Featured Speakers

Thurs, March 9 | 8:15 – 9:15 AM EST

Precision Medicine: Stories from the CRISPR Revolution

Kevin Davies, PhD, Executive Editor of The CRISPR Journal and GEN Biotechnology; author of Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing, Breakthrough: The Race for the Breast Cancer Gene, and Cracking the Genome; co-author of DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution.

The CRISPR revolution is barely ten years’ old but this astonishing genome editing technology has already earned a Nobel Prize for its developers and is having a profound impact in the clinic. Dozens of patients with sickle cell disease have been essentially cured and now this technology is being leveraged in many other genetic diseases and cancers. A growing number of therapies involve modified versions of CRISPR that are capable of precision gene editing—changing a single letter among three billion letters in the genetic code. The first FDA approval for a CRISPR therapy is imminent. But can this game-changing technology deliver safe and affordable precision medicine for patients? In this lively presentation, Dr Kevin Davies, author of Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing, will discuss the origins, rivalries, breakthroughs, and scandals that have exhilarated and at times rocked the scientific and medical community. All this will be set against the backdrop of the 70th anniversary of the double helix, which we mark this spring.

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Fri, March 10 | 8:30 – 9:15 AM EST

Robots, Biologics, and Advocates: Lessons from the Pharmacy

Andre Harvin, PharmD, MS, MBA, Executive Director of Pharmacy, Oncology Services, Cone Health Cancer Center

While oncology is all too familiar with the skyrocketing costs of drugs and other anti-cancer treatment regimens, learn how a well-tuned pharmacy team can help your cancer program or practice realize cost savings and efficiencies with technology like robotic pharmacists, innovative biosimilar strategies, use of dose-banding, and alignment of infusion nurse and pharmacist scheduling to streamline operations and improve the patient experience.