07:30
08:45
09:05
Inaugural Lecture
Toward Universal Druggability (PL01)
Prof. Gregory L. VERDINE
CO-FOUNDER, PRESIDENT AND CEO LIFEMINE THERAPEUTICS, Cambridge, MA, United States
Gregory Verdine is a leader in the discovery, development and commercialization of new drug modalities. A passionate and accomplished inventor of novel approaches and drug classes to engage targets widely believed intractable, Greg coined the phrase “drugging the undruggable” to describe his life mission. LifeMine is the brainchild of Greg, who as a venture partner of WuXi Healthcare Ventures, led the founding team that brought the company from concept to reality. In his role as President and CEO of LifeMine, Greg is leading the company through its ramp-up and march toward the clinic.
Greg is highly regarded for having moved seamlessly between roles as an academic scientist, biotech entrepreneur, investor, and company executive. As Erving Professor at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, he made seminal contributions to understanding mechanisms of DNA repair and epigenetic DNA methylation and he invented a new drug modality called stapled peptides. As an entrepreneur, Greg has founded multiple, public biotech companies including Variagenics, Enanta, Eleven Bio, Tokai, Wave Life Sciences, and Aileron, and a private company, Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, that was acquired by Celgene. These companies have succeeded in achieving FDA approval for three marketed drugs.
Greg has served on the board of directors of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Wave Life Sciences, Warp Drive Bio, and FOG Pharmaceuticals. Having led the formation and financing of Wave Life Sciences, Warp Drive Bio and FOG, Greg took a role in managing these companies as their president, chief executive officer and chief scientific officer.
Greg earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University, a B.S. in chemistry from St. Joseph’s University and served as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at MIT and Harvard Medical School.
Session 1 - RNA Binding Molecules
09:40
Tools and Tactics for Targeting RNA with Small Molecules (PL02)
Dr Jay SCHNEEKLOTH
NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE, Frederick, United States
Jay Schneekloth is a Senior Investigator and head of the Chemical Genetics Section in the Chemical Biology Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD. He earned his A.B. from Dartmouth College in 2001. He then moved to Yale University where received his Ph.D. under the direction of Prof. Craig M. Crews, where he designed the first cell-permeable protac molecules. He then pursued an NIH postdoctoral fellowship with Erik Sorensen at Princeton University, where he designed cascade reactions applied to the total synthesis of analgesic alkaloid natural products. In 2011, Dr. Schneekloth was recruited to the National Cancer Institute. At the NCI, his research focuses on understanding nucleic acids as targets for small molecules, particularly in the area of cancer therapeutics. His work encompasses development of high throughput screening techniques, chemical biology probe design/development, biophysical characterization of target-ligand interactions, target validation, and studying the structure and conformational dynamics of nucleic acids. Dr. Schneekloth is currently the Chair of NCI’s Medicinal Chemistry Accelerator, a program aimed toward translational development of novel biologically active small molecules discovered within the NCI.
10:15
Small-Molecule Inhibitors of RNA-binding Proteins Regulating m6A RNA Methylation (SL01)
Dr Peng WU
MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR PHYSIOLOGY, Dortmund, Germany
Peng Wu is a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology. He earned his Ph.D. from Zhejiang University and performed his postdoc research first in Denmark and then at Broad Institute, Harvard, and MIT. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen before starting his research group in Dortmund. He received the 2020 SCT Award for Young Investigator in Medicinal Chemistry and the 2022 ICBS Young Chemical Biologist Award. The current interest of his group is in the development of small molecules and bifunctional molecules targeting the interactions between RNA-binding proteins and disease-associated RNAs.
10:35
Coffee Break & Exhibition
Session 2 - Breakthroughs in Deep Learning, CryoEM and their Impact on Drug Discovery
11:10
Modern Modelling Techniques to Aid Structure-Based Drug Design (PL03)
Dr Massimiliano BONOMI
INSTITUT PASTEUR, Paris, France
Max Bonomi is a computational structural biologist, group leader at Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) and Research Director at CNRS.
His group is active in the development and application of integrative approaches that combine computational and experimental techniques
to determine structural and dynamic properties of biological systems. MB is also the creator and core developer of PLUMED (www.plumed.org),
state-of-the-art software that implements advanced molecular modelling techniques for molecular simulations.
11:45
Cryo-EM at Astrazeneca: Enabling SBDD in Challenging Multiprotein Targets (SL02)
Dr Taiana MAIA DE OLIVEIRA
ASTRAZENECA PLC, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Dr Taiana Maia de Oliveira studied Biological Sciences and completed a Master’s Degree at Universidade Federal do Ceará. received her Ph.D in Structural an Molecular Biology from the University of Tromsø, Norway. She joined the EMBL-Grenoble in 2012 as a postdoctoral fellow, and applied Single Particle Cryogenic Electron Microscopy to investigate the structure of TOR complex 2. She joined Astrazeneca in 2016, and since then she has worked on establishing and expanding cryo-EM in the company in order to bring challenging large multiprotein complexes and membrane proteins into the realm of Structure based Drug Design.
12:05
Lunch, Networking & Exhibition
12:45
Company Workshop by Schrödinger
13:00
Session 3 - New Modalities for Drug Discovery
14:30
New Modalities Enabling Target Validation (SL03)
Dr Werngard CZECHTIZKY
ASTRAZENECA, Mölndal, Sweden
Werngard Czechtizky is Head of Medicinal Chemistry for Respiratory & Immunology at AstraZeneca. She has a track record of delivery of clinical candidates and lead compounds across several therapeutic areas (CV, Diabetes, Pain, CNS, Respiratory, Immunology).
She has implemented state of the art technologies such as ML/AI methods, New Modalities, automated synthesis and integrated physchem & eADME profiling workflows into Medicinal Chemistry departments. Werngard serves on diverse scientific advisory boards and is co-/author of ca 100 publications and patents. She has studied at the Technical University of Graz, Austria, received a PhD from ETH Zürich and a postdoctoral training at Harvard University. Before joining AZ in 2017, she has been working at Aventis, then Sanofi at Frankfurt, Germany.
14:50
Title to be announced (PL04)
Prof. Akane KAWAMURA
NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY, Newcastle, United Kingdom
15:25
Molecular Switches for Gene Control (PL05)
Prof. Olalla VÁZQUEZ
PHILIPPS-UNIVERSITÄT MARBURG, Marburg, Germany
Olalla Vázquez is Full Professor for Chemical Biology at Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany). Her research focuses on the design and synthesis of innovative chemical biology tools capable of sensing biological processes, and remotely controlling the cellular machinery behind relevant disease-related processes. Olalla graduated in Chemistry from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in 2004 (with honours). She obtained her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Mascareñas and Prof. Vázquez, working on synthetic transcription factors and fluorescent DNA binders (2010). As FPU fellow, Olalla was a visiting PhD student at Harvard University in the group of Prof. Verdine (2006), and at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin with Prof. Seitz (2008). In 2011 she received the Marie Curie postdoctoral research fellowship and returned to the group of Prof. Seitz to explore RNA template-directed reactions in the context of cancer therapy. In summer 2014, Olalla was appointed to a tenure-track Assistant Professorship at Philipps-Universität Marburg, where she was entrusted with the mission of managing the new Chemical Biology division together with Prof. Meggers. In April 2020 Olalla successfully passed her tenured evaluation, and consequently, she was promoted to Associate Professor of Chemical Biology (W2) in January 2021. In 2022 she was offered a Professorship for Organic Chemistry for Protein Research at Paris Lodron University Salzburg, which was declined for a Full Professorship at Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany).
During her career path Olalla has published papers in high-impact journals as well as received national and international awards, including the VII Lilly Research Awards (2009), European Young Chemist Award (2012), Fulbright-Cottrell Award (2016), Best European Young Researcher in Chemical Biology (2020), Ars Lengindi Fakultätenpreis (2021) and EFMC Prize for a Young Chemical Biologist in Academia (2022).
16:00
Coffee Break & Exhibition
Session 4 - Chemistry in Living Systems, Chemical Biology, Including Druggability Assessment
16:35
Gut Feeling: Illuminating Atypical Stress-sensing Mechanisms in the Gut Empowers New Therapeutic Opportunities (PL06)
Prof. Yimon AYE
ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
Yimon Aye was born and raised in Burma. She moved to the UK to study for sixth form (high school) and then read chemistry at Oxford University, UK. She moved to Harvard University, USA, achieving a Ph.D. in organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. David A. Evans. She then moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) to research the cellular and biochemical regulatory mechanisms of the enzyme ribonucleotide reductase with Prof. JoAnne Stubbe. In her independent career at Cornell University that began in mid-2012, she set out to understand the detailed mechanisms of electrophile signaling. This impetus culminated in the development of “REX” technologies (T-REX™ delivery and G-REX™ profiling). In a parallel research program distinct from redox-dependent cell signaling, she studies proteins/pathways involved in mammalian genome maintenance and nucleotide signaling, including the mechanisms of anticancer agents in clinical use. As of August 2018, she is leading the Laboratory of Electrophiles And Genome Operation (LEAGO) at ISIC, EPFL (Switzerland) as a tenured associate professor. Since January 2022, she has been serving as an associate editor of ACS Chemical Biology.
17:10
Exploring PTM Chemical Biology for Drug Discovery (PL07)
Prof. Edward TATE
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON, London, United Kingdom
Ed holds the GSK Chair in Chemical Biology at Imperial College London, a Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, and academic founder of Myricx Pharma, a spinout developing his lab’s research into clinical applications. Following his PhD (2000) with Steve Ley in Cambridge and postdoctoral research in Paris as an 1851 Fellow and Howard Trust Fellow, he was awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship in 2006 to start his group at Imperial College. He sits on the advisory boards of several international research institutes and biotechs, and develops drug discovery technologies with companies including Pfizer, GSK and AstraZeneca. His research has been recognised by awards and Fellowships, most recently the 2019 Sir David Cooksey Translation Prize, the 2020 Corday-Morgan Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a 2022 Cancer Research UK Programme Award. In 2023 he was appointed to the GSK Endowed Chair in Chemical Biology at Imperial College.
The Tate lab develops novel chemical biology approaches to enable drug discovery against post-translational modification (PTM) pathways and intractable drug targets, including chemical proteomic target identification, screening technologies, and chemical probe discovery for protein-protein interactions and enzymes modulating PTMs. Recent highlights include the first cell-active activity-based probes (ABPs) for deubiquitinases (DUBs), new tools for analysis and discovery of pathogenic secreted protease activities, and the first comprehensive maps of specific classes of protein lipidation PTM through chemical proteomics. We are also interested in new modalities including antibody-PROTAC conjugates, and translation of drug candidates
17:45
Induced-Volatolomics, a New Research Field in Chemical Biology (SL04)
Dr Pauline POINOT
UNIVERSITY OF POITIERS, Poitiers, France
Dr Pauline Poinot was first graduated from an engineering school before earning three years later her Ph.D. in aroma chemistry at the University of Nantes, France. After postdoc research in “omics” science, she was recruited as an assistant professor at the Chemistry Institute at the University of Poitiers. From her multidisciplinary background, she has initiated in her lab a novel transdisciplinary research group that search for new chemobiological strategies to answer fundamental questions relating to the origin, function and process of living systems. As part of this program, her team has developed a new research area, called “induced volatolomics”, to explore, highlight and monitor in real time, biochemical and biological processes.
18:05
19:30