Conference Day One

Wednesday, December 4

7.30 Check-In & Coffee

8.20 Chair’s Opening Remarks

Plenary Session: Clinical Highlights from 2024

8.30 Making the Leap to Phase 3 Studies: Overcoming Clinical Development & Operational Challenges

  • Jeffrey Cehelsky Vice President, Development Operations, Intellia Therapeutics

9.00 Session Reserved for Aldevron

9.30 Leveraging EBT-101 Preclinical & Early Clinical Development for New In Vivo Multiplex Editing Programs

  • Ryo Takeuchi Senior Director, Genome Editing, Excision BioTherapeutics Inc.

10.00 Panel Discussion: Ensuring Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity in Gene Editing Clinical Trials

  • Jordanna Mora Senior Director, Patient Advocacy & Centricity, Beam Therapeutics
  • Safi Shahda Senior Director, Intellia Therapeutics

10.30 Morning Refreshments & Speed Networking

Innovation & Early Development Track

Translating to the Clinic Track

Spearheading Large DNA Fragment Insertion

Advancing Assay Development and Safety
Monitoring Methods

11.30 Programmable Genomic Integration

• Advanced cell engineering applications
• Efficient replacement of endogenous genes in NHP
• Novel methods of PGI

John Finn, Chief Scientific Officer, Tome Biosciences

11.30 Leveraging Duplex Sequencing for Highly Sensitive
Off-Target Assessment

• Used Duplex Sequencing to overcome the sensitivity limit of
off-target detection with NGS
• This Hybridization-Capture based approach allows for the
identification of rare Chromosomal translocations
• Discuss the characteristics and performance of the PsCas9
variant in comparison to SpCas9

Barrett Nuttall, Director, AstraZeneca

12.15 Highly Efficient Integrase Technology for Site-specific
Genomic Integration of Large DNA Payload

• Generation of highly efficient integrases by directed evolution
• Site-specific genomic integration of von Willebrand Factor
(15.7 kb therapeutic DNA cargo)
• Bringing next-gen genome engineering technology to
enhance gene editing applications, advance cell & gene
therapies and regenerative medicine; and accelerate
cell line development timelines for biologics production,
enabling pandemic preparedness and rapid response to new pathogens

Omid Harandi, Chief Scientific Officer, Komo Biosciences

12.00 Talk Details to be Announced Shortly

Speaker TBC: CRISPR QC

12.30 Clinical Safety Monitoring Strategies for Gene Editing
Therapies

• Preclinical work to identify and characterize the risk of gene
editing at on- and off-target loci
• FDA guidance on safety monitoring for human gene therapy
products incorporating human genome editing
• Detection of on- and off-target genome editing events in the
clinical setting

Priya Chockalingam, Vice President, Head of Clinical
Bioanalytics & Translational Sciences, Beam Therapeutics

1.00 Lunch: Hosted by Edilytics

Innovation & Early Development Track

Translating to the Clinic Track

Optimizing Guide Molecule Design

A 101 in Preclinical Development

2.00 Prime Editing pegRNA: Optimizing Guides

• Understanding the demand for pegRNA optimization to
improve editing efficiencies
• Presenting optimization methods conducted and resulting
increases in in vivo editing potency and accuracy data
• Analytical techniques for quantitative assessments of highly
modified guides

Andrew Anzalone, Director, Head of Prime Editing Platform,
Prime Medicine

2.00 AFNT-212: A Non-Viral Gene-Edited TCR-T Cell Therapy

• Targeted integration of large transgene for developing T cell
therapies targeting KRAS G12D-expressing solid cancers
• Preclinical development of gene edited T cell therapies
• Robust activity of AFNT-212 therapy in preclinical models

Ankit Gupta, Senior Director, Head of Gene Editing,
Affini-T Therapeutics

2.30 Talk Details to be Announced Shortly

Bryant Chica, Scientist II, Analytical Chemistry & Structural
Biology, Editas Medicine

2.30 Roundtable Discussion: Outlining a Path from
Preclinical Models to the Clinic

Roundtables include a larger focus on group discussion. A
moderator will introduce the session topic to attendees with a
presentation, before they split into groups to work through a
series of topic areas. At the end, all groups report back on their
discussions, and findings are collated.

This roundtable will cover:

• The key challenges working with, and translating between,
cell-based models, including induced pluripotent stem cells
(iPSCs), rodents and large animal models
• Strategy when encountering genetic heterogeneity in animal
models
• The translatability of phenotypic correction in animal models
to the clinical setting

Vivian Choi, Head of Liver, Metabolic, Lung, Eye & Ear
Disease Unit, Prime Medicine

3.00 Afternoon Refreshments

Plenary Session: Intellectual Property Protection, Patent Disputes & Technology Licensing

3.45 Establishing ‘Freedom to Operate’ as a Start-Up Gene Editing Biotech

4.15 Panel Discussion: Licensing Deals for Gene Editing Therapeutic & Delivery Technologies

4.45 Chair’s Closing Remarks

4.50 End of Day One