory Board of the Postgraduate Institute (PGI) at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Mr. Wilson holds an MA and MSci in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Medical Physics from the University of Exeter. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IoP) and the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM). An advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion, Mr. Wilson has mentored students at London’s charity Generating Genius. He enjoys music and has performed on several original recordings available on Spotify.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Dr. William Winston, Ph.D., has served as our Senior Vice President of Research since September 2023, and Vice President of Research from May 2019 to September 2023. Previously, from July 2014 to December 2018, Dr. Winston held roles of increasing responsibility as Senior Director and then Vice President of Antibody Development at Potenza Therapeutics (acquired by Astellas), where he was responsible for antibody discovery and engineering, as well as Chemistry and Manufacturing Controls (CMC). Prior to Potenza, Dr. Winston held several positions at AVEO Oncology from January 2003 to July 2014, including Director of Protein Engineering, with a focus on antibody discovery and protein engineering. Dr. Winston earned his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University and holds a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Laurie joined Citeline/Norstella in 2008 as part of the Trialscape consulting team and is now a leader in the Trialtrove Oncology team. Over her tenure, Laurie has assisted pharmaceutical clients navigate the competitive clinical landscape of their products. She has been involved in numerous consulting projects and authored thought leadership papers across a wide range of topics and therapeutic areas. She has provided expert support to clients through the Ask the Analyst service and collaborative calls. Her leadership has been instrumental in expanding Trialtrove’s oncology content, including integration of biomarkers and coverage of emerging diseases. Prior to joining Citeline, Laurie served as a Portfolio Manager in the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease (CVMD) group at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (now Pfizer), where she worked closely with preclinical Discovery leadership to assess portfolio risk and value. Laurie holds a PhD in Vascular Cell Biology from Boston University and completed postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, focusing on endothelial mechanisms of vascular permeability, angiogenesis, and leukocyte interactions.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Prof. Dane Wittrup attended the University of New Mexico as an undergraduate, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering in June 1984. Wittrup went on to attend the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where he worked with Prof. James Bailey on flow cytometry and segregated modeling of recombinant populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After obtaining his PhD in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Biology in 1988, he spent a brief time working at Amgen before becoming an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. He moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September of 1999, where he is now the C.P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering, in addition to working with the Koch Institute as the Associate Director for Engineering.

• Display of Biologics

Dr. Chengbin Wu is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of EpimAb Biotherapeutics Inc., an innovative biologics company focusing on developing next generation antibody-based therapies. Dr. Wu has over 20 years of experience in discovery, development, and technological innovation in the antibody field. He is also a world-renowned expert in bispecific antibody technologies and therapeutic development, and the primary inventor of DVD-Ig and FIT-Ig bispecific technology platforms. Dr. Wu has built a distinguished career in the biopharmaceutical industry, taking on different leadership responsibilities in different parts of the world. Previously he was Chief Scientific Officer and President of R&D at 3SBio, a leading China-based biopharmaceutical company. Before that he was the Senior Vice President Biologics at ChemPartner, where he established a comprehensive antibody R&D platform. Prior to that, Dr. Wu was a Volwiler Associate Fellow at Abbvie, where he led several antibody projects from concept to regulatory filing. Dr. Wu received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Georgia in the US, and postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School with a grant from the Cancer Research Institute.

• Emerging T Cell Engagers

Anna M. Wu, Ph.D, is professor and chair, Department of Immunology & Theranostics and co-director, Center for Theranostic Studies, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, and professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at City of Hope in Duarte, California. She also holds the title of research professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, where she previously served as professor and vice chair. While at UCLA she also held positions as director, Cancer Molecular Imaging Program, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and co-associate director, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging. She is a past chair of the California Breast Cancer Research Council, fellow and past president of the World Molecular Imaging Society, and a fellow of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. She is the recipient of the 2018 Suffrage Science Award and the 2022 Gold Medal from the World Molecular Imaging Society. Dr. Wu’s research interests include engineered antibodies and proteins for targeting, imaging, and therapeutic applications in cancer and immunology, including the use of SPECT, PET, optical and multimodality approaches. Dr. Wu is the co-founder and chief scientific advisor to ImaginAb Inc., which develops and commercializes engineered antibodies for clinical imaging in cancer and other diseases. Dr. Wu received her A.B. degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. Postdoctoral studies were conducted at Yale University and at University of California San Francisco.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Howard (Hao) Wu, PhD has 25 years’ experience in gene editing technology and new drug discovery. He is specialized in overseeing R&D programs, new lab and research team set up in the biotech start-ups. Dr. Wu is the co-founder and CSO of Full Circles Therapeutics, where he is dedicated to developing curative gene editing based gene/cell therapy. He is responsible for generating revenue through collaboration with MNC and biotech partners. Before founding Full Circles Therapeutics, Dr. Wu was leading multiple discovery biology programs and disease prioritization in the genetic disease space at Fulcrum Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:FULC), a Cambridge small molecule drug discovery biotech company. He had been with the company through the full development phases starting from the start-up, expansion, until post-IPO development, during which he led a cross-functional team for portfolio disease selection and prioritization of multiple disease programs including neuromuscular disease, cardiac disease, hematological and metabolic diseases, including two major partnership collaborations with MyoKardia and Acceleron. Before joining Fulcrum, Dr. Wu was a senior research fellow at Whitehead institute, MIT. His research focused on neurological disorders utilizing a combination of CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genomic and epigenomic editing technology and stem cell technology. He did his PhD in Biochemistry and Structural Biology at Hongkong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Fudan University before he did his postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Wu has more than 40 journal publications, patents, and research and industry grants, including Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Neuron, Science Translational Medicine, Molecular Cell. For his work, he has received fellowship award from human frontier science program (HSFP) and NARSAD young investigator award. He was also awarded the Alfred Blalock Young Investigator Award from JHMI and President’s award from Whitehead Institute, MIT.

• Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Kejia Wu, PhD, is a protein designer/computational method developer at the Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington. She develops general methods with de novo proteins to target intrinsically disordered regions, post-translational modifications, and disease-relevant proteolysis. Her work focuses on novel computational frameworks to create tight, specific binders and designer proteases for oncology and neurodegeneration, turning fundamental protein design advances into translational therapeutic and diagnostic strategies.

• Difficult-to-Express Proteins

Dr. Wu is the Head of CRO Services and Senior VP at WuXi Biologics. With vast experience and expertise in protein sciences, he has been instrumental in establishing global protein production facilities and developing cutting-edge technologies. Having participated in over 50 drug development projects, Dr. Wu is a leading authority in automated expression, purification, and characterization of diverse proteins. Previously at Genentech for 15 years, he made significant contributions to innovative protein expression and purification technologies.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Dr. Xiaodong Xiao obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Ohio State University. He conducted postdoctoral research before becoming a staff scientist in NCI, NIH. He then moved to industry first with AstraZeneca, then Bristol Myers Squibbs, Innovent Biologics, and currently Jecho leading biologics discovery and R&D with increasing responsibilities. He has made significant contributions in both basic research and drug discoveries including being the first in the world to report the SARS-CoV spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) and discovering many biological therapeutics.

• Antibodies for Cancer Therapy

Weiliang (Timo) is the Associate Director of Business Development at PepLib. Before joining PepLib, he was a senior scientist at a stealth-mode biotech startup in Boston and at SRI International, where he specialized in developing tissue- and cell-specific peptides for intracellular drug delivery. He earned his PhD in Chemistry from the National University of Singapore.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Bing Xu, after receiving his BS and MS degrees from Nanjing University in 1987 and 1990, respectively, obtained his PhD in 1996 from the University of Pennsylvania. Before starting his independent research at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in August 2000, he was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Dr. Xu was a tenured professor at HKUST until July 2008 before he returned to Boston. Currently, he is Charles A. Breskin Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Brandeis University. He has made pioneering contributions to metallogels, multifunctional magnetic nanoparticles, self-delivery drugs, supramolecular hydrogels, and enzyme-instructed self-assembly (ESIA) for in-situ anticancer nanomedicine. His current research focuses on the applications of enzymatic noncovalent synthesis in materials, biology, and medicine.

• Emerging Peptide Therapeutics

Dr. XU Ting returned to China in 2008 and founded Suzhou Alphamab to work on R&D of biologics. In 2015, Dr. Xu led the spin-out of Alphamab Oncology and then Initial Public Listing (IPO) on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (stock code: 9966.HK) in 2019. Prior to Alphamab, Dr. Xu held R&D positions in Archemix, Serono and Biogen, where he had been involved in the development of recombinant therapeutics with several launched products. Dr. Xu has more than 20 years of innovative R&D experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Dr. Xu had made significant contributions to the evolving of biosimilar industry in China. Through collaboration, he led the development of more than 30 biosimilar drugs, including Bevacizumab (QILU), Recombinant Factor VIII (CTTQ), hCG (Livzon), TSH (SmartNuclide), and Pertuzumab (CTTQ). Dr. Xu invented Envafolimab, the first subcutaneous (subQ) injectable PD-L1 antibody launched in 2021, and more than 10 clinical-stage biologics, potentially FIC or BIC. He also led the establishment of cutting-edge platforms, such as single-domain antibody (sdAb), bispecific antibody, glycan conjugation for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), dual payload ADC and high-concentration formulation. Dr. Xu’s focus is to develop the multifunctional antibodies and protein drugs with better precision, lower toxicity, and superior efficacy. Dr. Xu holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Nanjing University and a Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Science. Currently, Dr. Xu holds adjunct professorship in the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing University and Southeast University. He has led 5 national-level projects such as the "Major New Drug Development" special project. Dr. Xu has received numerous awards including “Major National Talent Programs”, the sixth "Suzhou Outstanding Talent Award", “Suzhou Science and Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Mayor Award", "Top Ten Scientific and Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Figures in Jiangsu" and so on.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Huan Yang has worked in both biotech and pharma, focusing on discovering next-generation CAR T cell therapy. He has played a key role in building Cell Therapy CAR engineering platforms and co-leading external allogeneic cell therapy programs at Merck. Prior to this, Huan gained valuable experience at TCR2 Therapeutics and Affyimmune Therapeutics, focusing on CAR engineering and T cell enhancement engineering. Over the last few years, Huan has been exploring approaches to enhancing the specificity and potency of CAR-T, with the goal of advancing cutting-edge off-the-shelf cell therapies.

• Advances in Immunotherapy

Jason is a 5th-year chemical engineering PhD candidate at Caltech, coadvised by Professor Frances Arnold and Professor Yisong Yue, where he is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and the Google PhD Fellowship. Some of his notable contributions include developing workflows for AI-assisted protein optimization, generative models for protein design, and deep learning methods to discover and annotate enzymes.

• Display of Biologics

Tangsheng Yi is an Executive Director of Inflammation Biology at Gilead Sciences, leading the immunology group in small- and large-molecule discovery from target validation to clinical studies. He also drives external business development and disease area strategy in Gilead’s Inflammation research. Before joining Gilead, he was a principal scientist in Genentech in Immunology discovery and a Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellow at UCSF for B cell immunity. Dr. Yi holds a Ph.D. from City of Hope and a B.S. from Nanjing University. He speaks globally with 40+ publications in Cell, Science Translational Medicine, and Immunity. As a personal fun fact, he coaches Science Olympiad, and is an avid badminton player.

• Biologics for Autoimmune Diseases

Jason Yu is a Convergence Scholar at the Koch Institute and as a senior postdoctoral associate at MIT. Mentored by Professor Scott Manalis, Jason investigates the influence of physical and chemical parameters on cellular responses, including T cell differentiation, microbiota antigen presentation, and tumor progression. With a PhD in Tissue Engineering and four years of postdoctoral experience in engineering physics at MIT, Jason specializes in the precise manipulation of the physical microenvironment of tissue culture to study the underlying mechanism. His interdisciplinary approach merges tissue engineering and physics to uncover novel insights into cell behavior and disease processes.

• Biophysical Methods

Elcin Zan, MD is the Chair of Nuclear Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. Elcin focuses on exploring the full potential of Radiopharmaceutical Therapies in oncology to meaningfully improve patient outcomes in clinic and research. Elcin and her team develop AGI tools to study the collective intelligence of cancer from cells to body-wide networks integrating pathology and PET diagnostics.

• Frontiers in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Paulo received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University. As a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, his research provided novel insights on the biochemistry and biophysics of hydrogen tunneling metalloenzymes. He joined the Protein characterization and Developability group at Merck in 2022, where he now leads a small team supporting biophysical characterization of various drug candidates.

• ML and Digital Integration in Biotherapeutic Analytics

Xiaobin Zhang is an associate director in the bioanalytical science and immunogenicity group at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In this role, Xiaobin leads a team to support the immunogenicity assessment of large therapeutics such as peptides, antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, multidomain proteins, AAVs and oligonucleotide-based therapeutics for oncology, neuroscience, gastrointestinal and rare diseases. Prior to his role at Takeda, Xiaobin was a Staff Scientist and Lead Scientist at Covance (now Labcorp, NC, USA) and mainly worked on the method development and validation for PK, ADA, and NAb assays. Xiaobin also served as a Senior Scientist for cell-based bioassay method development and validation in the GMP lab at PPD (NC, USA). He received his PhD from Peking University Health Science Center (Beijing, China) and postdoctoral training in University of Nebraska Medical Center (NE, USA) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI, USA).

• Predicting Immunogenicity with AI/ML Tools

Dr. Zhao was trained for Ph.D. and post-doc in USA and then worked in the area of drug R&D for over 15 years with Monsanto, Pharmacia, and ImmunoGen. In particular, he had played important role as a key member or program leader in the design, development, and process optimization of several ADC compounds turned into clinical trials and commercialization. In May of 2013, he returned to China with several his former colleagues, also senior scientists to co-found Hangzhou DAC Biotechnology Co., Ltd. At present, DAC has built patented, new generation ADC platform and generated more than 40 ADC pipelines, and seven of these ADCs are in the clinical trials now. So far, with the novel ADC technology platform, Hangzhou DAC has built up the partnerships with several well-known enterprises in China and MNC abroad.

• Driving Clinical Success in Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Xin Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, and Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She obtained her PhD in Bioengineering with Dr. Michael Lin from Stanford University and did her postdoctoral training with Dr. Jim Wells at UCSF. Dr. Zhou’s research focuses on engineering functional protein sensors and switches for modulating biology. In the past, she has built proteins with versatile functions, including light-activated enzymes, phosphotyrosine recognition domains, antibody antagonists and agonists, and biosensors to measure SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Her work was recognized by many awards including an NIH Pathway to Independence Award and a Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists. Dr. Zhou’s new research group aims to leverage the power of protein engineering to gain a deeper fundamental understanding of malignancies and to discover new avenues for therapeutic intervention.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Dr. Jie Zhou is a joint Assistant Professor in the Departments of Radiation and Cellular Oncology and Chemistry at the University of Chicago and a member of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC). Her research program sits at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and medicine, with a central focus on understanding the complex dynamics of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and translating these insights into next-generation cancer immunotherapies. The Zhou Lab specializes in antibody and biologics discovery, developing innovative strategies to engineer proteins, antibodies, viruses, and cells with therapeutic potential. The lab maintains diverse, state-of-the-art biologics libraries-including humanized nanobody (VHH), Fab, affibody, and antibody repertoires-and leverages advanced display technologies, such as phage, yeast, mammalian, and viral platforms, and computational protein design to accelerate discovery. With a background that spans organic synthesis, chemical biology, protein engineering, cancer biology, and immunology, Dr. Zhou leads a highly multidisciplinary team that integrates fundamental science with translational goals. By combining expertise in chemical design, molecular engineering, and immune regulation, her program aims to pioneer transformative approaches in precision immunotherapy and bridge the gap between discovery research and clinical application.

• Engineering Antibodies

No bio available.

• Optimizing Protein Expression

Dr. Zhukovsky has over 25 years of international experience in the research and development of novel immune-oncology therapies. He is currently serving the CSO of Ichnos Sciences. At Ichnos he is engaged in applying optimized novel bi- and trispecific antibody technologies to the development of immunotherapeutics for cancer. His background includes work in discovery, antibody engineering, and translational sciences, including the construction of drug discovery platforms. Dr. Zhukovsky is a co-founder and partner at ZM Scientific, a consultancy firm that advises biotechnology companies and works with investment firms by providing expert due diligence. Previously, he served as the CTO at GO Therapeutics where he created a T Cell Engagement platform to enable the leveraging of the company’s cancer cell-targeting antibodies. He also served as the CSO at Biomunex Pharmaceuticals, focused on developing immunotherapies based on checkpoint inhibitors and T cell engagers leveraging their bispecific antibody platform. As the CSO at Affimed, he led the optimization of their T and NK cell engager platforms and advanced candidates from discovery through clinical development. An Fc-optimized anti-CD19 program, which he has conceived of and led at Xencor, was subsequently licensed to a partner for clinical development; it has received a market authorization in the US and in Europe (Monjuvi/tafasitamab). Dr. Zhukovsky performed a postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech, Inc. He received a PhD in biochemistry from Brandeis University.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies

Stefan works as Senior Director at Merck Healthcare KGaA (EMD Serono), Germany, where he heads Global Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering (ADPE). He holds a PhD in chemistry as well as a habilitation in biochemistry. In addition, he is Professor of Biomolecular Immunotherapy at Technical University of Darmstadt.

• Emerging Targets for Oncology & Beyond

No bio available.

• Advancing Multispecific Antibodies and Combination Therapy to the Clinic

Edward van der Horst, PhD, is a molecular pharmacologist with a strong focus on antibody drug development across diverse target classes in oncology. He has 20 years of research and development experience from Zenith Epigenetics Ltd., Igenica Biotherapeutics, Inc., OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Tularik, Inc. (now Amgen), and U3 Pharma GmbH (now Daiichi-Sankyo). Dr. van der Horst’s contributions and discoveries have led to the clinical evaluation of several novel drug candidates at Igenica Biotherapeutics and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, as well as to the first clinical stage anti-HER3 antibody at U3 Pharma GmbH. He received his postdoctoral training at Tularik, Inc., earned his PhD in biochemistry from the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry and conducted his master’s thesis at Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology. He graduated with an MS of chemistry from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

• Engineering Bispecific and Multispecific Antibodies