Explore the Agenda

7:45 am Check-in & Morning Coffee

8:45 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Senior Director, Research Partnerships, Business Development, Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America

Unlocking New Therapeutic Potential in 2026

9:00 am Advancing IBD Therapy by Sharing New Clinical Insights & Future Directions of Recent Approvals

Senior Director - Immunology Translational Sciences, Gastroenterology, Johnson & Johnson
  • Discover the latest clinical data and real-world insights to understand impacts on patient outcomes in Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s disease
  • Learn how recent regulatory approvals are expanding treatment options and improving access for patients with IBD
  • Explore future directions in IBD care by examining ongoing research, pipeline developments, and strategies for integrating new therapies into clinical practice

9:30 am Targeted PDE4 Inhibition Using PALI-2108 Prodrug as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy in Fibrostenotic Crohn’s Disease

Chief Medical Officer, Palisade Bio
  • Highlighting how locally bioactivated pharmacology and translational biomarker science are converging to redefine the treatment of fibrostenotic IBD

10:00 am Transforming IBD Treatment Landscape with Anti-TL1A Based Next Generation Monospecific and Multi-specific Antibodies

Vice President & Head of Translational, Xencor
  • Mechanistic advantages of long-acting anti-TL1A antibodies, including optimized stability, half-life, route of administration and tissue targeting to potentially enhance efficacy and durability
  • Early-stage bispecific TL1A antibodies in preclinical development, designed to address multiple disease pathways simultaneously
  • Translational strategies for integrating precision medicine approaches in IBD, laying the groundwork for future patient-stratified therapy

10:30 am Speed Networking

11:00 am Morning Break & Coffee

Uncovering Emerging Biomarker Targets to Enable the Precision IBD Treatments of Tomorrow

11:30 am Precision Targeting of IL-6 Trans-Signaling: Restoring Balance Between Inflammation & Regeneration

Senior Director, Ferring International Center SA
  • Present quantitative modeling insights predicting that selective trans-signaling inhibition will permit faster tissue healing than global IL-6 blockade
  • Discuss translational strategies to validate these findings through biomarkers, imaging modalities, and early proof-of-concept trials
  • Highlight implications for trial design, including precision endpoints, patient stratification, and integrating modeling into clinical decision making

12:00 pm Advancing Precision IBD Care Through Biomarker-Driven Insights and Translational Innovation

Statistical biomarker leader, Sanofi
  • Identify and validate biomarkers that stratify patient subgroups and predict therapeutic response across diverse clinical studies
  • Integrate translational biomarker data from clinical and real-world models to inform disease progression and treatment outcomes
  • Accelerate precision therapy development by linking biomarker discovery to targeted intervention strategies in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease

12:30 pm Translating Biomarkers into Clinical Strategy: Lessons from Other Immunological Diseases for IBD

Immunology & Diagnostic Development Leader, Johnson & Johnson
  • Discuss Precision Medicine opportunities for in IBD using predictive and prognostic biomarkers, drawing parallels with immunology and Oncology programs advancing into later trials
  • Unpack the gap between translational biomarker insights and real-world diagnostics, including regulatory, commercial, and scalability hurdlesDiscuss challenges in moving from translation level biomarker insights to clinically validated tools

1:00 pm Lunch Break & Networking

From Biomarkers to Bedside: Accelerating Innovation of Precision Diagnostics

2:00 pm Characterizing Pathogenic Cell Populations in Non-Responder IBD Tissues to Inform Targeted Therapeutic Development

Principal Scientist, Abbvie
  • Characterize pathogenic cell types and molecular factors enriched in non-responder IBD tissues to uncover mechanisms driving treatment resistance
  • Leverage tissue-level cellular insights to identify potential therapeutic targets aimed at restoring response or achieving durable remission
  • Discuss methodological approaches for profiling non-responder tissues and building a framework linking tissue and blood biomarkers to predict clinical outcomes

2:30 pm Using Blood-Based Epigenetic Signatures to Personalize First-Line Biologic Therapy in Crohn’s Disease

Professor and Chair Experimental Gastroenterology, Academisch Medisch Centrum
  • Investigating a scalable, blood-derived DNA methylation panel designed to guide first-line biologic selection at diagnosis, aiming to move beyond today’s trial-and-error paradigm and reduce early complications linked to ineffective therapy
  • Leveraging a validated epigenetic algorithm undergoing testing in the OMICRON clinical trial to improve therapeutic success rates
  • Establishing a blueprint for cross-disease precision medicine, with methylation markers and machine-learning pipelines engineered for translation

3:00 pm Scientific Poster Session

4:00 pm Afternoon Break & Networking

Transforming Translational Research with Human-Relevant Models to Enhance Prediction of Clinical Outcomes

4:15 pm Looking Beyond the Mouse to Accelerate Preclinical & Translational Activities

Immunology Project Lead, Astellas Pharma
  • Identify the limits of traditional murine models and where they fail to predict human trial outcomes
  • Using advanced human-based models to capture the complexity and variability of patient responses, enabling more accurate therapeutic development
  • Empower researchers with promising tools such as organoids, organ on chip, and patient-derived cells for human-relevant biology that streamline candidate selection, and support precision medicine approaches

4:45 pm Reprogramming Protein Therapeutics to Restore Immune Balance in Animal Models

CEO, Palena Therapeutics
  • Advancing a novel protein platform toward safer, precision treatments for inflammatory disease
  • Leveraging embedded epitope random copolymer proteins to reprogram immunity without suppressing healthy responses
  • Demonstrating disease-specific efficacy in multiple animal models of Crohn’s disease, uveitis, and multiple sclerosis

5:15 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks

5:30 pm Drinks Reception

6:30 pm End of Day One