John Desjarlais
Chief Scientific Officer Xencor
Seminars
Wednesday 15th October 2025
Panel Discussion: TCEs vs Cell Therapy: Comparing the Pros & Cons to Build Smarter Pipelines with the Right Modality for the Right Target
11:00 am
As T-cell engagers (TCEs) rapidly emerge from oncology into the autoimmune space, the field is facing a crucial inflection point: how do TCEs stack up against T-cell therapies in terms of specificity, efficacy, and durability? This panel brings together leading voices spanning TCE and cell therapy modalities to debate how these technologies co-exist, compete, or converge. The conversation will also explore how companies are strategically selecting antigens and indications, and designing pipelines that balance scientific ambition with clinical practicality.
Our expert panelists will:
- Compare the pros and cons of TCEs and engineered cell therapies in autoimmune diseases and their mechanistic strengths
- Discuss how to target the right antigens with the right modality: designing pipelines that align antigen biology with the optimal therapeutic platform
- Debate how durability of response and immune reprogramming differ between modalities, and whether one can truly replace the other
- Strategize how to build a future-proof autoimmune pipeline with complementary or competitive assets across modalities
Thursday 16th October 2025
Maximizing Therapeutic Impact with CD20- and CD19-Targeted T Cell Engagers in Autoimmune Disease
9:30 am
- Evaluating B cell expression in CD20 vs CD19 to weigh the risks and benefits
- Engineering Bispecific antibodies by selecting the most effective formats for autoimmune disease applications
- Tuning the potency and half-life of Bispecific antibodies to optimize their therapeutic index
