If you were unable to attend or would like to revisit the 2025 KI Symposium, video is now available on YouTube. Save the date for next year’s symposium on diet and metabolism in cancer on Thursday, June 18, 2026
The 23rd Annual Koch Institute Symposium on Antibody Drug Conjugates: Targeted Cancer Therapies at the Intersection of Chemistry, Biology, and Engineering took place on Friday, June 27, 2025. Kicking off with 2022 Nobel Prize winner Carolyn Bertozzi, our speaker lineup featured an array of industry and academic leaders who discussed current advancements and challenges in deploying antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) as anti-cancer agents. We cordially invited scientists, oncologists, and any other member of the biomedical community to join us in a day of engaging talks, stimulating conversations with colleagues, and of course camaraderie in our collective fight against cancer.
Agenda
9:00 a.m. - 9:05 a.m. Opening remarks
Matthew Vander Heiden
Director, MIT Koch Institute
9:05 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Keynote
Introduction: Jessica Stark, MIT Koch Institute
Carolyn Bertozzi
Stanford University
Bioorthogonal chemistry, from basic science to clinical translation
10:00 a.m. – 12:30 pmSession One
Chair: Angela Koehler
Koch Institute at MIT
Peter Senter
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Antibody Drug Conjugates for Cancer Therapy: From Early Stage Research to Clinically Approved Drugs
10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.Break
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 pmSession One: Continued
Gerold Meinhardt
Daiichi Sankyo
Trastuzumab Deruxtecan: The Redefinition of HER2-targeted Therapy
Alison Betts
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
More than the sum of their parts: Integrating data and knowledge of ADCs in a Quantitative Systems Pharmacology platform model to predict efficacy and toxicity
Timothy Lowinger
Mersana Therapeutics
Development of a STING-agonist ADC Platform: A Targeted Approach to Immunostimulation
12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.Lunch Break
1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.Session Two: Short Presentations
Chair: Laura Kiessling
Koch Institute at MIT
Laurie Boyer
MIT Koch Institute
Traffic control: High resolution mapping of ADCs within the lysosomal compartment
Dane Wittrup
MIT Koch Institute
Noncovalent capture antibody drug conjugates
Jeremiah Johnson
MIT Koch Institute
The ABCs of Antibody-Bottlebrush Conjugates
Daša Lipovšek
Aktis Oncology
Miniproteins for targeted radiotherapy
2:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.Break
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.Session Three
Chair: Matthew Vander Heiden
Koch Institute at MIT
Greg Thurber
University of Michigan
Designing ADCs for Efficient Tumor Tissue Penetration and Clinical Efficacy
Puja Sapra
AstraZeneca
Lessons learned from decades of ADC development
Michael Seganish
Merck
Navigating Undesired Payload Release
Thank you to our sponsors!
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