2025 Program

Sept. 18

5-7 p.m. - Reception & Social Hour at SPAM Museum

Sept. 19

8-8:55 a.m. - Coffee & Continental Breakfast

9-9:05 a.m. - Opening Remarks, Robert Clarke, PhD, DSc, Executive Director, The Hormel Institute Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics, UMN

9:05-9:20 a.m. - Highlights of Workshop 2024 & Updates on VMTC Development, George Aslanidi, PhD, Professor, The Hormel Institute, UMN

9:20-10:20 a.m. - Keynote Talk: AAV gene therapy for Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff Diseases: Results of a Phase 1-2 Clinical trial, Terence R Flotte, MD. Executive Deputy Chancellor, Provost, Dean, T.H. Chan School of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, UMass

10:20-10:35 a.m. - Break

10:35-10:50 a.m. - Gold Sponsor Speaker: From Process to Patient: Intensified CAR-T Cells and lean Lentivirus production for affordable therapies, Rachel Legmann, Repligen

10:50-11:05 a.m. - Gold Sponsor Speaker: Applying QbD in upstream processes to improve quality viral vector manufacturing yields, Dylan Knutson, Cytiva

11:05-11:20 a.m. - Gold Sponsor Speaker: New Approaches for Viral Infectivity Assays, Matthew Daddysman, PhD, Agilent Technologies

11:20-11:35 a.m. - Gold Sponsor Speaker: Overview of Dynamic Light Scattering Tools for Gene Therapy Characterization, James Grace, Waters

11:35 a.m.-1:05 p.m. - Lunch, Expo & Social Hour, Optional Tours of the Hormel Institute

1:05-1:15 p.m. - Afternoon Session: Welcome Remarks, Shashank Priya, PhD, Vice President for Research and Innovation, Professor, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, UMN

1:15-1:45 p.m. - Invited Speaker: Building the Gene Therapy Ecosystem: Policy Considerations for Moving Available Treatments to Accessible Treatments, Erica Barnes, MA, SLP, Executive Director, Minnesota Rare Disease Advisory Council

1:45-2 p.m. - Gold Sponsor Speaker: Illumina Single Cell Prep: Capturing Synthetic Nucleotides on a Single Cell Level, Logan Silber, Illumina

2-2:15 p.m. - Gold Sponsor Speaker: Low Variability Titer, VCN, and Genome Integrity Quantification with Countable PCR, Dalton Kinnard, Countable Labs

2:15-2:30 p.m. - Break

2:30-3 p.m. - Invited Speaker: Advancing Oncolytic Viruses: Translational Challenges and Clinical Perspectives, Julia Davydova, MD, PhD, Professor, Surgery Department, UMN

3-3:15 p.m. - Gold Sponsor Speaker: Balancing timelines and process optimization for AAV manufacturing - a case study, James Cody, PhD., Charles River

3:15-5 p.m. - Closing Remarks, Poster Session/Expo/Reception, Hormel Institute Tours, End of Workshop

2025 Speakers

Terence R. Flotte, MD

Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor at UMass Chan Medical School, Dr. Terence Flotte, is an internationally recognized leader in gene therapy. With a background in molecular virology and a distinguished record of pioneering research, including the first clinical use of rAAV vectors in humans, Dr. Flotte has advanced therapies for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and Tay-Sachs disease. He has authored landmark studies on rAAV vector delivery, persistence, and immune responses, shaping the field of gene therapy for over three decades. Dr. Flotte also serves as the President of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), where he helps guide the field’s strategic vision and leadership at a national and international level. 

Erica Barnes, MA, SLP

Ms. Barnes is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Rare Disease Advisory Council, an executive branch state agency. Erica graduated from the University of Minnesota with a master’s in communication disorders and was a speech-language pathologist prior to shifting her work to improving health systems for the rare disease community. She has over a decade of advocacy and non-profit leadership experience, having co-founded with her husband Chloe’s Fight Rare Disease Foundation following the death of her daughter. Erica has a number of committee roles related to rare diseases. She chairs the NIH funded Global Leukodystrophy Initiative Clinical Trials Network patient advocacy consortium, is a member of the Minnesota Prescription Drug Affordability Board, participates in a number of taskforces in the Minnesota Department of Health, and holds membership in the Center for Orphan Drug Research at the University of Minnesota.

Julia Davydova, MD, Ph.D

Julia Davydova, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor in the Surgery Department at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Masonic Cancer Center, where she leads the newly established Virotherapy Translational Working Group (TWG). With 25 years of experience in virotherapy and cancer research, her work focuses on developing oncolytic adenoviruses for cancer treatment, imaging, and immunotherapy. She has led multiple NIH-funded projects, serves on NIH review panels, including the Translational Immuno-Oncology Study Section, and chairs the Educational Committee of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT).