Breakout Discussions

Breakout Discussions are informal, moderated discussions, allowing participants to exchange ideas and experiences and develop future collaborations around a focused topic. Each breakout will be led by a facilitator/s who keeps the discussion on track and the group engaged.

All Breakouts will be offered IN-PERSON ONLY. Note that you can track-hop to a breakout discussion taking place on a concurrent conference track.

TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2026 | 9:40 – 10:25 AM

Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1
BREAKOUT: Design and Discovery of Novel Molecular Glues and Degraders
Moderators:
Stephen Hinshaw, PhD, Assistant Professor, Stanford School of Medicine
Thomas Kodadek, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Scripps Biomedical Research
Charles Wartchow, PhD, Associate Director, Discovery Sciences, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Fragment-Based Drug Discovery
BREAKOUT: GPCRs: Fragments & Other Biophysical Approaches
Moderator: Kris A. Borzilleri, Principal Scientist, Structural Biology & Molecular Sciences, Pfizer Global R&D, Groton Labs

Fragment library designs for GPCRs
Methods for binding first approaches for GPCRs (DEL, ASMS, NMR fragment screening, other types of fragment screening)
Orthogonal methods for hit validation and optimization

BREAKOUT: Covalent Drug Discovery
Moderators:
Giulia Alboreggia, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Pellecchia Lab, University Of California Riverside
Maurizio Pellecchia, PhD, Professor, Biomedical Sciences Division, University of California, Riverside

Starting points for covalent drug discovery: covalent fragments v. reversible, potent binders?
Targeting nucleophilic amino acids beyond cysteine
Novel warheads: how to characterize and prioritize?

Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry
BREAKOUT: Affinity Selection Mass Spectrometry (ASMS)
Moderator: Hans-Peter N. Biemann, PhD, Distinguished Scientist, Integrated Drug Discovery, Sanofi

Where does ASMS fit in the hit-generation toolbox?
ASMS applications with membrane protein targets
ASMS outsourcing v. in-house platform development

BREAKOUT: Leveraging Biophysical Techniques for Lead Generation
Moderator: Arun Thottumkara, PhD, Senior Director & Drug Maker, Curie Bio

Prioritizing between biophysical screening strategies, e.g. NMR, SPR, ITC
Are certain strategies more amenable to particular modalities and target classes?
De-risking screening hits and advancing to hit-to-lead

AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery – Part 1
BREAKOUT: AI/ML-enabled Lead Optimization
Moderators:
Timothy Allen, PhD, Director, ChemAI, Serna Bio
Shanthi Nagarajan, Director, Eli Lilly & Co.

BREAKOUT: Addressing Concerns Around Data Sharing and Security for Open Source Learning
Moderators:
Vanessa Braunstein, Senior Director, TuneLab AI Drug Discovery Platform, Eli Lilly & Co.
Mallory Tollefson, PhD, Business Development and Project Manager, OpenFold and OpenADMET Consortiums

Breakout: AI/ML for ADME/Tox Assessments and Safety Predictions
Moderators:
Mridula Bontha, Scientist I, Cheminformatics & Machine Learning, Nurix Therapeutics
Yvonne Will, PhD, Founder, SCIENTIA Consultants LLC

Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1
BREAKOUT: Scaffolds for Peptide Drug Design
Moderator: Simon Bailey, PhD, MBA, COO and President, R&D, Unnatural Products, Inc.

Promising scaffolds for oral or cyclic peptides
AI applicationsto scaffold design
Using unnatural amino acids

BREAKOUT: Synthetic Biology to Unlock Challenging Targets
Moderator: Jerome M. Fox, PhD, CEO, Think Bioscience

Functional pockets
Unusual binding modes
Three-dimensional fragments (covalent and non-covalent)
Linear and cyclic peptides

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2026 | 5:00 – 5:45 PM

Degraders & Molecular Glues – Part 2
BREAKOUT: Assays and Strategies For Developing Next-generation Degraders and Glues
Moderators:
Fleur Ferguson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Assistant Professor, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego
Ken Hsu, PhD, Stephen F. and Fay Evans Martin Endowed Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin
Dominic J. Reynolds, PhD, CSO, R&D, Remix Therapeutics

Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions
BREAKOUT: Biophysical Approaches for PPIs
Moderator: Karanbir Pahil, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist, Affinity Selections & Biophysics, GlaxoSmithKline

Orthogonal biophysical and biochemical methods: Cryo-EM, SPR/GCI, DSF, FRET, alphaLISA, MS, flow induced dispersion analysis (FIDA), other
What to use when, and how to prioritize hits?
Hit ID strategies

DNA-Encoded Libraries
BREAKOUT: Confirming Hits from DEL Screens
Moderators:
Srinivas Chamakuri, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine
Westley F. Tear, PhD, Investigator, ELT Drug Design & Selection, GSK

How many series are being targeted per screen? How many compounds per screen?
Driving factors for compound follow-up (copy count, on-DNA SAR, properties, profile, etc?)
Compound synthesis: On- or off-DNA? Remove DNA attachment? Disynthons vs full warhead?
Mining compound collections: Effective methods (2D, 3D, ML)? Impact of collection similarity to DEL molecule

BREAKOUT: DEL for G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) Targets
Moderators:
Evan O'Brien, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biophysics & Biophysical Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Ching-Hsuan Tsai, PhD, Executive Director, Structure Therapeutics

Challenges using DEL for complex membrane proteins
Promising approaches/strategies
Success examples

AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery – Part 2
BREAKOUT: Finding True Impact of Generative AI in Drug Discovery
Moderators:
José Duca, PhD, Global Head Computer-Aided Drug Discovery, Global Discovery Chemistry, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc.
Caitlyn Krebs, Co-Founder & CEO, Nalu Bio

BREAKOUT: AI/ML-based Drug Design and Hit Finding
Moderators:
Ruben Abagyan, PhD, Professor, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego
Ewa Lis, PhD, Founder & CEO, Koliber Biosciences

Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development – Part 2
BREAKOUT: Permeable Peptides
Moderator: Sepideh Afshar, PhD, Senior Director, Head of Peptide Therapeutics, Genentech Inc