Pre-Conference Day | Tuesday, 28th January, 2025
8:00 am Morning Registration, Light Breakfast & Welcome Coffee
8:55 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Exploring the Gut-Brain Axis: Unveiling New Therapeutic Opportunities
9:00 am Microbiota & Neurodegenerative Diseases: An Overview of Epidemiological Evidence & Future Research Directions
Synopsis
- Current evidence linking gut microbiota composition and activity to Alzheimer’s disease
- Mechanisms underlying the role of microbiota in Alzheimer’s disease
- Uncovering microbiota biomarkers predictive of disease, moving towards precision medicine and less invasive testing options for patients
9:30 am Developing Novel Therapeutics for Gut-Immune-Brain Axis Disorders
Synopsis
- An introduction to Gut-Brain axis biology, and manifestations of disease pathogenesis resulting from complex interaction between the host immune system, nervous system, and gut microbes
- Leveraging evolutionary biology to validate Human Milk Oligosaccharide (HMO) molecules as safe and affordable therapeutics
- Expanding therapeutic horizons beyond the gut-brain axis
10:00 am Extended Q&A: Resetting Thinking Around the Gut-Brain Axis
10:30 am Morning Networking Break
Synopsis
Meet and connect with your peers in this dedicated networking session
Microbial Correlations with Diverse Disease: Revealing New Avenues for Therapeutic Intervention
11:00 am Microbiome Risk Factors & Disease Severity in the Context of Sepsis – Assay Development for Earlier Disease Prediction
Synopsis
- Linking microbiome data to sepsis prediction to improve outcomes in neonates and prematures, and with future applications across disease to improve timely therapy and opportunities for novel therapeutic development
- Defining an algorithm based on metagenomes to associate bacterial properties such as antibiotic resistance, to development if late onset sepsis
- Reducing complexities of metagenomics through the development of a rapid assay detecting microbiome-based risks of infants of sepsis
11:30 am Roundtable Discussion: What is the Next Frontier for Microbial R&D Beyond GI? Promising Indications Paired with Commercial Potential
Synopsis
- Discuss the most promising therapeutic areas where microbial interventions may have a significant impact and whether these areas match with commercial viability
- Across IO, women’s health, gut-brain axis, respiratory, skin, cardiometabolic and more, where is industry’s interest moving? And what pipeline strategies are likely to see success?
- Uncover promising avenues for future microbiome R&D, and walk away with expert insight on indications presenting the strongest therapeutic rationale and market opportunities
12:30 pm Lunch Break
Synopsis
Take this chance to meet the expert speakers, and connect with your peers to meet fresh and familiar faces, or even your next collaborator!
1:30 pm Lung Microbiota Insights: Uncovering Opportunities for Microbiome Manipulation in Respiratory Disease
Synopsis
- Leveraging metagenomic/16s sequencing approaches to investigate baseline microbiome compositions
- Evaluating techniques and collaboration with immunologists to understand microbiome interactions with immune cells, across lab and patient-based settings
- Spotlighting perspectives on where the greater opportunities lie across respiratory disease areas, for continued research and therapeutic development for addressing microbial dysbiosis
2:00 pm Culturomics for Exploiting the Oral & the Gut Microbiota – Towards Next Generation Probiotics
Synopsis
- Most probiotics come from Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, but recent research shows that oral and gut microbiota are a rich, untapped source for next-generation probiotics
- We created the Cultivated Oral Bacteria Genome Reference (COGR) with 1089 genomes and the Cultivated Genome Reference (CGR2) with 3324 genomes, including 179 newly identified species from oral and gut bacteria
- Several isolated species have been tested in mouse models for metabolic disorders, demonstrating potential as candidates for next-generation probiotics with therapeutic benefits
2:30 pm Interactive Roundtable: Bridging the Gap: From Microbiome Analytical Insights to Therapeutic Development Beyond the Gut
Synopsis
- Discuss the analytical challenges associating the microbiome to diseases affecting the lungs, skin and other non-GI organs
- Address variability in sample collection and microbial viability in different organ systems
- Consider perspectives on data integrity related to benchmarking, microbial mining and characterising functional outputs
3:30 pm Afternoon Networking Break
The Microbiome & Women’s Health
4:00 pm Translating Our Understanding of the Vaginal Microbiome to Innovative Live Biotherapeutic Interventions
Synopsis
- Leveraging multi-omic data and ecological knowledge to design innovative LBPs
- Designing rationally designed multi-strain LBPs for preventing recurrence of bacterial vaginosis and restoring vaginal health
- Demonstrating safety and efficacy of a synbiotics in the consumer setting to support therapeutic development
4:30 pm An Update on MET-201: Preclinical Progress in UTI & Indication Expansion Strategy Ahead
Synopsis
- MVT-201 is an orally administered capsule generated under cGMP conditions that represents the complete microbiota ecosystem
- New in vitro / in vivo data, leveraging infectious disease models, generating stability data
- Developing a strategy for whole ecosystem derived and consortia LBP therapeutic development for indications beyond infectious, based on market analysis and opportunities provided by novel platform development