Email: dgander@mit.edu

Daniel G. Anderson is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology at MIT. The research done in Prof. Anderson’s laboratory is focused on developing new materials for medicine. His work has led to advances in a range of areas, including medical devices, cell therapy, drug delivery, gene therapy and material science. Prof. Anderson received a B.A. in mathematics and biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the University of California at Davis. His work has resulted in the publication of over 500 papers, patents and patent applications. These advances have led products that have been commercialized or are in clinical development, as well as to the foundation of companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and consumer products space. Dr. Anderson is a founder of Living Proof, Olivo Labs, Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP), Sigilon Therapeutics, Verseau Therapeutics, oRNA Therapeutics, VasoRx, and Soufflé Therapeutics.

Email: Michelle.Arkin@ucsf.edu

Michelle Arkin is Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco and co-director of the Small Molecule Discovery Center. Her lab focuses on developing chemical probes and drug leads for novel targets, with a particular interest in protein-protein interactions and protein-degradation networks. Prior to UCSF, Michelle worked at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, where she helped discover protein-protein interaction inhibitors for IL-2 and LFA-1 (lifitigrast, marketed by Novartis). Michelle held an NSF predoctoral fellowship at Caltech and Damon Runyon Cancer Research postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech. She is a cofounder of Ambagon and Elgia Therapeutics.

Email: abhattacharyya@ptcbio.com

Dr. Anu Bhattacharyya is the Executive Director of Biology and Nucleotide Repeat Diseases (NRD) at PTC Therapeutics. She has more than 17 years of biotech experience, focused in leading the discovery and development of small molecules at PTC Therapeutics. She has led projects ranging from early target validation, discovery, preclinical development through clinical trials. Applying modulation of splicing mechanisms with small molecules has been the major focus of her latest research efforts to bring therapies to patients with rare disorders. These efforts led to the identification and development of PTC518 (currently in Phase 2), an orally bioavailable, selective huntingtin (HTT) pre-mRNA splicing modifier designed to distribute uniformly throughout the body and decrease the levels of HTT protein in the central nervous system (CNS). As a project lead of multiple CNS projects, she has run drug discovery programs across different disease indications, including, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s Disease and other Nucleotide Repeat Diseases (NRDs). Anu earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Columbia University and completed her postdoctoral studies in Molecular Biology at the National Institutes of Health before joining PTC.

Email: lydiaboike@gmail.com

Lydia Boike (they/them) is a scientist at Vicinitas, where they are developing the Deubiquitinase Targeting Chimera (DUBTAC) platform for targeted protein stabilization applications in therapeutics. Prior to Vicinitas, Lydia was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Dan Nomura's lab, where they applied chemoproteomics platforms to invent DUBTACs, discover a covalent MYC ligand, and discover SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors. Lydia received a BS in chemistry from William & Mary, and a PhD in chemistry from UC Berkeley.

Email: breakefield@hms.harvard.edu

Xandra Breakefield, Ph.D., is a Geneticist at Mass. General Hospital and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She has focused her research on identification of neurologic disease genes, gene therapy for neurologic diseases, and the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in cell-to-cell communication and as therapeutic vehicles. Professor Breakefield has received a number of awards for her work, including the Society for Neuroscience Mika Salpeter Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Harvard Medical School William Silen Lifetime Achievement Mentoring Award. She is a current recipient of an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and past president of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

Email: juechen@mail.rockefeller.edu

Jue Chen received her bachelor’s of science in chemistry from Ohio University in 1993, and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University in 1998, where she was advised by Dr. Don C. Wiley. She did postdoctoral work at Baylor College of Medicine with Dr. Florante A. Quiocho. She joined Purdue University in 2002 as assistant professor, and was promoted to associate professor in 2007 and professor in 2011. She was named a Pew Scholar in 2003 and was named an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2008. In 2014, she joined the faculty of Rockefeller University, where she is now the William E. Ford Professor and head of laboratory of membrane biology and biophysics. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019. Chen’s research program which began with a complete analysis of the structure and mechanism of bacterial maltose transporters, has recently focused on the cystic fibrosis conductance regulator (CFTR), the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP), and the multidrug transporters P-glycoprotein and MRP1.

Email: cunningham.christian@gene.com

Christian Cunningham, Ph.D. is currently the Director and Principal Scientist of Peptide Therapeutics at Genentech. In this role, he leads a multidisciplinary group of scientists and laboratories focused on developing peptide-based macrocycles, disulfide-constrained peptides, and peptidomimetics into a new class of therapeutic modality and diagnostic tools for our Oncology, Cancer Immunology, Immunology, Ophthalmology, Neuroscience, and Infectious Disease portfolios. Prior to this position, his work focused on uncovering how post-translational modifications (ubiquitination and lipidation) could be leveraged for therapeutic intervention in the Oncology and Neuroscience therapeutic areas. Dr. Cunningham received his B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology and UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from UC San Francisco.

Email: mdisney@ufl.edu

Matthew Disney, Ph.D. is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at UF Scripps Biomedical Research (formerly Scripps Florida). His laboratory works in the area of small molecule targeting of RNA, addressing fundamental questions surrounding the molecular recognition of RNA folds by small molecules to study problems of biomedical importance. Applications have included development of sequence-based design of small molecules, on-site drug synthesis in disease-affected cells, understanding the biology of coding and non-coding RNAs, and interfacing RNAs with quality control machinery, the latter including small molecule degraders and chimeric degrading compounds. The lab’s research has garnered various awards including the ACS Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry (with Alicia Angelbello), the Scripps Florida Mentor of the Year, the Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, Barry Cohen Award in Medicinal Chemistry, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, the Eli Lily Award in Biological Chemistry, the David W. Robertson Award in Medicinal Chemistry, and others. Prof. Disney received a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park and a Ph.D. degree in Biophysical Chemistry from the University of Rochester.

Email: si012@uark.edu

Shilpa iYer, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She leads the Laboratory of Cellular Energetics and Mitochondrial Disorders with the goal of developing novel diagnostics and therapeutics for mitochondrial and metabolic disorders. Her lab is also interested in creating customized patient-specific stem cell models for understanding mitochondrial diseases. Dr. iYer received a BS degree in Zoology from Ferguson College, Pune, India; MS in Genetics from University of Pune, India; a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Georgia; and postdoctoral training in Mitochondrial Genetics from the University of Virginia.

Email: melissa.junttila@oricpharma.com

Melissa Junttila, PhD, is currently Vice President, Head of Biology Research at ORIC Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving patients’ lives by Overcoming Resistance In Cancer. Prior to joining ORIC, Dr. Junttila was a discovery group leader and Senior Scientist at Genentech, in addition to leading the genetic models core lab. Combining her preclinical modeling expertise with her extensive knowledge of small molecule and antibody-based therapeutic approaches in cancer immunology and oncology signal transduction, Dr. Junttila has contributed to >23 target projects with eight candidates currently in clinical development. Prior to Genentech, Dr. Junttila was a Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation at UCSF. Melissa received her BSc from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and her PhD in Medical Biochemistry from University of Turku, Finland.

Email: Anumantha.Kanthasamy@uga.edu

Dr. Anumantha G Kanthasamy is the Inaugural Johnny Isakson Chair in Parkinson’s Research, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology and Director of the Center for Neurological Disease Research at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens (UGA). Dr. Kanthasamy’s research focuses on neurodegenerative diseases, discovering prodromal peripheral biomarkers, identifying druggable targets, and devising promising precision medicine-based therapeutics. His lab’s translational research discoveries have resulted in several patent applications including innovative drug delivery platforms for treating neurological diseases, resulting in his induction into the National Academy of Inventors. Over 25 years, he has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. He was the founding director of the Iowa Center for Advanced Neurotoxicology (ICAN). He also chaired the Interdepartmental Toxicology Graduate Program for eight years and served as Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences from 2011-2019. He also served as President of the Neurotoxicology Specialty Section for the Society of Toxicology and was elected Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Academy of Toxicological Sciences. He also has established two new businesses: PK Biosciences Corporation and Probiome Therapeutics Incorporated to promote translational drug discovery research that evolved from his basic research.

Email: blanman@amgen.com

Brian Lanman, PhD, is a Director of Research in the Medicinal Chemistry department at Amgen, Inc., based in Thousand Oaks, California. Brian received his A.B. (1998), A.M. (2000), and Ph.D. (2004) degrees in Chemistry from Harvard University, where he conducted research on the total synthesis of Taxol® and on the solid-supported synthesis of tetrahydroisoquinoline antitumor antibiotics as an NSF Fellow. In 2004, he moved to UC Irvine as an NIH postdoctoral fellow, where he developed methods to access the architecturally complex bis-guanidine natural product palau’amine. Since joining Amgen in 2006, Brian has led chemistry and discovery research efforts in the inflammation, oncology, and cardiovascular therapeutic areas. Most recently, Brian led the medicinal chemistry team that discovered LUMAKRAS® (sotorasib), Amgen’s first-in-class KRAS^G12C inhibitor.

Email: derekb.lowe@gmail.com

Derek Lowe is currently a Director in the Chemical Biology and Therapeutics department at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, where his interests include therapeutic approaches to transcription factors and disordered proteins. He joined NIBR in 2017 after ten years at Vertex, where he did antiinfective research, fragment-based drug discovery, and flow chemistry development. Previously he spent ten years at the Bayer site in West Haven, CT, working on metabolics and osteoporosis drug discovery, and he began his career with eight years at Schering-Plough working on CNS therapeutics. He is also well-known for his blog, "In the Pipeline", covering drug discovery, chemistry, and general science and pharma issue, which is currently the longest-running science blog on the internet.

Email: mary@neomorph.com

Mary Matyskiela, PhD is Vice President of Molecular Sciences at Neomorph and brings more than 20 years of experience in the field of protein degradation. Dr. Matyskiela is known for her work in elucidating the molecular mechanisms and expanding the horizons of molecular glue targeting through cereblon-CRL4 and is an author of foundational publications in the molecular glue field. At Neomorph, Dr. Matyskiela spearheads efforts to develop molecular glues as targeted protein degradation therapeutics. Dr. Matyskiela’s career has included appointments Celgene/Bristol Myers Squibb, where she spent 6 years working in targeted protein degradation drug discovery. Dr. Matyskiela received her B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University, where she performed undergraduate research in the lab of Dr. Craig Crews, and her PhD from the University of California San Francisco where she studied ubiquitin ligase mechanisms. She performed postdoctoral research at the University of California Berkeley, studying the structure and function of the 26S proteasome.

Email: mouradmm@rwjms.rutgers.edu

M. Maral Mouradian, MD is the Founding Director of the RWJMS Institute for Neurological Therapeutics, Distinguished Professor of Neurology, William Dow Lovett Endowed Chair for Parkinson’s Research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Vice Chancellor for Faculty Development at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. Prior to joining Rutgers in 2003, she led the genetic pharmacology research and served as chief neurologist of the Experimental Therapeutics Branch of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Intramural Program. Her research focuses on elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease and related synucleinopathies, identifying novel therapeutic targets, and discovering and developing new therapeutic agents. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neurotherapeutics. Dr. Mouradian received a BSc degree in Biology and Chemistry and an MD from the American University of Beirut.

Email: pnde@mmc.edu

Pius Nde, PhD, is currently an Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Physiology at Meharry Medical College. My research is focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of Trypanosoma cruzi infection and the onset of early fibrogenic responses. Dr. Nde received BSc and MSc degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a PhD degree from Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.

Email: julianen@email.unc.edu

Juliane Nguyen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her lab develops genetically encodable materials and biotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer, heart attacks, and colitis. Dr. Nguyen’s work has been recognized with the NYSTAR faculty award, the NSF CAREER Award (2018), the Young Innovator Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society (2019), and the AAPS Emerging Leader Award (2019). She received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Philipps-University of Marburg (Germany), where she was mentored by Dr. Thomas Kissel. She then trained at UCSF under Dr. Frank Szoka, where she was a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Nguyen is currently a standing member of the NIH Gene and Drug Delivery (GDD) study section and an Executive Editor of Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews.

Email: jim.olson@seattlechildrens.org

As a physician-scientist, Dr. Olson has over 25 years of experience caring for children with brain tumors and conducts research that focuses on discovering and developing new cancer therapies. He leads the Invent@SC Postdoctoral Scholars program, which will educate 50 scientists from diverse backgrounds to generate novel pediatric therapeutics. His lab’s work has led to more than a dozen national clinical trials. A Phase 3 trial that he led resulted in a 20% survival improvement for children with Group 3 high-risk medulloblastoma. Dr. Olson is the founder of Presage Biosciences, Blaze Bioscience, and Link Immunotherapeutics. His lab invented the chlorotoxin-based Tumor Paint, which led to the development by Blaze of the clinical candidate Tozuleristide (BLZ-100), now in human trials. He authored “Clinical Pharmacology Made Ridiculously Simple,” which has been the most used pharmacology board review book for more than 25 years. Dr. Olson earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1989 and his M.D. in 1991, both from the University of Michigan. He then completed his residency in pediatrics in 1994 and his fellowship in pediatric oncology in 1997, both at the University of Washington. Dr. Olson is currently a Principal Investigator at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and a Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington.

Email: bo163@cabm.rutgers.edu

Bishr Omary MD, PhD is Professor of Medicine and Henry Rutgers Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Rutgers University, and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research for the Rutgers health-related campus. He received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and his MD from the University of Miami, followed by internal medicine residency at UC Irvine and fellowship in gastroenterology at UCSD. His laboratory studies therapeutic approaches and the pathogenesis of diseases that involve intermediate filament cytoskeletal proteins and heme biosynthesis enzymes.

Email: aoyelere@gatech.edu

Adegboyega Oyelere is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA. He obtained PhD in Chemistry at Brown University and did postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Scott Strobel at Yale University. He worked for about 4 years in pharmaceutical industry before starting his independent lab. He has over 20 years’ experience in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry. Oyelere lab research focus is on the design of targeted epigenetic modifiers and RNA-binding molecules as potential drug candidates for treating cancer, bacterial and protozoan infections and metabolic diseases. He has published 85 manuscripts and book chapters, and a co-inventor on over 100 patents applications 16 of which are issued patents; one compound in phase II clinical trial; and the founder of Sophia Bioscience, a startup Biotech Company funded by NIH/NCI SBIR and Georgia Research Alliance grants.

Email: Surachai.Supattapone@dartmouth.edu

Surachai Supattapone received his B.S. in Chemistry, Ph.D. in Neuroscience and M.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and his D.Phil. in Physiology from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He completed his medical residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and his clinical and post-doctoral research fellowships in Infectious Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Supattapone joined the faculty of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in 2001, where he is currently a Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine. He and his colleagues have developed new methods to study the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases such as prion diseases and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Supattapone has received awards in recognition of his research, including the David Israel Macht Award for Basic Science at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the Burroughs Wellcome Career Development Award, the Junior Faculty Award for Basic Science at the Geisel School of Medicine, the Javits Award in the Neurosciences, and election as a Fellow to the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Email: Ian.Taylor@arvinas.com

Ian Taylor, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer of Arvinas, a clinical-stage biotechnology company creating a new class of drugs—known as PROTAC® or Proteolysis Targeting Chimera--based on targeted protein degradation. At Arvinas, Ian oversees Research and Early Clinical Development. He came to Arvinas after nearly 10 years at Pfizer Oncology, where he was an Early Development Team Leader, responsible for leading cross-functional drug development teams conducting Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials for multiple assets in several cancer indications. [His initial role at Pfizer Oncology was in Translational Oncology during which time he was responsible for directing translational science activities for programs at both the preclinical and clinical stage.] Prior to Pfizer, Ian was employed for 12 years at Bayer Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, holding positions of increased responsibility, including Vice President of Cancer Biology where he led the department that had overall responsibility for all biology aspects of small molecule drug discovery of cancer therapeutics. Ian earned his BA from Bowdoin College and his PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Harvard University and completed his post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Harold Varmus at the University of California, San Francisco and the National Institutes of Health.

Email: cwoo@chemistry.harvard.edu

Christina M. Woo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, and an affiliate member of the Broad Institute. Christina’s research focuses on the design of chemical approaches to alter post-translational modifications and the signaling outcomes they produce in cells. She obtained a BA in Chemistry from Wellesley College (2008). She obtained her PhD in 2013 from Yale University under the guidance of Professor Seth Herzon as an NSF predoctoral fellow in the synthetic and chemical biology studies of diazofluorene antitumor antibiotics. In 2013, Christina joined the laboratory of Professor Carolyn Bertozzi at the University of California Berkeley as a Jane Coffins Child postdoctoral fellow and continued at Stanford University (2015) as a Burroughs Wellcome Fund postdoctoral fellow, where she developed a mass-independent chemical glycoproteomics platform for the identification of non-templated post-translational modifications. Christina joined the faculty at Harvard University in 2016. Her research has been recognized by the Amgen Young Investigator Award, David Gin Young Investigator Award, Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, Sloan Research Foundation, NSF CAREER, Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award, the NIH DP1 Avenir Award, and the Ono Pharma Foundation Breakthrough Science Award.

Email: yzwang@umich.edu

Dr. Wang is a Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) and the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Wang’s research is focused on the molecular mechanisms of Golgi structure formation and function. The Golgi apparatus is an essential cellular membrane organelle with a unique stacked structure and broad functions in intracellular protein and lipid trafficking, processing and secretion. Dr. Wang’s research aims to understand how the stacked Golgi structure is formed, and why its formation is important for Golgi functions under normal and disease conditions. Dr. Wang’s research links Golgi defects to many AD pathologies found in Alzheimer’s disease, including increased production of the toxic Aβ peptide, abnormal protein glycosylation, impaired lysosomal and autophagosomal degradation, and microglia activation. Dr. Wang received his PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Heidelberg and did his postdoc in Cell Biology at Yale University.

Email: tyaksh@health.ucsd.edu

Dr. Tony L. Yaksh: Purdue University (PhD 1971), U.S. Army (1971-73), University of Wisconsin (1973-76), University College London (1976-77), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN (1977-1988). He is Professor of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego (1988-present). His studies (> 850 papers) provide a basis for understanding the pharmacology of spinal pain processing. He has >51,000 citations in >31,000 papers. He has mentored over 160 postdoctoral trainees and funded consistently by NIH since 1977. He has received awards from the American Pain Society, the International Association for the Study of Pain, the Swedish Society of Medicine and received two NIH Javitz awards.

Email: gzerze@Central.UH.EDU

Gül H. Zerze, PhD. is currently an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering and a CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2017 from Lehigh University where she studied molecular modeling and advanced sampling simulations of intrinsically disordered proteins. She has continued her work as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University where she studied protein hydration and glass transitions, implications of biomolecular homochirality, anomalies of water, and nucleic acid folding and binding. She also has extensive experience in molecular modeling of biomolecules near surfaces and interfacial phenomena. In 2021, she has received a faculty recruitment award from Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and joined the University of Houston, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in January 2022 to start her lab.