8:25 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Investigating the Opportunities & Challenges of Autoimmune Disease Models
8:30 am Analysis of Autoreactive B Cell Clones in Patient Tissues Yields Insights in Mechanism of Cell Depletive Treatment
Synopsis
- Deciphering the effect of B-cell depletion and reduction and its effect on tissues
- Tracking the detection of multiple auto-reactive B-cells types in patient tissue
9:00 am A Therapeutic Strategy to Target All Sources of IgE & Eliminate the Allergic Immune Response
Synopsis
- Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is a key driver of type 1 hypersensitivity reactions and allergic disorders, which are globally increasing in number and severity
- Although eliminating pathogenic IgE may be a powerful way to treat allergy, no therapeutic strategy reported to date can fully ablate IgE production
- We describe here a therapeutic approach to durably eliminate pathogenic IgE with potential to benefit allergy in human
9:30 am Panel Discussion:Understanding the Regulatory & Commercial Landscape for Autoimmune Diseases
Synopsis
- Analyzing the cell therapy landscape
- Assessing the logistics of scaling up new treatments
- Overview of drug approval and regulation
10:00 am
Speed Networking & Morning Break
10:30 am Exploring T Cells: Treg Cell interaction & their Implications in Aiding Therapeutic Strategies
Synopsis
- Unravelling the Diversity of B&T Cell Directed Drug Modalities
- Peripheral tolerance, preventing autoimmune diseases and limiting chronic inflammatory diseases
- Treg instability, plasticity and tissue-specific Treg cells
11:00 am IMU-935, a potent RORyt inverse agonist, effectively inhibits T helper 17 cells but maintains normal thymocyte development
Synopsis
- Learn how IMU-935 is a potent RORyt inverse agonist
- Explore how IMU-935 does not induce thymocyte aberrations and thereby allows a normal thymocyte maturation
- Discuss how IMU-935 is in phase 1 clinical development for psoriasis
11:30 am Generating EngTregs to Overcome Key Challenges Associated with the Successful Application of Treg Cell Therapeutics
Synopsis
- Engineering abundant T cell populations with stabilized FOXP3 expression to create a scalable Treg Phenotype
- Utilizing an inducible chimeric receptor to provide highly specific and tunable IL-2 signaling support
- Providing tissue specificity and enhanced regulatory functions through antigenspecific CARs or TCRs
12:00 pm
Lunch & Networking
Revolutionizing Emerging Therapeutics & their Autoimmune Disease Applications
1:00 pm PLG Nanoparticle-Based Antigen Delivery for The Tolerogenic Treatment of Autoreactive T & B Cell Responses in a Mouse Model of Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO)
Synopsis
- Review the mechanisms of PLG nanoparticle-induced tolerance and its
- translational potential in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial in celiac disease
- Describe the requirements for induction of a new mouse model of NMO
- Decipher the efficacy of tolerance using PLG nanoparticle
1:30 pm Targeted Biologics That Mobilize a Novel Regulatory cd8 T Cell Network to Reduce the Pathology of Human T Cell Driven Autoimmune Disease
Synopsis
- Review the modulation of a cytolytic regulatory CD8 T cell population that may prevent autoimmune driven inflammatory cascades
- Unveil the prevalence of CD8 Treg and their potential dysfunction across a spectrum of autoimmune disorders
- Discuss the introduction of targeted bispecific molecules that engage regulatory CD8 T cells, causing cytolytic elimination of pathogenic CD4 T cells and reduction of disease severity in aggressive inflammatory models
2:00 pm Exploring VISTA Agonists that Actively Induce T Cell Tolerance
Synopsis
- Evaluating how the current strategies of T cell tolerance are passive
- Learn how antibodies to human VISTA actively induce antigen-specific T cell deletion
- Review studies on deletion of naïve and memory T cells
2:30 pm
Afternoon Break
Translating Therapeutics into the Clinic: Autoimmune Disease Biomarkers & Clinical Trial Considerations
3:00 pm Identifying the Challenges & Opportunities with Type 1 Diabetes Biomarkers
Synopsis
- Reviewing the current state of T1D biomarkers
- Exploring the advances and challenges that the field is facing
- Drafting a proposed path to implementable biomarkers
3:30 pm Biomarkers & Environmental Factors that Can Predict Prognosis & Treatment Response in Multiple Sclerosis
Synopsis
- Developing precision medicine approaches for hard-to-treat autoimmune patients
- What is the immune cell phenotype of the individual patient?
- Environmental factors and their influence on MS patients
4:00 pm Exploring New Humanized Mice Mounting Class-Switched, Hypermutated & Neutralizing Antibody Responses
Synopsis
- Explore an advanced next generation humanized mouse model, H-Mice®
- Discover how H-Mice® has been constructed by grafting immunodeficient NSG/ cKitW-41J neonatal mice with freshly isolated human umbilical cord CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) via intracardiac injection, and subsequent potentiation of immune cellular elements differentiation by hormonal conditioning
- Learn how H-Mice® provide a powerful platform for pre-clinical testing of vaccines, modulators of the antibody response and therapeutics for autoimmunity
Incorporating Antigen-Specific & PROTAC/Degrader Approaches to Target Autoimmune Disease
4:30 pm Utilizing degraders to Modulate B & T Cell Targets for Autoimmune Diseases
Synopsis
- Examine how degraders are heterobifunctional molecules that redirect E3 ligase activity to selectively remove dysregulated proteins of interest via the UPS, that offer an exciting new therapeutic approach for immune targets
- Unveil how targeting IRAK4 for degradation leads to potent anti-inflammatory responses of TLR activated B cells compared to small-molecule inhibition
- STAT3 degradation abrogates Th17 development with commensurate T reg increases
5:00 pm Targeted Biologics That Mobilize a Novel Regulatory cd8 T Cell Network to Reduce the Pathology of Human T Cell Driven Autoimmune Disease
Synopsis
- Review the modulation of a cytolytic regulatory CD8 T cell population that may prevent autoimmune driven inflammatory cascades
- Unveil the prevalence of CD8 Treg and their potential dysfunction across a spectrum of autoimmune disorders
- Discuss the introduction of targeted bispecific molecules that engage regulatory CD8 T cells, causing cytolytic elimination of pathogenic CD4 T cells and reduction of disease severity in aggressive inflammatory models