Speaker Profile
Ph.D., Director, CZ Biohub
Biography
Dr. Manuel Leonetti is a group leader at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Leonetti completed his bachelors degree in Chemistry and his masters degree in Interdisciplinary Life Sciences at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He continued his graduate studies in Molecular Neurobiology at The Rockefeller University under the supervision of Dr. Rod MacKinnon. In 2013, he joined Dr. Jonathan Weissmans group at UCSF, where he developed high-throughput CRISPR methods to illuminate the function of human genes with fluorescent labels. In 2017, Leonetti became group leader at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, where his team develops multi-disciplinary techniques in order to map the internal architecture of human cells.
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
• David Chang, 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
