iBET’s Research at ECI Advancing Manufacture of Cell & Gene Therapies IX Conference: Best Poster Award

A team of iBET scientists participated in the Advancing Manufacture of Cell and Gene Therapies IX, part of the ECI – Engineering Conferences International series, held from 1-5 February in South Carolina, USA.

iBET researchers contributed extensively to the conference scientific programme, showcasing the institute’s ongoing work in advanced therapies development and bioprocess engineering.

Patrícia Gomes-Alves (Head of the Sanofi Satellite Lab and Coordinator of the Analytical Services and Mass Spectrometry Units) co-chaired and was part of the organizing committee of the workshop “Improving Cost-Effectiveness and Patient Access for Cell and Gene Therapies”. The session focused on an interactive hands-on cost-of-goods case-study with practical routes to commercialization with industry experts.

Our scientists also delivered 3 Oral and 5 Poster presentations.

Oral Presentations

–António Roldão (Head of the Cell-based Vaccines Development Lab & Coordinator of Late-Stage R&D Unit) – “How bioprocess engineering can shape viral vector manufacturing”

–Margarida Serra (Head of the Stem and Immune Cells Bioengineering Lab) – “Bridging engineering and biology to accelerate the manufacture of allogeneic cell therapy products”

–Margarida Costa (PhD student) – “Hypoxia-driven modulation of CAR T cell culture in stirred-tank bioreactors maximizes cell expansion and killing efficacy in a solid tumor model”

Left to right, top to bottom: Patrícia Gomes-Alves with co-chairs Suzy Farid and Fabien Moncaubeig, responsible for organizing the pre-event workshop on cost-effectiveness and patient access of advanced therapies. António Roldão, Margarida Serra and Margarida Costa during their oral presentations.

Poster Presentations

-Margarida Serra – “Engineering immunocompetent 3D brain cultures for AAV-based gene therapy development”

-António Roldão – “Bioprocess development and intensification for billion-scale production of hiPSC-based cell products”

-Margarida Costa – “Advancing allogeneic cancer therapies through integrated manufacturing of γδ T Cells in scalable bioreactors”

–Filipa Moura (PhD student)– “Genome-wide CRISPRa screen identifies CEBPA as a novel modulator of high rAAV production”. This poster was awarded the 2nd place in the Best Poster Award competition. Congratulations Filipa!

-Filipa Moura – “A novel application of GS-based selection for rapid generation of high-titer rAAV producer cell lines”

-Patricia Gomes-Alves – “MS-based workflow for PTM profiling of AAV capsid proteins to support bioprocess monitoring and development”

From left to right, top to bottom: Filipa Moura presenting her poster on “Genome-wide CRISPRa screen identifies CEBPA as a novel modulator of high rAAV production” and receiving the diploma for winning the Best Poster Award (2nd Place). Margarida Costa and Margarida Serra presenting her posters.

CCE IX gathered leading international specialists from academia and industry to showcase and debate the latest breakthroughs in advancing the engineering and manufacturing of advanced therapies. See the full conference program here.

Participation in the conference offered iBET scientists an important opportunity to present and discuss their latest work with the global scientific community. It further reinforced iBET’s engagement in advancing research and contributing to strategic discussions in gene therapy advanced bioprocessing, cell therapy manufacturing, and analytical development workflows.