The meeting's plenary keynote speaker will be Diane Blumenthal, PhD, head of technical development at Spark Therapeutics. Spark was the first company to obtain approval of a gene-therapy product in Europe and the U.S. Other speakers -- from companies including Biogen, Sanofi, Vivet Therapeutics, Takeda, and Ultragenyx -- will discuss insights on accelerating therapies to market.

The summit will feature more than 15 sessions on topics such as advancing chemical manufacturing and controls (CMC) and analytical strategies, optimizing scale-up and process control, and adeno-associated virus purification and lentiviral manufacturing. Over 130 presentations will focus on upstream processing, downstream processing, analytical and formulation development, cell therapy CMC and manufacturing, and gene therapy content.

The event will also include a short course on quality considerations for gene therapy viral vectors, training seminars, exhibitors, poster sessions, and one-on-one networking.