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 15, 2025 | 9:40 AM
Degraders & Molecular Glues – Part 1
New Strategies For Developing Next-generation Degraders and Glues
Anastasia Velentza, PhD, Vice President, Biology, Vilya Therapeutics
PK/PD Considerations and Safety Assessments for Degraders
Robin Haid, PhD, Modeling & Simulation Expert, Preclinical Modeling & Simulation, Bayer AG
Dana Klug, PhD, Research Investigator, Medicinal Chemistry, Arvinas Inc.
Fragment-Based Drug Discovery
Covalent Drug Discovery
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?
25 Years and Counting – What Have We Learned so Far?
Dean G. Brown, PhD, Vice President & Head, Chemistry, Jnana Therapeutics
- What have we learned about fragment library design?
- Integration of fragments into other screening methods? Where does it work best?
- New technologies and applications of FBDD (e.g. cryo-EM, computational methods)
- Chemistry strategies for advancing fragments to leads
AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery – Part 1
AI/ML for ADME/Tox and Safety Predictions
Sean Ekins, PhD, Founder & CEO, Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Tudor Oprea, MD, PhD, CEO, Expert Systems, Inc.
AI/ML for Hit Finding and Lead Optimization
Emily Hanan, Head, Medicinal Chemistry, PostEra
Dmitri Kireev, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri
Ella Morishita, PhD, Senior Investigator, Basic Research, Veritas In Silico Inc.
GLP1 & Oral Peptides
Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Delivery
Rumit Maini, PhD, Director - Business Development, Peplib
- Lab-based v. AI/ML-based macrocyclic discovery platforms
- Permeation enhancers v. passive permeability
Peptide Drug Conjugates (PDCs)
Keykavous Parang, PhD, Professor, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chapman University
- PDCs next new drug modality?
- PDCs beyond radionuclide conjugates
- PDCs v ADCs
- Getting PDCs into cells
Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry
New Technologies Targeting Membrane Proteins
Kris A. Borzilleri, Principal Scientist, Structural Biology & Molecular Sciences, Pfizer Global R&D, Groton Labs
Judith Reeks, PhD, Scientist, Structural Biology, Astex Pharmaceuticals
- cryoEM
- SPR and SPR microscopy
- NMR and other biophysical techniques
- DNA-encoded libraries
Hit Identification Strategies
Paul Lang, PhD, US Head In Vitro Biology, Integrated Drug Discovery, Sanofi
- Weeding through false positives
- New hit ID strategies: e.g. ASMS
- Integrating results from different screening approaches
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2025 | 3:10 PM
Degraders & Molecular Glues – Part 2
Novel Degradation Modalities, New E3 Ligases and Ligands
Gerald Crabtree, MD, David Korn Professor of Experimental Pathology & Developmental Biology, Stanford University
Masoud Vedadi, PhD, Senior Scientific Advisor, Drug Discovery, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Protein-Protein Interactions
Emerging Technologies for Addressing PPIs
Rick Ewing, PhD, Vice President and Head of Chemistry, Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals
- Discovery of stabilizers or non-degrading molecular glues
- Targeting PPIs with macrocyclic peptides: advantages and challenges
- Technologies for discovering PROTACs and molecular glue degraders
AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery – Part 2
AI-driven Drug Design, Screening and Optimization
Ruben Abagyan, PhD, Professor, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego
Peter Canning, PhD, Principal Scientist, Protein & Structural Sciences, CHARM Therapeutics
Alexander Taguchi, PhD, Director, Machine Learning, Antibody Discovery, iBio, Inc.
How Successful are AI/ML Approaches in Drug Development Today?
Bryce Allen, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, Differentiated Therapeutics
Ryan Emerson, PhD, Vice President, Data Science, A Alpha Bio Inc.
Leif Eriksson, PhD, Professor, Chemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg
DNA-Encoded Libraries
Incorporating Machine Learning into DEL Campaigns
Jeff A. Messer, Director, Analytics, Encoded Libraries Technology, GlaxoSmithKline
- How can machine learning help DEL screening
- Ensuring training data quality
- AI & DEL library design
- Partnering with an AI company versus in-house development
- Future directions for DEL/ML
Drugging Transcription Factors & Regulators
Leveraging Covalent Chemistries, Chemoproteomics Tools for Transcription Factors and Undruggable Targets
Anwesha Dey, PhD, Director & Distinguished Scientist, Discovery Oncology, Genentech Inc.
Alexander Federation, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, Talus Bioscience
Susanta Samajdar, PhD, CSO, Aurigene Discovery Technologies Ltd.