CONFERENCE DAY TWO

MAY 20, 2025

7:30 am
One-on-One Partnering portal meeting schedule starts, to sit down with key contacts up to an hour before day two starts.

8:25 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

  • Rick Ewing Vice President & Head of Chemistry, Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals


Developing Molecular Glue Degraders for Disease Targets not Druggable by PROTACs

8:30 am Identifying Basal Ligase-Substrate Interactions for Molecular Glue Discovery

  • David Younger Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, A-Alpha Bio Inc.

Synopsis

• Introducing AlphaSeq, enabling large-scale mapping of basal protein-protein interactions between therapeutically relevant substrates and a diverse repertoire of ligases and chaperones, providing a rich starting dataset for molecular glue discovery

• Sharing how machine learning models can integrate aggregate PPI data to predict neosubstrates and can leverage mutation analysis and structural insights to strengthen binding interfaces and uncover new therapeutic opportunities

• Showing how potentially gluable weak basal interactions can be leveraged for small molecule screening, using the AlphaSeq platform or complementary hit identification approaches

8:50 am Panel Discussion: Moving from Phenotypic Screening to Target Based Discovery

Synopsis

• Overview of panellist’s platform technologies to identify glues and degraders including scientific or technical hurdles platforms address

• How can we combat the diversity in compounds when rationally designing novel candidates?

• What features define a protein as ligandable within a target space?

• How can we provide systematic and scalable screening panels; the debate between biochemical, phenotypical or computational assays

9:20 am
Morning Break & Networking

9:30 am
One-to-One Partnering Meeting Opportunity


New Platforms for Protein Stabilization & Homeostasis: Demonstrating a Pharmacological Audit Trail

11:10 am Developing Optimized Folding Interfering Degraders Targeting Cyclin D1

Synopsis

• Providing an overview of folding interference as a new modality to induce the degradation of a target protein

• Demonstrating that folding interfering degraders (FIDs) can be optimized to achieve high potency and desirable ADME properties

• Showing in vitro and in vivo characterization of FIDs acting on Cyclin D1

11:30 am Phosphorylation-Inducing Chimeric Small Molecules – Pairing Kinases with Induced Proximity

Synopsis

• Enabling precise phosphorylation, an important post-translational modification that controls protein function, including activation, stabilization, trafficking, inactivation, and degradation

• Leveraging approach for treating cancer, and other critical immune, metabolic, and rare diseases

• Discussing collaborations to date, and future collaborations

11:50 am Expanding the Realm of Proximity to Achieve Biologically Novel Mechanisms

  • Bret Williams Senior Vice President - Research, Magnet Biomedicine

Synopsis

• Creating novel protein-protein interactions to achieve therapeutic goals not achievable by otherwise targeting individual proteins

• Localizing drug to tissue or cell level of specificity

• Addressing difficult-to-drug targets

12:10 pm Session Reserved for Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals

  • Rick Ewing Vice President & Head of Chemistry, Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals

12:30 pm
Lunch Break & Networking

12:30 pm
One-to-One Partnering Meeting Opportunity


Why Are DACs an Attractive Technology for Pharma? Lowering Toxicity & Improving Efficacy with Increased Tissue Specificity

1:40 pm Targeted Protein Degraders as Next Generation Antibody Payloads

  • Gwenn Hansen Chief Scientific Officer, Nurix Therapeutics, Inc.

Synopsis

  • Introducing Nurix’s expertise in targeted protein degradation and degrader-antibody conjugates
  • Discussing the advantages of using degraders as antibody payloads 
  • Exploring collaborations

2:00 pm Precision ADCs: Engineering Novel Degrader Payloads for Improved Efficacy & Therapeutic Index

  • Andrew Combs Chief Chemistry Officer, Prelude Therapeutics​

Synopsis

• Explaining key design attributes required for making TPDs effective as ADC payloads

• Approaching ADC payload optimization with a medicinal chemistry mindset

• Sharing initial proof-of-concept with a next gen anti-PSMAxSMARCA2/4 DAC for prostate cancer

2:20 pm Panel Discussion: Where do DACs Fit in? Discussing the Decision to Think about Degraders as Payloads

  • Andrew Combs Chief Chemistry Officer, Prelude Therapeutics​
  • Yue Xiong CSO, Cullgen Inc.
  • Gwenn Hansen Chief Scientific Officer, Nurix Therapeutics, Inc.
  • Rick Ewing Vice President & Head of Chemistry, Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals

Synopsis

• What is it about small molecule degraders that lend themselves to making good payloads?

• Sharing parameters that allow a degrader protein to be distinct from a toxic payload

• What are some good targets for DACs?

• Collaboration potential between antibody engineering and protein degradation companies

2:50 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks

3:00 pm Conference Ends