For full session descriptions, download the 2025 program:
8:00 am Registration and Light Breakfast
8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Communicating Effectively with Donors to Maximise Retention & Engagement
9:00 am Roundtable Discussion: Bridging the Gap on Donor Variability Through Clear Communication & Better Data Use
Synopsis
- Elevating awareness beyond the core community by framing donor variability in accessible, actionable terms
- Creating shared language to help align stakeholders from research to investment
- Encouraging honest reflection by revisiting data with openness and scientific curiosity
9:45 am Stories From the Trenches: Secrets to Recruiting & Retaining Healthy Donors to Ensure Cell Therapy Success
Synopsis
- Sharing real-world experiences and lessons learned from recruiting and re-engaging over 1000 donors for cell therapy collections
- Highlighting the unique challenges and motivations that distinguish cell therapy donor programs from traditional blood and plasma donation
- Revealing field-tested communication and relationship strategies that sustain donor engagement, minimize fatigue, and ensure high-quality starting material
10:15 am Morning Break & Networking
Updating Our Understanding of Regulations to Drive Long-Term Clinical Success
11:15 am Standardized Terminology & Labeling Using the ISBT 128 Standard
Synopsis
- Streamlining collection and manufacturing workflows with hybrid labels for donor-derived material
- Enhancing collaboration by aligning globally harmonized terminology and labelling practices
- Preparing for commercial readiness by embedding the ISBT 128 Standard early in product lifecycle development
11:45 am *New Data* Leveraging Non-Animal Models to Improve Donor Selection & Product Reproducibility
Synopsis
- Uncovering new insights into how donor cell properties influence final product performance, even when engineered identically
- Applying non-animal systems to identify optimal starting materials for iPSC and peripheral blood-derived therapies, in line with new FDA guidance
- Improving product consistency by understanding therapeutic activity at the source and moving beyond the limitations of traditional animal models
12:15 pm Lunch Break & Networking
Boosting Product Quality, Scalability & Investor Appeal
1:15 pm Roundtable: Building Investor Confidence Through Scalable Donor Strategies in Allogeneic Cell Therapy
Synopsis
- Earning trust by showing control over biological variability with a proactive, data-informed donor strategy
- Linking donor sourcing strategies and metrics directly to the ability to reduce batch failure, lower cost of goods, and deliver on trial milestones
- Developing meaningful collaboration between sponsors and suppliers to build a robust donor strategy
2:00 pm Maximizing Process Yield Through Understanding Donor Variability
Synopsis
- Gaining tools to better predict process yield from donor characteristics
- Reducing manufacturing bottlenecks by smoothing production flow
- Proving product consistency to change investor sentiment about variability
2:30 pm Afternoon Break & Networking
Reducing Risk End-to-End for Allogeneic Cell Therapies
3:00 pm Cryopreservation Strategies to Reduce Cold Chain Variability & Minimize Product Degradation
Synopsis
- Identifying risks in the chain between collection, transport, and receipt
- Minimizing product degradation by optimizing protocols for transfer and thaw
- Standardizing LN2 shipping and site-level handling to mitigate real world risks
3:30 pm Peanut Butter & Jelly – Sandwiching Stem Cells & Engineered Immune Effector Cells from Same Donor
Synopsis
- Transplanting allogeneic stem cells with an engineered graft and CAR-T cells
- Optimizing graft versus leukemia and minimizing graft versus host disease