June 3, 2023

8:00 a.m.

Check-in and continental breakfast

9:00 a.m.

Opening remarks 

9:15 a.m. 

Keynote Presentation - David Johnson, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, GigaMune

"The Journey from a Ph.D. in Sea Squirt Genetics to Founding Three Biotechs” 

10:00 a.m.

Break

10:15 a.m.

Lina Maria Mancipe Castro, Ph.D., MiMedx

10:45 a.m.

Poster Session

12:30 p.m.

Ed Botchwey, Ph.D., Professor, Georgia Tech

"Delivering Bioactive Lipids from Synthetic Hydrogels as Regenerative Immunotherapy"

1:00 p.m.

Presentations and Rapid Fire Talks

Session II Presentations

1:00 p.m.      Selma Piranej, Emory University - "DNA Motors as Sensors: Toward a New Platform for SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostics"

1:15 p.m.      Samuel Lucas, Georgia Tech - "Adjuvanted, Lymph-draining Nanoparticles Elicit Stem-like CD8+ T Cell Response in Tumor-draining Lymph Nodes to Augment Immune Checkpoint Blockade"

Session II Rapid Fire Talks

1:30 p.m.      Zhengwei Cao, Ph.D., University of Georgia, "Calcium Nanoparticles Stimulate Dendritic Cells and Boost Antitumor Immunity"

1:35 p.m.      Jaeyoung Park, Georgia Tech - "Effectiveness of Subunit Vaccines Enhanced by Preserving Structure of Antigens in Nanoparticles"

1:40 p.m.      Rapid Fire Discussion

2:00 p.m.

Break

Session III

Biomaterials for Tissue Repair and Therapeutic Delivery

Session Chair - Keshav Shah, Georgia Tech

2:30 p.m.

Tristan Clemons, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Southern Mississippi

"Bio-inspired Supramolecular Polymers for Regenerative Medicine Applications"

3:00 p.m.

Presentations and Rapid Fire Talks

Session III Presentations

3:00 p.m.      Qi Li, University of Alabama - "Injectable Hydrogels to Obtain Sustained Release of Tetrodotoxin for Prolonged Duration Local Anesthesia"

3:15 p.m.      Jay Patel, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Emory University - "Cartilage Protection with a Tissue-infiltrating Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel System"

3:30 p.m.      Fatema Tuj Zohora, Clemson University - "Reversal of Heavy Aortic Calcification with Targeted Chelation Therapy in a Rat Model of Chronic Kidney Disease"

Session III Rapid Fire Talks

3:45 p.m.      Afsane Radmandaghkand, Georgia Tech - "Next-generation Lipid Nanoparticle Formulations for Systemic Non-liver Delivery of Nucleic Acid-based Therapies"

3:50 p.m.      A. Blass Watson, University of Memphis - "Wound Healing Analysis of GBR Membranes in a Critical Size Rat Cranial Defect Model"

3:55 p.m.      Joseph Whitley, University of Georgia - "CRISPR/Cas9-loading into Extracellular Vesicles by Protein Myristoylation"

4:00 p.m.      Rapid Fire Discussion

4:15 p.m.

Keynote Presentation - Craig Duvall, Ph.D., Professor, Vanderbilt University 

"Albumin Hitchhiking siRNA Conjugates for Carrier-free Cancer and Arthritis Therapies"

5:00 p.m.

Poster Session and Reception

7:30 p.m.

Adjourn