Alex Boches
Chief Business Officer NovalGen
Seminars
Thursday 29th October 2026
Panel Discussion: Harnessing Co-Stimulation to Enhance T-Cell Persistence, Overcome Exhaustion & Unlock Durable Autoimmune Responses
2:00 pm
As autoimmune T-cell engagers move beyond first-generation designs, many developers are encountering a common challenge, exhausted and dysfunctional T cells may limit the depth and durability of clinical responses. Co-stimulatory approaches have emerged as a promising strategy to enhance T-cell fitness, persistence, and efficacy, but questions remain around how much co-stimulation is needed and how to balance improved potency with cytokine release and safety risks.
This panel will discuss how co-stimulation could reshape the future of autoimmune therapy by:
- Understanding the biology of T-cell exhaustion and persistence, exploring the mechanisms driving reduced T-cell functionality in autoimmune patients and identifying opportunities to restore effective immune responses
- Evaluating emerging co-stimulatory strategies, comparing approaches leveraging CD28, CD2, 4 1BB, and other pathways to determine how they influence efficacy, durability, immune-cell depletion, and safety profiles
- Defining the optimal balance between potency and safety, discussing how co-stimulation can be integrated into nextgeneration engager designs to maximize clinical benefit while minimizing cytokine release syndrome, off-target activation, and long-term immune suppression
Wednesday 28th October 2026
Engineering Autoregulatory T-Cell Engagers to Preserve T-Cell Fitness, Prevent Exhaustion & Expand the Therapeutic Window in Autoimmune Disease
4:30 pm
- Developing autoregulatory T-cell engager architectures designed to modulate T-cell activation dynamics, preserving T-cell fitness and functionality while reducing the risk of excessive immune activation, cytokine release, and treatment-related toxicity
- Investigating how controlled and self-regulating immune engagement strategies can prevent T-cell exhaustion, enhance persistence, and maintain potent immunecell depletion across chronic autoimmune disease settings requiring sustained therapeutic activity
- Leveraging translational immune profiling, functional T-cell assays, and preclinical safety models to optimize therapeutic windows and establish differentiated approaches that balance efficacy, durability, and long-term immune tolerability
