Dr. Kirti Sharma (Kymera Therapeutics, US) 

Dr. Fabian Costa (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, DE) 

Fabian Coscia obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, under supervision of Prof Matthias Mann. In his doctoral and later postdoctoral work as Marie Curie fellow at the Novo Nordisk Center for Protein Research (University of Copenhagen), he developed and applied single-cell and spatial tissue proteomics workflows, and pioneered a new discovery proteomics concept termed Deep Visual Proteomics. In June 2021, he joined the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin where he is heading the independent research group Spatial Proteomics. His team conducts translational proteomics studies and works at the interface between high-content imaging, deep learning and ultrasensitive mass spectrometry. More recently, he has been awarded an ERC starting grant to study cellular neighborhoods and their impact on the disease related proteome.

Title of plenary talk: Spatial tissue proteomics to assess health and disease.

Kirti Sharma is a seasoned professional in the field of proteomics and drug discovery. With a career spanning over two decades in three continents, she has a proven track record of successful science at the interface of technology, biology, drug discovery and informatics with people leadership in big pharma, biotech and academia.

Kirti is a cell signalling biologist by training and obtained PhD in the field of host-pathogen interaction signaling in 2006 from IGIB in India. She did her post-doctorate research at Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany where she developed a highly innovative chemical proteomics approach that delivered drug affinity data, which was a breakthrough in the field.  Her patented technology is commercialized through Evotec and has been integral in many widespread commercial applications for drug discovery. She joined Prof. Matthias Mann’s lab in 2010 where she developed and leveraged proteomics technology to deconstruct cellular signaling networks in cancer, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. Kirti advanced sensitive and quantitative mass spectrometry-based approaches for phosphoproteomics, tissue/clinical proteomics and chemical proteomics. 

After establishing and leading a chemical proteomics group at Janssen R&D, Kirti decided to enter the biotech world working in the area of TPD with Kymera since 2018. As Senior Director and head of proteomics at Kymera Therapeutics, Kirti and her team are focused on pioneering targeted protein degradation – an incredibly exciting new modality with the potential to transform the way we treat many diseases. For the past five and a half years, her strategic and scientific leadership has been instrumental in driving Kymera's drug discovery efforts and the development of their Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) platform that has advanced four first-in-class degraders to the clinic in the areas of immunology and oncology. She has also played a pivotal role in advancing Kymera's proprietary TPD platform by delivering E3 Atlas, which e­­­nhances our understanding of E3 ligase biology. She has been recognized as a finalist for the Xconomy Award’ 2020, acknowledging her as a "Secret Weapon" in the realm of targeted protein degradation biotechnology. 

Title of plenary talk: Leveraging mass spectrometry proteomics to advance TPD based degraders from early discovery to clinic