Listed times are in Central European Time (CET)

REGISTRATION

Light refreshments will be served at 12:00

CONFERENCE WELCOME

Persisters: Where are we now… and where are we going?

Is it really possible to give a definition of persister cells? Our Scientific Programme Committee come together to discuss the aims of the meeting and the key questions in the field.

SESSION 1: Novel methodologies for studying persister cells

Chair: Yaara Oren

Jan Michiels VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Belgium

'Mechanistic Insights and Evolutionary Dynamics of Antibiotic Persistence in Escherichia coli'

Q&A: 14:15 - 14:25

Shensi Shen West China Hospital, P.R. China

Proffered Paper 1: 'Cross-cancer Insights into Persister Cells Reveal an RNA methyltransferase Driving Immune Evasion'

Q&A: 14:35 - 14:40

EXHIBITOR INTRODUCTIONS

COFFEE BREAK, EXHIBITION & SOLO TRAVELLER MEET-UP

Yaara Oren Tel Aviv University, Israel

'The day after the drug- investigating persister cells memory'

Q&A: 15:40 - 15:50

Direna Alonso-Curbelo IRB Barcelona, Spain

'Uncovering tissue-level interactions dictating tumor and senescent cell state persistence'

Q&A: 16:10 - 16:20

INDUSTRY SYMPOSIUM - PromoCell

Janina Moros PromoCell

'How to kill your fibroblasts and save the cancer stem cells in your culture'

Q&A: 16:40-16:50

Cedric Blanpain Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

'Tumor States mediating Resistance to Chemotherapy'

Q&A: 17:10-17:20

POSTER SPOTLIGHTS 1

WELCOME RECEPTION

POSTER DISCUSSION SESSION 1

Led by members of the Scientific Programme Committee

Listed times are in Central European Time (CET)

EARLY POSTER VIEWING

Session 2: Deciphering the persister code: Molecular mechanisms

Chair: Lenka Munoz The University of Sydney, Australia

Susan Rosenberg Baylor College of Medicine, USA

'Drugging Bacterial and Cancer Evolution'

Q&A: 09:20 - 09:30

Lenka Munoz University of Sydney, Australia

Proffered Paper 2: 'Histone methyltransferase PRDM9 promotes survival of drug-tolerant persister cells in glioblastoma'

Q&A: 09:40 - 09:45

Céline Vallot Institut Curie, France

'Investigating mechanisms of cell plasticity in breast cancers with single-cell epigenomics'

Q&A: 10:05 - 10:15

THE EMBO KEYNOTE LECTURE

Chris Marine VIB - KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, Belgium

'A cell geometry-based approach to monitor and contend with cancer cell plasticity and therapy resistance in melanoma and beyond'

Q&A: 10:35 - 10:45

COFFEE BREAK & EXHIBITION

Aaron Hata Massachusetts General Hospital, USA

'Mechanisms driving evolution of drug resistance in lung cancer'

Q&A: 11:35 - 11:45

Jukka Westermarck University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Proffered Paper 3: 'Transcriptional profiling of awakening of drug tolerant persisters (DTEPs) reveals DUSP6 as key driver of HER2i tolerance'

Q&A: 11:55 - 12:00

POSTER SPOTLIGHTS 2

LUNCH

Light refreshments will be served.

POSTER DISCUSSION SESSION 2

Led by members of the Scientific Programme Committee

Session 3: Emerging vulnerabilities: Targeting persister cells

Chair: Ultan McDermott

Ultan McDermott AstraZeneca, UK

'Genome-wide CRISPR screens identify the YAP/TEAD axis as a driver of persister cells in EGFR mutant lung cancer'

Q&A: 14:50 - 15:00

Olivier Calvayrac Centre de Recherches en Cancérologie de Toulouse, France

Proffered Paper 4: 'Farnesyltransferase inhibition overcomes oncogene-addicted non-small cell lung cancer adaptive resistance to targeted therapies'

Q&A: 15:10 - 15:15

Eduard Batlle IRB Barcelona, Spain

'Plasticity, therapy resistance and immune evasion in metastatic colorectal cancer'

Q&A: 15:35 - 15:45

COFFEE BREAK & EXHIBITION

Johannes Zuber IMP - Institute of Molecular Pathology, Austria

'Unveiling persister cell vulnerabilities through in-vivo CRISPR screens'

Q&A: 16:35 - 16:45

René Bernards Netherlands Cancer Institute, Netherlands

'Finding vulnerabilities of drug-tolerant persisters identified through functional genetics'

Q&A: 17:05 - 17:15

Early Career Advice: Managing the work life balance

Scheduled to end at 18:00 CET

CONFERENCE DINNER

Listed times are in Central European Time (CET)

EARLY POSTER VIEWING

Session 4: Persister cells in the clinic

Chair: Caroline Robert

Wendy Mok UConn Health, USA

'Targeting bacterial metabolism and defenses to eradicate antibiotic persisters'

Q&A: 09:20 - 09:30

Shruti Bhatt National University of Singapore, Singapore

'The Great Escape: From Persisters to Resistance Through Apoptotic Priming Loss in Leukemia Models'

Q&A: 09:50 - 10:00

Isabel Puig Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Spain

Proffered Paper 5: 'Proteomic and interactomic profiling to understand the complexities of colorectal cancer persistence'

Q&A: 10:10 - 10:15

COFFEE BREAK & EXHIBITION

Alessia Mira University of Turin, Italy

Proffered Paper 6: 'Targeting oxidative metabolic vulnerabilities in sotorasib-tolerant lung cancer cells'

Q&A: 10:55 - 11:00

Caroline Robert Gustave Roussy, France

'Interactions of the Persister Cells with the tumor microenvironment'

Q&A: 11:20 - 11:30

Trever Bivona UCSF, USA

'Mechanisms of persister cell biology in lung cancer'

Q&A: 11:50 - 12:00

SUMMARY & CLOSE

DEPART