Conference Day One

8:30 am Check-In & Coffee

8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Discussing The Progress in The Field & Addressing Common Challenges Within Tissue Modelling

9:00 am Panel: Navigating the 3D Tissue Modelling Landscape Focusing on Model Adoption & Current Regulatory Frameworks

  • Beth Hoffman Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Origami Therapeutics, Inc.
  • Richard Cheng Senior Specialist, Engineer, Merck & Co
  • Manti guha principal Investigator and CIVM Lead, Incyte Corporation
  • Cindy Cheng Senior Director - Conjugation & In vitro Evaluation, Eisai
  • Colin Choi Associate Scientific Director, Biogen

Synopsis

  • Discussing the need for common benchmarks and standards to ensure comparability and reproducibility across different laboratories and research settings
  • Sharing insights and experiences from industry leaders on best practices, to bring these technologies internally by making a business case
  • Addressing the current regulatory landscape for accepting data from 3D tissue models in drug development

9:45 am Establishing Translational Centers for MPS Towards Regulatory Qualification as Drug Development Tools

Synopsis

  • NCATS/NIH will discuss its newest programs that will facilitate regulatory acceptance of MPS
  • NCATS/NIH will discuss hurdles to overcome in the MPS/CIVM field, and the future of the program
  • NCATS/NIH will discuss the newest NIH Common Fund’s Complement Animal Research in Experimentation (Complement-ARIE) program, which will speed the development, standardization, validation, and use of human-based new approach methodologies

10:15 am Morning Break & Speed Networking

Synopsis

As the 3D tissue modelling community is reunited, this valuable session will ensure you get the chance to reconnect with peers and make brand new connections! This structured networking opportunity will pair you with fellow attendees for several 3-minute introductions, ensuring you have the opportunity to meet and network with your academic and industry colleagues!

Track 1: Applications In Drug Discovery & Drug Screening

11:15 am Tackling Cancer Pathophysiology Through Microphysiological Systems

  • Sai Pavan Grandhi Principal Scientist, Complex In Vitro Models, GlaxoSmithKline Plc

Synopsis

  • Examining the capabilities and advantages offered by MPS in providing unprecedented insights into cancer biology and drug responses
  • Assessing best practices and strategies for maintaining replicability, contributing to the reliability of data generated in the process of cancer drug discovery
  • Exploring strategies to ensure the scalability of these systems, laying the groundwork for their future impact in advancing cancer research and therapeutics

11:45 am MiNK-215, an IL-15 Armored FAP-Targeting CAR iNKT Cell Therapy, Effectively Treats Human Organoid Models of Treatment-Refractory MSS Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Liver Metastases

Synopsis

  • Exploring methods for validating liver organoid models to ensure accurate representation of the liver metastases tumor microenvironment
  • Optimizing Organoid – immune cell co-culture for use in immune-oncology
  • Screening combination therapies

Track 2: Applications For Later Stage Development: Toxicology & Efficacy Studies

11:15 am Enhancing Therapeutic Insights from a Tumor Fragment Model

Synopsis

  • Highlight the utility of cryo-preserved tumor fragments in designing studies that involve treating fragments with different combination regimes
  • Discuss the flexibility of this model, allowing for varied drug treatments and the subsequent collection of supernatant for in-depth analysis
  • Discuss the potential insights gained from these analyses, contributing to a deeper understanding of tumor biology and therapeutic responses

11:45 am Mastermind Session: How Can You Unveil Drug Toxicity with Complex In Vitro Models to Enhance Clinical Outcomes?

Synopsis

  • Discussing how organoids enables a comprehensive evaluation including PK/PD to unravel intricate aspects of organ responses to pharmaceutical compounds
  • Addressing the impact of integrating advanced 3D model data into clinical decision-making, contributing to more efficient and patient-centric drug development strategies
  • Understanding the importance of collaboration and shared learning with like-minded peers to support this

12:15 pm Lunch Break

Track 1: Applications In Drug Discovery & Drug Screening

1:15 pm Leveraging 3D Transwell Models to Uncover Deep Insights Into Respiratory Antiviral Therapeutics

Synopsis

  • Highlighting the innovative features of the model, emphasizing its significance in providing valuable insights into the efficacy of antiviral interventions
  • Exploring the capabilities of the 3D transwell model in visualizing virus interactions within and on tissue
  • Discussing how findings from the model can contribute to the development of effective antiviral strategies, bridging the gap between benchtop research and clinical applications

1:45 pm Implementing 3D Culture Platforms for Target Validation in Kidney Diseases

Synopsis

  • Uncovering how renal 3D-ex-vivo cell culture provides a physiologically relevant platform for precise studies, offering deeper insights into renal pathophysiology
  • Highlighting techniques to culture ex-vivo isolated glomeruli that are better representative of kidney morphology
  • Exploring the data from these 3D models using high-content focal imaging, and proteomics to support target validation

Track 2: Applications For Later Stage Development: Toxicology & Efficacy Studies

1:15 pm Recapitulating The Lung Pathobiology Using Organoids & Organ-On-A-Chip

  • Muriel Liz� Associate Director in vitro respiratory research, Boehringer Ingelheim

Synopsis

  • Sharing methodologies to validate biology of these models to assess for idiopathic fibrosis
  • Implementing spatial biology techniques to validate model components and break-down biology into mechanism-based assays to enable screening
  • Discussing the multidimensional insights provided by these models together with validated human clinical biomarkers for a thorough understanding of the expected drug effects on the health of the patient

1:45 pm Mastermind Session: Uncovering Optimized Techniques That People Across the Industry Implement to Improve Their Models

Synopsis

  • Inspecting latest techniques and advancements in organoid technology that enhance the accuracy of predicting adverse effects including proteomics, spatial biology techniques
  • Addressing challenges and presenting solutions in scaling up organoid-based studies to meet the demands of high-throughput screening
  • Examining strategies to enhance the translation of findings from organoid-based studies into clinical applications

2:15 pm Scientific Poster Session & Refreshments Break

Synopsis

Witness some of the latest and greatest research in the 3D tissue modelling field by drug

developers, academics, and researchers in this spotlight poster session.

Assessing Best Practice in Maintaining Good Quality & Validated Models

3:15 pm Mastermind Session: Best Practices for Sample Sourcing & Scaling Up Your Workflow

Synopsis

  • Uncover with your peers their best practices in selecting the right collaborator to provide patient samples and ensuring sample quality is maintained to support your study 
  • Share your lessons learned and strategies to scale up your model in your work
  • Discuss innovative ideas and next steps that you can use to improve your current workflows

3:45 pm Establishing Consistency and Increasing Throughput: Applications to Improve 3D Cell Culture Workflows

Synopsis

  • Maximizing experimental results through utilization of existing products
  • How to integrate multiple tools to generate more data per experiment
  • New tools to improve scalability of 3D workflows

4:15 pm Developing Organoids to Better Understand the Intestinal System

  • Katia Karalis Executive Director, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc

Synopsis

  • Exploring the advancements in developing intestinal organoids as a robust platform for screening therapeutics
  • Discussing how insights gained from the study of intestinal organoids contribute to optimizing regenerative approaches, offering new avenues for therapeutic development
  • Uncovering best practices for maintaining replicability and explore considerations for scaling up these models to meet the demands of future drug discovery endeavors

4:45 pm Validating Hepatocyte Cultures to Supercharge Therapeutic Screening

Synopsis

  • Addressing the importance of implementing human specific models to empower better target validation and therapeutic screening
  • Discussing the optimization of 3D cell systems to enhance their utility in drug discovery, ensuring relevance, reliability, and replicability in fibrosis research
  • Utilizing organoids to dissect the intricate complexities of fibrosis, provides a deeper understanding of the disease mechanisms

5:15 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks