Explore the Agenda

8:00 am Check-In & Coffee

Grab a coffee and sit down with key contacts in the hour before the conference begins

8:55 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Unraveling Treg Development & Function Pathways to Advance Therapeutic Innovation

9:00 am NEW DATA: Exploring Treg Functionality & Immune Cell Interactions Induced by Treg Therapies to Enhance Therapeutic Efficacy

Assistant Professor, Pathology, University of Chicago
  • Unearthing the mechanisms that induce Treg proliferation and enhance function
  • Investigating the role of chemokines in immune regulation to understand how Tregs impact T effector and surrounding immune cells
  • Discussing if Tregs alone have enough functionality and therapeutic impact to combat disease

9:30 am NEW DATA: Decoding Thymic-Derived (Natural) Treg Development Pathways to Uncover the Molecular Drivers for Treg Development

Senior Investigator, NIH
  • Gaining insights into the environmental stimuli that stimulate the transcription factory to produce Tregs
  • Understanding the molecular pathways that drive thymic Treg generation to better inform therapeutic development
  • Exploring the cellular precursors of Foxp3+ Tregs, including the involvement of TGF-β to unlock insights into Treg development

10:00 am NEW DATA: Unlocking Treg Functional Pathways to Drive Therapeutic Innovation

Emeritus Professor, Microbiology & Immunology, Northwestern University
  • Investigating the key drivers and surface molecules required for Treg functionality
  • Highlighting necessity for the cGAS/STING/type I IFN axis for induction of tolerance (via Treg induction) by antigen-loaded PLGA nanoparticles
  • Exploring novel therapies that have leveraged these mechanisms of action to regulate the immune response

10:30 am Morning Break & Networking

11:00 am Presentation & Discussion: Utilizing Molecular Pathways to Sustain Treg Stability & Immune Control

Assistant Professor, Yale Univerisity
  • Understanding the molecular pathways that impact Treg phenotype to manipulate the inflammatory environment in our favor
  • Harnessing novel approaches to sustain phenotypic stability post-thymic development
  • Discussing strategies to engineer TCR specificity and clonality in Treg function

Enhancing Treg Targeting & Engineering Strategies to Refine Durability, Precision & Prevent Treatment Rejection

11:45 am NEW DATA: Engineering Cytokine Bias to Enhance Precise Treg Targeting & Expansion

Associate Professor, Biomedical & Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University
  • Apply structural and mechanistic insights to create cytokine/antibody fusion proteins that direct IL-2 activity towards Tregs
  • Elucidate key design principles critical to the functional behavior of IL-2-based cytokine/antibody fusion proteins
  • Demonstrate translational potential of cytokine/antibody fusion proteins in preclinical models of colitis and hemophilia

12:15 pm Lunch Break & Networking

1:15 pm Roundtable Discussion: Engineering Next-Generation Tregs to Advance Treg Therapeutic Development

Associate Director, Discovery, GentiBio
  • Investigating engineering Treg cells from CD4+ and iPSC precursors to understand the impact on efficacy
  • Examining engineering strategies required to achieve durable Treg stability in vivo for long-term efficacy
  • Engineering CAR-Tregs and Allogeneic Tregs for potential therapies of autoimmune and transplant disease
  • Growth factor and durability support strategies for long term Treg persistence in patients

2:15 pm Targeting Autoantigens to Overcome Allogeneic Treg Rejection & Enhance Therapeutic Success

Associate Director, Discovery, GentiBio
  • Discussing interactions between the immune system and allogeneic Tregs to identify rejection mechanisms
  • Investigating opportunities to define and target autoantigens key to allogeneic Treg rejection
  • Strategies to remove or modify autoantigens to enhance persistence and prevent treatment rejection

2:45 pm End of Treg Biology Focus Day