7:25 am Registration

7:55 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Clarifying Diverse Mechanisms & Pathways of Fibrosis to Highlight Novel Targets

8:00 am Establishing the Mechanistic Differences of Fibrosis Across Different Fibrotic Diseases to Discover to What Degree Fibrosis is a Single Disease Pathology or is a Syndrome Due to Multiple Factors

Synopsis

• Identifying the mechanistic differences of fibrosis across different fibrotic diseases
• Pinpointing the commonalities across different fibrotic diseases
• Elucidating if fibrosis can be treated with broad spectrum antifibrotics or if different approaches will be required for each disease area

8:30 am Separating Mechanisms of Wound Healing & Chronic Fibrosis to Define More Specific Therapeutic Targets for Drug Development Success

Synopsis

• Understanding the biomarkers that reflect fibrosis vs inflammation or biomarkers that represent interplay between the two from translational perspective
• Overcoming the challenges to standardising, measuring and quantifying healthy wound repair response in humans
• Reviewing studies differentiating between kind of progressive fibrosis and wound healing in human/clinical trials

9:00 am From OMICs-Driven Target ID to Validation: Lessons Learnt from Studies of a Novel Cytokine Target Implicated in Inflammation and Fibrosis

Synopsis

• Elevated expression of a novel cytokine in distinct human fibrotic and autoimmune diseases
• Monitoring the expression regulation of this novel cytokine using human stromal cells in vitro
• Application of a humanized in vitro target validation funnel to interrogate the function of this
novel cytokine in the context of fibrosis

9:30 am Morning Break & Networking

10:00 am Morning Break & Networking

11:00 am Targeting TGF-β Selectively to Achieve Antifibrotic Efficacy without Safety Concerns

  • Min Lu Executive Director & Head of Fibrosis, Morphic Therapeutics

Synopsis

• Outlining roles of TGFβ1, 2 and 3, as master regulators of fibrosis
• Exploring pleiotropic effects and challenges in development, immune homeostasis, and cell cycle regulation
• Selective and local inhibition of TGFβ activation may show therapeutic potential for fibrosis indications

11:30 am Epigenetics of TGF-β Revealed in Fibroblast Subpopulations in Systemic Sclerosis

Synopsis

• Applications of single cell ATAC-seq to fibrotic diseases
• Transcriptional regulation of myofibroblast differentiation
• TGF-β regulation of fibroblast subpopulations

12:00 pm Dissecting the Mediators of Adipose Tissue Dysregulation in Fibrosis: Role of Pro-Fibrotic & Anti-Fibrotic Adipocytokines

Synopsis

• Excess adiposity is a risk factor for fibrosis of multiple organs including lung, liver, heart and kidney
• These effects are mediated through a range of signalling proteins produced by adipocytes, many of which promotes chronic systemic inflammatory and fibrotic responses
• Recent translational insights into pro-fibrotic and anti-fibrotic processes provide novel approaches for treating fibrosing diseases

12:30 pm Panel Discussion: Lessons Learnt & Most Promising Avenues for Drug Discovery

Synopsis

• Interrogating heterogeneous disease pathologies to illuminate opportunities for therapeutic intervention
• Learning from setbacks in IPF & NASH to inform future pipeline strategy

1:00 pm Lunch Break & Networking

Establishing the Interplay between Fibrosis & Oncology: Exploiting Stromal Remodelling to Advance Therapies in the Fibrotic Paradigm

2:00 pm Roundtable: Exploring Cancer Associated Fibroblasts, Macrophages & Apoptotic Machinery for Targeting Fibrosis

Synopsis

• Translating learnings from cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF) in the tumor microenvironment to manipulating CAR-T cells to treat fibrosis
• Reviewing macrophage subsets, their cellular interactions in the matrix & role in fibrosis pathogenesis
• Exploring the resistance to apoptosis through the expansion of fibroblasts in promoting fibrotic injury

Roundtable: Tailoring Clinical Trials to Improve Likelihood of Meeting Trial Endpoints & More Quickly Determining Drug Success
• Validating new clinical trial endpoints to test antifibrotic agents
• Leveraging biomarker testing to inform clinical trial design
• Embedding patient stratification into clinical trials to demonstrate drug effect and improve drug outcomes

2:00 pm Roundtable: Tailoring Clinical Trials to Improve Likelihood of Meeting Trial Endpoints & More Quickly Determining Drug Success

  • Tu Mai Principal Scientist , Genentech

Synopsis

• Validating new clinical trial endpoints to test
antifibrotic agents
• Leveraging biomarker testing to inform clinical trial design
• Embedding patient stratification into clinical trials to
demonstrate drug effect and improve drug outcomes

3:00 pm Shared Mechanisms in Fibrotic Disease & Solid Tumors to Identify Novel Targets Across Oncology & Fibrosis

  • Thomas Baumert Professor of Medicine and Chair & Institute Head, Inserm & University of Strasbourg

Synopsis

• Understanding of shared mechanistic events in fibrotic disease and cancer as an opportunity for novel targets and therapies
• Harnessing clinical signatures linking fibrosis and cancer for drug and target discovery
• Examples for novel targets shared in fibrosis and cancer

Establishing the Interplay between Fibrosis & Oncology: Exploiting Stromal Remodelling to Advance Therapies in the Fibrotic Paradigm?

3:30 pm Modulating the TGF-β Pathway to Reduce Fibrosis and Enhance Immunity in the Tumor Microenvironment

Synopsis

• Discussing fibrosis in the context of fibrotic disease and oncology to address the question of antifibrotic mechanism of action and efficacy across diseases
• Initiating thinking on antifibrotics as another checkpoint inhibitor on top of anti-PD1 therapies
• Sharing early thinking on of antifibrotics in oncology, and initial effects reducing parameters of disease activity in late-stage disease

4:00 pm Chairs Closing Remarks

End of Day 2