concurrent track: disease modeling and drug discovery

A pink line drawing of a petri dish with bacteria and a pet snake, with the text "DMDD" underneath, on a black background.

Examining advances in in vivo, in vitro, and in silico disease models to enable drug screening, toxicity assessment, and therapeutic development.

Organized by:

*Additional invited and abstract-selected speakers to be determined. Session descriptions and titles may change slightly.

  • This session explores the biological mechanisms of aging and highlights opportunities for intervention in age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s and metabolic disorders. 

precision medicine and drug evaluation

Daniela Cornacchia, PhD, AstraZeneca, Sweden
Hongjun Song, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, USA

  • This session focuses on the application of stem cell-based models in drug development and precision medicine, including toxicity testing. 

advanced organoid models

Sasha Mendjan, PhD, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, IMBA, Austria
Samira Musah, PhD, Duke University, USA

  • This session features organoid models that incorporate vascular, immune, and microtissue components to improve physiological relevance in disease modeling. 

new approach methodologies

Sonja Beken, PhD, Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products, Belgium
Jinmiao Chen, PhD
, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

  • This session showcases New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) including in vitro and in silico techniques that advance research and accelerate translation. It also features a regulatory perspective on the role of NAMs’ in drug development and safety assessment.