Explore the Agenda

7:30 am Check In, Coffee & Light Breakfast

8:25 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

University Lecturer, University of Basel

Translating Mechanistic Preclinical & Allergy Insights into Predictive ASIT Trials

8:30 am Potency Assays in Tolerance Therapies: Driving Reproducibility, Standardization & Predictive Value

Chief Executive Officer, Barinthus Biotherapeutics
  • Implementing standardized methodologies to create consistent and reliable potency assays for tolerance therapies, ensuring product quality and regulatory compliance
  • Establishing clear acceptance criteria and validation protocols for potency assays, moving beyond theoretical frameworks to provide actionable guidelines for clinical and commercial applications
  • Utilizing mechanistic insights from potency assays to predict therapeutic outcomes, guiding dose optimization and patient stratification for improved clinical efficacy

9:30 am Targeting the Thymus to Transform Outcomes in Autoimmune Disease

Chief Scientific Officer, Zag Bio
  • Comparison of regulatory T cells, peripheral regulatory T cells, and alternative immunetolerance mechanisms, highlighting their distinct biology and therapeutic relevance
  • Reviewing current preclinical and emerging clinical evidence, outlining how each approach contributes to immune modulation
  • Insights into key challenges, translational hurdles, and notable successes that are shaping the future development of targeted immunotherapies 

10:00 am Roundtable Discussion: Utilising Human Centred Models with Applicable Biomarker Drive Mechanism-Based Insights & Durable Immune Tolerance

  • Creating models to mirror human disease biology to create predictive mechanically relevant models for autoimmune conditions
  • Exploring the growing interest in in vitro and biomarker-based models that could complement or replace animal studies
  • How significant are immune phenotypes in mice or other animals, how important are these immune changes and will they derive long lasting immune tolerance

10:30 am Morning Break & Networking

Targeting Immune Cell Pathways to Drive Durable Tolerance: Integrating T & B Cell Modulation for Next-Generation ASIT

11:00 am Beyond B-Cell Depletion: Targeting Pathogenic T & Myeloid Cell Subsets to Achieve Durable Autoimmune Remission

Director, Immunology Discovery, AbbVie
  • Explores T-cell subsets beyond B-cell depletion—particularly tissue-resident memory, follicular helper, and peripheral helper T cells—as key drivers of autoimmune persistence and B-cell activation
  • Examines evidence that selective depletion or modulation of these T-cell and myeloid populations may deliver deep, durable disease control comparable to B-cell–targeted approaches
  • Addresses translational challenges including efficient tissue-level depletion, optimizing delivery and biodistribution of therapeutic modalities, and defining biomarkers that capture local immune modulation

11:30 am Modulating T & B Cell Interactions to Achieve Durable Immune Tolerance in ASIT

Chief Operating Officer, Ahead Therapeutics
  • Ahead MiMiTOPs display a broad, cross-disease mechanism of action
  • Antigen-presenting cells from patients with T1D, RA, MG, MS and iTTP acquire a tolerogenic phenotype following interaction with MiMiTOPs. Dendritic cells and macrophages become tolerogenic, reducing their ability to drive autoreactive T cell proliferation, while B lymphocytes directly internalize MiMiTOPs and secrete TGF-β and IL-10, adopting an immunoregulatory phenotype
  • Through coordinated effects on innate and adaptive immunity, MiMiTOPs provide an antigen-specific strategy to support long-term immune tolerance

NEW DATA

12:00 pm Lunch & Networking Break

Innovations in Translational ASIT: Antigen Discovery Platforms to Advance Antigen Selection, Targeting & Measurement

1:00 pm TScan’s Antigen Discovery Platform Enables Tolerizing Therapies Through Identification of CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cell Targets

Director, Technology & Platform Discovery, TScan Therapeutics
  • Introduction to TargetScan, a cell-based, unbiased platform that pairs naturally presented antigens with their cognate TCRs
  • Demonstrating TargetScan’s ability to identify both CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cell targets in example indications such as ankylosing spondylitis, birdshot uveitis, scleroderma, and ulcerative colitis
  • Exploring novel biologically validated targets that enable antigen-specific tolerizing therapies in indications such as ankylosing spondylitis

1:30 pm Roundtable Discussion: Leveraging AI Platforms to Predict Optimal Antigens & Accelerate Translational ASIT Development

  • Applying AI to predict the most suitable antigens for immune tolerance, potentially accelerating discovery and improving target selection
  • Many AI platforms exist, but validation of predicted antigens is still limited, and false leads remain a challenge
  • Explore novel approaches, integrate new technologies, and refine predictive models for translational applications

2:00 pm Afternoon Break

Engineering Durable Immune Tolerance: From Gene Editing & Thymic Regeneration to Safe, Translational Antigen-Specific Therapies

2:30 pm Advancing Gene-Edited Cell Therapies in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Streamlined Clinical Development for Multi-Indication Translation

Chief Scientific Officer, RheumaGen
  • Highlighting a platform-centric gene editing strategy that harmonizes clinical protocols and manufacturing processes, allowing a single target modification to be applied across multiple autoimmune indications
  • Showcasing a multi-indication clinical development pathway that leverages Phase I safety and mechanistic insights to accelerate Phase II expansion, streamlining translation across diverse disease contexts

NEW DATA

3:00 pm Rebuilding Central Tolerance: Translating iPSC-Derived Thymic Cell Therapies Into the Clinic

Vice President Head of Technical Operations, Tolerance Bio
  • Exploring the thymus – the central organ responsible for establishing and maintaining immune tolerance
  • Development of iPSC – derived thymic cells that demonstrate in vivo T cell education to re-establish central tolerance in immune-related diseases
  • Unlocking the potential of thymus – based regenerative medicine to restore immune balance

3:30 pm Chair Closing Remarks

University Lecturer, University of Basel