Day 1 – May 3

8:30     Welcome

8:40     Keynote
mRNA Technology: From Vaccines to Future Medicines
Andrea Carfi, Moderna

Session 1: Learning from Clinical Trials – Early Decision Making in the Clinic, Leveraging Proof-of-biology Readouts

Convener: Phil Jones, MD Anderson Cancer Center

 9:20     Potential Pitfalls in Precision Oncology – A Biotech Viewpoint
Klaus Hoeflich, Versant Newco

9:45     Pioneering the Discovery and Development of PARP7 and PARP14 Inhibitors as New Therapeutics
Melissa Vasbinder, Ribon Therapeutics

10:15   Panel discussion

10:45   Break

11:00   The HLA-E Program From Conception to Acquisition
Jon Weidanz, UT Arlington

11:25   Developing a Robust Drug Discovery Engine for Protein Modulation and Beyond
Gwen Hansenn, Nurix Therapeutics

11:50   Discovery of Inhibitors of 15-Prostaglandin Dehydrogenase for Tissue Repair and Regeneration
Joseph Ready, UT Southwestern

12:20   Lunch and Cores

12:20   Lunch

1:15     Core Overview and Showcase

Session 2: Fail Early Lead Optimization

Conveners: Cliff Stephan, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M

Pete Davies, Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M

2:30     Targeting the AAA ATPase p97 for Cancer – Opportunities and Challenges
Donna Huryn, Univ. of Penn.

3:00     Why 90% of Clinical Drug Development Fails and How to Improve It?
Duxin Sun, Univ. of Michigan

3:30     Break

Session 3: Metabolic Stability and Pre-formulation

Conveners: Diana Chow, University of Houston
Dong Liang, Texas Southern University

3:45     Impact of ADME/PK on the Discovery of IACS-6274, A Potent GLS-1 Inhibitor in Clinical Development
Yongying Jiang, MD Anderson Cancer Center

4:15     Application of Metabolite Identification Experiments in Drug Discovery
Catalina Suarez, Repare Therapeutics

4:45     Understanding and Identifying Immunogenicity of Biological Drug Products
Kristina Howard, FDA

5:15     Wrap up and Reception (pre-function)

Day 2 – May 4

8:30     Keynote
Drug Discovery: Lessons from Failures and the Occasional Success
Nigel Liverton, Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discover Institute

Session 4: AI in Drug Discovery and Development

Convener: Stan Watowich, Univ. of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

9:15     Machine Learning for Drug Discovery: Challenges and Opportunities
Regina Barzilay, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 9:45     AI for Therapeutics, Where We Are and Where We Are Going
Bissan Al-Lazikani, MD Anderson Cancer Center

10:15   Break

Session 5: What Pharma and Investors Want

Convener:  Suzanne Tomlinson, Gulf Coast Consortia

10:30 Shamina Rangwala, Pfizer

10:45   Nicola La Monica, JNJ Innovation

11:00   Rima Chakrabarti, KdT Venture

11:15   Jay Parrish, Arch Ventures

 11:30   Rez Halse, RA Capital Management

11:45   Panel Q&A

12:15   Lunch

12:45 Poster session

Session 6: RNA Therapeutics

Convener: John Cooke, Houston Methodist Research Institute

1:45                  mRNA-Based Approach for Treating Ischemic Heart Disease
 Lior Zangi, Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai

2:10                 RNA-based Interventions for the Treatment of Aging and Aging-associated Disorders
Vittorio Sebastiano, Stanford Univ.

Session 7: Future Trends

Convener: Jim Liu, University of Texas Health Science Center

2:35                Drug Discovery in the Shadow of COVID-19: A Reflection on the Roles of “Big Pharma”, “Biotech”, the Academic Biomedical Research Community and the Economics, and Politics of Healthcare
Barry Morgan, HitGen

3:00                  Leveraging Targeted Protein Degradation to Overcome Resistance in Cancer Immunotherapies
Jin Wang, Baylor College of Medicine

3:25                 Closing remarks