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.

aging models and age-related diseases

Weiqi Zhang, PhD, China National Center for Bioinformation and Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Li Gan, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical College, USA
Louise Mesentier-Louro, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA
Muhammad Assir, PhD, University of Aberdeen, UK
Karolina Pircs, PhD, Semmelweis University, Hungary
Kyoko Miura, PhD, Kyushu University, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Japan

  • 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

Hongjun Song, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Daniela Cornacchia, PhD, AstraZeneca, Sweden
Florian Merkle, PhD, University of Cambridge, UK
Tripti Saini, PhD, University of Georgia, USA
Stefan Semrau, PhD, The Jackson Laboratory, USA
Yutong Wan, PhD, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

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

advanced organoid models

sponsored by: Stem Cell Reports

Sasha Mendjan, PhD, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, IMBA, Austria
Samira Musah, PhD, Duke University, USA
Anna Reinelt, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
Katharina Sarnow, PhD, Boston Children's Hospital, USA
Bettina Bohl, PhD, Imperial College London, UK
Ai Tian, PhD, The University of Toronto, Canada

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

new approach methodologies

sponsored by: ISSCR Consortium on Advanced Stem Cell-Based Models in Drug Discovery and Development

Sonja Beken, PhD, Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products, Belgium
Jack Collins, PhD
, National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA
Jun Wang, PhD, University of British Columbia, Canada
Sanne Wiersma, PhD, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands
Cheng Ma, Kyoto University, Japan
Vittoria Bocchi, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA

  • 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.