Expanding the drug target universe – Benjamin Cravatt, PhD
September 17, 2025
There are countless proteins that play critical roles in disease, yet they remain challenging to target with therapeutics. In this free Front Row lecture, professor Benjamin Cravatt explained how his large-scale protein profiling research and innovative chemical technologies are helping identify novel drugs for therapeutic targets previously deemed ‘undruggable.’ Cravatt’s translational work, which is at the intersection of chemistry and biology, has also led to the formation of multiple local biotechnology companies that collectively employ hundreds of scientists who are developing first-in-class candidate medicines for diverse diseases ranging from cancer to neurological disorders.
Reprogramming the immune system: A new era of precision immunotherapy for cancer and autoimmune disease – Travis Young, PhD
August 20, 2025
Your immune system is your body’s natural defense, capable of identifying what belongs and what doesn’t. But when it falters, it can let cancer grow unchecked or mistakenly attack your own healthy tissues, leading to autoimmune diseases. What if we could reprogram the immune system to tip the balance in our favor, gaining an advantage over both cancers and autoimmune disorders? In this free Front Row lecture, Calibr-Skaggs’ vice president of biologics, Travis Young, will share how Scripps Research is using genetic engineering to reprogram patients’ own immune cells to create personalized “switchable” CAR-T cell therapies. This approach represents a new class of precision immunotherapy designed to induce deep and durable remissions in patients with a wide range of cancers, from lymphoma to breast cancer, as well as in chronic autoimmune conditions such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis. Young will explain how this breakthrough strategy works and what it could mean for the future of medicine.