PLENARY KEYNOTE SESSION

Wednesday, 18 November | 15:45 – 16:50

Chairperson's Remarks
Jennifer R. CochranJennifer R. Cochran, PhD, Macovski Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University; Co-Founder, Red Tree VC


The Making of Multispecific Antibodies—A Clinical Perspective
Roland KontermannRoland Kontermann, PhD, Professor & Deputy Head, Biomedical Engineering, University of Stuttgart

  • How has the field of multispecific antibodies evolved in recent years?
  • What are the modes of action utilised by multispecific antibodies?
  • What are the frequently used targets and target combinations?
  • What are the emerging applications?

The Future of T Cell Engagers
Patrick BaeuerlePatrick Baeuerle, PhD, Chief Scientific Advisor, Cullinan Therapeutics, Inc.

  • How will in vivo CAR T cells impact TCEs?
  • Will we ever see CAR T cells approved in solid tumour indications?
  • Which ongoing developments of TCEs are most relevant? (e.g., combo with SoC, multitargeting, conditional)

FIRESIDE CHAT: Emerging Modalities and the Future of Antibody Engineering
PANEL MODERATOR:
Jennifer R. CochranJennifer R. Cochran, PhD, Macovski Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University; Co-Founder, Red Tree VC

  • What it takes to bring modalities to fruition, business aspects
  • Combinations and sequential therapies
  • Cross-modalities
  • How might peptides be combined with antibodies? or oligos?
  • Addressing unmet medical need

PANELISTS:
Roland KontermannRoland Kontermann, PhD, Professor & Deputy Head, Biomedical Engineering, University of Stuttgart


Patrick BaeuerlePatrick Baeuerle, PhD, Chief Scientific Advisor, Cullinan Therapeutics, Inc.


Ulrike PhilipparUlrike Philippar, PhD, Vice President Oncology, Global Head of Discovery, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine


Plenary Keynote Biographies

Patrick Baeuerle, PhD, Chief Scientific Advisor, Cullinan Therapeutics, Inc.
Dr. Patrick A. Baeuerle is the co-founder of six MPM oncology portfolio companies including Harpoon Therapeutics, iOmx Therapeutics, Maverick Therapeutics, TCR² Therapeutics, Werewolf Therapeutics and Cullinan Oncology, where he is the acting CSO of Biologics. Patrick serves on the board of directors of Harpoon, TCR2 and iOmx, is a scientific advisor to Harpoon, iOmx, Werewolf, and TCR2, and an investment committee member of the UBS Oncology Impact Fund (OIF), an oncology-only crossover fund (both private and public equities) managed by MPM. Prior to joining MPM as an Executive Partner in 2015, Patrick served as Vice President of Research and General Manager of Amgen Research Munich GmbH and as CSO for Micromet, where he was responsible for the development of BiTE antibody Blincyto®, which was approved by the U.S. FDA in 2014 in less than three months as a therapy for relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He earlier headed small-molecule drug discovery at Tularik, a publicly traded biotechnology company acquired by Amgen. Prior to this, he was Professor and Chairman of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Medical Faculty of Freiburg University, Germany, where he did groundbreaking research on transcription factor NF-kappaB. Patrick is the recipient of Xconomy’s 2019 “X of the Year Award”, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s 2019 Lennart Philipson Award in recognition of his many contributions to the development of cancer immunotherapies. To date, he has published 243 PubMed-listed papers that have been cited more than 72,500 times. He has a Hirsh index of 129 and was rated to be among the top 0.01% of most frequently cited scientist (Stanford study by Ioannides et al., 2019). Patrick holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Munich (LMU) and performed post-doctoral research with Dr. David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an Honorary Professor of Immunology of the Medical Faculty of LMU.

Jennifer R. Cochran, PhD, Macovski Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University; Co-Founder, Red Tree VC
Jennifer’s passion lies in developing innovative medicines for applications in oncology, immunology, and regenerative medicine, within both academia and industry. She was recruited in 2005 as one of the founding faculty members in Stanford’s Bioengineering department, served as its Chair from 2017-2022, and is the Macovski Professor of Bioengineering and (by courtesy) Chemical Engineering. In addition to her faculty roles, she served as Senior Associate Vice Provost for Research at Stanford from 2023-2026 and is currently Vice President for SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and for Strategic Initiatives at Stanford. A serial innovator and entrepreneur, she founded several companies including xCella Biosciences (acquired by Ligand (LGND), now OmniAb (OABI)), Combangio (acquired by Kala Pharmaceuticals), TwoStep Therapeutics, Threefold Therapeutics, and Photinia Biosciences.

In 2020, Jennifer co-founded Red Tree Venture Capital, a west coast-centric, early-stage biased life sciences investment firm, and serves as Chief Scientific Advisor. She strives to drive impact through her board roles at OmniAb, Excellergy Therapeutics, Rondo Therapeutics, Kivu Bioscience, Biograph55, Ebvio, and Revel Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Cochran obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from MIT and completed postdoctoral fellowships at MIT in Biological Engineering and at UPenn in Biophysics. She was inducted as a fellow to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the National Academy of Engineering, the latter with a citation for “contributions to biopharmaceutical protein discovery and development, biotechnology entrepreneurship, and leadership in academic bioengineering.

Roland Kontermann, PhD, Professor & Deputy Head, Biomedical Engineering, University of Stuttgart
Roland Kontermann received his PhD in molecular biology from the University of Heidelberg. From 1993-1996 he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Sir Gregory Winter at the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering in Cambridge (UK) where he started his work in the field of recombinant antibodies and phage display technology. From 1996-2000 he was a group leader at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Tumor Research (IMT) at the University of Marburg, where he also obtained his habilitation in molecular biology. Between 2001 and 2004 he was head of biotechnology and later on head of research of a co-founded Biotech company working in the field of targeted drug delivery systems. In 2004 he was appointed Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Institute of Cell Biology and Immunology (University of Stuttgart), endowed until 2014 by the Deutsche Krebshilfe. Current research interests focus on the development of recombinant antibodies and bispecific and bifunctional antibody fusion proteins with improved biological and pharmacokinetic properties for cancer therapy and other indications. He has published more then 160 articles and is editor of several books on antibody engineering and bispecific antibodies.

Ulrike Philippar, PhD, Vice President Oncology, Global Head of Discovery, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
PhD in Cellular Biology at the University of Tuebingen, Germany; Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT Cancer Center, Cambridge, USA; 6 years in Oncology R&D at Merck & Co., Boston, USA; since 12.5 years at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine Oncology R&D, Beerse, Belgium; current position: Vice President Oncology, Global Head of Discovery, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine