Conference Day Two

8:00 am Morning Coffee

8:45 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Engineering the Microbiome to Increase Durability

9:00 am Overcoming Analytical Challenges & Solutions in Engineered Microbiome Therapies

Synopsis

  • Analytical challenges for testing microbiome therapeutics to enable clinical and commercial use
  • Potential approaches for measuring potency, purity, and stability of live bacterial products
  • Expectations for validations of analytical methods

9:30 am Increasing Durability & Persistence in Microbiome-Based Therapies

  • Marc Güell Co-Founder & Scientific Head, Integra Therapeutics

Synopsis

  • Skin microbiome engineering and modulation
  • Long term bacterial engraftment in the skin
  • Skin microbiome mediate sebum secretion modulation

10:00 am Proteomics Driven Approaches for Increased Stability

  • Anders Lund Director, Analytical Development, Synlogic

Synopsis

  • Synlogic is a clinical-stage biotechnology company harnessing Escherichia coli Nissle as a livebiotherapeutic product (LBP) for delivery of therapies for under-served metabolic diseases such as phenylketonuria (PKU) and homocystinuria (HCU)
  • We are assessing the use of various ‘-omics’ technologies as a tool to better understand manufacturing, stability and activity of our lyophilized LBP. In the present work, we aim to utilize mass spectrometry-based proteomics to assess the role of protein oxidation in product stability
  • Insights have led to development of process-based changes and changes during varied fermentation batch processes which report nutrient limitation unnoticeable by typical fermentation sensors

10:30 am Morning Break

Increasing Control with mRNA Genetic Circuits & Multicellular Engineering

11:30 am Programmable mRNA-Encoded Genetic Circuits for Cancer Immunotherapy

Synopsis

  • Development of synthetic genetic circuits for use with RNA therapeutics
  • Dosing of therapeutic protein without impacting therapeutic index of the payload

12:00 pm Enhancing Multicellular Engineering with Synthetic Biology

  • Mo Ebrahimkhani Associate Professor & Director, Laboratory Synthetic Morphogenetics & Tissue Ecology, University of Pittsburgh

Synopsis

  • Harnessing gene editing tools for precise manipulation of organoid cells
  • Introducing synthetic gene circuits to enhance multicellular communication and behavior
  • Interfacing with other modalities including biomaterials

12:30 pm Lunch

Synthetic Biology Enhancements to Maximize on the Potential of Cell Therapies

1:30 pm Translating Synthetic Biology Innovations into Cell Therapy Products

  • Qi Cai Director - Cell Biology, Kite Pharma Inc

Synopsis

  • Identifying opportunities and challenges in the cell therapy field
  • Exploring the disruptive potential of synthetic biology in overcoming these challenges
  • Optimizing the design-build-test-learn cycle to accelerate therapies to the clinic

2:00 pm Maximizing Antitumor Activity with Weaponized CAR-T Therapies

  • Xiaohua Wang Director - Cell Therapy Application & Integrative Science, Bristol Myers Squibb

Synopsis

  • Optimizing CAR-T cell functionality and persistence in the tumor microenvironment
  • Leveraging rational design and directed evolution, to fine-tune CAR constructs
  • Harnessing synthetic biology-based gene circuits to program CAR-T cell responses, enabling precise control over activation, proliferation, and persistence

2:30 pm Enhancing Tumor Eradication Using Synthetic Biology Powered CAR-T Therapies

Synopsis

  • Optimizing CAR-T cell functionality and persistence in the tumor microenvironment
  • Overcoming systemic cytokines toxicities of CAR-T cells
  • Harnessing synthetic biology-based gene circuits to program CAR-T cell responses, enabling precise control over activation, proliferation, and persistence

3:00 pm Afternoon Break & Networking

Elucidating Investment & Future Directions from Industry to Academia

3:30 pm Investors Panel: Navigating Investment Opportunities in Synthetic Biology-Based Therapies

Synopsis

  • Insights from industry-leading investors on the potential and most promising applications commercially of synthetic biology in therapeutics
  • Identifying attractive investment opportunities and industry trends
  • Strategies for successful investment and collaboration in the synthetic biology space

4:00 pm Leveraging the Conamax system to Open New Markets for Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies

Synopsis

  • Critical quality attributes required of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies
  • Challenges in meeting these requirements when producing mAbs in microbial systems
  • Strategies for improving N-glycan occupancy and humanizing N-glycan structures in a novel microbial host for mAb expression

4:30 pm Panel: Shaping the Future of Synthetic Biology Therapies with Translatable Approaches

  • Xiaojing Gao Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
  • Mo Ebrahimkhani Associate Professor & Director, Laboratory Synthetic Morphogenetics & Tissue Ecology, University of Pittsburgh
  • Kyle Daniels Assistant Professor of Genetics, Stanford University

Synopsis

  • Insights from academia on the emerging trends and future directions in synthetic biology
  • Exploring groundbreaking research and its potential impact on therapeutic applications
  • Collaborating with academia to drive innovation and translate scientific advancements into real-world, implementable
  • solutions

5:00 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks

5:15 pm Close of Summit