The 2nd T-Cell Engager for Autoimmune Disease Summit arrived at a pivotal moment for the field as autoimmune TCEs rapidly transitioned from oncology-inspired concepts into one of the industry’s most exciting and heavily invested therapeutic modalities. Following major investments and partnerships from companies including Gilead, UCB, Sanofi, and Boehringer Ingelheim, the momentum around T-cell-directed approaches continued to accelerate. Most recently, Boehringer Ingelheim committed up to $15 million to a discovery collaboration with Immunai, using its single-cell AI platform to identify novel targets associated with dysfunctional T cells across cancer and autoimmune disease. This highlighted the growing industry focus on understanding T-cell biology, identifying actionable targets, and leveraging patient-derived data to advance next-generation immune therapies.

As the industry’s only dedicated meeting focused exclusively on autoimmune T-cell engagers, this summit brought together 80+ leaders across discovery, translational, preclinical, clinical, and business development to tackle the field’s most urgent challenges. Discussions explored how to reduce CRS toxicities, improve tissue-selective immune depletion, engineer next-generation engager architectures, and expand beyond B-cell targets. The programme addressed the practical challenges increasingly shaping clinical development. Additionally, discussions included patient recruitment, particularly where patients already had effective standard-of-care options and may have been hesitant to enter trials with uncertain efficacy or safety profiles, as well as biomarker selection and patient stratification to identify the right populations, predict responders, and improve clinical trial design. Discussions also explored how emerging translational insights, patient-derived data, and precision biomarker strategies could help bridge the gap between promising T-cell engager biology and successful clinical development.

With 15+ new speakers, emerging clinical datasets, 2 deep-dive workshops, and 8+ hours of networking including speed networking and interactive roundtables, this forum provided an opportunity for the field to benchmark strategies, build partnerships, and exchange insights on the next generation of autoimmune T-cell engager development.