Add a first-day workshop to your Annual Meeting registration!

Please note: You must be registered for the meeting to add on a workshop! More information on workshop rates is available here.

Tuesday, May 16

8 a.m. - 12 p.m.

CMC Development Challenges and How to Avoid Them

For gene and cell therapy developers, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) considerations can make or break a product. This workshop will present attendees with information they can use to make timely, informed decisions throughout the development cycle to help them avoid or overcome common CMC challenges. The workshop will begin with a series of presentations from experts with experience at multiple stages of development, followed by a panel Q&A. Afterwards, attendees will split into breakout groups to consider one or more hypothetical scenarios and suggest possible courses of action based on what they learned from the presenters. Finally, discussion leaders will reconvene to share ideas from each group and help illuminate key themes.

How to Become a Site for AAV GT Trials

Speakers during this workshop will outline the steps needed to become a site for AAV gene therapy trials and discuss what is needed to treat and monitor patients before, during, and after therapy treatments. Participants will be asked to view several of the past Patient Education videos and Professional Development Café sessions prior to discussion. This workshop will begin with a lightning round, then have small groups walking through the discussions, and end with a final panel discussion of all speakers.

How to Make the Most of Your Annual Meeting Experience

The overarching objective of this workshop is to help our audience lay down their own personal foundations for making the most out of a large meeting. This means we will prime various topics, mostly by asking questions, so that each individual can decipher for themselves what it is they need and how best to get it out of the ASGCT Annual Meeting.

The Magic Year: Founders Tips for What to Do in Your Last Six Months in Academia & First Six Months in Industry

Spinning a company straight out of academia can be a daunting task for first-time technical founders. Come hear first-hand experience from academic founders and VCs who put "first money in" with actionable insights you can implement right away. This will be a unique workshop structured to provide two hours of talks on useful “news you can use,” a 30-minute panel with founders letting you peek behind the curtain into their personal founding journey, and then a full 1.5 hours of open mentoring time at round tables so that you can get feedback and support for your actual startup idea on the spot. Bring your idea, your draft pitch deck, or anything else you have and we’ll give you feedback.

Precise Genome Editing: One Goal, Multiple Avenues

Decades of refinements have made precision gene editing a clinical reality. In this workshop, our speakers will describe some of the available platforms, highlighting how various strategies can be used to enhance the precision and efficiency of genome editing. Furthermore, our speakers will provide current examples that make use of these innovative technologies in the clinic.

Immune Effector Cells: 2023 and Beyond

With the goals of reflecting back on the advances made over the past decade in adoptive cell therapy (ACT) based platforms, this session will: 1) highlight novel advances in some of the earliest forms of ACT, 2) provide an overview of current landscape of CAR T-cells, and 3) outline future directions for ACT in the next decade. Given the clear importance of ACT in cancer therapies and beyond, this session will energize and inform all those interested in learning more about the past, present, and future of immunotherapy.

Accessibility of Gene Therapy: From Precision Medicine to Market Approved Therapies

The advent of recently translated technologies, including antisense oligonucleotides and CRISPR-mediated gene editing, has resulted in a new era of patient specific medicine and unprecedented drug development for individual patients. There are also gene therapies achieving first-time market approval for indications, such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), maximizing availability of these therapies for patients. In this interactive workshop, you will learn from both scientific and patient advocate perspectives, along with participating in round table discussions on the topics. We will explore the spectrum of accessibility for gene therapies  covering: 1) precision medicine advances, 2) expanded access approaches, 3) conventional clinical trial design, and 4) and market approved therapies.

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