Biography
Dan Littman, M.D., Ph.D., is the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology and a Professor of Cell Biology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. His research has made fundamental contributions to understanding how T cells develop, differentiate, and respond to signals from pathogens, tissues, and the microbiome. His laboratory investigates the molecular programs that specify T-cell lineages, including regulatory and inflammatory T-cell populations, and how these programs influence immunity, autoimmunity, infection, and cancer. The group also studies how commensal microbes shape systemic immune responses and how immune mechanisms can be manipulated for therapeutic benefit. Dr. Littman’s earlier work helped define key molecules involved in T-cell recognition and HIV biology, and his research continues to connect basic immunology with questions relevant to human disease and cancer immunotherapy. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis and completed pathology training at Columbia University before establishing his independent research program.

Biography
Dr. Katy Rezvani is a pioneering physician scientist whose work has helped define and advance the field of engineered natural killer cell therapy. She has driven the development of cord blood-derived, off-the-shelf NK cell platforms from early discovery through manufacturing and clinical translation, helping establish a new class of cellular immunotherapies and a platform with the potential to expand access, improve scalability and reduce barriers to adoption. Her group provided the first clinical evidence that CAR NK cells can induce meaningful anti-tumor responses with a favorable safety profile, a landmark advance that helped accelerate the field’s growth. She has since led efforts to enhance persistence, in vivo expansion and anti-tumor activity, advancing engineered NK cell therapies for both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Beyond these scientific contributions, Dr. Rezvani has built one of the leading translational programs in cellular therapy, integrating discovery science, manufacturing and clinical investigation to accelerate the development of new treatments. Her work has helped move engineered NK cell therapy from promising concept to clinical reality and has played an important role in shaping the future of scalable cell therapy. Through these contributions, Dr. Rezvani has helped broaden the impact of cellular immunotherapy and open new possibilities for patients.

Talk
Engineered NK Cells Expanding the Reach of Cellular Immunotherapy
This keynote will highlight the development of engineered NK cell therapies from discovery through clinical translation, including first-in-human CAR NK and TCR-NK cell studies. It will focus on strategies to enhance persistence, scalability and access, and discuss how off-the-shelf platforms are expanding the reach and impact of cellular immunotherapy for cancer and beyond.

Biography
David Miklos is a leading figure in cellular immunotherapy and central to the clinical development of CAR-T cell therapy. He led the trials supporting FDA approval of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) in large B-cell lymphoma and brexucabtagene autoleucel (brexu-cel) in mantle cell lymphoma. He directs one of the largest cell therapy programs in the country, and his lab identified antigen loss as the major cause of CAR-T failure and pioneered circulating tumor DNA for lymphoma minimal residual disease. His work on the biology and safe management of CAR-T continues to make the therapy more precise and durable for patients.

Biography
Arie S. Belldegrun is a trail‑blazing urologic‑oncologist‑turned‑biotech entrepreneur whose company‑building spree—from Agensys and Cougar to Kite Pharma—helped usher in the first FDA‑approved CAR‑T therapy and led to Kite’s $11.9 billion sale to Gilead Sciences.After that landmark exit, he co‑founded Allogene Therapeutics and still serves as its Executive Chairman, steering the next wave of off‑the‑shelf (allogeneic) CAR‑T cell products toward the clinic.Beyond Allogene, Belldegrun deploys capital through Bellco Capital, Two River, Symbiotic Capital, Vida Ventures, and the real‑estate venture Breakthrough Properties, nurturing a constellation of startups that translate science into patient impact.Over three decades on UCLA’s faculty, he has authored 500‑plus scientific papers, mentored a generation of physician‑scientists, and kept patient benefit at the center of every deal—cementing his reputation as one of precision medicine’s most influential builders.

Biography
Laura Alquist joined Kite in 2016 and currently serves as Vice President and Global Head of Technical Operations. She has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of technical operations including manufacturing, supply chain, quality and information systems. Laura served as Vice President of Global Supply Chain at Kite before being named Global Head of Manufacturing in 2023. Under her leadership, Kite’s manufacturing team has improved its industry-leading track record for reliability and speed. Additionally, Laura successfully led the team in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic with zero supply disruptions to the patients and providers who rely on Kite’s therapies. Before joining Kite, Laura spent 20 years at Amgen in a range of global and operational roles of increasing responsibility across supply chain, manufacturing, quality and IT. Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from California Lutheran University and is APICS certified in supply chain operations.

Biography
Cindy Perettie is a global oncology and cell therapy leader with more than two decades of experience advancing medicines from science to patients. She leads Kite’s cell therapy business, building on the company’s foundation in CAR T and its approved therapies for blood cancers. Her career spans strategy, commercialization, global operations, and patient access, with prior senior leadership roles at Roche/Genentech focused on oncology. At Kite, she is driving the next phase of cell therapy, including broader patient reach, manufacturing scale, community-based delivery, and expansion into next-generation platforms. She has also emphasized the personal and human side of cancer care, connecting scientific innovation with the practical realities patients and families face. Her leadership reflects a central challenge for the field: how to turn highly complex, individualized therapies into treatments that can reach more eligible patients safely, reliably, and at global scale.

Talk
Track 1 Chair
To be determined

Biography
Marcela Maus, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the Paula O’Keeffe Chair in Oncology, and Director of Cellular Immunotherapy at The Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research, Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute. She is an internationally recognized translational physician-scientist specializing in T-cell and cellular immunotherapies for cancer, with over 230 publications and multiple NIH grants. Her research focuses on human T-cell biology and the clinical translation of engineered T-cell therapies. Dr. Maus trained at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Biography
Frederick L. Locke, MD, is a physician-scientist whose work has helped shape the development and safe delivery of CAR T-cell therapy worldwide. As a leader of the pivotal clinical trials that established CAR T-cell therapy as a standard treatment for lymphoma, including ZUMA-1 and ZUMA-7, he has helped define the field's understanding and management of its potentially life-threatening toxicities. Through collaborations spanning academia, industry, professional societies, and treatment centers, Dr. Locke has helped develop the evidence, standards, and best practices that have enabled cellular therapies to safely reach patients around the world.

Biography
David Miklos is a leading figure in cellular immunotherapy and central to the clinical development of CAR-T cell therapy. He led the trials supporting FDA approval of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) in large B-cell lymphoma and brexucabtagene autoleucel (brexu-cel) in mantle cell lymphoma. He directs one of the largest cell therapy programs in the country, and his lab identified antigen loss as the major cause of CAR-T failure and pioneered circulating tumor DNA for lymphoma minimal residual disease. His work on the biology and safe management of CAR-T continues to make the therapy more precise and durable for patients.

Biography
Dr. Hegde oversees clinical product development, cancer genomics, and early-stage research, as well as regulatory and quality assurance, to accelerate advancement of the Company’s leading comprehensive genomic profiling portfolio. She is passionate about innovation in cancer research and translating innovations to precision medicine tools to advance care for patients. Dr. Hegde has spent nearly two decades in the biopharmaceutical industry, with a proven track record in drug development, registration, and commercialization of therapeutics with companion diagnostics in cancer immunotherapy. Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Dr. Hegde spent 12 years at Genentech. Dr. Hegde served as senior director and principal scientist in oncology biomarker development at Genentech, during which she established and led the biomarker group accountable for translational science strategies in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Hegde was instrumental in the approvals for atezolizumab in both the United States and European Union, as well as its forthcoming diagnostic filings.

Biography
Cindy Perettie is a global oncology and cell therapy leader with more than two decades of experience advancing medicines from science to patients. She leads Kite’s cell therapy business, building on the company’s foundation in CAR T and its approved therapies for blood cancers. Her career spans strategy, commercialization, global operations, and patient access, with prior senior leadership roles at Roche/Genentech focused on oncology. At Kite, she is driving the next phase of cell therapy, including broader patient reach, manufacturing scale, community-based delivery, and expansion into next-generation platforms. She has also emphasized the personal and human side of cancer care, connecting scientific innovation with the practical realities patients and families face. Her leadership reflects a central challenge for the field: how to turn highly complex, individualized therapies into treatments that can reach more eligible patients safely, reliably, and at global scale.

Biography
Brett Staahl, Ph.D., is Co-Founder and Vice President of External Innovation at Scribe Therapeutics, where he works on next-generation CRISPR technologies and their translation into genetic medicines. During his postdoctoral training in Jennifer Doudna’s laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, he helped pioneer delivery of preassembled CRISPR-Cas ribonucleoprotein complexes for genome editing in vivo and ex vivo. His research has included approaches to gene inactivation in disease models, including applications relevant to the nervous system and neurodegeneration. Earlier, Dr. Staahl earned his Ph.D. in developmental biology at Stanford University, studying genetic circuitry in the nervous system and mechanisms relevant to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. At Scribe, he has helped advance compact, highly active CRISPR systems designed for therapeutic use and scalable delivery. His work sits at the intersection of genome-editing biology, delivery, and drug development, with a focus on turning programmable molecular tools into medicines that can address genetically defined disease.

Biography
Dr. Hinrichs is a physician-scientist who has pioneered cell therapy for HPV-associated and other epithelial cancers. He discovered tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy for HPV-associated cancers, the first cell therapy to produce durable complete responses in epithelial cancers. He also discovered gene-engineered TCR-T cell therapies targeting HPV antigens and demonstrated their safety and clinical activity. His laboratory focuses on T-cell receptor discovery, next-generation cell therapies, and mechanisms of response to immunotherapy. At Rutgers Cancer Institute, he leads a bench-to-bedside-and-back cell therapy program that uses the Cell Therapy Research Laboratory, Process Development Laboratory, and GMP Facility to bring new treatments to patients in New Jersey. Clinical trials with on-site GMP manufacturing include therapies for gastric, lung, breast, cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, and other genital cancers.

Biography
Sabine Heitzeneder, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in Hematology and Oncology at Stanford University and a physician-scientist developing cellular immunotherapies for childhood cancers. Her laboratory focuses on identifying tumor-restricted antigens and translating those discoveries into engineered T-cell therapies that can be tested clinically. A major emphasis is overcoming the challenges posed by pediatric solid tumors and brain tumors, where target selection, antigen heterogeneity, and the tumor microenvironment can limit the effectiveness of CAR T-cell therapy. Dr. Heitzeneder and colleagues have advanced work targeting GPC2 and other pediatric cancer antigens, including preclinical strategies designed to improve the potency and specificity of adoptive cell therapies. Her research bridges molecular target discovery, antibody and receptor engineering, disease modeling, and translational development. The goal is to create therapies with sufficient selectivity and activity for early-phase clinical testing while reducing damage to normal tissues, expanding the reach of cellular immunotherapy beyond hematologic malignancies.

Biography
Dr. Shen is a board-certified pathologist and physician-scientist leading a research lab focused on computational pathology and artificial intelligence for cancer care. Her work integrates machine learning, digital pathology, and multimodal data to improve cancer diagnosis, prognostication, and treatment selection. She has served as a principal investigator and collaborator on multiple academic and industry-sponsored studies in digital and computational pathology and oncology. She received her BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and MD from Washington University in St. Louis, and completed Anatomic and Clinical Pathology (AP/CP) and fellowship training in Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, along with additional training in biodesign innovation as a Biodesign Faculty Fellow at Stanford University (http://profiles.stanford.edu/jeanne-shen).

Biography
Frederick L. Locke, MD, is a physician-scientist whose work has helped shape the development and safe delivery of CAR T-cell therapy worldwide. As a leader of the pivotal clinical trials that established CAR T-cell therapy as a standard treatment for lymphoma, including ZUMA-1 and ZUMA-7, he has helped define the field's understanding and management of its potentially life-threatening toxicities. Through collaborations spanning academia, industry, professional societies, and treatment centers, Dr. Locke has helped develop the evidence, standards, and best practices that have enabled cellular therapies to safely reach patients around the world.

Talk
Pending
pending

Biography
Dr. Saul Priceman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at USC, and the Founding Director of the KSOM/Norris Center for Cancer Cellular Immunotherapy Research. Over the last 14 years, his research has focused on T cell immunobiology and cancer immunotherapies. Dr. Priceman’s laboratory develops CAR T cell therapies and combinatorial approaches for the treatment of solid cancers, bringing several therapies to phase 1 clinical testing. His research has led to high-impact publications in Nature Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science Translational Medicine, and Nature Communications, with numerous patents and technologies licensed for further clinical development. Dr. Priceman’s research has been funded with grants from the National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. He received his B.S. in microbiology at UCSB, his Ph.D. in molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA, and his postdoctoral research at City of Hope.

Biography
Mr. Hastings is the Chief Executive Officer of Nkarta and a member of the company's board of directors. Prior to joining Nkarta in 2018, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of successive biopharmaceutical companies including Chairman and CEO of OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, President and CEO of QLT, President and CEO of Axys Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Celera Corporation, President of Chiron BioPharmaceuticals, a division of Chiron Corporation, and President and CEO of LXR Biotechnology. Mr. Hastings also held a series of management positions of increasing responsibility at Genzyme Corporation, including President of Genzyme Therapeutics Europe as well as President, Genzyme Global Therapeutics. Earlier in his career,Mr. Hastings served as Vice President, Marketing and Sales and General Manager, Europe for Synergen (acquired by Amgen in 1994) and held a series of marketing and sales management positions with Hoffmann-La Roche. He is currently chair of the board of directors at Specific Biologics and a member of the board of directors of EnGene. Hastings has served on the board of directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) for more than two decades, chairing the board from 2021 to 2023 after twice serving as BIO vice chair. Previously, Mr. Hastings led as a Director or Chairman of the board of directors of multiple biopharmaceutical companies, including Pacira Biosciences, ViaCyte (acquired by Vertex in 2022), Proteon Therapeutics, Relypsa (acquired by Galenica in 2016), Proteolix (acquired by Onyx Pharmaceuticals in 2010), and ViaCell (acquired by Perkin-Elmer in 2007). He is also the chair of the board of Youth Rally, Inc, a patient advocacy organization he co-founded and serves on the board of the Termeer Institute. Mr. Hastings received a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island.

Biography
In addition to his role at Umoja, Dr. Andrew M. Scharenberg serves as an Executive Partner at MPM Capital, and Chairs the Scientific Advisory Board at Genti Bio. Prior to founding Umoja, Andrew co-directed the Program in Cell and Gene Therapy at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, working to translate cell and gene therapies for the treatment of inherited immunologic and blood diseases. This work led to the spin out of two cell therapy focused biotechs, Pregenen, acquired by BlueBird Bio; and Genti Bio. Andrew earned his M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and completed post-doctoral work in basic immunology at NIH and at the Division of Experimental Pathology, Beth Israel Hospital. From 2000 to 2020, he was an Attending Physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and a Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology at UW School of Medicine in Seattle.

Biography
Dr. Katy Rezvani is a pioneering physician scientist whose work has helped define and advance the field of engineered natural killer cell therapy. She has driven the development of cord blood-derived, off-the-shelf NK cell platforms from early discovery through manufacturing and clinical translation, helping establish a new class of cellular immunotherapies and a platform with the potential to expand access, improve scalability and reduce barriers to adoption. Her group provided the first clinical evidence that CAR NK cells can induce meaningful anti-tumor responses with a favorable safety profile, a landmark advance that helped accelerate the field’s growth. She has since led efforts to enhance persistence, in vivo expansion and anti-tumor activity, advancing engineered NK cell therapies for both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Beyond these scientific contributions, Dr. Rezvani has built one of the leading translational programs in cellular therapy, integrating discovery science, manufacturing and clinical investigation to accelerate the development of new treatments. Her work has helped move engineered NK cell therapy from promising concept to clinical reality and has played an important role in shaping the future of scalable cell therapy. Through these contributions, Dr. Rezvani has helped broaden the impact of cellular immunotherapy and open new possibilities for patients.

Biography
David Miklos is a leading figure in cellular immunotherapy and central to the clinical development of CAR-T cell therapy. He led the trials supporting FDA approval of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) in large B-cell lymphoma and brexucabtagene autoleucel (brexu-cel) in mantle cell lymphoma. He directs one of the largest cell therapy programs in the country, and his lab identified antigen loss as the major cause of CAR-T failure and pioneered circulating tumor DNA for lymphoma minimal residual disease. His work on the biology and safe management of CAR-T continues to make the therapy more precise and durable for patients.

Biography
Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, is professor of medicine, surgery, and molecular and medical pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC). Ribas is a physician-scientist conducting laboratory and clinical translational research in how melanoma responds or resists to cancer immunotherapies, and developing gene engineered adoptive cell transfer therapies. He has been instrumental in the clinical development of several agents approved by the FDA, including the first anti-PD-1 pembrolizumab (Keytruda), the anti-CTLA-4 tremelimumab (Imjudo), as well as two combinations of BRAF and MEK inhibitors, vemurafenib (Zelboraf) and cobimetinib (Cotellic), and dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist). He is a past president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), an elected Fellow of the AACR Academy, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the US National Academy of Medicine.

Biography
Mr. Raineri is the Chief Technology Officer for Aspen Neuroscience, Inc. He is responsible for the Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Process and Analytical Development, Technology Development, and Delivery Device functions of a leading autologous iPSC derived cell therapy company targeting CNS diseases. Prior to his position at Aspen, he was the Chief Manufacturing and Technology Officer for AVROBIO. He has also held various positions of responsibility in Cell and Gene Therapy Contract Manufacturing and Development Organizations (CDMO) as Vice President of Operations for Nikon CeLL innovation, Business Director for Lonza Bioscience Singapore Pte Ltd., and Director of Operations for Lonza Walkersville.

Biography
Dr. Hegde oversees clinical product development, cancer genomics, and early-stage research, as well as regulatory and quality assurance, to accelerate advancement of the Company’s leading comprehensive genomic profiling portfolio. She is passionate about innovation in cancer research and translating innovations to precision medicine tools to advance care for patients. Dr. Hegde has spent nearly two decades in the biopharmaceutical industry, with a proven track record in drug development, registration, and commercialization of therapeutics with companion diagnostics in cancer immunotherapy. Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Dr. Hegde spent 12 years at Genentech. Dr. Hegde served as senior director and principal scientist in oncology biomarker development at Genentech, during which she established and led the biomarker group accountable for translational science strategies in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Hegde was instrumental in the approvals for atezolizumab in both the United States and European Union, as well as its forthcoming diagnostic filings.

Biography
Sajith Wickramasekara is the CEO and co-founder of Benchling, a platform that helps scientists capture, connect, and analyze data across the R&D lifecycle. Since co-founding the company in 2012, he's led Benchling's growth to serve more than 1,300 biotech organizations globally. Today, Benchling brings AI agents and models directly into scientific workflows, connected to structured data. Sajith studied computer science at MIT.

Biography
Mark Cobbold is Senior Vice President of Discovery and Head of Oncology Cell Therapy in AstraZeneca Oncology R&D, where he leads research aimed at creating next-generation cellular immunotherapies for cancer. A physician-scientist and immunologist, his work has spanned human T-cell biology, viral immunity, cancer neoantigens, immunodeficiency, and the engineering of immune cells to recognize and eliminate tumors. He has helped develop technologies for identifying clinically relevant antigens and for designing T-cell therapies with improved specificity and function. Before joining AstraZeneca, Dr. Cobbold built an academic and entrepreneurial career in translational immunology and has co-founded several biotechnology companies, including ventures focused on immune targets and cancer immunotherapy. His research has connected basic discoveries in antigen recognition with therapeutic platforms intended to overcome tumor escape and broaden the reach of engineered cell therapy. At AstraZeneca, he works across discovery science, translational development, and portfolio strategy to move new cell-therapy concepts toward clinical testing in both hematologic and solid tumors.

Biography
Daniel Getts is a global leader in RNA therapeutics and immune engineering. An Australian-born, US-naturalized scientist and entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of multiple biotech ventures, including CREATE Medicines, a clinical-stage company focused on in vivo mRNA immune cell programming, and Aurora Biosynthetics, Australia’s first GMP RNA manufacturing facility, developed in partnership with the NSW Government to strengthen regional biotechnology capability. Throughout his career, Getts has founded or co-founded several biotechnology companies, including Cour Pharmaceuticals, the field leader in immune tolerance, striking major partnerships with Takeda ($420M) and Genentech ($940M). Collectively, his ventures have generated more than $2 billion USD in value and advanced 11 novel therapies into clinical trials across cancer, autoimmune disease, and transplant rejection. Getts earned his PhD in Medicine from the University of Sydney and his MBA from Western Michigan University. He conducted postdoctoral research at Northwestern University, where he co-invented multiple immune modulation platforms.

Biography
Daniel Getts is a global leader in RNA therapeutics and immune engineering. An Australian-born, US-naturalized scientist and entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of multiple biotech ventures, including CREATE Medicines, a clinical-stage company focused on in vivo mRNA immune cell programming, and Aurora Biosynthetics, Australia’s first GMP RNA manufacturing facility, developed in partnership with the NSW Government to strengthen regional biotechnology capability. Throughout his career, Getts has founded or co-founded several biotechnology companies, including Cour Pharmaceuticals, the field leader in immune tolerance, striking major partnerships with Takeda ($420M) and Genentech ($940M). Collectively, his ventures have generated more than $2 billion USD in value and advanced 11 novel therapies into clinical trials across cancer, autoimmune disease, and transplant rejection. Getts earned his PhD in Medicine from the University of Sydney and his MBA from Western Michigan University. He conducted postdoctoral research at Northwestern University, where he co-invented multiple immune modulation platforms.

Biography
Christophe Griolet is Vice President and General Manager of Kite US, a Gilead company, where he leads the U.S. commercial organization across marketing, sales, operations, and market access for CAR T-cell therapies. He brings more than two decades of pharmaceutical leadership experience across North America and Europe, with a career spanning virology, oncology, hematology, and specialty medicines. Before moving into his current Kite role, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Gilead Canada and previously held general management and commercial leadership positions in Switzerland, France, and the United Kingdom. He joined Gilead in 2003 and has worked closely with Kite since the cell-therapy company became part of Gilead. His focus is on translating clinical innovation into real-world patient access, including the operational, reimbursement, and provider challenges unique to individualized cell therapies. Mr. Griolet combines commercial strategy with health-system execution to expand the reach and adoption of CAR T therapy in the United States.