Pre-Conference Workshop Day

Tuesday, August 22

8:30 am: Registration and Breakfast

WORKSHOP A

9:30 am to 12:30 pm

Evaluating the Use of Neurofilament Light Chain (NfL) as a Biomarker of Neurodegeneration

NfL is demonstrating increasing promise to detect the neurodegenerative effects of disease-modifying therapeutics. By detecting the levels of NfL in blood samples, this has the potential to
enhance identification of neurodegeneration in early stages and accelerate the development of
targeted treatments.

In this session, you will:

    • Compare the relevance of NfL across different indications for showing therapeutic-induced
      reduction of neurodegeneration

 

    • Assess the ability of NfL to strengthen primary or secondary endpoints in clinical trials

 

    • Explore the most advantageous ways to obtain fluid measurements of NfL and determine the
      minimum sample size needed to see good correlation to CNS pathology

 

Workshop leaders:

Li Chin Wong,Executive Director, Translational Biomarkers and Bioanalytics,Eli Lilly
Olga Kahn,Biomarker Scientist, Alector

12:30 pm: Lunch and Networking Break

WORKSHOP B

1:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Enhancing the Translatability of Neurodegenerative and Neuroinflammatory Biomarkers from Early Development into the Clinic

Translatability remains a key bottleneck holding back the development of CNS therapeutics through the clinic. Bridging the gap between biomarker data obtained from animals vs humans and overcoming physiological differences in brain tissue between species are critical concepts to be
discussed.

In this session, you will:

    • Decipher how to bridge the gap between what can be measured in preclinical models and in the CNS of clinical patients

 

    • Understand how proteomic analyses of animal and human biofluids facilitates comparative studies
      of brain activity to determine clinical translatability of a biomarker

 

    • Uncover fluid and imaging biomarkers that can accurately measure pathological effects of
      treatment in animal brain models and assess their ability to be recapitulated in human studies

 

    • Evaluate iPSC-derived models for reflecting human neuropathology and developing translatable
      biomarkers with sufficient specificity in humans

 

Workshop leaders:

Fan Liao, Principal Research Scientist, AbbVie
Anna Katrin Szardenings,Senior Director Global Imaging Biomarkers, Janssen
Kristina Holmberg, Director, Clinical Biomarkers,Biogen

VIEW SPEAKERS
DAY ONE