Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 22nd Annual
Emerging Drug Targets: Identification & Validation
Strategies for Transforming Undruggable Targets to Yet-to-be-Drugged Targets
September 23-24, 2025
Identifying and validating "good, druggable" targets for therapeutic areas like cancer, inflammation, CNS, autoimmune, and metabolic diseases remains a top priority for the pharma/biotech industry. Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s conference on Emerging Drug Targets: Identification & Validation focuses on the use of innovative strategies like chemoproteomics, functional genomics, phenotypic assays, single-cell sequencing, spatial analysis, and others, for target identification, engagement, and deconvolution. Case studies highlight how complementary use of disease models and technologies such as artifical intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can be leveraged to pursue challenging or previously “undruggable” targets for drug discovery.
Coverage will include, but is not limited to:
- Focus on emerging drug targets: metabolic enzymes, small GTPases, transcription factors, epigenetic targets, phosphatases, proteases, ion channels, and transporters
- Case studies discussing how to pursue difficult targets: misfolded proteins, intrinsically disordered proteins, protein-protein interactions, post-translational modifications
- Chemoproteomic and induced proximity strategies for target inhibition and degradation
- Emerging biophysical and cellular assays for target engagement and deconvolution
- When to use phenotypic versus target-based screening approaches
- Functional genomics and chemical genetics for in vitro and in vivo target screening
- Use of CRISPR, single-cell sequencing, and spatial biology for finding new targets
- Complementary use of cryo-EM, cell painting, and high-content imaging for elucidating target structure and location, and finding druggable sites
- 3D organoid and spheroid models for target discovery and screening
- Using AI/ML and big data to identify, evaluate, and prioritize novel drug targets
The deadline for priority consideration is March 7, 2025.
All proposals are subject to review by session chairpersons and/or the Scientific Advisory Committee to ensure the overall quality of the conference program. Additionally, as per Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s policy, a select number of vendors and consultants who provide products and services will be offered opportunities for podium presentation slots based on a variety of Corporate Sponsorships.
Opportunities for Participation: