Explore the Agenda

8:00 am Morning Check-in & Coffee

8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Chief Scientific Officer, Epitopea Ltd

Unlocking Novel Neoantigens in the Dark Genome & Exploring Tumour Associated Antigens & New Neoantigen Classes to Improve Tumour Targeting & Reduce Off-Target Toxicities

9:00 am Exploring Why We Need to Mine the Dark Genome to Find the Targets for Affordable Multi-valent Immunotherapies

Chief Scientific Officer, Epitopea Ltd
  • Exploring the limitations of conventional neoantigens including immune escape and restricted patient coverage
  • How aberrantly expressed TSAs represent an untapped source of highly tumour specific targets that may evade central tolerance
  • Demonstration of the potential of dark genome antigens for tumour control in mice & modelling performance of multi-valent off-the-shelf cancer vaccines in patients

9:30 am HLA-G–Presented Peptides: Defining a New Class of Neoantigen Targets for Hard-to-Treat Solid Tumours

Lab head, Monash University & Hudson Institute of Medical Research
  • Why HLA-G? Restricted expression in healthy tissues and enrichment in hypoxic, advanced tumours
  • Enabling technologies for high-confidence identification of HLA-G–bound peptide repertoires
  • Translational insights from mapping the HLA-G immunopeptidome in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC)

10:00 am Unveiling the Shadows: How We Can Harness Proteogenomics Techniques to Uncover Hidden Antigens

Senior Scientist, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
  • Highlight the integrated approach combining Ribosome Profiling (Ribo-Seq), RNA sequencing, and mass spectrometry to identify novel "dark antigens" – previously unannotated proteins derived from non-coding RNAs, alternative reading frames, and alternative splicing events
  • Emphasize how this approach reveals tumor-specific cell surface targets missed by traditional genomic approaches, focusing on the workflow that identifies transmembrane domain-containing proteins with tumor-specific expression Outline the systematic approach for target validation, starting with computational prediction and progressing through experimental confirmation of expression and localization
  • Outline the systematic approach for target validation, starting with computational prediction and progressing through experimental confirmation of expression and localization

10:30 am Morning Break

Balancing Personalised & Off-The-Shelf Neoantigen Therapies to Improve Clinical Outcomes & Practical Implementation

11:30 am Personalised Neoantigen Peptide Immunotherapy in Glioblastoma: From Pre-screening to Clinical Translation

Chief Scientific Officer, YGION Biomedical GmbH
  • Pre-screening in glioblastoma – Identifying patients with sufficient tumour material and actionable neoantigen profiles for a personalised, targeted peptide-based immunotherapy
  • Mechanistic basis and planned immune readouts – A targeted peptide-based approach designed to prime neoantigen-specific T-cell responses, with immune monitoring assays being established to capture activation, breadth, and durability once treatment begins
  • Pathways to scalability – Identifying key drivers such as prediction accuracy, manufacturing performance, and workflow coordination that will enable future scaling of personalised peptide-based programmes

12:00 pm Exploring the Benefits of Nous-209 Neoantigen Vaccine for Cancer Prevention in Lynch Syndrome Carriers

Chief Scientific Officer, Nouscom Srl
  • In LS carriers, immunotheraphy with NOUS-209 off the shelf vaccine is safe and well tolerated
  • NOUS-209 elicits robust neoantigen specific T-cell response in 100% of subjects
  • Vaccine-induced responses are broad and recognised multiple neoantigens

12:30 pm Lunch

1:30 pm T-Cell Memory, Tumor Microenvironment, and Alloreactivity in Intracellular Neoantigen–Targeted Immunotherapy

Senior Scientist, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
  • Emerging evidence highlights the importance of memory T-cell subsets, particularly stem-like and central memory populations, in sustaining long-term antitumor immunity.
  • However, their function is frequently constrained by immunosuppressive cellular networks and metabolic barriers within the TME, including regulatory T cells, tumor-associated macrophages, and myeloid-derived suppressor cells.
  • In parallel, advances in graft engineering and T-cell receptor editing provide strategies to mitigate alloreactivity while preserving graft-versus-tumor effects.

Streamlining Pre-Clinical & Clinical Development & Trials for Cost Optimisation & Enhanced Clinical Advantage of Your Neoantigen Therapies

2:00 pm A First-in-Human Phase I/IIa Trial of Personalised Tumour-Trained Lymphocytes (pTTL) Derived From Regional Lymph Nodes for the Treatment of Colorectal Cancer

Senior Scientist - Neoantigen Production & Development, NeoGap Therapeutics
  • Personalised Neoantigen-based cell therapy for solid tumours
  • First in human trial NEOGAP-CRC-01
  • Safety and early biomarkers data

2:30 pm Harnessing Multi-Omics In AI-Immunology™ For Developing Shared Cancer Vaccines Targeting Endogenous Retroviruses

Bioinformatician, Evaxion Biotech
  • Endogenous retroviruses – a novel antigen source which is promising for cancer vaccines
  • The development of an ERV targeting cancer vaccine using Evaxion’s AI-Immunology™ platform
  • Preclinical validation of an ERV hotspot vaccine which leads to tumor control and T-cell responses​

3:00 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks

Chief Scientific Officer, Epitopea Ltd

3:10 pm End of 9th International Neoantigen Summit