Focus Day

Tuesday, August 29

Reviewing Mechanisms of Resistance

9.00

Reviewing the Intrinsic Mechanisms of Resistance to Cell Therapy

Sid Kerkar, Vice President, R&D, EXUMA Biotechnology

9.30

Roundtable Discussion: Discussing Mechanisms of Resistance & How to Overcome Them

John Rossi, Vice President, Head of, Translational Medicine, CARGO Therapeutics

Renaud Vaillant, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Alaya.bio

10:30 11:00 - Morning Break

Leveraging Innate Immune Cells to Overcome the Tumor Microenvironment

11:00

Overcoming Resistance & the Tumor Microenvironment with CAR-Macrophage Therapies

Sumiti Jain, Vice President, Head of R&D, Inceptor Bio

11:30

Leveraging NKT Cells to Tackle the Tumor Microenvironment

Jason Damiano, Chief Scientific Officer, Appia Bio

12:00 1:00 - Lunch Break

Developing Next-Generation CAR-T Therapies to Overcome Mechanisms of Resistance

1:00

Strategies to Deliver Best-in-Class Engineered CAR-T Cell Products to Overcome Resistance & Address Barriers to Patient Access

John Rossi, Vice President, Head of Translational Medicine, CARGO Therapeutics

1:30

Targeting Solid Tumors with SMART CAR-T by Overcoming Suppressive Tumor Microenvironment

LJ Shen, Senior Vice President, Head of R&D, Gracell Biotechnologies

2:00

Remodeling CAR-T Cells to Maintain Memory Phenotype, Improve Tumor Control & Overcome the Immunosuppressive TME with CellPryme

Dan Shelly, Vice President, Business Development & Alliances,  Prescient Therapeutics

2:30 3:00 - Afternoon Break

Developing Next-Generation TIL Therapies to Overcome Mechanisms Resistance

3:00

Next-Gen TIL: Counteracting the Solid Tumor Microenvironment

Michelle Simpson Abelson, Executive Director, Research, Iovance Biotherapeutics

3:30

Developing Gene-Edited TIL Cell Therapy Products to Revolutionize the Treatment of Solid Tumors

Karrie Wong, Senior Director, Head of Cell Therapy, KSQ Therapeutics

4:00 - End of Focus Day

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Cell Therapy Biopharma

4:10

Discussing Diversity at CAR-TCR

Gregory Fiore, Board Member, Eterna Therapeuticso

4.15

Strengthening Clinical Trial Diversity to Understand Efficacy Across Population Groups

Adalynn Harris, President & Chief Executive Officer, Equity Bridge

4.45

Panel Discussion: Fostering Diversity in Cell Therapy Clinical Trials

Adalynn Harris, President & Chief Executive Officer, Equity Bridge

Albeena Nisar, Scientific Officer & Head of Clinical Manufacturing, CAR-T Cell Therapy Center, Tata Memorial Centre

5.30

Welcome Reception

Reunite with old friends and meet new colleagues before the main event begins.

“Good place to connect to the heartbeat and trends of the cell and gene therapy industry. There were a lot of industry leaders, knowledgeable speakers, helpful vendors, and a good focus to the content.”
Stephen Crimlisk, Manager, MSAT, BioNTech, Past Attendee