CONFERENCE DAY ONE
MAY 19, 2025
PART ONE: FIND YOUR FUTURE PARTNER
Bringing you a targeted and scientifically aligned partnership opportunity from the start, this opening section brings key buyers
together in a unique and unmissable format to find your next partner and route to more capital.
7.30 - 8.30: One-on-One Partnering portal meeting schedule starts. Grab a coffee and sit
down with key contacts in the hour before the conference at bookable meeting spaces.
8.40: Chair’s Opening Remarks
Strategic Priorities & Deal Trends
Which Problems are we Solving with Innovative Technologies & How are Collaborations Advancing Clinical Translation of Induced Proximity
8.45: Pharma Icebreaker -Â Activity & Ambition for Deal Making to Expand the Drug Discovery Toolbox
• Understanding and appreciating why pharma would invest: What gap are the innovative technologies filling and what
problem are they solving?
• How do research collaborations support translational efficiency of protein degradation clinical development? Where do
we need to improve to clinically validate more protein degradation programs?
• Which technologies and targets invite interest – how does this play through into disease areas of interest?
Adam Gilbert
Executive Director - External Innovation Accelerator - Pfizer
Carla Bauer
Director, Oncology Search and Evaluation, Business Development & Licensing - Merck & Co
Xiaodong Zhang
Business Development Search & Evaluation, Oncology and Hematology - Novartis
Anna Rivkin
Chief Business Officer - Foghorn Therapeutics
Akihiro Furukawa
Director, Research & Technology Search & Evaluation - Daiichi Sankyo
Elena Diaz
Senior Director External Innovation - Janssen
9.15: Pharma Matchmaking Roundtables - Ensure you Connect
For interested parties to guarantee meeting time with each other, both pharma and attending biotech can select companies
of interest for a pre-organized rotations across 90 minutes. Meet face-to-face with priority companies, and benefit from
introducing yourself to pharma you have not scheduled meetings with through the One-on-One Partnering portal early in
the event.
Carla Bauer
Director, Oncology Search and Evaluation, Business Development & Licensing - Merck & Co
Adam Gilbert
Executive Director - External Innovation Accelerator - Pfizer
Xiaodong Zhang
Business Development Search & Evaluation, Oncology and Hematology - Novartis
Akihiro Furukawa
Director, Research & Technology Search & Evaluation - Daiichi Sankyo
Elena Diaz
Senior Director External Innovation - Janssen
11.45: Business Panel - Effectively & Efficiently Structuring Deal Processes as an Early-Stage Company in TPD
• Discussing the panel’s experience executing deals, including how to manage alliances to grow more deals
• Outlining opportunities and experience for creative deal structures, and when and where they would be appropriate
Anna Rivkin
Chief Business Officer - Foghorn Therapeutics
Seth Goldblum
Senior Vice President - Corporate Development - Cullgen Inc.
Christopher Guenard
Associate Director - Business Development - Photys Therapeutics
Miki Hayano
BD - Monte Rosa Therapeutics
Reza Mazhari
Chief Business Officer - TRIANA Biomedicines Inc.
PART TWO: SCIENTIFIC SHOWCASE
Designed to foster excitement and engagement in innovative companies, be part of back-to-back presentations to validate your
technology as solving scientific hurdles and differentiated versus peers to a group of aligned and qualified decision-makers.
Expanding the E3 Ligase Target Universe
1.40: Targeting Chromatin Modulators with Therapeutic Degraders
• Applying degradation to achieve selectivity
• Exploration of varying E3 ligase activity
• Expanding degrader delivery and formulation
Danette Daniels
Vice President - Protein Degradation Platform - Foghorn Therapeutics
2.00: Discovery of Novel E3 Ligands for Targeted Protein Degradation
• Discussing how cullin-RING E3 ligases (CRLs) are better suited for developing novel E3 ligands due to their multi-subunit assembly mechanism and intrinsic structural flexibility
• What factors to consider for the selection of E3 ligases for developing E3 ligands?
• Updating on discovery of novel E3 ligands at Cullgen
Yue Xiong
Chief Scientific Officer - Cullgen Inc.
2.20: Session reserved for HR Therapeutics
2.40: Afternoon Break & Networking
3.00 - 4.00: One-to-One Partnering Networking
3.00 - 4.00: One-to-One Partnering Networking
4.10: Discovering New Moieties to Recruit Other E3 Ubiquitin Ligases
• Sharing AI-enhanced discovery pipeline for targeted protein degradation
• Discussing development of a first-in-class androgen receptor (AR) degrader
• Updating on exclusive pipeline for the discovery of molecular glues
Shu-Jen Chen
Chief Scientific Officer - AnHorn Medicines
4.30: Building the Perfect Key - Designing Degraders to Maximize Efficacy & Safety
• Identifying novel pockets on proteins of interest to design degrader molecules
• Optimizing physical chemical properties for more favorable ADME characteristics
• Back validation of PRISM with robust efficacy and safety of developed compounds
Brad Heckmann
Chief Scientific Officer - ASHA therapeutics
4.50: Drinks Reception
Enjoy an informal networking drinks reception with all attending and presenting companies to catch up with key stakeholders outside of the regular meeting, as a touchpoint ahead of BIO.