Bringing Chemistry to Medicine is hosted by the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics and the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center, in collaboration with Cell Press, and is a component of the institution’s strategic objective to establish a global hub focused on the emerging field of transcription-targeted therapeutics.
The symposium will feature talks by leading experts from around the globe working at the interface of chemical and biomedical sciences. Speakers represent expertise across various research areas, including therapeutic regulation of transcription and chromatin, computational biology, and chemical biology.
This event will be hosted in a hybrid format, giving you the option to attend in-person and to enjoy the enhanced networking and experience the beautiful St. Jude campus in Memphis, TN. As always, we also welcome virtual attendees to join us from around the world. To encourage broad participation from researchers around the world registration is free.
Accessing the virtual symposium
To access the virtual symposium, you must be registered.
- If you are registered: Enter your full name and email address. You’ll receive a verification code via email to complete your login.
- If you are not registered: Please register first. The link to join the symposium will be included in your confirmation email.
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Day 1 - Thursday October 2, 2025
Time Event 8:00-9:00 am Breakfast 9:00 - 9:10 am Introduction
Charles W.M. Roberts, MD, PhDEpigenetic Landscapes and Chromatin Dynamics 9:10 - 9:40 am Chromatin regulation and cancer
Yang Shi, PhD9:40 - 10:10 am Network-level epigenetic alterations in cancer evolution
Paola Scaffidi, PhD10:10 - 10:40 am Chromatin-encoded cellular transcriptional memory in cancer
Vadim Backman, PhD10:40 - 11:00 am Break 11:00 - 11:30 am Harnessing cancer and immune cell communication to identify new therapeutic targets
Elisa Oricchio, PhD11:30 - 11:45 am Destabilization of noncanonical PRC1 complexes via USP7 inhibition induces neuronal differentiation in neuroblastoma
Nathaniel Mabe, PharmD, PhD11:45 am - 1:15 pm Lunch Visualizing Biology 1:15 - 1:45 pm Designing, synthesizing, and sharing next-generation fluorophores
Luke Lavis, PhD1:45 - 2:15 pm Structural insights into calcium sensing receptor signaling; from mechanism to therapeutics
Georgios Skiniotis, PhD2:15 - 2:45 pm Super-resolution imaging of transcription in living cells
Ibrahim Cisse, PhD2:45- 3:00 pm Photocatalytic µMap poximity labeling of HER2 identifies functional interactors and trastuzmab resistance mechanisms
Steven Knutson, PhD3:00 - 3:15 pm Break Post-Transcriptional Control 3:15 - 3:30 pm Targeting DEAD-box ATPases by trapping inactive conformational states with small molecule inhibitors
Tommaso Cupido, PhD3:30- 3:45 pm Unraveling the effects of eIF4E cap analogue inhibitors on cap-dependent translation to assess their therapeutic potential in cancer
Rachel O'Rourke3:45 - 4:15 pm Breaking perceived drug discovery limits: PROTAC innovation advancements and future horizons in cancer and neuroscience
Angela Cacace, PhD4:15 - 4:25 pm Closing remarks
Lara Szewczak, PhDPoster Session & Reception 4:30 - 6:30 pm Poster session
I4-ARC LobbyDay 2 - Friday October 3, 2025
Time Title/Speaker 8:00 - 8:30 am Breakfast 8:30 - 8:40 am Introduction
Aseem Z. Ansari, PhDAI-Driven Discovery 8:40 - 9:10 am Deep learning for antibiotic discovery
James J. Collins, PhD9:10 - 9:25 am Prediction of elicitor-regulator pairs to enable secondary metabolite discovery
Emilee Patterson9:25 - 9:55 am Deciphering regulatory syntax and genetic variation with deep learning models
Anshul Kundaje, PhD9:55 - 10:25 am Transfer learning to enable predictions for network biology
Christina Theodoris, MD, PhD10:25 - 10:35 am Break Decoding Tissue Complexity 10:35 - 11:05 am Building a virtual embryo, one cell at a time
Loic Royer, Dr. Rer. Nat11:05 - 11:35 am Ushering in a new era of human biology driven by novel spatial multi-omics
Rong Fan, PhD11:35 am - 12:00 pm Lunch pickup Danny Thomas Lecture Series 12:00 - 1:00 pm 3D genome and the control of gene expression in development
Michael Levine, PhDHarnessing Chemical Induced Proximity 1:00 -1:15 pm Break 1:15 -1:45 pm Rewiring the mammalian interactome
Steven Banik, PhD1:45-2:00 pm Proteomic insights into mechanisms of transcriptional reprogramming molecular glues
Brendan Dwyer, PhD2:00 -2:30 pm Regulation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system
Brenda Schulman, PhD2:30 -2:45 pm Break 2:45 -3:15 pm Advances in the systematic discovery of molecular glue degraders
Eric Fischer, PhD3:15 -3:30 pm Structural and functional basis of PU.1-BAF interaction enables targeting of lineage-specific transcription
Asad Taherbhoy, PhD3:30 -3:45 pm Closing remarks and future horizons
Mishtu Dey, PhD -
Speakers for the 2025 symposium include:
- Vadim Backman, PhD Northwestern University
- Steve Banik, PhD, Stanford University
- Angela Cacace, PhD, Arvinas
- Ibrahim Cissé, PhD, Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics
- Jim Collins, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Tomasso Cupido, PhD, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
- Brendan Dwyer, PhD, Stanford University
- Rong Fan, PhD, Yale School of Medicine
- Eric Fischer, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- Steven Knutson, PhD, Princeton University
- Anshul Kundaje, PhD, Stanford University
- Luke Lavis, PhD, Janelia Research Campus
- Mike Levine, PhD, Princeton University
- Nathaniel Mabe, PharmD, PhD, Purdue University
- Elisa Oricchio, PhD, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
- Rachel O'Rourke, University of Michigan
- Emilee Patterson, Vanderbilt University
- Loic Royer, PhD Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco
- Paola Scaffidi, PhD, Instituto Europeo di Oncologia (European Institute of Oncology)
- Brenda Schulman, PhD, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
- Georgios Skiniotis, PhD, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
- Yang Shi, PhD, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of Oxford
- Asad Taherbhoy, Foghorn Therapeutics, Inc
- Christina Theodoris, MD, PhD, Gladstone Institutes
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Register to Attend
Join researchers, clinicians, and industry leaders from around the world at the Bringing Chemistry to Medicine (BC2M) Symposium, October 2–3, 2025.
Due to high interest, in-person registration is now full — but virtual registration remains open.
Virtual registration is free and required to attend.
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Submit an Abstract
Abstract submissions have closed
We welcome abstracts for the poster session from researchers in all areas of drug discovery, chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, transcription therapy, and related fields. A select number of abstracts will be offered speaking slots.
We encourage abstract submissions from trainees, postdocs, and established investigators.
You must be registered for the symposium as an in-person attendee to submit an abstract.
A limited number of travel awards will be granted to authors of the highest-rated abstracts, based on the peer review process. Recipients will be selected following abstract evaluation and notified directly.
Updated Submission Deadline: 11:59 pm CST on August 15, 2025
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Hotel Accommodations
We've partnered with Hotel Napoleon, a stylish and historic boutique hotel located in downtown Memphis, just minutes from the symposium venue.
Enjoy a special group rate for attendees, available for stays from October 1–4, 2025.
Rooms are limited, so we recommend booking early to secure your stay.
- Centrally located near restaurants, museums, and the Mississippi River
- On-site bar and restaurant
- Complimentary Wi-Fi and fitness center
- Virtual room tours and FAQs available on the hotel website
Parking:
Offsite self-parking is conveniently available next to the hotel at the Prospero Parking Garage, located at: 193 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN 38103.- $17/per night, plus a transaction fee
- 24 Hour access
Please note that this parking facility operates independently of the hotel.
Travel Information
Airport:
Memphis International Airport (MEM) is the closest airport, located about 15 minutes from downtown.Airport Transportation:
- Rideshare options (Uber/Lyft) are readily available.
- Taxi and shuttle services are available at the airport.
Transportation for Attendees:
Shuttle transportation will be provided from Hotel Napoleon to the St. Jude campus and back on both days of the symposium.Local attendees are welcome to drive their personal vehicle to campus. We’ll provide detailed parking and access instructions prior to the event.
Explore Memphis
Want to get to know the city beyond the venue? Our Have More in Memphis website is your guide to exploring the city’s unique neighborhoods, local culture, and must-see spots.
Watch our Archived Lectures
Each year since 2020, St. Jude has hosted exciting two-day events focused on Transcription Therapy and Chemical Biology and Therapeutics.
Transcription Therapy at St. Jude
Over decades of research, scientists in the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center and others have discovered that several pediatric cancers emerge due to disruption in chromatin and epigenetic states and dysfunctional transcriptional regulation. While gene regulation in general has long been considered “undruggable,” scientists in the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology & Therapeutics (CBT) have created synthetic gene regulators and are devising new chemical approaches to inhibit or degrade malfunctioning components of chromatin and gene regulatory machineries. This work builds on the history of St. Jude as a pioneer in the therapeutic use of small molecules targeting gene regulation, most notably the application of glucocorticoid receptor agonists into chemotherapy regimens for pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma (ALL). The drugging of this transcription factor helped to dramatically increase overall survival rates for newly diagnosed ALL to 94% at St. Jude.
Learn more about transcription therapy at St. Jude Learn more