Emerging Cell Therapies (K2)
February 1-4, 2026
| Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, AB, Canada
Wendell A. Lim, Ashley K. Koegel and Robbie G. Majzner
Scholarship Deadline: Oct. 29, 2025 | Abstract Deadline: Jan. 9, 2026 | Early Registration Deadline: Dec. 3, 2025
| 4:00–8:00 PM |
Registration |
Riverview Lounge |
| 6:00–8:00 PM |
Welcome Mixer |
Riverview Lounge |
| 7:00–8:00 AM |
Breakfast |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 8:00–8:10 AM |
Welcome Remarks |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| 8:10–9:00 AM |
Keynote Address |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Uri Alon, Weizmann Institute of Science
Systems Medicine: Cell Therapies as Agents to Rewire the Physiological Circuits of Disease |
|
| 9:00–11:15 AM |
New Cell Types for Therapy |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Nicholas Arpaia, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Engineered Probiotic Bacteria for Cancer Immunotherapy |
|
| |
Yiyin Erin Chen, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Skin Microbiota to Manipulate Immune Responses |
|
| |
Frederick Bennett, University of Pennsylvania
Microglia Replacement |
|
| |
Abbas Ghaddar, Rice University
Short Talk: Engineering N-lactoyl Phenylalanine Producing Bacteria for the Treatment of Obesity |
|
| 9:30–9:50 AM |
Coffee Break |
Riverview Lounge |
| 11:15–1:00 PM |
Poster Setup |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 11:15–5:00 PM |
On Own for Lunch |
|
| 1:00–10:00 PM |
Poster Viewing |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 2:30–4:30 PM |
Symposia Spotlight 1 |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Roberto Avellino, Weizmann I.S Herzel 234
Reconstructing native immune enhancer logic into synthetic genetic circuits for Context-Resolved Immune Therapy |
|
| |
Sangwoo Park, Mass General Hospital
Tuning CAR-T Cells by Targeting Cancer-Associated Glycan in Pancreatic Cancer |
|
| |
Grace Bugos, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Sensitive Bispecific Synthetic Chimeric T cell Receptors for Cancer Therapy |
|
| |
Mitchell Kluesner, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
TCR-like Synthetic Chimeric T Cell Receptors (ChTCRs) Targeting Solid Tumors are More Sensitive to Low Antigen, but are Subject to Greater Negative Regulation than CAR-Ts at Supraphysiologic Antigen Levels |
|
| |
Jennifer M Feigin, Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Targeting the Bone Marrow Microenvironment with CART Cell Therapy to Overcome Resistance in Multiple Myeloma |
|
| |
Filippo Birocchi, MGH
Fratricide by Design: Selective T Cell Elimination in Cancer Therapy |
|
| |
Devan Shah, UCSF
Engineered Signal Cascades for Synthetic Multicellular Immune Networks |
|
| 4:30–5:00 PM |
Coffee Available |
Riverview Lounge |
| 5:00–7:00 PM |
Cell Therapies for Autoimmunity and Inflammation |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Georg A Schett, Uniklinikum Erlangen
Cell Therapies for Lupus |
|
| |
Ashley K. Koegel, Bristol Myers Squibb
Autoimmune Cell Therapies |
|
| |
Megan K. Levings, University of British Columbia
CAR Tregs |
|
| |
Aaron G Winters, A2 Biotherapeutics
Short Talk: Discriminating Friend from Foe in Autoimmunity: A Tandem NOT Gate Cell Therapy Discriminates Pathogenic Versus Non-Pathogenic Lymphocytes |
|
| |
Rotem Shalita, Weizmann Institute of Science
Short Talk: Reprogramming Neuroinflammation: Data-Guided Development of a PD-1 CAR T Platform for Multiple Sclerosis |
|
| 7:00–8:00 PM |
Social Hour with Dinner |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 7:30–10:00 PM |
Poster Session 1 |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
| 7:00–8:00 AM |
Breakfast |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 8:00–11:00 AM |
Foundational Synthetic Biology Tools for Cell Engineering |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Wendell A. Lim, University of California, San Francisco
Cells as Integrators of Complex Functions |
|
| |
Amanda Iniguez, Moonlight Bio
Potency Enhancement Strategies for Cell Therapies |
|
| |
Adrian Bot, AbbVie
In vivo Immune Engineering Paves the Way Towards a New Therapeutic Modality |
|
| |
Xiaojing Gao, Stanford University
Biomolecular Circuits as Medicine |
|
| |
Jeremy R Bjelajac, Stanford University
Short Talk: Cell Autonomous Control of CAR Signaling and Receptor Shedding via ADAM17 Mediated Proteolysis |
|
| |
Hersh K Bhargava, UCSF Cell Design Institute
Short Talk: Engineering Cell Autonomous IL-2 Circuits to Understand and Control T Cell Responses |
|
| 9:00–9:20 AM |
Coffee Break |
Riverview Lounge |
| 9:20–9:25 AM |
Award Recipient Acknowledgement |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| 11:00–1:00 PM |
Poster Setup |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 11:00–5:00 PM |
On Own for Lunch |
|
| 1:00–10:00 PM |
Poster Viewing |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 1:45–2:45 PM |
Career Roundtable (Joint) |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| 3:00–4:30 PM |
Panel Discussion: Regulatory Hurdles for Cell Therapies |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| 4:00–5:00 PM |
Coffee Break with Hot Chocolate, Firepits & Mountain Views |
Conservatory Terrace |
| 5:00–7:00 PM |
Cancer Cell Therapies: Preclinical |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Emily Beura, Kelonia Therapeutics
in vivo Engineering using iGPS Technology |
|
| |
Robbie G. Majzner, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Cancer Cell Therapy |
|
| |
Mark Yarmarkovich, New York University
Peptide Centric CARs |
|
| |
Caroline Whitty, University of California, San Francisco
Short Talk: Stromal-directed Synthetic Circuits Protect against on Target Off Tumor Toxicity and Effectively Treat Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma with CAR T Cell Therapy |
|
| |
Misty R. Jenkins, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Short Talk: EphA3-targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells are Effective in Glioma and Generate Curative Memory T Cell Responses |
|
| |
Charlotte Wang, UCSF
Short Talk: Site Saturation Mutagenesis of ZAP70 Enables Rational CAR-T Cell Optimization |
|
| 7:00–8:00 PM |
Social Hour with Dinner |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 7:30–10:00 PM |
Poster Session 2 |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
| 7:00–8:00 AM |
Breakfast |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 8:00–11:00 AM |
Cancer Cell Therapies: Clinical |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Claudia Rossig, University of Münster
GD2-Targeted CAR T Cell Therapies for Solid Cancers |
|
| |
Kristen Hege, Independent board member, Adaptimmune, Mersana, Kelonia, KSQ, EvolveImmune.
GART Lessons Learned Guiding Next Gen Cell Therapies |
|
| |
Marcela V Maus, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Cell Therapies for Glioblastoma and Beyond |
|
| |
Andras Heczey, Seattle Children's Research Institute
GPC3-CAR T Cells for Patients with Solid Tumors |
|
| |
Jennifer L Clarke, UCSF
Short Talk: Preliminary Results from a Phase 1 Study of Autologous Anti-EGFRvIII SynNotch Receptor-Induced Anti-EphA2/Il-13Rα2 CAR (E-SYNC) T-Cells in Adult Participants with EGFRvIII+ Glioblastoma |
|
| 9:00–9:20 AM |
Coffee Break |
Riverview Lounge |
| 11:00–5:00 PM |
On Own for Lunch |
|
| 2:30–4:30 PM |
Symposia Spotlight 2 |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Lauren Durland, University of British Columbia
Optimizing Progenitor Dynamics Enables Efficient CD4 and CD8 T Cell Production from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells |
|
| |
Katherine A Freitas, Kite Pharma
Immune Synapse Disruption and Reduction of MHC Expression by Base Editing Protects Allogeneic CAR T Cells from Immune Rejection |
|
| |
Tim Guo, GentiBio, Inc
Robust Immune Evasion Technology Enables Durable Persistence of Allogeneic Engineered Regulatory T Cells |
|
| |
Kylie A Burdsall, Stanford Medicine
In Vivo CAR-T cell Engineering with the PACK-IT Platform Generates Il9-Receptor Expressing CAR-T cells with Potent Anti-Tumor Efficacy |
|
| |
Milos Simic, University of Chicago
Programming Tissue-Sensing T Cells to Deliver Therapies to the Brain |
|
| |
Kunal Rai, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Precision Epigenome Engineering to Improve T Cell Therapy |
|
| |
Geoffrey Rouin, University of Pennsylvania
A Novel CRISPR Screening Approach Identifies Targets for Reversal of Human CAR T Cell Exhaustion |
|
| |
Wan Sang Cho, Stanford University
A Continuous Landscape of Signaling Encodes a Corresponding Landscape of CAR T Cell Phenotype |
|
| 4:30–5:00 PM |
Coffee Available |
Riverview Lounge |
| 5:00–6:45 PM |
Cell Therapies for Regeneration |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| |
Stefan Irion, BlueRock Therapeutics
Cell Therapy for Neurodegenerative Disease |
|
| |
Faranak Fattahi, University of California, San Francisco
Peripheral Nerve Regeneration |
|
| |
Jacob H Hanna, Weizmann Institute of Science
Utilizing Synthetic Embryo Models for Enhanced Stem Cell Differentiation |
|
| |
Alex Ng †, GC Therapeutics
Short Talk: AI-Guided Cell Fate Programming Trained by Systematic TFome™-Wide Screening |
|
| 6:45–7:00 PM |
Meeting Wrap-Up: Outcomes and Future Directions (Organizers) |
Alhambra Ballroom |
| 7:00–8:00 PM |
Social Hour with Dinner |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 8:15–9:15 PM |
Cash Bar |
Alberta/New Brunswick |
| 8:15–9:15 PM |
Entertainment |
Cascade Ballroom |
Thursday, February 5, 2026
