Harnessing Super Immunotherapy and ADCs to Redefine the Standard of Care
(“Super IO” + ADC)

Chaired by

Prof. Ying Liu
Dr. Satish C. & Asha Saxena Professor & Associate Dean for Research,
School of Engineer, University of Illinois at Chicago

Co-Hosted by

University of Illinois at Chicago
Cancer Center

Yao Yuan
—Academy for Pharma Innovation

Venue

Trump International Hotel & Tower® Chicago
(401 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL 60611)

Prof. Ying Liu

Dr. Satish C. & Asha Saxena Professor & Associate Dean for Research,
School of Engineer, University of Illinois at Chicago

Joanna Groden, MD

Vice Chancellor of Research, University of Illinois Chicago

Joanna Groden, PhD, is the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she has highlighted cross-campus collaborations and transdisciplinary research initiatives, and Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Chicago. She is a human geneticist and cancer biologist, internationally recognized for her research in determining key genetic causes of colon cancer and other inherited cancers through the identification of human disease genes and their functional characteristics. She was continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for more than 30 years.

Jan Kitajewski, PhD

Director, University of Illinois Cancer Center

Jan Kitajewski, PhD, is Director of the University of Illinois Cancer Center and Sweeney Professor of Basic Sciences and Head of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Chicago. He joined UIC in 2016. His research is focused on tumor angiogenesis, cell fate determination, GPCR signaling and pathway remodeling. Specific areas of focus are vessel development, reproductive angiogenesis and tumor angiogenesis associated with breast and ovarian cancer. His lab has explored the Notch signaling cascade and determined how cell-fate determination mediated by Notch and VEGF guides the proper construction of the vasculature. His lab established that Notch functions in tumor angiogenesis, and they developed therapeutic strategies to treat gynecological malignancies and breast cancer. His leadership responsibilities while at Columbia University included acting as Co-Director of the Cancer Signaling Networks program at Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) and Director of the Division of Reproductive Sciences in the Department of Ob/Gyn. In addition, he served as Charter Member for the Cardiovascular Differentiation and Development study section and has served on ad-hoc review panels for National Institutes of Health (NIH) and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) research grants, program projects and training grant, and National Cancer Institute (NCI) intramural program research evaluations. A sizable portion of his activities have been in serving and strengthening the fields of tumor microenvironment and vascular biology.

Justin Moser, MD

Associate Clinical Investigator, HonorHealth Research Institute

Associate Research Professor, Arizona State University School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering Dr. Moser is a medical oncologist who specializes in the development of new cancer therapies to treat Melanoma, Squamous cell carcinoma of the Skin, Merkel cell carcinoma, Basal cell carcinoma and Uveal melanoma. Dr. Moser is one of the few physicians in Arizona to offer intratumoral injections for the treatment of Melanoma. He is involved in clinical trials testing new anti-cancer therapies for patients with all types of cancer, but a particular focus for patients with skin cancers.

Dr. Moser has a special focus on Uveal melanoma (eye cancer), and has an active translational research program focused on better understanding this rare tumor. He is actively developing new clinical trials and treatment options for patients with this disease.

Hao Xie, PhD/MD

Assistant Professor, Mayo Clinic at Rochester

Dr. Hao Xie is a board-certified medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers, with clinical appointments at Mayo Clinic-Rochester and affiliations with leading institutions including the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. He earned his medical degree from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at Mayo Clinic (HEMO ’20).

Dr. Xie’s clinical focus includes the treatment of colorectal and other gastrointestinal malignancies, with a strong emphasis on advancing clinical trials for patients with GI cancers and advanced solid tumors. His translational research interests lie in the discovery and development of novel anti-cancer therapies and biomarkers, particularly in KRAS-mutant colorectal cancer.

He is the recipient of the 2024 CCaTS-CBD Pilot Award for Team Science, jointly supported by the Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science and the Center for Biomedical Discovery. His awarded project, “Protein Degradation as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy for KRAS-Mutant Colorectal Cancer,” exemplifies his commitment to bridging basic and clinical research to drive innovation in cancer care.

Jalees Rehman, MD

Benjamin Goldberg Professor and Head Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago
Director of Translational Oncology of UIC Comprehensive Cancer Center

Jalees Rehman, MD, co-lead of the Translational Oncology Research Program at the University of Illinois Cancer Center, is the Benjamin Goldberg Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Chicago. He is a cell biologist and physician scientist and directs a research group that studies metabolism of cancer cells, vascular cells, and stem cells as well as develops novel computational approaches to study cellular heterogeneity. He actively collaborates with members of the Cancer Center. His laboratory is currently funded by three multi-Principal Investigator (PI) National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grants to study inflammation and tissue regeneration as well as a multi-PI R33 to develop novel tools for studying oncogenic signaling, and an R01 to study iPSC-derived cardiovascular cells. He is also the PI of a project that is part of an NIH Program Project Grant to study macrophage biology. He joined UIC in 2011.

Takeshi Honda, PhD,

Inventor of Enhertu© & Sr VP, SparX Group

Takeshi Honda has >25 years experience in leadership position at Daiichisankyo Co. Ltd. After he graduated from Tokyo University where he earned his Ph.D., then was post-doctor in Scripps Research Institute, he focused on medicinal chemistry of small molecule and new modalities such as ADC and glycoengineering in Daiichsankyo Co. Ltd. He was an inventor of Inavir® and Enhertu® and more than 8 clinical candidates. He was director of ADC and Sr. research advaiser in Daiichisankyo Co. Ltd.

Hongyu Zhao

Chief Editor of Yaoyuan

Dr. Hongyu Zhao received his BS and Ph.D degrees from Beijing Medical University and University of Minnesota, respectively. He worked at Abbott/Abbvie for 19 years and published 40 peer-reviews papers in addition to over 20 patents. Dr. Zhao served as an industrial advisor for the NIH Molecular Probe initiative and Chief Editor of Yaoyuan, where he penned over 2000 articles analyzing major biotech events.

Fiona Yu

Partner at Northern Light Venture Capital

Fiona Yu who is a Partner at Northern Light Venture Capital. She joined the firm in 2014 and has a strong background in healthcare, with prior experience at Johnson & Johnson and management consulting experience at Monitor Deloitte. Fiona holds an engineering degree and an MBA from Duke University. Her investment focus includes companies like Immune-Onc, Cytek(CTKB) etc.

Alex Zhavoronkov

Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation generative artificial intelligence and automation platforms for drug discovery. Since 2014, he has invented critical technologies in the field of generative artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning (RL) for the generation of novel molecular structures with the desired properties and the generation of synthetic biological and patient data. Under his leadership, Insilico raised over $500 million in multiple rounds from expert biotechnology, healthcare, and financial investors, opened R&D centers in 8 countries and regions, and partnered with multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic institutions. Since 2021, the company nominated more than 22 preclinical candidates, 10 reached clinical stage, and 1 program with a novel target and novel molecule completed Phase Iia in IPF with favorable safety, tolerability and encouraging dose-dependent efficacy.

Since 2012, he has published over 310 peer-reviewed research papers and 3 books. He serves on the advisory or editorial boards of Trends in Molecular Medicine, Aging Research Reviews, Aging, and Frontiers in Genetics, and founded and co-chairs the Annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (12th Annual in 2024). He is the adjunct professor of artificial intelligence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Peter Luo

CEO and President of R&D at Adagene Inc.

Dr. Peter Luo is the Founding CEO and President of R&D at Adagene Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering precision immunotherapies with its NEObody™, SAFEbody™, and POWERbody™ platforms.

With over 20 years of experience in antibody engineering and translational medicine, he previously co-founded Abmaxis (acquired by Merck) and held leadership roles at Xencor and Merck. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and completed postdoctoral research at Stanford University.

At Adagene, he leads the development of ADG126, a masked anti–CTLA-4 SAFEbody™ showing record-high response rates in MSS colorectal cancer, and next-generation SAFEbody™ T cell engagers with unprecedented safety in solid tumors. His mission is to transform cancer care through innovative science and global partnerships.

Since 2012, he has published over 310 peer-reviewed research papers and 3 books. He serves on the advisory or editorial boards of Trends in Molecular Medicine, Aging Research Reviews, Aging, and Frontiers in Genetics, and founded and co-chairs the Annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery (12th Annual in 2024). He is the adjunct professor of artificial intelligence at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Wendy Pan

Partner of Goodwin

My practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, technology based transactions and strategic partnerships, especially in the life sciences industry and in cross-border settings. I have broad experience in both private and public mergers and acquisitions. I have advised private equity firms in leveraged buy-outs, represented life sciences companies,financial institutions, telecommunication companies, electronics companies and retail chains in stock and/or cash acquisitions, mergers, tender offers and going-private transactions. I also advise life sciences companies and technology companies in structuring and negotiating complex IP-based transactions and other commercial arrangements. My practice covers product and technology licensing, strategic partnerships and joint venture formations and research, product development and commercialization collaborations as well as mergers and acquisitions and private investments. In addition, as a former scientist and a registered U.S. patent attorney, I have the skills and experience in counseling clients on technology and intellectual property related issues in non-contentious settings.