Day 1 – Wednesday 4th September 2024 - PT (Pacific Time, GMT-08:00)
- Jade Osei-Tutu - Head of RNA Leaders, Senior Conference Director, LSX
- Gene Yeo - Professor, University Of California San Diego
- From targeting cancer and rare diseases to protein replacement therapies, RNA holds immense promise for tackling numerous healthcare challenges - how does pharma evaluate the potential of the RNA therapeutics landscape?
- What have been the most successful RNA advancements over the last year?
- How does pharma evaluate collaborations with biotech and what technologies are of most interest for a partnership?
- Taryn Goode - Head of Life Sciences, Connect
- Maire Jung - VP & CSO, RNA, Eli Lilly
- Tamar Grossman - VP, Global Head of RNA & Targeted Therapeutics, Johnson & Johnson
- Jacob Sten Petersen - SVP Global Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Novo Nordisk
- Scaling production requires consistent, high-quality RNA while overcoming the limitations of current methods (slow, expensive). How is the industry considering new solutions such as continuous flow manufacturing and exploring enzyme/cell-free synthesis to advance RNA manufacturing?
- What new RNA production approaches and capacities are required to fulfill the potential of mRNA as the core therapeutic and prophylactic platform?
- Clinical integration is key and integrating RNA therapies requires better diagnostic tools to identify ideal patients and ensure accessibility for all. How is the industry moving to be able to streamline clinical trials and standardize protocols?
- Miroslav Gasparek - CEO, Sensible Biotechnologies
- Andreas Kuhn - SVP RNA Biochemistry & CMC Management, BioNTech SE
- Nathaniel Wang - CEO, Replicate Bioscience
- Stefan Lutz - Senior Vice President, Research, Codexis
- Sophia Lugo - CEO, Radar Therapeutics
- The full potential of these new therapeutics remains in the untapped design space of RNA sequences. Identifying the right format for particular applications, optimizing therapeutic index, on-shelf and in-cell stability, and scaling manufacturing processes are open challenges for the development of successful RNA-based drugs
- Addressing and optimizing for each of these challenges individually will benefit from exploring large areas of RNA design space; addressing all of them requires very large scale, flexible generation of data across multiple RNA formats (mRNA, circRNA, saRNA) and machine learning tools for multiparameter optimization. Using automated, modular workflows and large-scale design and synthesis, we can design, build, and test large RNA libraries to identify and optimize novel elements
- Stephanie Khan - Director, Business Development, Ginkgo BioWorks
- Eunji Chung - Associate Professor, University of Southern California
- Ligation of short RNA fragments to generate full-length siRNA duplexes leverages the inherent benefits of higher yield and purity of short fragments synthesis to reduce the overall cost of siRNA manufacturing
- In this presentation, we demonstrate improvements of key RNA ligase attributes critical for siRNA manufacturing via protein engineering. These include high catalytic activity at high substrate loading and improved performance on challenging sequences and modification near ligation junctions. Additionally, improvements in manufacturability of dsRNA ligases simplify scalability and secure enzyme supply
- Mathew Miller - Director, Life Science & RNA Technology, Codexis
Angelman syndrome is a devastating neurogenetic disorder with no effective treatment that is caused by the loss of function of the maternally inherited allele of the ubiquitin protein ligase E3A (UBE3A) gene.The paternal UBE3A allele is imprinted in neurons of the central nervous system by the UBE3A antisense transcript (UBE3A-AS), and reactivating the expression of the paternal UBE3A allele is considered a promising therapeutic option for the treatment of Angelman syndrome.
- Describing the preclinical development of ASOs targeting an evolutionarily conserved region at the start of the human UBE3A-AS transcript.
- Findings show that ASOs targeting this region repress the transcription of UBE3A-AS, reactivating expression of the paternal UBE3A allele in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons; we further show that human-targeted ASOs administered to the CNS of cynomolgus macaques by lumbar intrathecal injection repress UBE3A-AS and reactivate the expression of the paternal UBE3A allele throughout the CNS, supporting the advancement of this investigational ASO therapy for Angelman syndrome into clinical development
- Scott Dindot - Executive Director of Molecular Genetics, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical
- Paris Aliahmad - Head of Research and Development, Replicate Bioscience
- Showcasing the powerful capabilities of our Sunny Suite platforms = ensuring consistent high-throughput formulation screening through process optimization and pre-clinical scale-up
- Illustrating significant acceleration in LNP formulation screening - performing up to 96 experiments in under 6 hours
- Highlighting the seamless transition to process optimization - adjusting flow rates and ratios - and the effortless scale-up to continuous flow on a single instrument
- Raymond Yang, Unchained Labs
- An overview of NCTM’s mRNA production process, from pDNA production to bulk freezing
- A list of QC assays and CQA ranges for the NCTM mRNA platform process
- A summary of the manufacturing-scale, hands-on training course for mRNA production, created in collaboration with industry partners
- Baley Reeves - Director, National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing
- Samantha Sarni - Senior Scientist, Regeneron
- Advancing a lncRNA tailored drug development platform to discover potential therapeutic targets in the dark genome
- Update on early clinical candidate, HTX-001, for treatment of nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- Samir Ounzain - CEO, HAYA Therapeutics
- An ASO RNA Medicine Platform Technology Targets Pathological RNAs in All Tissues (Except the Brain) Without Delivery Vehicles/Formulation through Subcutaneous or Inhalation Delivery in Saline
- Therapeutic Targeting of a Pathological MicroRNA Effectively Treats Post-Myocardial Infarction Heart Failure, Aging-Related Sarcopenia, and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, with POC Efficacy and Safety Data in Mice, Pigs, and NHPs
- POC Animal Data Support Expansion Potential to Pathological mRNAs and Structural Ultra-Conserved Viral RNAs
- Anders Näär - Professor of Metabolic Biology, UC Berkeley
- Uli Stilz - Head of Bio Innovation Hub, Novo Nordisk Bio Innovation Hub
- Geeta Vemuri - Founder & Managing Partner, Agent Capital
- Kent Rogers - Partner, ARCH Venture Partners
- Sanjay Mistry - VP Venture Investments, Johnson & Johnson Innovation
- Stuart Hwang - Partner, Remiges Ventures
- Delivery issues have limited anticancer applications for nucleic acid-based drugs
- A tumor-targeted tissue-penetrating approach to enable effective solid tumor delivery
- David Slack - CEO, Impilo Therapeutics
Introduction of RiboX proprietary plug-and-play circular RNA and LNP platform
Introduction of RiboX frontrunner projects- RXRG001 and RXRG002
- Weiyi Zhang - CEO & CSO, RiboX Therapeutics
- Identification of novel CNS targets
- Development of RNA therapeutics capable of driving renewal of the microglial niche
- Carter Palmer - CEO, Third Element Bio
- Creating a comprehensive platform to support oligonucleotide discovery and development
- Enabling simple, cost-effective and fast synthesis across a broad range of oligonucleotides, including ASOs, siRNA, aptamers, oligo conjugates, PMOs and PPMOs
- Developing WuXi TIDES, to enable greener and more efficient development solutions
- Qiong Zhou - Executive Director of Discovery Biology Unit, WuXi AppTec
- Ionizable lipids are known to present varying degrees of immunotoxicity. Understanding the role of key cellular mediators such as the NLRP3 inflammasome in this context will be key to developing the next generation of safe, well tolerated non-viral delivery systems
- We developed a series of bio-degradable lipids that are rationally engineered to elicit specific immune responses
- Applications of these lipids to create precision mRNA therapeutics and vaccines will be presented
- Syed Reza - Scientific & Sales Consultant, NOF Corporation
- How to engineer vectors for circular-mRNA expression
- Enabling reduced dosing by enhancing payload expression level and potency
- Dual-function gene therapy vectors for a “remove-&-replace” strategy
- Erik Digman Wiklund - CEO, Circio
- Elixirgen Therapeutics is a clinical-stage RNA therapeutics company with multiple RNA platform technologies developed fully in-house.
- The Bobcat mRNA platform overcomes the carrying capacity limitations of other therapeutic approaches, and has been used to develop EXG-7001, an mRNA therapeutic delivering the first full-length dystrophin for Duchenne muscular dystrophy with functional in vivo proof of concept data.
- c-srRNA is a self-replicating RNA platform featuring temperature control to reduce off-target effects and improve efficacy
- Aki Ko - CEO, Elixirgen Therapeutics
- Shuling Guo, PhD - Vice President, Antisense Drug Discovery, Ionis Pharmaceuticals
- The FORCETM platform harnesses transferrin receptor type 1 biology to deliver therapeutic payloads to muscle and CNS
- FORCETM demonstrates robust efficacy in mouse models of myotonic dystrophy and non-human primates
- DYNE-101 early clinical data show promise for people living with Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 (DM1)
- Stefano Zanotti - Head of Neuromuscular Research, Dyne Therapeutics
- Improving delivery and uptake by skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue with the Enhanced Delivery Oligonucleotide (EDO) platform
- Exploring how the EDO platform enhances the uptake, tolerability and activity of oligonucleotide drugs
- Update on clinical trials for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (CONNECT1-EDO51 and CONNECT2-EDO51) and myotonic dystrophy type 1 (FREEDOM1-DM1).
- James McArthur - CEO, PepGen
· Faster, cleaner, convergent strategy for oligonucleotide assembly
· Fragments are pre-prepared, purified, and stored in a fragment bank
· Fragments are then ligated either biocatalytically or chemically to build up the final oligonucleotide sequence
- Charles Chase - VP, Technical Business Development, Asymchem
- Katherine Rothamel - Associate Director RNA Center for Technologies and Therapeutics, University of California San Diego
The manufacture of high-quality, GMP grade DNA is a major bottleneck in the production of mRNA and viral vectors for use in gene therapy and vaccines.
- Evaluate a scalable, fully enzymatic synthesis process for the production of linear DNA constructs via our Trueprime™ amplification technology
- Compare the synthesis of in vitro transcribed (IVT) mRNA using opDNA™ versus linearised plasmid DNA across a panel of constructs ranging from 1.5kb to 9kb
- See how the technology can overcome the difficulties associated with complex polyA tails for mRNA constructs, which are inherently difficult to synthesise via bacterial propagation systems
- Amy Walker - VP of Research & Business Development, 4Basebio
- Investigate the potential of self-amplifying mRNA to create effective immunotherapies for solid tumors
- Evaluate the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of saRNAs in the clinic
- Amy Rappaport - Associate Vice President, Translational Immunology, Gritstone Bio
- Eclipsebio provides design, characterization, and optimization solutions for RNA-based and RNA-targeting medicines
- The eMERGE platform provides comprehensive characterization of therapeutic potency, safety, and purity for drug development success
- Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) by-products decrease therapeutic stability and translation. eSENSE dsRNA identifies the sequences and structures that promote dsRNA formation
- Wayne Doyle - Head of Platform, Eclipse Bioinnovations
- Denis Drygin - SVP R&D, Nosis Biosciences
- Engineering cells ex vivo and in vivo using UltraSlice™ gene editing RNA for precision targeted insertion of durably expressed transgenes into defined genomic loci
- Unlocking the potential of next-generation engineered cell therapies including allogeneic and iPS cell-derived CAR-T for solid tumors and autoimmune diseases
- Enabling in vivo CAR-T and CAR-Macrophage using novel high-fidelity RNA chemistries and the ToRNAdo™ single-component fusogenic lipid delivery platform
- Matt Angel - CEO, Factor Bioscience
- Integrative design through centralized, consistent and robust data is key to solving multi-factorial and inter-dependent structure/activity relationships.
- Efficiency of every programmable component is critical to performance of new eRNA therapies.
- Potential for In situ generated CAR-T cells for AID and novel multiple-mechanism cardio-metabolic therapies are exemplified .
- Trevor Hallam - CSO, Sail Biomedicines
- Pioneering the next generation of genetic medicines with our Gene Writing™ platform, designed to introduce a broad range of edits to the genome from inserting whole genes or exons to introducing single nucleotide changes
- Developing RNA Gene Writers that use target-primed reverse transcription (TPRT) as a mechanism to edit the genome with all-RNA compositions
- Advancing a proprietary non-viral delivery platform leveraging lipid nanoparticles (LNP) to deliver Gene Writers to the liver, hematopoietic stem cells, T cells and beyond
- Hari Pujar - COO, Tessera Therapeutics
This workshop is aimed at boosting your comprehension of the pivotal processes in RNA therapeutics.
It will begin with an overview of mRNA Synthesis and Purification, Oligonucleotide Manufacturing, and Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP) Delivery. Moving on to a lively panel discussion with Thermo Fisher's subject matter experts as they delve into RNA therapeutics development. This interactive session will offer valuable insights into tackling the challenges with development and discuss solutions to these challenges.
This workshop is an ideal opportunity to chat with experts, engage in meaningful discussions, and enhance your knowledge in the field of RNA therapeutics.
Don't miss out on this chance to stay ahead in this dynamic and rapidly evolving field.
- Sirat Sikka - Senior Scientist, Applications & Innovation, Thermo Fisher Scientific
- David Slack - CEO, Impilo Therapeutics
- Underlining the influence of endosomal escape on the intracellular activity of oligonucleotide drugs
- Exploring what steps can be taken to overcome endosomal entrapment, and what would this mean for the future of RNA therapeutics
- Steven Dowdy - Professor, University California San Diego
A prerequisite to successful RNAi-based therapies is the ability of “guide” oligonucleotides to access to the RNA-Induced Silencing Complex (RISC) localized within the cytosol and harness its degradative activity. While mechanistic details of endosomal escape remain murky, it is clear that while some cell surface receptors internalize material in a manner that supports endosomal escape the vast majority of receptors appear not to.
We have developed tools to identify receptors capable of identifying receptor-ligand interactions leading to productive delivery of RNAi guide oligonucleotides.
- David Katzmann - Sr. Fellow in Mechanistic Pharmacology, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals
- What new approaches are emerging to address extrahepatic delivery? – moving on from LNPs
- What steps has the industry taken to tackle endosomal escape?
- What analytical challenges need to be considered to overcome delivery boundaries?
- How do delivery limitations influence the target selection process?
- How is the industry moving to develop oligo drug delivery to cancer targets?
- Steven Dowdy - Professor, University California San Diego
- Zdravka Medarova - CSO, TransCode Therapeutics
- Christopher Hart - Co-Founder & CEO, Creyon Bio
- Brad Niles - CEO, Ariz Precision Medicine
- David Katzmann - Sr. Fellow in Mechanistic Pharmacology, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals
- Renee Williams - Managing Partner, Williams Biotech Consulting, LLC
- Dry powder material thanks to disruptive, unique technology formulating and drying the most fragile RNA/LNP composition
- mRNA activity preserved or even increased in dry powder form, proven in-vitro and in-vivo
- Substantially lower costs, new treatments enabled, and particle engineering possible for inhalable RNAs
- Ann Gidner - CEO, Ziccum
- Expanded use of conventional mRNA vaccines has been limited by unacceptable side effects at doses required for protection
- First generation srRNA showed some improvements in bioactivity, but were correspondingly more toxic narrowing their utility
- Here, we show next generation srRNA have major bioactivity improvements clinically, showing capacity to confer protection at very low doses without corresponding increase in toxicity
- Nathaniel Wang - CEO, Replicate Bioscience
- panCAR combines a novel, synthetic, circular coding RNA platform (oRNA) and immunotropic lipid nanoparticles (LNP) to drive CAR expression on surface of multiple immune effector cells after i.v. administration, eliminating the need for external manufacturing
- LNPs deliver oRNA payloads to immune effector subsets including T cells, NK cells and macrophages in vivo, potentially increasing efficacy and broadening application beyond hematologic malignancies
- oRNA-enabled panCAR therapies promise a transient, re-dosable and scalable immune cell therapy without requiring immunodepletion
- Allen Horhota - VP, RNA Sciences, ORNA Therapeutics
- Sam Alworth - CEO, AcuraStem
- Using ImmunoPrism, an ML-based predictive immune modelling platform, to refine predictive biomarkers for immuno-oncology patient response to treatment
- An update on clinical validation studies focussing on HNSCC (Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma), NSCLC (Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer), CRC (colorectal cancer) and UCC (urothelial cancer)
- Jarret Glasscock - CEO, Cofactor Genomics
- Advancing a new standardized approach to RNA therapeutic analytics using high-resolution LC-MS/MS
- Samantha Sarni - Senior Scientist, Regeneron
- Extracellular RNAs in Liquid biopsy reflect disease status
- PHGDH extracellular RNA from blood plasma predicts the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease
- Eight patient cohorts corroborate the increased PHGDH expression in Alzheimer’s disease
- Sheng Zhong - Professor, University of California San Diego
- Nicholas Mourlas - Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS San Diego, Johnson & Johnson
- Garrett Vygantas - Managing Partner, Riverine Ventures
- Qing Zhang - Partners, LDV Partners
- Eric Dai - Investor, Dimension Capital
· ARIZ-047, our preclinical novel siRNA formulated in a calcium-phosphate drug delivery system with a tumor targeting ligand, targets a histone methyltransferase that is one of the early changes in cancerization of the cell.
· Our siRNA-conjugate delivery platform solves the siRNA delivery issue beyond liver cells with specificity for cancer cells, including lung cancer.
- Brad Niles - CEO, Ariz Precision Medicine
- RNA modalities have incredible potential across numerous therapeutic areas. Following the success of mRNA vaccine formats, including linear modified mRNA and self-amplifying mRNA, therapeutic explorations in mRNA-enabled gene transfer, editing and writing are providing exciting possibilities for therapies of the future.
- Many opportunities exist for optimizing technologies for RNA medicines. These include optimal liver LNPs, extrahepatic targeting technologies to challenging tissues and difficult-to-target body compartments, nanoparticle delivery with lowest possible immune stimulation and flexible redosing options. In addition, cost and stability improvements are needed, to enable global reach of revolutionary products for as many patients as possible.
- Axelyf is a new biotech company focused on lipids as therapeutics in inflammation and auto-immunity and as delivery systems for RNA cargos. A brief company summary will be shared.
- Örn Almarsson - CEO, Axelyf
Defining RNA architecture - the relationship between structure, function and the endogenous cellular context
Discovering functional RNA binding small molecules, using in-cell chemi-transcriptomics
Using machine learning to explore chemical space, defining the rules that govern functional RNA - small molecule interactions
- Rabia Khan - CEO, Serna Bio
- Dual Peripheral CB1R inhibition that reduces appetite and increases energy expenditure.
- Targeted gene silencing that activates fat-burning thermogenesis and improves metabolic function
- Raj Reddy - CEO, Canary Cure