Keynote Speaker
CRISPR Genome Editing: From Biology to Biotechnology
Fundamental research to understand how bacteria fight viral infections uncovered the function of CRISPR-Cas programmable proteins that detect and cut specific DNA or RNA sequences. CRISPR technology is now an indispensable tool in human, animal and agricultural research. The FDA’s approval of a CRISPR therapy for sickle cell disease marked the beginning of a new era in healthcare. I will discuss the science and societal advances that will expand both the applications and access of genome editing across the globe.
Gregory Verdine is a pioneering scientist, educator, investor, and entrepreneur widely regarded as a founder of the field of chemical biology and one of the world’s leading innovators in new drug discovery. He is Founder President, and CEO of LifeMine Therapeutics, Executive Chairman of VidaVinci, Erving Professor of Chemistry and Harvard College Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, Managing General Partner of LoLa Capital, and a Venture Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Over a distinguished career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Verdine has co-founded more than a dozen biotechnology companies—including Parabalis Medicines (formerly FogPharma), WaVe Life Sciences, Warp Drive Bio, Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Eleven Biotherapeutics, Variagenics, Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Aileron Therapeutics, and Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Celgene—which collectively have brought multiple FDA-approved medicines to patients and advanced numerous new drug modalities into clinical development. He is credited with coining the phrase “drugging the undruggable” to describe his life’s mission: transforming previously intractable disease targets into treatable ones through bold scientific innovation.
Dr. Verdine earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University, his B.S. in chemistry from St. Joseph’s University, and trained as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at MIT and Harvard Medical School. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has received numerous awards and honorary degrees recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to science and medicine.
Gregory Verdine, Ph.D.
Gregory Verdine, Ph.D.
Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Board Member
Banquet Speaker
CONFIRMED INVITED ORAL SPEAKERS
The full Natural Products program will be available at the end of October 2026.
- John Billingsley, eXoZymes
- Tim Bugni, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Mike Burkart, University of California, San Diego
- Yousong Ding, University of Florida
- Stefano Donadio, Naicons
- Alessandra Eustaquio, University of Illinois Chicago
- Huimin Ge, Nanjing University
- Yuki Goto, Kyoto University
- Ji-Sook Hahn, Seoul National University
- Yang Hai, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Yohei Katsuyama, The University of Tokyo
- Adrian Keatinge-Clay, University of Texas at Austin
- Chaitan Khosla, Stanford University
- Chung Sub Kim, Sungkyunkwan University
- Hyun UK Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
- Namil Lee, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
- Bo Li, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Wenli Li, Northwest A&F University
- Roger Linington, Simon Fraser University
- Jamie Link, Princeton University
- Wen Liu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- April Lukowski, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Bradley Moore, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Rolf Mueller, Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland
- Ryan Nett, Harvard University
- Masao Ohashi, University of California, Los Angeles
- Elizabeth Parkinson, Purdue University
- Hans Renata, Rice University
- Jeff Rudolf, University of Florida
- Katie Ryan, University of British Columbia
- Mohammad Seyedsayamdost, Princeton University
- David Sherman, University of Michigan
- Kazuo Shin-ya, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
- Shunji Takahashi, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science
- Fong Tian Wong, A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
- Gerry Wright, McMaster University
- Wenjun Zhang, University of California, Berkeley
- Nadine Ziemert, University of Tübingen