The Event Starts In:
Friday, May 1, 2026 | 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sheldon M. Schuster Campus Center, Keck Graduate Institute | 517 Watson Drive, Claremont, CA 91711 View maps & parking
| 8:00 – 8:30 | Check-in (517 entrance) and light continental breakfast (outside Founder's Room) | |||
| 8:30 – 8:45 | Welcome and Introductions by President Abousalem, Provost Prosser, and Dean Niemz — Founder's Room | |||
| 8:45 – 9:00 | Break / Transition | |||
| Team Master’s Project 535-152 |
Team Design Project 535-109 |
Team Master’s Project 535-35 |
Research Talks 121-1111 |
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| 9:00 – 9:50 |
9:00-9:25 TMP
Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Benchmarking AI Adoption to Optimize Rare Disease Operation
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9:00-9:25 TDP
Synapta
Bioprocessing Development of an AAV2 Gene Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease
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9:00-9:25 TMP
Merck & Co., Inc. 1
Digitizing Integrated Business Planning to Power Agile, Insight-Led Enterprise Decisions
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9:00-9:25
Peace Olatoyinbo
B Cells vs. the Furin-Loop Region: Can Antibodies Target Flexible Viral Epitopes
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9:25–9:50 TMP
Crinetics Pharmaceuticals
Development of an AI-Assisted Quality Control Framework for Investigator’s Brochures
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9:25–9:50 TDP
Abryon
Manufacturing Reductimab, an Antibody Peptide Conjugate for Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes
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9:25–9:50 TMP
Merck & Co., Inc. 2
Advancing Merck’s Visual Factory: Enabling Real-Time Intelligence for Smarter Global Decisions
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9:25–9:50
Khaja Shameem Mohammed Abdul (HMRI)
PHLPP1 - The Missing Link in Nicotine Induced Cardiac Damage
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| 9:50 – 11:10 | Coffee Break (Building 121 Foyer) and Poster Session A - Building 121 Room 1110 Sponsored by  |
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| Team Master’s Project 535-152 |
Team Master’s Project 535-109 |
Team Master’s Project 535-35 |
Research Talks 121-1111 |
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| 11:10 – 12:00 |
11:10–11:35 TMP
D-Cube
Marketing Strategy for a Clinical Supply Chain SaaS Platform
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11:10–11:35 TMP
AphthoGuard Labs
The Guardians of Canker Sores: Healing with Natural Ingredients
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11:10–11:35 TMP
DARPA 5
Feasibility Assessment of Engineered and Modified RBC Platforms for Dual-Use Applications
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11:10–11:35
Firozeh Farhamand
Synthesis of Positive Allosteric Modulators for NMDA Receptors
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11:35–12:00 TMP
BRT Biotechnologies
Market Intelligence and Positioning Research into the Landscape of Macrocyclic Peptide Libraries
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11:35–12:00 TMP
Fentavive
Modeling Integrated PK/PD Rescue Strategies for Opioid-Induced Respiratory Depression
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11:35–12:00 TMP
Oasis Medical, Inc.
Microneedle- and Cannula-Based Delivery Systems for the Suprachoroidal Space
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11:35–12:00
Johnson V. John (Terasaki)
Title TBD
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| 12:00 – 1:15 | Lunch (Oasis courtyard) | |||
| 1:15 – 2:00 |
Keynote speaker: Alborz Mahdavi (Founder and CEO of Protomer Technologies, and Head of Diabetes at Eli Lilly) Founders Room — Presentation Title TBD |
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| 2:00 – 2:15 | Break / Transition | |||
| Concurrent Sessions—TMP | Concurrent Sessions—Research Talks | |||
| Team Master’s Project 535-152 |
Team Master’s Project 535-109 |
Research Talks 535-35 |
Research Talks 121-1111 |
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| 2:15 – 3:30 |
2:15–2:40 TMP
DARPA 1
Evaluation of Environmental Biosensor Design Gaps
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2:15–2:40 TMP
Hexem Bio, Inc.
Economic Modeling and Payer Strategies for Hexem Bio
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2:15–2:40
Cole Link
Development of a Genome-Wide CRISPR based Target Identification Platform
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2:15–2:40
Ijeoma J Nnadozie
All by All Browser Analysis: Comparative Assessment of Colorectal Cancer Variant Distributions in African and European Ancestry Populations in the All of Us Research Program
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2:40–3:05 TMP
DARPA 3
Advancing Ice Control Technologies for Cold Environment Operations
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2:40–3:05 TMP
Vera Therapeutics
Building a Digital Twin for Smarter Manufacturing
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2:40–3:05
Slesha Panda
Design, Delivery, and Mechanism of Action of Small Activating RNA (saRNA) as a Therapeutic Strategy for TBK1 Regulation in the CNS
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2:40–3:05
Nazia Rashid
Matched Adjusted Indirect Comparison of Patient Reported Outcomes among Clinical Trial Patients with ROS-1 Positive Advanced or Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
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3:05–3:30 TMP
DARPA 4
Generation of Biophysical Data for a Predictive Protein Structure AI model
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3:05–3:30 TMP
DARPA 2
Artificial Blood, Making Blood Transfusions Accessible in Austere Environments
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3:05–3:30
Masters Student
Title TBD
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3:05–3:30
Masters Student
Title TBD
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| 3:30 – 4:50 | Refreshments (Building 121 Foyer) and Poster Session B - Building 121 Room 1110 Sponsored by  |
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| 4:50 – 5:00 | Closing Remarks (Building 121 Room 1110) | |||
Dr. Alborz Mahdavi is an entrepreneur, scientist, and biotech founder currently serving as Head of Diabetes at Eli Lilly and Company and Vice President of Lilly Research Laboratories. He previously founded Protomer Technologies, a biotechnology company acquired by Lilly, where glucose-responsive insulins are advancing in clinical trials alongside oral peptide drug programs enabled by a proprietary chemical biology platform. Dr. Mahdavi earned his PhD from Tirrell lab at Caltech and trained the Langer lab at MIT. He was the recipient of the JDRF Varis Agnes International Prize, NSERC fellowship, and the Caltech Demetriades award for best PhD thesis.