Speaker Profile
M.D., Chairman and CEO, ArsenalBio
Biography
Ken Drazan, MD, is the Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Arsenal Bio, apioneering company in the field of cell therapy and gene editing. Prior tohis role at Arsenal Bio, Dr. Drazan served as President and Chief Business Officer of GRAIL, a company focused on early cancer detection which wasacquired by Illumina. He also founded and was a Board Director at Verb Surgical, which was later acquired by Johnson Johnson. Additionally, Dr. Drazan co-founded Bertram Capital, a private equity firm managing $1.9billion in assets. He earned his medical degree from Yale University. Throughout his career, Dr. Drazan has been instrumental in advancingtechnologies that leverage AI and high-performance computing in precisionmedicine, significantly impacting the fields of gene editing and celltherapy.
Session Abstract – PMWC 2026 Silicon Valley
Track Chair:
Priti Hegde, Kite Pharma
PMWC Award Ceremony
• Michel Sadelain, Columbia University
• Arie S. Belldegrun, Allogene Therapeutics
Keynote: Engineering the Future: Innovations in CAR-T Therapy Design
• Michel Sadelain, Columbia University
CAR-T Cell Therapies: Strategies in Mitigating Challenges in Solid Tumor Delivery
• Chair: David Barrett, Kite Pharma
• Carl June, University of Pennsylvania
• Michel Sadelain, Columbia University
Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TILs): Advances and Challenges in Solid Tumors
• Chair: Allison Betof Warner, Stanford University
• George Coukos, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
• Max Julve, Royal Marsden
• Stephanie Goff, NIH/NCI
Allogeneic & In Vivo Cell Therapies: Manufacturing & Clinical Progress
• Chair: Arie S. Belldegrun, Allogene Therapeutics
• Zach Roberts, Allogene Therapeutics
• Adrian Bot, Capstan Therapeutics
• Aliya Omer, AstraZeneca
• Priti Hegde, Kite Pharma
Designing Automated Platforms for Scalable Cell Therapy Manufacturing
• Fabian Gerlinghaus, Cellares
TCR-Based Cell Therapies: New Targets and Clinical Advances
• Chair: Diwakar Davar, UPMC
• Lauren Harshman, Clasp Therapeutics
• Cassian Yee, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Gene Editing & Synthetic Biology for Therapy
• Chair: Matthew Porteus, Stanford University
• Rachel Haurwitz, Caribou Biosciences
• Kole T. Roybal, Parker Institute
• Ken Drazan, ArsenalBio
In-Vivo Myeloid Programming: Engineering the Innate Immune System for Solid Tumor Therapy
• Daniel Getts, Create Medicines
Synthetic Circuits for Smarter Cell Therapies: Enhancing NK Precision and Persistence
• Gudrun Stengel, Alida Biosciences
