2014 Annual Conference
1 MC Conference Center
7007 Bertner Avenue, Houston,
Texas-77030
October 23-24, 2014
2014 Annual Conference
NB: All Speakers on this agenda have not confirmed.
Confirmed speakers in bold
Agenda - Day 1
Thursday, October 23, 2014
TIME
8:00 am – 8:15 am
TOPIC
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Dr. Patricia Hurn, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Office of Health Affairs, UT System
Dr. Ron DePinho, President, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. George Stancel, EVP, UT Health Science Center Houston
8:15 am - 9:00 am
9:00 am-9:45 am
Plenary Session
Dr. Pam Sharma, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Immune Checkpoint Therapy: Clinical Successes and
Next Steps
Dr. Nils Lonberg, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Targeting T cell attenuation pathways for cancer therapy
9:45 am - 10:20 am
Coffee and Break
10.20 am-10.30 am
Dr. Tom Goodman, Chief Product Development Officer, CPRIT, CPRIT Moving Forward
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Oncology Immunotherapeutics-I
Chairs: Dr. Patrick Hwu, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Joe Erhardt, VP, Oncology, Janssen R&D
 Dr. Cassian Yee, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, T-cell Therapy
 Dr. Laurence Cooper, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Gene Modified T-cells (CAR):
 Dr. Rob Kastelein, AVP – Merck, Lambrolizumab, an Investigational Anti-PD-1 Antibody
 Dr. Michael Curran, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Check Point Inhibitors
 Dr. Flavius Martin, Amgen Tumor Immunotherapy with BiTEs
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Lunch
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Oncology Immunotherapeutics-II
Chairs: Dr. Cassian Yee UT MD Anderson, Dr. Michael Kalos. CSO, Cancer Immunobiology, Eli Lilly
 Dr. George Georgiu, UT Austin, Non-antibody, engineered protein immunotherapeutics
 Dr. Jim Cassidy, VP, Oncology DM, BMS-ImmunoOncology Clinical Trial Designs: Breaking the
Mold
 Dr. Tyler Curiel, Regulatory T cells in cancer immunopathology and immunotherapy, UT Health
Science Center at San Antonio
 Dr. John C. Lin, Rational Combinations in Cancer Immunotherapy, Executive Director, Experimental
Medicine at Rinat, Pfizer Inc.
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Break and Poster Viewing (Posters will be available for viewing through the day)
3:30 pm – 4:30 PM
Break-out Sessions
Cancer Vaccines
Chairs: Dr. Willem Overwijk, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Industry Chair (TBD)
 Dr. Amy Heimberger, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. Larry Kwak, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. Willem Overwijk, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Personalized cancer vaccines
 Dr. Robert Svatek, UTHSCSA, PRIME/BOOST" – A transatlantic collaboration studying T cell
priming/boosting with BCG vaccination.
2014 Annual Conference
NB: All Speakers on this agenda have not confirmed.
Confirmed speakers in bold
Agenda - Day 1
Thursday, October 23, 2014
TIME
TOPIC
Cellular Therapy:
Chairs: Dr. Laurence Cooper, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Arturo Molina, VP, Janssen R&D
 Dr. Katzy Rezvani, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. EJ Shpall, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. Jinming Gao, UTSW/UT Dallas
Tumor Microenvironment
Chairs: Dr. Raghu Kalluri, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Dr. Neela Patel, Director, AbbVie
 Dr. Rolf Brekken, UTSW Breaking immune tolerance by targeting key immunosuppressive pathways
in the tumor microenvironment

Dr. Raghu Kalluri, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. Valerie LeBleu, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. Herbert Levine, Rice University, Genetic Circuits governing epithelial-mesenchymal transitions
and their biophysical consequences
Enhancing Adaptive Immunity
Chairs: Dr. Cassian Yee, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Industry Chair (TBD)
 Dr. Xiaodong Cheng, Exchange Protein Directly Activated by cAMP (EPAC1) Modulates TregMediated Immune Suppression UT Health Science Center, Houston
 Dr. Michael Curran, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. David Farrar, UTSW
Immunomodulation in Oncological Disorders
Chairs: Dr. Jeffrey Molldrem, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Industry Chair (TBD)
 Dr. Robert Svatek, UTHSCSA
 Dr. Gheath Al-Atrash, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. Sattva Neelapu, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Personalized Medicine, Biomarkers & Epigenetics
Chairs: Dr. Lynda Chin, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Dr. Harpreet Singh, CSO, Immatics
 Dr. Lynda Chin, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. Harpreet Singh, CSO, Immatics
 Dr. James Brugarolas, UTSW
 Dr. Timothy Heffernan, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Antibody Engineering
Chairs: Dr. Sally Ward, Texas A&M Health Science Center and Dr. Paul Carter,
Genentech
 Dr. George Georgiou, UT Austin
 Dr. John R. Desjarlais, Xencor, Antibody Fc Engineering to Create Novel and Enhanced Therapies
 Dr. Barry Springer, VP, Biologics, Janssen R&D
 Dr. Sally Ward
2014 Annual Conference
NB: All Speakers on this agenda have not confirmed.
Confirmed speakers in bold
Agenda - Day 1
Thursday, October 23, 2014
TIME
TOPIC
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Roundtable Discussion: Future of Immunotherapeutics
Chairs: Dr. Cassian Yee, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center,
 Dr. Robert Stein, CSO, Agenus
 Dr. Amy Heimberger
 Dr. Michael Kalos,CSO, Eli Lilly
5:30 pm - 5:45 pm
Load Buses for short ride to Treviso’s
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Reception at Trevisio’s
6550 Bertner Ave, Houston, TX 77030
2014 Venture Forum
Agenda - Day 2
Friday, October 24, 2014
TIME
TOPIC
8:00 am
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Dr. Patricia Hurn, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Office of Health Affairs, UT System
Dr. Beena Koshy, Special Consultant, Academia-Industry Partnerships, Office of Health Affairs, UT System
8:10 am - 8:45 am
Plenary Sessions: State of the Life Science Venture Industry
Dr. Nessan Bermingham, Venture Partner, Atlas Venture Cambridge MA
Dr. Bob Tepper, Partner, Third Rock Ventures
8.45 am-9.00 am
Building Newco’s Around Great Science
Dr. Ron DePinho, President, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
9:00 am - 10:00 am
Speed Dating Session 1: Texas Newcos : 10 company presentations
Chair: Dr. Frank Grassler, UT Southwestern Medical Center, TBD
10:00 am - 10:30 am
Break and Networking
2014 Venture Forum
Agenda - Day 2
Friday, October 24, 2014
TIME
TOPIC
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Speed Dating Session 2: Rock-Star Science for Nucleating Company Creation
Chair: Dr. Beena Koshy, Special Consultant, Academia-Industry Partnerships, Office of Health Affairs, UT
System
 Dr Cassian Yee T-cell Therapies, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Dr. Dean Lee, Chimeric Antigen receptors/ NK cells: Dr. Dean Lee, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
 Sam Hanash New Oncology Targets: Sam Hanash
 Dr. Rolf Brekken: ECM signaling as a druggable target for tumor therapy
 Dr. George Georgiu
 Dr. Jeff Molldrem
11.30 am-12.30 pm
Roundtable I: Perspectives from Early Stage Venture
Chair: Dr. Ken Drazan, Head, California Innovation Center at J&J
 Dan Watkins, Mercury Fund
 Dr. Amir Nashat at Polaris Ventures
 Dr. Dennis Stone, Remeditex
 Dr. Aya Jakobovits, Orbimed
 Nessan Bermingham, Atlas Ventures
 Dr. Ali Behbahani, NEA
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Working Lunch and Roundtable II
Roundtable II: Building a Robust Biotech Ecosystem in Texas
Chairs: Dr. Patricia Hurn, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Office of Health Affairs, UT System
and Melinda Richter, Head, Janssen Labs
 Dr. Bobby Robbins, TMC
 Jacqueline Northcutt, CEO, BioHouston
 Dr. Brett Giroir, EVP and CEO, Texas A&M
 Jeet Vijay, Horizon Fund, UT System
 Joel Markus, Alexandria Properties
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Roundtable III: Pharma Ventures-Early Stage Funding: Strategic vs. Financial
Chair: Dr. Amir Nashat, Polaris Ventures, Dr. Joe Cunningham MD, Managing Director, Santé Ventures
 Asish Xavier, VP, Venture Investments, J&J Development Corporation
 Ann DeWitt, Senior Director, Sanofi Genzyme Bioventures,
 Armen Shanafelt, Venture Partner, Lilly Ventures,
 David Donabedian VP, AbbVie Ventures,
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Round Table IV: Early Stage Funding and Influence of Texas Angels and High Net
Worth Individuals
Chairs : John Cornwell, VP, Sandhill Angels and TBD
 Mr. Robert Tucci, Chair, Houston Angel Network,
 Mr. Bruce Barshop, President, Barshop Ventures
3:30 pm
Closing Remarks
Dr. Patricia Hurn, Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Office of Health Affairs, UT System