iBET Scientists present at ECI Conference: Advancing Cell & Gene Therapies Manufacture

A group of iBET scientists, including CEO Paula Alves and Vice-President Manuel Carrondo, attended the ECI Advancing Manufacture of Cell and Gene Therapies VIII Conference, held in Coronado, USA, from February 4th to 8th.
The international biennial meeting brings together top experts in the field to discuss the latest developments in advancing the engineering and manufacturing of next generation therapies.

Cell Therapies Award Lecture by Paula Alves

The highlight of iBET’s participation was the "Cell Therapies Award" Lecture delivered by Paula Alves, entitled “R&D Supporting Translation of Cell based Biotherapeutics”, following her recent recognition as the 2024 awardee. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding contributions to the advancement and commercialization of cell-based therapies and is given biannually at the ECI Advancing Manufacture of Cell and Gene Therapies Conference.

iBET's participation included 3 oral and 2 poster presentations

Moreover, iBET’s scientists participated in the conference program as session chairs, speakers, and poster presenters. Paula Alves was part of the organizing committee and chaired the session on “In-Process and Analytical Control Strategies for Cell and Gene Therapies”.

Other oral and poster presentations by the iBET team included:

• Patrícia Alves (Head of the Sanofi Satellite Lab) - “Leveraging cell and gene therapy products' quality through a bioanalytics avenue” (oral)
• António Roldão (Head of Cell-Based Vaccines Development Lab) - “Enhancing rAAV biomanufacturing: Process intensification strategies for streamlined upstream and downstream processing” (oral)
• Pedro Vicente (PhD student at the Stem Cell Bioengineering Lab) - “Combined Wnt activation and oxygen modulation enhance the manufacture and scale-up of pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes in bioreactors” (oral)
• Margarida Serra (Head of Stem Cell Bioengineering Lab)– “Scalable manufacturing of extracellular vesicles from human-induced pluripotent stem cells in stirred-tank bioreactors” and “T cell expansion and phenotype can be tuned in stirred-tank bioreactors through temporal control of T cell activation” (posters)

Attending the event allowed iBET’s scientists to present their expertise and foster valuable networking opportunities, boosting iBET's presence in the global landscape of ATMPs research and development.