Why Attend
The Protein Degradation and Targeting Undruggables Summit is the only industry-led forum giving you in-person insight into the full range of novel therapeutic approaches targeting the undruggable and expanding the scope of therapeutically reachable targets. Entering its 3rd edition, this event will take place over two face-to-face days in Boston (8-9 March 2022) and two digital days (7 & 10 March 2022) and will allow you to have in-depth conversations on the latest in vitro and in vivo data driving forward the translation of undrugged research into clinically and commercially viable products.
Featuring characteristics of lacking defined ligand-binding pockets, non-catalytic protein–protein interaction functional modes and less-investigated 3D structures, undruggable targets have needed unconventional drug discovery approaches, such as proximity-dependent transcription factor and molecular glue degradation, to generate novel therapeutic entities. This open forum is a unique opportunity to gather with leading biopharma, expert academic centers and innovative service providers to discuss and share R&D strategies for progressing novel modalities at the frontier of drug discovery.
For this year’s edition of the conference there will be enhanced focus on:
- Enabling selectivity and specificity of targeting transcription factors
- Emerging modalities outside PROTACs
- Dedicated discussion on challenges including lead optimization, phenotypic assays and identifying new E3 ligases
Ensure your R&D team takes full advantage of the informative industry presentations, interactive panel discussions and returns to create broadly applicable drug platforms capable of creating new degrader molecules against additional high value targets and producing commercially robust product pipelines. Do not get left behind in this dynamic, fast-moving field and secure your place today at the most up-to-date and informative congress in the field of undrugged.
2022 SPEAKERS

Matthew Disney

Nicolas Thomä
My laboratory has set out to combine structural biology, cell biology and complex biochemical in vitro reconstitutions to address the molecular workings of these chromatin-bound complex assemblies. Our focus is on machines that detect and repair mutations in the DNA, and those that make possible the accurate passage of epigenetic information to the daughter generation.

Kevin Foley

Adam Gilbert
My group supports several important medchem platforms for Pfizer: protein degradation, DNA-encoded library chemistry, large and small-scale compound purification and phenotypic screening deconvolution. Scientists in my group specialize in design and synthetic medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, purification science as well as molecular property analysis.

John Castle

Dan Nomura

Eric Fischer
Eric Fischer, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and a Principal Investigator in the Department of Cancer Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His research focuses on understanding the complex mechanisms that underlie function and regulation of multi-component ubiquitin ligases and their role in disease. His work further focuses on new therapeutic approaches such as targeted protein degradation. He co-directs the DFCI Center for Protein Degradation and has been recognized for his pioneering work on the structure of cereblon and the mechanism of action of thalidomide.

Charles Lin

Hyunsun Jo

Jason Hipp

Matthew Calabrese

Fiona Pachl

Zoran Rankovic

Dirksen Bussiere

Matthias Brand

Scott Hughes

Matthew Bogyo

Seth Morgalis

Shaomeng Wang
I have been working on the discovery and development of novel small-molecules therapeutics for more than 20 years. One area of my research has been focused on targeting protein-protein interactions which regulate apoptosis, including the PPIs between the anti-death Bcl-2 and pro-death Bcl-2 members, the MDM2-p53 PPI, and the PPI of IAP proteins with Smac. My research in targeting apoptosis has resulted in the discovery and advancement of 8 compounds into Phase I/II clinical development targeting Bcl-2/Bcl-xL, MDM2 and IAP proteins. In more recent years, I have expanded my research program to target a number of PPIs, which regulate epigenetics, including histone readers, writers and erasers, and have advanced several classes of compounds into advanced preclinical development. To accomplish our goals of discovering highly optimized compounds suitable for clinical development and rapidly advancing them into clinical development, I have established extensive collaborations with basic scientists, translational scientists and clinical investigators at UMCCC and in other institutions. I have co-founded five UM start-up companies to help us to bring our drugs into clinical development and marketplace. I have published 300+ peer-reviewed papers and an inventor of 50+ issued US patents and hundreds of international patents. I was elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2014 and as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2019, was induced into Hall of Fame of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of American Chemical Society in 2020. I was the 2014 University of Michigan Distinguished Innovator.

Ryan Potts
Ryan Potts, Ph.D. obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from UT Southwestern in 2007. In 2008 he was awarded the Sara and Frank McKnight junior faculty position at UT Southwestern Medical Center. During this time his lab focused on answering a long-standing question in cancer biology regarding the cellular function of cancer-testis antigen (CTAs) proteins. In 2011 he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His lab’s work defined a function for the enigmatic MAGE gene family in protein regulation through ubiquitination. In 2016 his lab moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he was an Associate Member in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. There his lab continued to work on CTAs, with a focus on elucidating the biochemical, cellular, physiological and pathological functions of the MAGE gene family. In 2020 he moved to Amgen, Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California to build a new department called the Induced Proximity Platform (IPP) that is focused on drugging the “undruggable”.

Raj Lehal

Amit Choudhary
Amit grew up in a farmer’s family in India and like the other kids “in the hood”, his early career aspirations included joining the army or becoming a cricketer. Amit’s pre-doctoral studies at the Indian Institute of Science‒Bangalore (IISc) involved the total synthesis of natural products and protein folding studies. He was ranked among top 5 students nationwide in the entrance exams of IITs and IISc. In 2006, he moved to Univ. of Wisconsin‒Madison to pursue his graduate studies with Prof. Ron Raines. Amit’s doctoral thesis describes the discovery of a force (termed n→π* interactions) that is akin to the hydrogen bond in its quantum mechanical origin and widespread prevalence in biomolecules.
Amit got interested in infectious disease and diabetes on observing a rampant prevalence of tuberculosis-triggered diabetes in many Indian families, including his own. In 2011, Amit was elected as a Harvard Junior Fellow and hosted by Prof. Stuart Schreiber at the Broad Institute. Here, he decided to shift his research focus from quantum mechanical interactions to infectious disease and diabetes. In 2015, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and he also holds appointments at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and the Broad Institute. The efforts of Amit’s group have been recognized by Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Career Award at the Scientific Interface, NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, DARPA’s SAFE GENES award, Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Innovation Award.

Woody Sherman

Jim Wells

Toren Finkel

Ellen Vieux

Pan Zheng Qiang

Yue Xiong

Green Ahn

Yun Ge

Dengfeng Dou

Haojing Rong

Igor Stagljar

Jared Gollob

Kumar Suresh

Nicolas Bery

Vincenzo D'Angiolella

Charu Chaudhry Senior

Alex Federation

Kusal Samarasinghe

Ian Pike
Ian Pike is the Chief Scientific Officer at Proteome Sciences and has 30 years’ experience working in the diagnostics and biotechnology sectors. Having gained a PhD in Medical Microbiology, he joined Welcome Diagnostics as a research group leader and spent 8 years working on new diagnostic assays, particularly for hepatitis. In December 1999, he joined the Technology Transfer Office of the UK Medical Research Council with responsibility for patents and commercialization of a wide portfolio of technologies related to the biomedical sector. Ian also worked for Cancer Research Ventures managing intellectual property and performing business development activities in Europe and the USA. Since joining Proteome Sciences in 2002 he has held a number of roles covering intellectual property management, business development, operational management and is now focused on leading the Company’s scientific strategy to offer clients a flexible, high quality service.
Advisory Board
My group supports several important medchem platforms for Pfizer: protein degradation, DNA-encoded library chemistry, large and small-scale compound purification and phenotypic screening deconvolution. Scientists in my group specialize in design and synthetic medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, purification science as well as molecular property analysis.

Adam Gilbert
My group supports several important medchem platforms for Pfizer: protein degradation, DNA-encoded library chemistry, large and small-scale compound purification and phenotypic screening deconvolution. Scientists in my group specialize in design and synthetic medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry, purification science as well as molecular property analysis.

John Castle

Matthew Calabrese
Ryan Potts, Ph.D. obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from UT Southwestern in 2007. In 2008 he was awarded the Sara and Frank McKnight junior faculty position at UT Southwestern Medical Center. During this time his lab focused on answering a long-standing question in cancer biology regarding the cellular function of cancer-testis antigen (CTAs) proteins. In 2011 he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His lab’s work defined a function for the enigmatic MAGE gene family in protein regulation through ubiquitination. In 2016 his lab moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he was an Associate Member in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. There his lab continued to work on CTAs, with a focus on elucidating the biochemical, cellular, physiological and pathological functions of the MAGE gene family. In 2020 he moved to Amgen, Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California to build a new department called the Induced Proximity Platform (IPP) that is focused on drugging the “undruggable”.

Ryan Potts
Ryan Potts, Ph.D. obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from UT Southwestern in 2007. In 2008 he was awarded the Sara and Frank McKnight junior faculty position at UT Southwestern Medical Center. During this time his lab focused on answering a long-standing question in cancer biology regarding the cellular function of cancer-testis antigen (CTAs) proteins. In 2011 he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His lab’s work defined a function for the enigmatic MAGE gene family in protein regulation through ubiquitination. In 2016 his lab moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he was an Associate Member in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. There his lab continued to work on CTAs, with a focus on elucidating the biochemical, cellular, physiological and pathological functions of the MAGE gene family. In 2020 he moved to Amgen, Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California to build a new department called the Induced Proximity Platform (IPP) that is focused on drugging the “undruggable”.
I have been working on the discovery and development of novel small-molecules therapeutics for more than 20 years. One area of my research has been focused on targeting protein-protein interactions which regulate apoptosis, including the PPIs between the anti-death Bcl-2 and pro-death Bcl-2 members, the MDM2-p53 PPI, and the PPI of IAP proteins with Smac. My research in targeting apoptosis has resulted in the discovery and advancement of 8 compounds into Phase I/II clinical development targeting Bcl-2/Bcl-xL, MDM2 and IAP proteins. In more recent years, I have expanded my research program to target a number of PPIs, which regulate epigenetics, including histone readers, writers and erasers, and have advanced several classes of compounds into advanced preclinical development. To accomplish our goals of discovering highly optimized compounds suitable for clinical development and rapidly advancing them into clinical development, I have established extensive collaborations with basic scientists, translational scientists and clinical investigators at UMCCC and in other institutions. I have co-founded five UM start-up companies to help us to bring our drugs into clinical development and marketplace. I have published 300+ peer-reviewed papers and an inventor of 50+ issued US patents and hundreds of international patents. I was elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2014 and as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2019, was induced into Hall of Fame of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of American Chemical Society in 2020. I was the 2014 University of Michigan Distinguished Innovator.

Shaomeng Wang
I have been working on the discovery and development of novel small-molecules therapeutics for more than 20 years. One area of my research has been focused on targeting protein-protein interactions which regulate apoptosis, including the PPIs between the anti-death Bcl-2 and pro-death Bcl-2 members, the MDM2-p53 PPI, and the PPI of IAP proteins with Smac. My research in targeting apoptosis has resulted in the discovery and advancement of 8 compounds into Phase I/II clinical development targeting Bcl-2/Bcl-xL, MDM2 and IAP proteins. In more recent years, I have expanded my research program to target a number of PPIs, which regulate epigenetics, including histone readers, writers and erasers, and have advanced several classes of compounds into advanced preclinical development. To accomplish our goals of discovering highly optimized compounds suitable for clinical development and rapidly advancing them into clinical development, I have established extensive collaborations with basic scientists, translational scientists and clinical investigators at UMCCC and in other institutions. I have co-founded five UM start-up companies to help us to bring our drugs into clinical development and marketplace. I have published 300+ peer-reviewed papers and an inventor of 50+ issued US patents and hundreds of international patents. I was elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2014 and as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2019, was induced into Hall of Fame of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of American Chemical Society in 2020. I was the 2014 University of Michigan Distinguished Innovator.
view the 2022 Agenda
Why join us at Protein Degradation & Targeting Undruggables?
- Get the latest clinical and pre-clinical developments in targeted protein degraders to optimise the clinical landscape
- Uncover emerging modalities and new therapeutic targets to develop your commercial pipeline
- Discover emerging strategies to induce TPD outside of PROTACs and molecular glues
- Hear case studies in PROTAC-mediated protein degradation to develop an understanding of bioavailability and PK to inform your R&D projects
- Understand how leading pharma use proteomics strategies, PKPD mechanistic modeling, and AI to assess protein degrader modality
Download the agenda
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Event Partner
Eurofins Discovery
Website: https://www.eurofins.com/biopharma-services/discovery/
Eurofins Discovery supports Drug Discovery through the combined expertise of Cerep, DiscoverX, EMD Millipore, Panlabs, Villapharma, and Selcia Drug Discovery. We offer a broad portfolio including medicinal and synthetic chemistry, in vitro pharmacology products and services, cell-based phenotypic assays, ADME-Tox, in vivo drug safety and efficacy, custom proteins and assay development services.
Eurofins Discovery is pleased to announce the launch of new targeted protein degradation services utilizing the novel E3scan™ technology for diverse E3 ligases, including CRBN, VHL, MDM2, MDMX, cIAP1, cIAP2, and XIAP. The panel of E3 ligase assays are robust, high-throughput, and can be used to support an SAR campaign from start to finish. Eurofins Discovery also offers engineered biosensor cell lines. Based on CRISPR gene editing techniques and enzyme fragment complementation, these cell lines enable sensitive quantitation of PROTAC-mediated degradation of a target of interest in physiologically-relevant cell models. Ask a Eurofins Discovery representative about these new offerings.
Dynamic Biosensors
Website: https://www.dynamic-biosensors.com/
Dynamic Biosensors is a young biotech company based in Munich, Germany, and in Boston (MA), USA. We provide innovative measurement technologies for the analysis of molecular interactions, which enable life science researchers in academia and industry to achieve scientific breakthroughs and develop future medicines against cancer and many other diseases.
Dynamic Biosensors commercializes switchSENSE® technology, a groundbreaking platform technology for the analysis of biomolecules with applications in R&D and drug development.
Proteome Sciences
Website: https://www.proteomics.com/
Proteome Sciences is a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) specialising in the analysis of proteins detected by Mass Spectrometry. We offer various Discovery and Targeted Services to characterise proteins and their associated post translational modifications.
By using LC-MS2, LC-MS3, SysQuant® and TMTcalibratorTM methodologies on samples that originate from tissue to biological fluids, we can detect over 8,000 proteins per sample. With our proprietary bioinformatics software, these can be trimmed down to some tens of proteins that are either up-, or down-regulated in either disease progression or drug treatment.
Using our unique TMTpro isobaric mass tags, we can run up to 15 samples per single experiment thereby allowing relative protein quantification between samples. By using a reference channel, multiple experiments can be performed sequentially, thereby allowing 30 to 100+ samples to be characterized in one project. Sensitivity is equivalent to conventional ELISA in many cases.
In the clinical area, we offer single or multiplexed protein measurements on customer selected proteins either with or without a PTM. Proteins selected can be either known previously, or more often detected above via our Discovery Services. We can measure up to 100 multiplex proteins per sample in a GCLP accredited Targeted Mass Spectrometric assay using clinically relevant samples such as plasma and CSF. Again, sensitivity is equivalent to conventional ELISA in many cases.
Exhibitor
Nanome.AI
Website: https://nanome.ai/
Nanome is changing how we understand, design, and interact with science. Nanome’s immersive virtual workspaces allow users to visualize, modify, and simulate chemical compounds, proteins, and nucleic acids to help improve the Drug Discovery process. Our virtual reality platform facilitates communication of structural data in drug discovery which has proved beneficial to pharmaceutical and biotech companies across the globe. This is especially helpful for organizations that are interested in improving their cross-site collaboration.
Media Partners
pharmaphorum
Website: https://pharmaphorum.com/
pharmaphorum is a content and communications company offering a unique hybrid of publisher and agency working in pharma and healthcare.
pharmaphorum.com is our own independent flagship publication. It serves over 3 million unique users annually and its news and information is widely recognised as a leading source of thought leadership and strategic content for pharmaceutical professionals all over the world.
Our innovative digital magazine Deep Dive provides cutting edge insight on pharma industry trends to an audience of 100K per issue.
Pharma Journalist
Website: http://www.pharmajournalist.com
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