Why Attend
The targeted protein degradation field is expanding, gone are the days of simple proof of concept…. We now have LYTACs, AUTACs and ATTECs as well as numerous PROTAC and Molecular Glue companies with millions of dollars worth of investment. C4 netted $182.4 million in IPO, and Nurix and Kymera closed funding with $120 million and $102 million apiece. With several start-ups launching, including Lycia and Amphista therapeutics, investment in this area is booming, and it’s not slowing down.
There are currently over 85 degraders being considered at various stages of development, both preclinical and clinical, as well as in discovery. However, key questions are yet to be answered:
- How will degrader research translate in the clinic?
- Why are we still struggling with oral bioavailability?
- How can we effectively validate novel targets and degrade ‘undruggable’ targets of interest?
- What can be learned from the new, emerging degrader strategies that are emerging?
Once again bringing together leaders from pharma, biotech and academia as well as innovative service providers, the North American Protein Degradation Congress is back to give you the full picture from molecular biology right the way up to the latest in medicinal chemistry and clinical data.
Learn to create clinically applicable degraders to the entire proteome at the digital North American Protein Degradation Congress 2021.
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Pharma & Biotechs35%
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Emerging Biotechs
Founder, Chief Scientific Officer, CEO, Chief Technology Officer
25% -
Academic & Research Institutes
Professor - Cell Biology, Research Fellow - Chemoproteomics, Director - Biochemistry
30% -
Service Providers
Equipment Manufacturers (Analysis, HTS), CRO/ CMO, Reagents, Delivery/ Computational Providers
10%
4 DAYS OF EXPERT CONTENT
DAY 1 - FEB 16TH
Applying degraders in a clinical setting
Learn how to make clinically applicable degraders and understand what considerations are important for your internal programmes with sessions on:
- In vivo oral bioavailability
- Degraders in oncology and beyond
- Factors affecting SAR and PKPD relationships
- DMPK and in vivo properties to make drug-like degraders
DAY 2 - FEB 17TH
Degradation via molecular glues and degrading undruggable targets
Discover how to drug the “undruggable” and create novel molecular glues by tuning in to sessions including:
- Phenotypic screening and implementation of rational strategy to search for molecular glues
- Using chemoproteomic platforms for covalent ligand discovery
- The power of induced proximity for “undruggable targets”
- Decreasing the risk of the high hanging fruit
DAY 3 - FEB 23RD
Exploring next generation technologies and strategies
Employ the latest technologies to find ligands to your protein of interest and study ternary complex formation after hearing case studies on:
- Use of quality computational modeling tools and reversable covalency
- Use of DNA encoded libraries to find chemical probes
- Mapping the degradable kinome to develop degraders
- How to navigate your IP strategy
DAY 4 - FEB 24TH
Emerging degraders
Get the latest on emerging platforms and expansion of degrader strategies with presentations on:
- Inhibiting De-ubiquitinating Enzymes
- Exploting the endosome/lysosome pathway for LYTACs
- Optical control of degraders using PHOTACs
FREE ADD-ON
2020 Speakers
Alison O’Mahony, Ph.D.
Alison O’Mahony, PhD. is currently the Vice President of Translational Biology in the Phenotypic Services division of Eurofins Discovery. In this role, Alison helps lead the application and interpretation of the proprietary BioMAP® phenotypic profiling platform to help improve drug discovery for better clinical outcomes. She and the BioMAP team are global leaders in the phenotypic evaluation and prioritization of candidate molecules and combinations as potential therapeutic strategies in the areas of immune-oncology, autoimmunity, inflammation, fibrosis, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases as well as safety toxicology etc. Her expertise in developing and applying translational models to recapitulate tissue and disease models has helped propel this platform into the leading phenotypic platform. Her research interests are focused on building superior translational disease models that integrate human biology and innovative data analytics towards predictive approaches to find more effective and safer treatments. Alison holds a Ph.D. from University College Cork, Ireland and was a postdoctoral fellow at UC Davis before becoming a Staff Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes at UCSF. Alison has over 25 years specializing in cell biology, signal transduction, biomarker expression and phenotypic drug discovery. She has published multiple peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and webinars and has received several international and national awards for her work.
Amit Choudhary
Amit grew up in a farmer’s family in India and like the other kids “in the hood”, his early career aspirations included joining the army or becoming a cricketer. Amit’s pre-doctoral studies at the Indian Institute of Science‒Bangalore (IISc) involved the total synthesis of natural products and protein folding studies. He was ranked among top 5 students nationwide in the entrance exams of IITs and IISc. In 2006, he moved to Univ. of Wisconsin‒Madison to pursue his graduate studies with Prof. Ron Raines. Amit’s doctoral thesis describes the discovery of a force (termed n→π* interactions) that is akin to the hydrogen bond in its quantum mechanical origin and widespread prevalence in biomolecules.
Amit got interested in infectious disease and diabetes on observing a rampant prevalence of tuberculosis-triggered diabetes in many Indian families, including his own. In 2011, Amit was elected as a Harvard Junior Fellow and hosted by Prof. Stuart Schreiber at the Broad Institute. Here, he decided to shift his research focus from quantum mechanical interactions to infectious disease and diabetes. In 2015, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and he also holds appointments at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and the Broad Institute. The efforts of Amit’s group have been recognized by Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Career Award at the Scientific Interface, NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, DARPA’s SAFE GENES award, Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Innovation Award.
Anthony Partridge
Dr. Anthony Partridge is a Senior Principal Scientist at MSD Singapore where he leads programs in the early discovery space. Previously, he was Senior Director of Biology at Pharmaron Beijing where he led a team focused on assay development/validation, screening, and built a world-class compound management facility. As an In Vitro Pharmacology Capability Lead at Merck, he pioneered collaborative efforts with pharmacology-based CRO partners. Prior to this, he was a Senior Scientist in the Pharmacology group at Merck Montreal. Dr. Partridge began his industry based career at Élan Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Guelph (1998), his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto (2003) and completed post-doctoral training at Scripps/UCSD (2003-2006).
Andrew Zhang
Andrew Zhang is a Team Leader in the Chemical Biology Department at AstraZeneca. He joined AstraZeneca in 2013 with research interests in target deconvolution, particularly using chemical proteomics and orthogonal methods for identifying target engagement events and profiling selectivity. He is now leading the proteomics efforts around profiling the selectivity and mechanism of small molecule protein degraders. Andrew trained at the interface of chemistry and molecular and cell biology, obtaining a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by Ph.D. studies with Professor David Spiegel at Yale University around small molecule immunomodulators. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Andrew carried out postdoctoral trainings with the Drug Discovery Group at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (Toronto, Canada) with Dr. Rima Al-awar.
Benjamin Ebert
Dr. Benjamin Ebert is the George P. Canellos, MD, and Jean S. Canellos Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute.
Dr. Ebert is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He served as President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. His awards include the Till and McCollough Award from the International Society of Experimental Hematopoiesis, the William Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology, the Meyenburg Prize, and mentoring and teaching awards from Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Ebert received a bachelor's degree from Williams College and a doctorate from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he worked with Peter Ratcliffe, who was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. He completed an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He was on the faculty of Brigham and Women’s Hospital for 10 years before returning to the Dana-Farber.
Carolyn Bertozzi
Carolyn Bertozzi is the Baker Family Director of Stanford ChEM-H and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. She is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research focuses on profiling changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and infection, and exploiting this information for development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in the area of immuno-oncology. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also has been awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Chemistry for the Future Solvay Prize, among many others.
Daniel Nomura
Dan Nomura is a professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, and Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF. He is also the director of the Novartis-Berkeley Center for Proteomics and Chemistry Technologies. Dr. Nomura is also an editor for Cell Chemical Biology and Current Protocols in Chemical Biology. He earned his B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology and Ph.D. in Molecular Toxicology with Professor John Casida at UC Berkeley and was a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in chemical physiology with Professor Ben Cravatt before returning to UC Berkeley as a faculty member in 2011. Among his honors are selection as a Searle Scholar, American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award, the Department of Defense Breakthroughs Award, and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research INSPIRE award. Research in the Nomura Research Group is focused on reimagining druggability using chemoproteomic platforms to discover new disease therapies.
Danette Daniels, Ph.D.
Danette received her B.A. from Columbia University, Ph.D. in Biophysics from Yale University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine studying Wnt signaling pathway. She has been at Promega Corporation for 15 years and is currently an R&D Group Leader of Functional Proteomics. She leads a team developing technologies and performing research to understand dynamic intracellular interactions within the focus areas of epigenetics, targeted protein degradation, and drug discovery.
Daohong Zhou
Prof. Daohong Zhou is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacodynamics at the College of Pharmacy and a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the College of Medicine, University of Florida (UF) at Gainesville. He serves as the Associate Director for Translation and Drug Development and the Harry E. Innes Endowed Professor of Cancer Research at the UF Health Cancer Center. His research has led to the discovery of the first potent and broad-spectrum senolytic agent, ABT263-a dual BCL-Xl and BCL-2 inhibitor, that can selectively kill senescent cells to rejuvenate both prematurely senescent tissue stem cells induced by radiation and these in normally aged mice (Chang J et al. Nat Med, 22: 78-83, 2016). This discovery may lead to new therapeutics for various age-related diseases and the side effects induced by chemotherapy and radiation. More recently, he developed several proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) that can target Bcl-xl and other proteins of interest for degradation via the ubiquitination and proteasome system. He found that Bcl-xl PROTACs can selectively induce Bcl-xl degradation in senescent cells and various cancer cells but not in platelets, suggesting that Bcl-xl PROTACs have the potential to be developed as a better senolytic and anticancer agent than ABT263 by not causing thrombocytopenia. Using the PROTAC drug development platform, he is developing additional specific antitumor and better senolytic agents (Khan S et al. Nat Med, 25: 1938-1947, 2020; He Y et al. Nat Commun, 11: 1996, 2020).
Dirk Trauner
Dirk Trauner was born and raised in Linz, Austria, studied biology and chemistry at the University of Vienna, and received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Free University, Berlin. He then pursued graduate studies in chemistry under the direction of Prof. Johann Mulzer, with whom he moved to the University of Frankfurt and then back to Vienna where he obtained his Ph.D. Following a glorious stint in the Austrian Army, he became a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Samuel J. Danishefsky at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. After two great years in New York City, Dr. Trauner joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, where he rose through the ranks to become an Associate Professor of chemistry (with tenure) and a member of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2008, he moved to the University of Munich as a Prfesser of Chemistry and Chemical Genetics. In the Spring of 2017 he returned to the United States as the Janice Cutler Chair in Chemistry at New York University (Department of Chemistry). He is also an Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience at the NYU Langone School of Medicine, a member of the Neuroscience Institute and of the Perlmutter Cancer Center.
Fleur Ferguson
Dr. Ferguson received her M.Sc in Chemistry from Imperial College London, and her Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. She performed her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Nathanael Gray at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is currently and Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at U.C. San Diego.
Georg Winter
Georg Winter, PhD, obtained his degree from the Medical University of Vienna, working on elucidating the mechanism of action of anti-neoplastic drugs under the supervision of Prof. Giulio Superti-Furga. He specialized on proteomics- as well as chemical genetics approaches to identify drug resistance mechanisms and synergistic drug combinations. He continued his training in chemical biology, working as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. James Bradner the Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School. Supported by an EMBO fellowship, he innovated the first generalizable pharmacologic solution to in vivo target protein degradation (Winter et al., Science 2015). He was recruited as a CeMM Principal Investigator in June 2016 where his research is now focused on using the unique molecular pharmacology of targeted protein degradation to understand and disrupt fundamental principles of transcription and gene control aberrantly regulated in human cancers. Georg Winter (co-) authored 35 manuscripts including publications in Science, Nature, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Genetics, Elife and Molecular Cell. His interdisciplinary research lab consists of 6 Postdocs, 4 graduate students and 3 technical assistants trained in molecular biology, organic chemistry and computational biology, and is supported by several national and international grants and fellowships including an ERC Starting Grant. Dr. Winter’s contribution to the field of targeted protein degradation was acknowledged via multiple prices and awards, including the prestigious Eppendorf Award 2019 and the Elisabeth Lutz Award of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Ian Churcher
Ian joined Amphista Therapeutics as Chief Scientific Officer in 2020 where he leads a portfolio of projects focused on the development of next generation approaches to targeted protein degradation. Ian was one of the pioneers of the application of targeted protein degradation to drug discovery as Head of the Protein Degradation Discovery Performance Unit at GSK from 2012 including an extensive collaboration with Prof Craig Crews (Yale). Ian built a team which demonstrated the viability of the VHL-recruiting PROTAC strategy and advanced a portfolio of projects from early proof of degradation through to clinic-enabling studies. During a career in pharma at Merck & GSK, Ian led a range of discovery projects across many therapy areas from target validation through to lead optimisation and clinical entry as well as a number of applications of novel technology to drug discovery. More recently, Ian was SVP Drug Discovery at artificial intelligence biotech BenevolentAI where his team applied novel AI methods to tackling a series of drug discovery challenges across a portfolio of target identification and chemical optimisation projects.
Ian holds an MA and D.Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford where he was also Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemistry.
Jennifer Cyran
Jenni obtained her BSc in Anatomical Sciences from the University of Manchester. She then joined GlaxoWellcome just prior to it becoming GlaxoSmithKline. Jenni has spent most of her career in the field of high throughput cellular assay development and joined the world of protein degradation in 2016.
Katelyn Cassidy
Kathryn Eldridge
Kathryn Eldridge is a Partner in the Life Sciences and Chemistry group at Kilburn & Strode. She is extremely commercially focussed, and provides her clients (both start-ups and multinational companies) with a bespoke service which allows them to maximise the value of their Intellectual property. Kathryn has extensive experience managing global IP portfolios, as well as post-grant proceedings not just in Europe but in major territories such as China, Korea and Japan, allowing her to provide her clients with an effective patenting strategy to efficiently protect their commercial products.
Ksenya Cohen Katsenelson, Ph.D.
Dr. Ksenya Cohen Katsenelson is the group leader of San Diego R&D at Eurofins Discovery, responsible for developing new portfolio of biochemical assays, including the targeted protein degradation space. Ksenya has extensive experience in biochemical assays and cell-based assays. Prior to joining Eurofins, Ksenya was a postdoc research fellow at UCSD, where her research focused on phosphatases in transcription regulation in cancer and inflammation. Ksenya holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. She has 10+ years specializing in signal transduction, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, and she has published multiple papers in scientific journals.
Kusal Sumarasinghe
Mary Matyskiela
Mary Matyskiela is currently Executive Director of Molecular Sciences at a stealth-mode startup in the targeted protein degradation space. Mary received her B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University. She then went on to perform graduate work at the University of California San Francisco studying ubiquitin ligase mechanism, followed by postdoctoral studies at the University of California Berkeley on the architecture of the 26S proteasome. From there, she moved to Celgene/BMS where she spent 6 years developing targeted protein degradation technologies and expanding the horizons of molecular glue targeting through cereblon-CRL4.
Matthew Disney
Michelle Arkin
Michelle's lab develops innovative approaches to screen for chemical tools and drug leads, using biophysical approaches like fragment-based drug discovery and biological approaches including high-content imaging with primary cells and organisms. Our goal is to demonstrate 'druggability' of new target classes and to use our compounds to discover new targets for drug discovery. Areas of interest include protein-protein interactions, allosteric and scaffolding sites in enzymes, and orphan and neglected diseases. Michelle is co-Director of the Small Molecule Discovery Center, a collaborative research facility that includes high-throughput screening and medicinal chemistry.
Nir London
Dr. Nir London received his PhD from the Hebrew university in 2011. He joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, as an EMBO post-doc fellow starting in 2012, and joined the Weizmann Institute as a senior scientist in 2015. Dr. London's lab is focused on covalent chemical biology and drug discovery and has developed several technologies for the design of covalent inhibitors. His honors include the Chorev Award by the Israeli Chemical Society, the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award, a postdoctoral award from the Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research. Most recently he also received the Alon fellowship, an award of excellence from the Israel Cancer Association and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation - AACR Career Development Award for Translational Breast Cancer Research.
Paola Castaldi
Paola Castaldi is the Director and global Head of Chemical Biology & Proteomics at AstraZeneca. Her team is focused on supporting drug discovery programs across all therapeutics areas using state of the art technologies with specific emphasis on target identification, target engagement, MoA and off-target determination. Paola has played a critical role to establish a multi-omics and a therapeutic protein degradation platform at AstraZeneca providing both strategic and logistics directions. Before AstraZeneca, Paola was a key contributor of the Chemical Genetics group at Sanofi Oncology, Cambridge, MA with a focus on phenotypic drug discovery projects for the Wnt and KRAS oncogenic pathways. Prior to Sanofi Paola was at Makoto Life Sciences, where she was responsible for the chemistry strategies towards the identification of the PRPK/TPRKB complex as validated biological targets of immunomodulatory drugs that include lenalidomide (Revlimid), pomalidomide (Pomalyst) and thalidomide implicated in multiple myeloma. Paola Castaldi completed her undergraduate studies in pharmaceutical chemistry and received her Laurea (MSc) at University of Padova, Italy. She then went on to conduct graduate research studies at Imperial College London, UK and postdoctoral studies at UCSD and Boston University.
Something people may not know about her:
Paola is a mother of a 7-year-old girl and 9 years old boy and she loves travelling around the world with her family!!
--Paola practices heated power yoga to maintain focus and peace in her “crazy” daily life--
Raphael Franzini
Raphael Franzini received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University working in the group of Prof. Eric T. Kool. He then performed postdoctoral research in the group of Prof. Dario Neri at ETH Zürich. In 2015, he was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Utah. Research interests include the development of DNA-encoded libraries and their use for identifying chemical probes for NAD+-related targets as well as bioorthogonal chemistry for applications in drug delivery.
Rhamy Zeid
Rhamy Zeid leads the target biology group at C4 Therapeutics, a biotech company that is developing a new class of small molecules that direct the machinery of the ubiquitin-proteasome system to selectively degrade disease-relevant proteins for therapeutic benefit. His group uses a chemical biology approach to characterize the mechanistic and phenotypic consequences of targeted protein degraders towards clinical utility. Before joining C4 Therapeutics, Rhamy received his PhD from Harvard Medical School in the laboratory of Dr. James Bradner, where his work focused on the characterization and disruption of cis regulatory elements towards therapeutic application. Previously, Rhamy spent time in both pharmaceutical and academic environments as a drug discovery biologist focused on the development of novel therapeutics in oncology.
Ryan Potts
Ryan Potts, Ph.D. obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from UT Southwestern in 2007. In 2008 he was awarded the Sara and Frank McKnight junior faculty position at UT Southwestern Medical Center. During this time his lab focused on answering a long-standing question in cancer biology regarding the cellular function of cancer-testis antigen (CTAs) proteins. In 2011 he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His lab’s work defined a function for the enigmatic MAGE gene family in protein regulation through ubiquitination. In 2016 his lab moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he was an Associate Member in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. There his lab continued to work on CTAs, with a focus on elucidating the biochemical, cellular, physiological and pathological functions of the MAGE gene family. In 2020 he moved to Amgen, Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California to build a new department called the Induced Proximity Platform (IPP) that is focused on drugging the “undruggable”.
Sara Buhrlage
Sara Buhrlage, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Dana-Farber’s Cancer Biology Department and Harvard Medical School’s Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Department. Her research group focuses on the development of first-in-class inhibitors and prototype drugs for deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) that can be utilized to pharmacologically validate members of the gene family as new targets for cancer treatment and other diseases. DUBs have garnered significant attention recently as potential therapeutic targets in the field of oncology due to their removal of degradative ubiquitin marks from cancer causing proteins.
Prior to joining as a faculty member in July 2015, Dr. Buhrlage was a professional track scientist at Dana-Farber in the medicinal chemistry core laboratory. In this role she collaborated with Institute researchers to pharmacologically validate novel targets of disease and study mechanisms of oncogenesis and drug resistance.
Dr. Buhrlage completed a Doctor of Philosophy in organic chemistry in 2008, under the direction of Professor Anna Mapp, PhD, from the University of Michigan, where she successfully designed, synthesized and characterized small molecules that bind the transcriptional co-activator CBP and upregulate transcription when tethered to DNA. Following completion of her Doctor of Philosophy, Dr. Buhrlage trained for two years in medicinal chemistry at the Broad Institute.
Shanique Alabi
Shanique Alabi is a 6th year PhD candidate in the Pharmacology Department at Yale University. She is performing her PhD studies in the lab of Professor Craig Crews. Her work involves studying PROTAC induced degradation of kinases implicated in cancer. She is also interested in better understanding PROTAC mechanism of action and selectivity.
Shaomeng Wang
I have been working on the discovery and development of novel small-molecules therapeutics for more than 20 years. One area of my research has been focused on targeting protein-protein interactions which regulate apoptosis, including the PPIs between the anti-death Bcl-2 and pro-death Bcl-2 members, the MDM2-p53 PPI, and the PPI of IAP proteins with Smac. My research in targeting apoptosis has resulted in the discovery and advancement of 8 compounds into Phase I/II clinical development targeting Bcl-2/Bcl-xL, MDM2 and IAP proteins. In more recent years, I have expanded my research program to target a number of PPIs, which regulate epigenetics, including histone readers, writers and erasers, and have advanced several classes of compounds into advanced preclinical development. To accomplish our goals of discovering highly optimized compounds suitable for clinical development and rapidly advancing them into clinical development, I have established extensive collaborations with basic scientists, translational scientists and clinical investigators at UMCCC and in other institutions. I have co-founded five UM start-up companies to help us to bring our drugs into clinical development and marketplace. I have published 300+ peer-reviewed papers and an inventor of 50+ issued US patents and hundreds of international patents. I was elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2014 and as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2019, was induced into Hall of Fame of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of American Chemical Society in 2020. I was the 2014 University of Michigan Distinguished Innovator.
Tasuku Ishida
Tasuku Ishida completed his M.S.(2002) and Ph.D.(2005) at the University of Tokyo supervised by Prof. Shu Kobayashi. After obtained Ph.D. degree, he joined Eisai Co,. Ltd. as a medicinal chemist to develop new chemical entities in neuroscience area. In 2011, he was assigned to H3 Biomedicine Inc. in Massachusetts, US, which is one of Eisai’s subsidiary, as a senior investigator to construct diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) library. After coming back to Japan in 2015, he joined Oncology Business Group as a senior scientist to develop novel cancer therapies. In 2019, he moved to the UK for the collaborative project between the Prof. Alessio Ciulli group and Eisai to develop novel types of protein degraders.
Xiaozhang Zheng
Profile
Accomplished drug discovery leader with twenty years of pharmaceutical industry experience in the discovery and early development of small molecule therapeutics in oncology, inflammation, CNS, and other therapeutic areas. Ability to successfully deliver projects to achieve research and company goals including clinical trials, IND-enabling studies, and partnerships.
Education
Ph.D. , Medicinal Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN
Dissertation: Novel Antithrombotic Compounds: Synthesis, Stereochemistry, and Structure-Activity Relationships of Antiplatelet 3-Carbamoylpiperidines
Patents & Publications
Over 40 published patent applications and 20 US granted patents
37 publications
Testimonials
Previous attending companies
THE VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
We understand that this year conferences look a little different, and everyone is missing the interactivity that comes with a face-to-face event. That’s why we’ve made room for sessions that encourage networking with your peers. Learn about each of our new sessions:
Breakout Rooms/Debrief Sessions:
- Informal discussion rooms where you can sit with a coffee and meet other attendees. Discuss the biggest challenges in targeted protein degradation such as oral bioavailability, structure-activity relationships and e3 ligases, as well as collectively debriefing the day’s sessions.
1-2-1 Networking:
- Use our meeting platform to accept and send meeting requests to speakers and attendees. Use this time to establish new relationships with potential clients and collaborator, or just meet up with old friends to discuss the latest!
Panel Discussions:
- Use the chat and Q&A functions to add your own thoughts to the discussion or ask any questions to our expert panelists. This is a session that is as interactive as you make it- give us your two cents and spur a discussion!
Roundtables:
- Sign up to roundtables on the most pressing matters in targeted protein degradation. These sessions are hosted by our expert speaker faculty so use this time to ask questions and put forward your own thoughts. We’re all missing face-to-face interaction these days, so make sure your camera is on- don’t be shy!
Town Hall Meeting:
- An interview with leaders in the field, similar to a panel discussion, but with more structured questioning. Suggest any questions we may have missed using our Q&A function, or if you want to give your own thoughts on a question, use out chat function or raise your hand and come aboard the town hall meeting.
Speed Dating:
- 5-minute introductory meetings of 2-3 as an opportunity to have that ‘chance meeting’ and get acquainted with your fellow attendees. Feel free to follow up with a 1-2-1 meeting afterwards to continue your discussion!
Gold Partner
Promega
Website: https://www.promega.com
Promega is committed to excellence in technologies and compound profiling services to assess key processes in Targeted Protein Degradation and Induced Proximity mechanisms. From assessing protein degradation in real time, to understanding compound binding and permeability, to ternary complex formation and more. Our CRIPSR HiBiT content covers hundreds of pre-built targets. Novel software analysis tools allow for the determination of target protein degradation rates, DC50 potency values, recovery profiles and more.
Expertise Partner
Eurofins Discovery
Website: https://www.eurofins.com/biopharma-services/discovery/
Eurofins Discovery supports Drug Discovery through the combined expertise of Cerep, DiscoverX, EMD Millipore, Panlabs, Villapharma, and Selcia Drug Discovery. We offer a broad portfolio including medicinal and synthetic chemistry, in vitro pharmacology products and services, cell-based phenotypic assays, ADME-Tox, in vivo drug safety and efficacy, custom proteins and assay development services.
Eurofins Discovery is pleased to announce the launch of new targeted protein degradation services utilizing the novel E3scan™ technology for diverse E3 ligases, including CRBN, VHL, MDM2, MDMX, cIAP1, cIAP2, and XIAP. The panel of E3 ligase assays are robust, high-throughput, and can be used to support an SAR campaign from start to finish. Eurofins Discovery also offers engineered biosensor cell lines. Based on CRISPR gene editing techniques and enzyme fragment complementation, these cell lines enable sensitive quantitation of PROTAC-mediated degradation of a target of interest in physiologically-relevant cell models. Ask a Eurofins Discovery representative about these new offerings.
Pelago Bioscience AB
Website: https://www.pelagobio.com/
Pelago Bioscience AB established in 2013 provides and develops the patented Cellular Thermal Shift Assay (CETSA®) for use in determination and quantification of drug–target interactions, to accelerate drug discovery and diagnostics development. CETSA® provides a quantitative measure of target engagement and the biophysical readout of affinity, and adds real value to existing efficacy assays. We deliver complete target engagement hit confirmation data sets, develop and validate assays for use in screening cascades, and profile candidate drugs based on the CETSA® method, tailored to the project need.
Event Partner
BioTheryX
Website: https://www.biotheryx.com/
BioTheryX, Inc., founded by the drug development team behind the remarkable IMiDs® franchise of compounds, is applying its extensive and proven clinical and commercial success to deliver efficacious therapies to patients with unmet medical needs focusing on orally available small molecules for the treatment of cancers and inflammatory diseases. Our lead molecule is currently in Phase I clinical trial for Acute Myeloid Leukemia and high-risk MDS and our lead protein degradation “molecular glue” molecule (Protein Homeostatic Modulator or PHM®) will be in the clinic in 2021 for hematological malignancies.
2021 Agenda
We're thrilled to share that the full program for the North American Protein Degradation Congress 2021 can now be downloaded by putting in your details on the right hand side!
Download Agenda
PARTNER WITH US
Based on your objectives, we can create bespoke packages designed specifically for you. Opportunities predominantly lie in 3 main categories: Thought Leadership, Branding, and Networking.
Interested in a media partnership?
We'd love to hear from you and how we can support one another to connect with the industry. Contact [email protected]
Degrader Clinic:
- This event aims to establish a rationale for degrader drug development: What makes a good degrader? What makes a good target? What is the best practice to employ in my programme? These are questions that will be deliberated at the Degrader Clinic 2021
- Showcase how your technology, assay, computational tool or know how as a CRO can be best-practice in a degrader program
- We’re offering the chance to moderate roundtables and be part of the discussion to position yourself as a knowledge leader in the industry
Women in Science:
- Do you have a strong, internal Diversity and Inclusion programme that showcases your dedication to improving opportunities to women in STEM?
- Partner with us to highlight what your organization is doing to provide the necessary support to women in this area of drug discovery
At our main event:
- Showcase your expertise as Keynote speaker on our agenda
- Present the latest from your technology or conduct workshops to demonstrate your offering
- Host and moderate on roundtable discussions and panels
- Partner with us for branding and networking opportunities at out virtual events
- We can facilitate 1-2-1 meetings and introductions to industry leaders
- Showcase your offerings at virtual booths
Webinars:
- Do you want to showcase a new technology and promote how this can help the field of targeted degradation?
Conference Packages
Sending Your Team? Group Discounts Available!
Applicable for Primary Market, Service Provider and Industry Rates Only. Not available for Academic or ‘Start-Up’ rates
Book a Team of 3+ - Save an Additional 10% Off
Book a Team of 5+ - Save an Additional 15% Off
If you would like to register a team of 3 or more, please email [email protected] for your discount coupon code before registering. PLEASE NOTE: Discounts cannot be combined with Early Bird Pricing or any other discount or offer. If you have any questions about your registration, please call us on +44 (0)20 3696 2920
Ticket price will increase in
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About Kisaco Research
Kisaco Research produces, designs and hosts B2B industry conferences, exhibitions and communities – focused on a specialized selection of topic areas.
Meet industry peers that will help build a career-changing network for life.
Learn from the mistakes of your peers as much as their successes—ambitious industry stalwarts who are happy to share not just what has made them successful so far but also their plans for future proofing their companies.
Note down the inspired insight that will form the foundation for future strategies and roadmaps, both at our events and through our online communities.
Invest both in your company growth and your own personal development by signing up to one of our events and get started.