Conference Day One | Wednesday, March 26, 2025

7:50 am Check In & Light Breakfast

8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Enhancing DNA Fidelity & Quality by Measuring Impurities to Increase Yield of High-Value DNA for Potent Therapies

9:00 am Impacts of Plasmid Product Quality Attributes on mRNA PolyA Tail Length

  • Jennifer Lin Director, Preclinical MFG & Pilot Plant, Beam Therapeutics Inc.

Synopsis

  • Understand the importance of pDNA as a starting material on mRNA product quality to inform plasmid design
  • Navigating DNA polyA tail length heterogeneity to guide upstream process development decisions
  • Engineering a plasmid that impacts polyA tail length to maximize product quality

9:30 am Optimizing Plasmid DNA Clarification to Maximize DNA Purity

  • James Osborn Senior Scientist, Preclinical Development, Merck & Co

Synopsis

  • Evaluating different parameters to minimize key DNA impurities: host cell DNA and open circular DNA
  • Exploring alternative clarification unit operations to enhance impurity removal and increasing yield
  • Understanding key scaling parameters during lysis and clarification operations

10:30 am Morning Break & Speed Networking

Synopsis

Our dedicated speed networking session is the perfect opportunity to have in-depth conversations and forge long-lasting connections with fellow technical experts working with plasmid and synthetic DNA

Refining Upstream Process Development & Fermentation to Maximize Downstream Recovery & DNA Stability for Higher Efficiency Advanced Therapeutics

11:30 am Optimizing Fermentation Conditions for Robust Plasmid Production

  • Chris Lee Associate Principal Scientist, Merck & Co

Synopsis

  • Reducing fermentation stresses for robustness of plasmid production 
  • Balancing growth and yield for plasmid production to maximize efficiency 
  • Evaluating media conditions for optimal growth and plasmid recovery 

12:00 pm Tailor Made Synthetic DNA: Shortening Delivery Time, High Quality Material & Improving its Performance According to Application

Synopsis

  • Delivery time, from milligrams to grams scale: 2 weeks
  • High Quality GMP Material
  • Optimized synthetic DNA, maximizing its functional performance according to applications and client requirements

12:15 pm Debottlenecking Vaccine Manufacturing; Simplifying DSP Process

Synopsis

  • Optimizing host strain, plasmid design, media composition and fermentation conditions for high biomass, plasmid yield and quality, facilitating downstream purification of ScpDNA
  • pDNA recovery is a critical step in the downstream process, removing most contaminants while concentrating pDNA 
  • Pharmaceutical pDNA has stringent requirements of purity, homogeneity, and efficacy, and SC pDNA is the most stable, efficient, and biologically active

12:45 pm Lunch & Networking

Elevating Effective Lysis & Purification of DNA to Increase Downstream Efficiency & Yield to Maximize Manufacturing Efficiency

1:45 pm Thinking Beyond Traditional Resin Based Chromatography for Improved Purification & DNA Quality

Synopsis

  • Exploring the possibilities of monolithic resins, membrane absorbers and ion exchange chromatography to effectively purify pDNA
  • How to maintain cost-effectiveness whilst employing advanced purification methods to ensure sustainable DNA production

2:15 pm Session Reserved for BIA Separations

2:45 pm Panel Discussion: Optimizing Downstream DNA Process Development through Novel Lysis & Purification Methods to Protect Yield & Quality

Synopsis

  • How to streamline downstream process development and employ the latest methods and technologies to maximize efficiency of DNA production
  • How to reduce the manufacturing timeline and maintain cost efficiency whilst producing high quality starting materials and API
  • Understanding the regulatory landscape of lysis and purification of DNA for use in advanced therapies

3:30 pm Afternoon Break & Poster Session

Synopsis

This is your opportunity to share your innovations and breakthroughs with your DNA manufacturing peers

Integrating Analytical Testing & Quality Control Methods to Streamline Release of Manufactured DNA for High Quality mRNA, Cell & Gene Therapies & Vaccines

4:30 pm Analytical Considerations for Plasmid DNAs as Starting Material for Cell & Gene Therapy Products in Clinical Development

Synopsis

  • Outlining the characterization and quality control of plasmid DNAs
  • Employing HPLC, UV and NGS tools to test quality attributes to understand pDNA purity 
  • Stability behaviour and shelf-life setting for long-term storage to maximize use of pDNA and advanced therapies

5:00 pm Accelerating & De-risking the Path to Clinical Drug Development with the Cell-Free Synthesis of DNA

Synopsis

  • Unlock greater speed and sequence diversity for screening by eliminating the time spent cloning plasmid DNA
  • More economically scale DNA synthesis for personalized therapy
  • De-risk clinical scale-up earlier in the development process

5:30 pm Ministring DNA: a Novel Linear DNA Minivector with Superior Fidelity & Enhanced Stability for Gene Therapy Applications

Synopsis

  • Enhancing stability of gene therapies with Ministring DNA through resisting destabilization, maintaining structural integrity at critical pH levels, and ensuring consistent non-viral gene delivery
  • How Trehalose-enabled lyophilization allows for room-temperature storage while maintaining functionality, facilitating use in low-resource settings
  • Ensuring high fidelity, scalability and regulatory compliance through in vivo manufacturing in E.coli 

6:00 pm End of Conference Day One