Conference Agenda

FRIDAY PRE CONFERENCE VIRTUAL ACCESS

SATURDAY MAIN CONFERENCE VIRTUAL ACCESS

Friday, April 24th, 2026: Pre Conference

Cellular Processing Laboratory Workshop

Session 1: (8:45 AM - 10:45 AM)

Chairs: Celalettin Ustun MD, Nadim Mahmud MD

8:30 AM - 8:45 AM

Opening Remarks

Celalettin Ustun, MD & Mahzad Akbarpour, PhD

8:45 AM - 9:15 AM

Hospital Based Point of Care Cell Therapy Manufacturing - ​The Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Paradigm

Jacques Galipeau, MD

9:15 AM - 9:45 AM

Operationalizing Point-of-Care Stem Cell Processing & cGMP Cell Therapy Manufacturing in Academic Hospitals: Lessons from Rush MD Anderson Cancer Center

Mahzad Akbarpour, PhD            
9:45 AM - 10:15 AM

Advancing Cell Therapies: Stability of Cryopreserved HSPCs and Off-the-Shelf Bridge Grafts to Treat Cancer Therapy Associated Cytopenia

Nadim Mahmud, MD, PhD, MBA

10:15 AM - 10:45 AM

Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-Based Therapies for Corneal Disease: Early Clinical Results

Ali Djalilian, MD

10:45 AM - 11:00 AM

Coffee Break

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Miltenyi CAR T Cell Research and Development

CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) Strategies to Lower Cost and Improve Efficacy

Rimas Orentas, PhD

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Miltenyi Clinical Hands on Lab (2 rounding sessions- 30 min each round)

12:30 PM - 1:00 PM

Lunch Break

Session 2: (1:00 PM - 3:45 PM)

Chairs: Mahzad Akbarpour, PhD; Patrick Hanley, PhD

1:00 PM - 1:30 PM

Adaptive CAR T-Cell Therapy: A Trial-Informed Playbook to Improve Clinical Outcomes

Jan Joseph Melenhorst, PhD

1:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Driving in Reverse: Building a CAR-T Program from Non-Viral Vector Cells to Vector-Based Cell Therapies

Patrick Hanley, PhD

2:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Building CARs in Academia

Emily Hopewell, PhD

2:30 PM - 2:45 PM

Exhibitor and Coffee Break

2:45 PM - 3:15 PM

Development of Cell-Based Therapies to Achieve Tolerance Induction in Solid Organ Transplant

James M. Mathew, PhD

3:15 PM -3:45 PM

Immuno Correlative Assays in Cancer Cell Therapy

Tyce Kearl, MD, PhD

3:45 PM - 4:15 PM

Interactive Panel Discussion

Jacques Galipeau, MD; Nadim Mahmud, MD, PhD, MBA; Emily Hopewell, PhD; Patrick Hanley, PhD and Mahzad Akbarpour, PhD

4:15 PM - 4:30 PM

TBC Interactive Panel Discussion

Closing Remarks

Saturday, April 25th, 2026: Main Conference

7:00 AM - 7:50 AM
OPTIONAL Breakfast Non-CME Product Theaters

Making the Case for Early Use of CAR-T Therapy in Multiple Myeloma

Speaker: Mohamed Hegazi, MD

Presented by Johnson and Johnson

&

7:15 AM -7:50 AM

Niktimvo (axatilimab-csfr)- Make a Change in cGVHD Treatment Strategy and Provide Rapid, Durable Responses

Speaker: Usama Gergis, MD

Presented by Incyte

SESSION I: LYMPHOMAS /LYMPHOID MALIGNANCIES
Chair: Mehdi Hamadani, MD

8:00 AM - 8:10 AM

Welcome & Opening remarks

8:10 AM - 8:30 AM

Harnessing the Immune System in R/R FL: Bispecifics, CAR-T, and Beyond

Umar Farooq, MD

8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

How to Select Between CAR-T and Targeted Approaches and Relapsed/Refractory Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Brian Hill, MD, PhD

8:50 AM - 9:10 AM

Beyond CAR-T in R/R LBCL

Farrukh Awan, MD

9:10 AM - 9:30 AM

When to Use Allogeneic HCT in T-cell NHL

Dipenkumar Modi, MD

9:30 AM - 9:50 AM

Lymphomas/Lymphoid Malignancies Panel Discussion

9:50 AM - 10:10 AM

Exhibitor/Coffee Break

SESSION II: PLASMA CELL MALIGNANCIES/MYELOMA/AMYLOID
Chair: Patrick Hagen, MD, MPH

10:10 AM - 10:30 AM

Immunotherapy in AL Amyloidosis: Bispecifics, CARs and Beyond​

Taxiarchis Kourelis, MD

10:30 AM - 10:50 AM

Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma

Fotis Asimakopoulos, MD, PhD

10:50 AM - 11:10 AM

MM CAR-T Toxicities

Imran Puthawala, MD

11:10 AM - 11:30 AM

Sequencing Immunotherapies in Multiple Myeloma

Binod Dhakal, MD, MS

11:30 AM - 11:50 AM

Plasma Cell Malignancy Panel Discussion

12:00 PM - 12:40 PM
Optional Non-CME Product Theaters

Understanding Ayvakit for Indolent Systemic Mastocytosis and Advanced SM

Speaker: James McCloskey, MD

Presented by Blue Print Medicines

&

Diagnosing and treating TA-TMA with newly approved Yartemlea (Narsoplimab-wuug)

Speaker: Jeremy Pantin, MD

Presented by Omeros Corporation

SESSION III: ACUTE LEUKEMIAS AND BMF
Chair: Celalettin Ustun, MD

12:50 PM - 1:10 PM

Targeted Immunotherapy and Treatment of Relapsed ALL: Is there an Optimal Approach?

Wendy Stock, MD

1:10 PM - 1:30 PM

Primary Myelofibrosis in 2026: Current Approach to Therapy and Future Directions

Jamille Shammo, MD

1:30 PM - 1:50 PM

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Current Therapies

Geoffrey UY, MD

1:50 PM - 2:10 PM

Recent Advances in Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS)

Olatoyosi Odenike, MD

2:10 PM - 2:30 PM

Acute Leukemias and Bone Marrow Failure Panel Discussion

2:30 PM - 2:50 PM

Coffee & Exhibitor Break

SESSION IV: MISCELLANEOUS
Chair: Sunita Nathan, MD

2:50 PM - 3:10 PM

Fraility Assessment and Prehabilitation in HCT and Cell Therapy Patients

Magdalena Bednarczyk, MD

3:10 PM - 3:30 PM

Optimizing HCT Access in 2026:​ Harnessing the Potential of Mismatched-Unrelated Donor Transplantation

Antonio Jimenez, MD

3:30 PM - 3:50 PM

CAR T Cell Therapy Complication-Focus on IEC HS

Sushma Bharadwaj, MD, MS

3:50 PM - 4:10 PM

Evolving Landscape of Cellular Therapy in Solid Tumors and Focus on TiL Therapy

John Hyngstrom, MD

4:10 PM - 4:30 PM

Miscellaneous Panel Discussion

4:30 PM

Adjourn