Conference Day Two | Thursday, 30th January, 2025
8:25 am Morning Registration, Light Breakfast & Welcome Coffee
8:55 am
9:25 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
9:00 am Applying learnings from VMTs to LBP Consortium Selection
Synopsis
- Key learnings from the Dyscover-1 clinical trial where an antibiotic free vaginal microbiota transplant (VMT) was used to treat vaginal dysbiosis
- Selection and design of an LBP consortium
Mechanistic Data: Demonstrating Impact on Disease Pathways to Accelerate the Pace of Innovation
9:30 am Unblocking the Full Potential of Microbiota: 3D Mucus Models to Revolutionize In Vitro Research
Synopsis
- Seamless Simplicity: Ready-to-use mucus models that recreate native environments, ensuring microbiota thrives under natural-like conditions
- Accelerate Innovation: A reliable high throughput in vitro preclinical platform to streamline and derisk microbiome-modulating drug development and Biotech
- Breaking Barriers in Biotech: Unlocking the growth of hard-to-culture bacteria using Bac3Gel growth enhancers to increase yield of production of microorganisms and/ or molecules of interest
- Mucus-associated microbiome: Insight from an advanced, non-invasive in vitro colon model—a game-changer for gut-microbiome research!
10:00 am Enhancing Understanding of Mechanisms of Action to Demonstrate Re-Programming of the Immune System
Synopsis
- Understanding the MoA of microbiome therapeutics, using an approach to investigate the immune system and targets of interest
- Identifying components of bacteria and immune cells interacting with cellular pathways to demonstrate re programming of the immune system, using both in vivo and ex vivo models
- Outlining next steps, for both translational studies and clinical trials ongoing
10:30 am Scaling- up robust bioprocesses up to 20 m3: Sacco System’s innovative approaches to microbial therapeutics
Synopsis
- Sacco System at a glance: comprehensive services in the development and GMP production of Live Biotherapeutics for all applications
- Our Process for Biotherapeutics – from strain intake to production
- Our latest work in developing and producing facultative and strict anaerobes: in particular our efforts in improving long-term stability, including flow cytometry analysis as an early estimation of cellular fitness and its effect on long-term stability
10:30 am Morning Networking Break
Synopsis
Meet and connect with your peers in this dedicated networking session
Leveraging Analytical Methodologies to Bring Clarity to Complex Modalities
11:30 am Preclinical Development of KAN-001: Using Kanvas’ In-House Spatial Host-Microbiome Platform to Inform & Accelerate LBP Development
Synopsis
- KAN-001 is a complex LBP consortia candidate derived from a single cancer patient who had a complete response to ICI therapy
- The patient’s stool, through FMT, has converted multiple ICI-refractory patients to responders
- Kanvas’ spatial biology platform was used to accelerate strain isolation, visually measure engraftment and inform consortia member selection via microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions
12:00 pm Panel Discussion: Unravelling Complex Technologies in Microbiome Analysis
Synopsis
- Which bioinformatics tools are allowing for more precise identification of microbial species and their functions, enabling better understanding of the role of specific microbes in health and disease?
- How can we address the current challenges of standardisation and reproducibility in microbiome analysis?
- What role does AI/Machine learning play in the future of microbiome analysis?
1:00 pm Lunch Break
Synopsis
Take this chance to meet the expert speakers, connect with your peers and explore our exhibition booths.
2:00 pm A 2024 Landscape Review and Future Outlooks of Microbiome Therapeutic
Synopsis
- Gain exclusive insights into the current state of play for the preclinical and clinical landscapes of Microbiome drug development
- Delve into the array of disease indications being targeted today, with insight on which therapeutic modalities capturing industry attention
- Align your pipeline strategy with key industry leaders, outlining overall highlights of the year, and exploring future outlooks for 2025
Microbiome Discoveries & Innovations: Enhancing Drug Delivery, Prediction of Response & Addressing Unmet Need
2:30 pm Advancing Microbiome-Based Assessment of Disease Activity in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Synopsis
- The current state of the microbiome as a biomarker in IBD and its potential clinical applications
- Assessment of taxonomic vs. functional profiling as a diagnostic
- A novel machine learning model to predict Crohn’s disease (CD) activity using functional microbiome profiling
3:00 pm Leveraging Big Data to Link Microbiome Changes to Human Readouts – Where Are We?
Synopsis
- Sharing the development of a translational platform, discussing data generation and model training approaches to predict in-human response
- Evolving correlative hypothesis to contextual expressions, through understanding how environments impact microbial functions
- Meaningful progression towards a disease-agnostic approach to microbial MoA prediction
3:30 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks & End of Summit
3:30 pm Living Cures: Engineering a Programmable Therapeutic Platform
Synopsis
- Engineering a new class of programmable bacteria for precise and targeted therapeutic payload delivery to tumour sites
- Leveraging synthetic biology tools to increase the safety and efficacy of therapeutic interventions