Immuno-Oncology Xchange Seaport World Trade Center Boston

Immune Biomarkers

Time
Titles and Bullets
Facilitator
8:00am – 8:30am

Registration

8:30am – 9:00am

Opening Address & Keynote
 
Current Challenges in Immuno-Oncology Drug Development 
Jeffrey Evelhoch, Vice President, Head of Translational Biomarkers, Merck

9:05am – 10:05am

Exploring non-invasive ways to predict and monitor patient responses to anti-PD1 therapy
  • What non-invasive approaches to monitor responses have the greatest potential now and in 3-5 years?
  • What non-invasive ways to predict patient responses have the greatest potential now and in 3-5 years?
  • What is needed to accelerate the development of high potential non-invasive assays?

Vice President, Head of Translational Biomarkers 
Merck

Jeffrey Evelhoch is responsible for development and qualification of novel biomarkers, use of biomarkers to inform pipeline decisions and the development and deployment of companion diagnostics at Merck. He joined Merck Research Laboratories in 2008 as Vice President of Imaging and was named Vice President of Translational Biomarkers in 2015.  He joined Merck after four years at Amgen, following 2 years at Pfizer/Pharmacia.  Prior to joining the biopharmaceutical industry, Jeffrey was on the faculty of Wayne State University for 18 years, where he was Professor of Internal Medicine, Cancer Biology and Radiology. 

Portrait picture of Jeffrey Evelhoch
10:10am – 10:40am

1-2-1 Meetings / Networking Break

10:40am – 10:50am

Morning Refreshments

10:50am – 11:50am

Developing predictive biomarkers for immune checkpoints
  • Practical clinical support for new therapeutic strategies (what can you realistically do in a late stage clinical trial and after)
  • Understanding immune phenotypes and how they affect patient response (what types of cells, and where, will get you the best response)
  • Supporting combination trials with biomarker data

Chief Executive Officer
Flagship Biosciences

Trevor Johnson is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flagship Biosciences. He has experience in executive management, software development, marketing, business development, and services operations for medical technology companies, specifically in image analysis and machine learning applications.  He has been working with tissue and contextual biomarkers for over 15 years and is focused on creating more accurate and informative data for researchers and clinicians.

Portrait picture of Trevor Johnson
11:55am – 12:25am

1-2-1 Meetings / Networking Break

12:30pm – 1:30pm

Circulating tumor biomarkers – where are we and where we going? 
  • What is the potential of circulating tumor biomarkers in immune-oncology? Could they be disruptive?
  • Exosomes – why the excitement?
  • Circulating tumor cells – obsolete or useful?
  • ctDNA – what are the most promising approaches?
  • What about other approaches such as microRNA?
  • How can we best accelerate meaningful progress in realizing the potential of circulating tumor biomarkers?

Chief Medical Officer & Executive Vice President
Seres Therapeutics

Kevin Horgan graduated in medicine from University College Cork in 1982. He completed postgraduate medical training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, and UCLA in internal medicine, immunology and gastroenterology. At Merck Research Laboratories, he led the development of Emend® for the prevention of nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy. Most recently he led the development of combination immunotherapies in oncology at Astra Zeneca, prior to joining Seres as Chief Medical Officer in October 2018.

Portrait picture of Kevin Horgan
1:30pm – 2:30pm

Networking Lunch

2:30pm – 3:00pm

Poster Session: Analysis of companion diagnostic potentials for multifaceted PD-L1 assays – Flagship Biosciences

3:00pm – 3:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings / Networking Break

3:30pm – 3:40pm

Afternoon Refreshments

3:40pm – 4:10pm

1-2-1 Meetings / Networking Break

4:15pm – 5:15pm

Evaluating biomarkers for treatment selection and monitoring
  • How is immunogenomics driving precision oncology in immunotherapy?
  • How to identify the best biomarker candidates and how to implement them in the clinic?
  • What technologies/platforms will be best for pre-clinical R&D vs. clinical biomarker applications?
  • How do we identify the best combinations and patients who can benefit from them? (for e.g. combining target therapy with immunotherapy)

Senior Principal Scientist
ABclonal

Li Hui has a decade of experience in leading antibody discovery and development projects that target key signaling pathways in cancer cell biology, metabolism, immunology and neurodegenerative diseases. Currently she leads efforts to optimize rabbit monoclonal antibody discovery technology at ABclonal for large scale and efficient development of both customized and catalog monoclonal antibody products.

Portrait picture of Tooba Cheema
5:15pm – 5:45pm

Closing Keynote & Address
 
The Gastrointestinal Microbiome and Immuno-Oncology: Emerging Themes 
Kevin Horgan, Chief Medical Officer & Executive Vice President, Seres Therapeutics  

5:45pm

Canape/Drinks Reception

Partners

Immuno-Oncology Xchange | East Coast 2019
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