2025 Conference Program

The 2025 Welch Conference is an in-person and live-streamed event

2025 Welch Conference on Chemical Research: “New Horizons in Drug Discovery”

October 27-28, 2025 at The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston and live-streamed for virtual attendees

Kevan M. Shokat
University of California, San Francisco
Program Chair

Monday, October 27, 2025

Conference Introduction & Welcome

8:30 AM

Introductory Remarks

Frederick W. Brazelton, Chair of the Welch Foundation Board of Directors

8:35 AM

Conference Introduction

Kevan M. Shokat, University of California, San Francisco Conference Chair

Session I - Drugs as Rescue Agents

8:40 AM

Alex Johnson

Brandeis University
Session Leader

8:50 AM

The Scientific Origins of Drugs that Slow Neurodegeneration

Jeffery W. Kelly, Scripps Research

9:35 AM

How Small Molecules Rescue a Folding Disease: Principles Learned From the Ion Channel CFTR

Jue Chen, Rockefeller University

10:35 AM

Antisense Oligonucleotides for Rare-Disease Therapy

Adrian R. Krainer, Cold Spring Harbor Labs

Session II - Living Therapeutics

12:30 PM

Emily C. Dykhuizen

Purdue University
Session Leader

12:40 PM

Personalized RNA Vaccines for Pancreatic Cancer

Vinod P. Balachandran, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

1:25 PM

Re-Thinking Cancer Targeting in the Era of Smart Cell Therapeutics

Wendell Lim, University of California, San Francisco

Keynote Speaker

2:30 PM

Towards a COVID-19 Vaccine to Protect Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Animal Sarbecoviruses Without Updating

Pamela J. Bjorkman, California Institute of Technology

3:30 PM

Poster Session Happy Hour (Upstairs)

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Session III - Chemoproteomics & Drug Discovery

8:30 AM

Devin K. Schweppe

University of Washington
Session Leader

8:40 AM

Activity-Based Proteomics – Protein and Ligand Discovery on a Global Scale

Benjamin F. Cravatt, Scripps Research

9:25 AM

Reversible Covalent Inhibitors: From Serendipity to Clinical Trials

Jack Taunton, University of California, San Francisco

10:25 AM

Chemical Proteomic Strategies to Investigate Reactive Cysteines

Eranthie Weerapana, Boston College

2025 Welch Awardee Lecture

11:15 AM

Synthesis at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology

Peter G. Schultz, Scripps Research

1:15 PM

Molecular Glues & Bifunctional Compounds: Therapeutic Modalities Based on Induced Proximity

Stuart L. Schreiber, Harvard University

Session IV - Molecular Glues

1:50 PM

Heeseon An

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Session Leader

2:00 PM

Co-opting the Ubiquitin System for Therapeutic Benefit

Ingrid E. Wertz, Lyterian Therapeutics

3:05 PM

Rewiring Transcription Using Chemically Induced Proximity

Nathanael Gray, Stanford University

3:50 PM

Closing

Kevan M. Shokat, University of California, San Francisco, Conference Chair