Led by:

• Benedict Cross, CTO, Phoremost
• Simon Scrace, Director, Cell Based Assay, Revvity (Formerly, Horizon Discovery)

Discussion topics:

• Optimising delivery of Cas protein and guide RNA
• Overcoming screening noise
• Validating guide RNA design
• Maintaining cellular sgRNA coverage
• Arrayed vs pooled screens
• Beyond Cas9 and the use different Cas proteins

Led by:

• Kainat Khan, Bone Marrow MPS lead, AstraZeneca

• Lutz Mueller, Distinguished Scientist – Project Leader at Roche

Discussion topics:

• Assessing safety with organs-on-chips
• Improving the recapitulation of organs-on-chips
• Pre-clinical safety studies
• Dealing with regulatory concerns
• Towards body-on-a-chip?

Science Exchange Leader:

• Stefan Schiesser, Director of Medicinal Chemistry, AstraZeneca

Session Topics:

• Which induced proximity-based modalities are most promising and worth investing?
• Which tools/methods do we need to establish in the future to more efficiently discover and optimize induced proximity-based modalities?
• With the molecules becoming bigger: how can we more efficiently tackle challenging physicochemical properties and delivery?
• What skill set do we need to acquire (and hire) to ensure future success with induced proximity-based modalities?

Discussion Group Leader:

• Iris Alroy, CSO, Anima Biotech
• Jeannie Li, Associate Director, In Vitro Pharmacology at Takeda

Discussion Group Topics:

• Issues with data heterogeneity
• Batch to batch variability
• Robustness of data handling
• Translatability- How successful is the screening?

Discussion Group Leaders:

• Anka Ehrhardt, Director, Cell-Based Assays / Analytical Research & Development at Merck
• Lutz Mueller, Distinguished Scientist – Project Leader at Roche

Discussion Topics:

• Pain and neurodegenerative disease
• Strategies to overcome lack of access to biomarkers
• Strategies for target validation
• Selection of the most suitable modality
  • Gene, antisense, antibody, small molecule, etc…
• Age of the human population
• Biomarkers
  • Critical appraisal of predictivity animal models of the disease

Discussion Group Leaders:

• Andreas Brunschweiger, Head of Chair Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry University of Wuerzburg

Discussion Group Topics:

• Introductory talk:
  • Chemical stability of DNA, Scope of reactions, Library design, Library fidelity
• Discussion:
  • Screening assays
  • Hit nomination from sequencing data – “when is a signal a signal?”
  • From sequencing data to the validated hit

Discussion Group Leader:

• Shahar Keinan, Chief Executive Officer at POLARISqb

Discussion Group Topics:

• What technologies are available?
• Annealers vs gate based
• Optimisation problems in the field
• AI/ML and quantum computing
  • When to use each technology

Discussion Group Leader

• Paul Richardson, Director within Discovery Chemistry at Pfizer

Discussion Topics

• Retrosynthesis
  • Rules based vs AI approaches
• The benefits of modularity
• The future
  • AI for drug design start ups
  • Embedding sustainability

Discussion Leader

• Robert Soliva, Head of Drug Discovery, Oryzon Genomics

Topics

• Bringing 3D structural information into the AI/ML optimisation cycle
• Machine learning in DEL screening follow up
• AI generative methods for compound optimisation vs. exhaustive enumeration
• Is ML working for physical chemical properties?
• Contribution of ML methods for HTS hit deconvolution

Discussion Group Leaders:

• Ianai Fishbein, Director of Pharmacology, Teva Pharma
• Martin Joseph Dudziak, Director of Research Programs, TETRAD Inst.

Discussion Topics:

• With so much understanding about neuroscience mechanisms, why are there so few effective treatments?
• Incorrect targets or incorrect target engagement?
• Strategies for treatment
• Challenges with transferring from academia to industry
• Dysautonomia Disorders
• Autoimmune Diseases
• PASC Long COVID – Neurological After Effects
• Population Health Equity