Sunday
2:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Arrival and Check-in
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 7:40 pm
Introductory Comments by GRC Staff / Welcome and Introduction from the Chairs
7:40 pm - 9:30 pm
Keynote Session: Fundamental Principles of Protein Engineering
Discussion Leader: Yvonne Chen (University of California, Los Angeles, United States)
7:40 pm - 7:50 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:50 pm - 8:25 pm
Donald Hilvert (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
"Evolving Virus-Like Assemblies in The Lab"
8:25 pm - 8:40 pm
Discussion
8:40 pm - 9:15 pm
James Wells (University of California, San Francisco, United States)
"Engineering Proteins to Understand Health and Disease"
9:15 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Monday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Protein Engineering for Biocatalysis
Discussion Leader: Stephanie Galanie (Merck, United States)
9:00 am - 9:30 am
Stefan Lutz (Codexis Inc., United States)
"Engineering Enzyme Products"
9:30 am - 9:45 am
Discussion
9:45 am - 10:15 am
Uwe Bornscheuer (University of Greifswald, Germany)
"Error-Prone PCR, Massive Screening, Smart Libraries or Machine Learning: What Is The Best Choice?"
10:15 am - 10:30 am
Discussion
10:30 am - 11:00 am
Coffee Break
11:00 am - 11:30 am
Pimchai Chaiyen (Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC), Thailand)
"Mechanism-Based Approach for Engineering of Flavin-Dependent and Other Related Enzymes"
11:30 am - 11:45 am
Discussion
11:45 am - 12:00 pm
Robert Kourist (Graz University of Technology, Austria)
"Enzyme Engineering of A Membrane-Bound Monooxygenase as Key Step of an Artificial Metabolic Pathway Towards Tulipalin A"
12:00 pm - 12:10 pm
Discussion
12:10 pm - 12:30 pm
Poster Previews
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Free Time
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The GRC Power Hour™
The GRC Power Hour™ is designed to address diversity and inclusion in the scientific workplace by providing a safe environment for informal and meaningful conversations amongst colleagues of all career stages. The program supports the professional growth of all members of our communities, including ethnicity, race and/or gender identity by providing an open forum for discussion and mentoring.
Organizers: Danielle Tullman-Ercek (Northwestern University, United States) and Vesna Mitchell (Codexis, Inc., United States)
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Engineering Proteins with Novel Functions
Discussion Leader: Vesna Mitchell (Codexis, Inc., United States)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:05 pm
Shunsuke Kato (Osaka University, Japan)
"Directed Evolution of a Rh(III)-Linked Artificial Metalloenzyme for C-H Bond Functionalization"
8:05 pm - 8:20 pm
Discussion
8:20 pm - 8:50 pm
Yang Yang (University of California Santa Barbara, United States)
"Stereoselective New-to-Nature Radical Biocatalysis"
8:50 pm - 9:05 pm
Discussion
9:05 pm - 9:20 pm
Erin Drufva (ORNL, United States)
"Discovery and Engineering of Novel Nylon Hydrolases"
9:20 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Tuesday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Protein Engineering for Flux Control and Biosynthesis
Discussion Leader: Ee Lui Ang (Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation, Singapore)
9:00 am - 9:30 am
Claudia Schmidt-Dannert (University of Minnesota, United States)
"Design of Self-Assembling Protein-Based Materials for Biocatalysis"
9:30 am - 9:45 am
Discussion
9:45 am - 10:15 am
Danielle Tullman-Ercek (Northwestern University, United States)
"Leveraging Next-Generation Technologies to Engineer Protein Assemblies"
10:15 am - 10:30 am
Discussion
10:30 am - 11:00 am
Coffee Break
11:00 am - 11:10 am
Scott France (Merck, United States)
"The Evolving Nature of Biocatalysis in Pharmaceutical Research and Development"
11:10 am - 11:15 am
Discussion
11:15 am - 11:25 am
Rene De Jong (dsm-firmenich, The Netherlands)
"Protein Engineering to Address Global Challenges in Nutrition, Health and Sustainability"
11:25 am - 11:30 am
Discussion
11:30 am - 11:40 am
Hao Yang (EnzyMaster, China)
"In Silico Screening Of Transaminase Using A Semi-Empirical QM/MM Approach"
11:40 am - 11:45 am
Discussion
11:45 am - 11:55 am
Oliver Yu (Conagen Inc, United States)
"Rational Enzyme Engineering That Successfully Pushed Flavor and Fragrance Products to the Market"
11:55 am - 12:00 pm
Discussion
12:00 pm - 12:15 pm
General Discussion
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm
Poster Previews
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Free Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Machine Learning in Protein Engineering
Discussion Leader: Philip Romero (University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:05 pm
Jiri Damborsky (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, Czech Republic)
"Machine Learning-Powered Web Tools for Protein Engineering"
8:05 pm - 8:20 pm
Discussion
8:20 pm - 8:50 pm
Possu Huang (Stanford University, United States)
"Deep Generative Design of Epitope-Specific Binding Proteins by Latent Conformation Optimization"
8:50 pm - 9:05 pm
Discussion
9:05 pm - 9:20 pm
David Schönauer (Aminoverse, The Netherlands)
"Next-Gen Enzyme Engineering – A Wet Lab Data-Driven Approach to Identify and Recombine Key Point Mutations With EnzyMAP AI and EnzyREC AI for Superior Enzyme Performance"
9:20 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Wednesday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
8:30 am - 9:00 am
Group Photo
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Protein Engineering for Therapeutic Applications
Discussion Leader: Jennifer Maynard (University of Texas at Austin, United States)
9:00 am - 9:30 am
Brianna McIntosh (Stanford University, United States)
"Engineering Decoy Ligands and Receptors for Cancer Therapy"
9:30 am - 9:45 am
Discussion
9:45 am - 10:15 am
Yvonne Chen (University of California, Los Angeles, United States)
"Engineering Next-Generation CAR-T Cell Therapy for Cancer"
10:15 am - 10:30 am
Discussion
10:30 am - 11:00 am
Coffee Break
11:00 am - 11:15 am
Dana Thornlow (Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, United States)
"Designing Hyperglycosylated Hemagglutinin Beads-On-A-String (BoaS) Immunogens for Epitope-Focused Influenza Vaccines"
11:15 am - 11:25 am
Discussion
11:25 am - 11:40 am
Johnny Blazeck (Georgia Tech, United States)
"Protein Engineering of Immunometabolic Enzyme Therapies for Cancer"
11:40 am - 11:50 am
Discussion
11:50 am - 12:05 pm
Carla Cabal Fernandez (Institut Pasteur / Sanofi, France)
"Fab-Ulous Improvements in Cryo-EM: Optimizing Antibody Fab Scaffolds"
12:05 pm - 12:15 pm
Discussion
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm
Poster Previews
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Free Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Protein Engineering for Bioimaging
Discussion Leader: Peter Yingxiao Wang (University of Southern California, United States)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:05 pm
Jennifer Prescher (UC Irvine, United States)
"Imaging Tools and Technologies Inspired by Nature’s Light-Emitting Chemistry"
8:05 pm - 8:20 pm
Discussion
8:20 pm - 8:50 pm
Anna Wu (Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, United States)
"Engineered Antibodies and Fusion Proteins for Non-invasive Molecular Imaging"
8:50 pm - 9:05 pm
Discussion
9:05 pm - 9:20 pm
Wenjing Wang (University of Michigan, United States)
"Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Sensors and Chemogenetic Tools For Studying G-Protein-Coupled Receptor Signaling in The Brain"
9:20 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Thursday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
8:30 am - 9:00 am
Business Meeting
Nominations for the Next Vice Chair(s); Complete the GRC Evaluation Forms; Discuss Future Dates and Venue; Election of the Next Vice Chair(s)
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Engineering Immunomodulatory Proteins
Discussion Leader: Annie Gai (Atreca, Inc, United States)
9:00 am - 9:30 am
K. Dane Wittrup (David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States)
"Anchoring Cytokines in The Tumor Microenvironment for Immunotherapy"
9:30 am - 9:45 am
Discussion
9:45 am - 10:15 am
Cristina Puig Saus (UCLA, United States)
"Engineering A Potent T-Cell Response Against Solid Tumors"
10:15 am - 10:30 am
Discussion
10:30 am - 11:00 am
Coffee Break
11:00 am - 11:30 am
Juan Mendoza (The University of Chicago, United States)
"A Family of Proteins Important for Mucosal Immunity That Evolution Overlooked and How We Can Fix Them"
11:30 am - 11:45 am
Discussion
11:45 am - 12:00 pm
Jennifer Maynard (University of Texas at Austin, United States)
"Engineering Potent Antibodies Against Human Cytomegalovirus"
12:00 pm - 12:10 pm
Discussion
12:10 pm - 12:30 pm
Poster Previews
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Free Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Poster Session
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Dinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Emerging Tools for Protein Engineering
Discussion Leader: Dunming Zhu (Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm
Introduction by Discussion Leader
7:35 pm - 8:05 pm
Florian Hollfelder (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
"How Do We Find New Functional Proteins in the Vastness of Sequence Space?"
8:05 pm - 8:20 pm
Discussion
8:20 pm - 8:50 pm
Jean-Louis Reymond (University of Bern, Switzerland)
"Chirality and Chain Topology As Variables in Peptide and Protein Design"
8:50 pm - 9:05 pm
Discussion
9:05 pm - 9:20 pm
Zhongyue John Yang (Vanderbilt University, United States)
"Mutexa: A High-throughput Computational Ecosystem for Protein Engineering"
9:20 pm - 9:30 pm
Discussion
Friday
7:30 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
9:00 am
Departure