Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy at University of Pennsylvania

Topic:

“From Boutique to Global: Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells as a Model for Clinical Development and Commercialization”

Biography:

Dr. Bruce Levine, Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy, is the Founding Director of the Clinical Call and Vaccine Production Facility (CVPF) in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. (Biology) from Penn and a Ph.D. in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Johns Hopkins. First-in-human adoptive immunotherapy trials include the first use of a lentiviral vector, the first infusions of gene edited cells, and the first use of lentivirally-modified cells to treat cancer. Dr. Levine has overseen the production, testing and release of 3,000 cellular products administered to > 1,200 patients in clinical trials since 1996. He is co-inventor of the first FDA approved gene therapy (Kymriah), chimeric antigen receptor T cells for leukemia and lymphoma, licensed to Novartis. Dr. Levine is co-inventor on 25 issued US patents and co-author of > 160 manuscripts and book chapters with Google Scholar citation h-index of 78. He is co-founder of Tmunity Therapeutics, a spinout of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Levine is President Elect of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy and serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. He has been interviewed by the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, National Geographic, Forbes, BBC, and other international media outlets.

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MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA | Senior Research Scientist

Topic:

“High-throughput flow cytometry-based platform for interrogation of genetically-modified lymphocytes: a rapid and efficient method for assessing anti-tumor response”

Biography:

Dr. Tamara J. Laskowski received her doctorate degree in Human Molecular Genetics and Immunology from University of Texas Health Science Center where her work focused on genome editing of patient-derived stem cells to correct genetic mutations causative of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, an immunodeficiency disorder that results in severe impairments to the immune system. Subsequently, Tamara joined Dr. Laurence J.N. Cooper’s laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center as a fellow. Her work focused on engineering stem cells with the goal of generating off-the-shelf NK and T-cell immunotherapies for targeting solid tumor malignancies. Tamara’s work has led her to transition to Dr. James Allison’s Immunotherapy Platform in the Immunology department of MD Anderson. In her new role as Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Laskowski’s work primarily involves immune-monitoring of patients undergoing clinical trials I Immunotherapy and development of novel assays for interrogating tumor immune infiltrate. Dr. Laskowski also shares an interest in technology innovation, and has developed novel multi-plex assays for testing therapies against solid tumors. In 2017, this work led to an invitation to participate in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps, an exclusive program through which she was trained to develop strategies for expanding the economic and societal benefits of innovative ideas which have commercialization potential. She was the sole recipient of an award for outstanding performance upon completion of the program.

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Cambridge, Massachusetts , USA
Editas Medicine, USA | Senior Vice President of Immunogenetics

Topic: “Pioneering the Possible”

Biography:

Currently I am Senior Vice President Immunogenetics, Editas Medicine, Cambridge, MA and serve on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. The majority of my career was spent in various role at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD. As a member of the team that published the first approved human gene transfer experiment in 1990 (N. Engl. J. Med. 323:570, 1990), I have seen the gene therapy field grow and have grown with it. For the last 15 years, my research concentrated on cancer immunotherapy. I have extensively published on T-cell receptor (TCR) gene therapy and was the first author on the initial report where this technology was shown to lead to cancer regression in patients (Science 314:126, 2006). In 2013, I made the switch from academia to industry to lead the immunotherapy efforts at bluebird bio and recently moved to Editas Medicine to focus on gene editing applications in immunotherapy. As Vice President of Immunotherapy at bluebird bio, I oversaw research programs on various aspect of immunotherapy, including the development of bluebird’s lead oncology product, an anti-BCMA CAR T cell. At Editas Medicine, my goal is to develop cellular treatments that go beyond standard TCR/CAR-based antigen targeting, to produce gene edited effector cells designed to function within the hostile tumor microenvironment.

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Cambridge, United Kingdom 
Principal Scientist at Horizon Discovery 

Topic:

“Gene-modulation technologies in the development of cell-based therapies”

Biography:

Verena is a Principal Scientist at Horizon Discovery Ltd, based in Cambridge, UK. Horizon Discovery is a gene editing company that designs and engineers genetically modified cells and then applies them to aid clients engaged at every stage of the healthcare continuum, from sequence to treatment. Verena received her doctorate in Neuroimmunology from the University of Tuebingen, Germany, and gained a postdoctoral research fellowship from the German Research Foundation that enabled her to intensify her studies on T cell biology in Marc Veldhoen's lab in Cambridge, UK. Before Verena joined Horizon Discovery she developed assays for hit identification and lead characterization of multifunctional, oncology-relevant antibody-fragments for the biopharmaceutical company Crescendo Biologics. At Horizon Discovery she is providing high level scientific expertise and technical leadership for new and ongoing activities within the Immunology services team.

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Brussels, Belgium
MaSTherCell, Belgium | Project and Development Manager

Topic:

“Industrialization of the Manufacturing of a Gene Therapy Medicinal Product”

Biography:

Nicolas Preyat has more than 10 years of experience in biotechnologies and management. He holds a master degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. In the same university he completed his Ph.D. with a focus on the molecular regulation of cell death and the control of innate immune responses. Nicolas Preyat then further strengthens his scientific skills with post-doctoral studies where he investigated new therapeutic strategies to fight cancer. He also developed tools to characterize biomarkers for inflammatory diseases. Nicolas Preyat is now Project and Development Manager for Masthercell, a global contract development and manufacturing organization with a strong expertise in cell and gene therapy. Through the various positions he assumed, Nicolas Preyat has acquired a deep expertise in cell culture, analytical assays, technology transfer, good manufacturing practices and project management.

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Los Angeles, CA, USA
University of California | Assistant Professor

Topic:

“Engineering Next-Generation Chimeric Antigen Receptors”

Biography:

Dr. Yvonne Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Chen Laboratory focuses on applying synthetic biology and biomolecular engineering techniques to the development of novel mammalian-cell systems, particularly cell-based immunotherapy for cancer. Prior to joining the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013, Yvonne was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. Yvonne has been a recipient of the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, the Hellman Fellowship, the ACGT Young Investigator Award in Cell and Gene Therapy for Cancer, and the NSF CAREER Award. She is also a Member Researcher in the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Yvonne earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and completed postdoctoral training at the Center for Childhood Cancer Research within the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and at the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University.

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Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Chair, Department of Bone Transplant and Cellular Therapy at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Topic:

“Engineering T cells for the immunotherapy of solid tumors”

Biography:

Dr. Gottschalk is the Chair of the Department of Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He is a physician scientist, who is interested in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cell-based immunotherapies. He is leading a team of MD and PhD researchers, who are actively conducting clinical studies with antigen-specific T cells for patients with hematological malignancies, brain and solid tumors. In the laboratory, his team is focused on improving T-cell Therapy for cancer using genetic approaches. For his contributions to the fields of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cell-based immunotherapies he was elected into the American Society of Clinical Investigation.

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Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Abell Endowed Chair in Synthetic Biology

Topic:

“Synthetic Biology: fostering the cyber-biological revolution”

Biography:

Dr. Peccoud’s research program focuses on synthetic biology informatics. His group combines computational and experimental efforts to develop predictive models of behaviors encoded in synthetic DNA sequences. He is particularly interested in using methods from synthetic biology to optimize biomanufacturing processes used to produce biologic drugs, antibodies, and other proteins of commercial interest. Peccoud is also actively engaged in efforts to understand the security implications of synthetic biology.

Shortly after completing a graduate research project in molecular immunology, Jean Peccoud’s scientific interests shifted to computational biology. In 1989, he published one of the first articles describing a mathematical model of molecular noise in gene regulatory networks. In 1993, he recognized the importance of real-time PCR and developed new statistical techniques suitable to analyze this new type of data. In 2002, he observed with excitement the very early developments of synthetic biology. After exploring the potential applications of this new technology to plant biotechnology, he blazed a trail in synthetic biology informatics.

Jean Peccoud came to Colorado State University from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech. He brought with him a diverse experience that includes working for Fortune 500 and start-up companies. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Synthetic Biology published by Oxford University Press.

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Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Assistant Professor at Boston University 

Topic:

“Mammalian Cell Design Using Synthetic Biology”

Biography:

Wilson Wong is an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Boston University, and a core member of the BU Biological Design Center. The Wong is a design-driven lab is focused on developing synthetic biology tools in mammalian systems for cell-based immunotherapy. He received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from UCLA. He did his postdoctoral work at UCSF. He is the recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator, NSF CAREER, ACS Synthetic Biology Young Investigator, BU Ignition, and BU College of Engineering Early Career Research Excellence Award.

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