Therapeutic Combinations Symposium

2026 marks the centennial of the Loewe additivity framework, the first formal method for calculating drug synergy. Over the past century, combination therapy has become a cornerstone of treatment for many diseases. Rather than a single “magic bullet” envisioned by Dr. Paul Ehrlich at the dawn of the 20th century, modern pharmacology increasingly relies on coordinated therapeutic strategies that reflect the biological complexity of disease. Advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and large-scale chemical libraries now make it possible to explore drug combinations at an unprecedented scale. Yet, as the search space expands, it is essential that new discovery efforts remain grounded in the clinical lessons learned from a century of combination therapy.

St. Jude is a particularly fitting venue for this conversation. Combination therapy has been central to the institution’s mission since its earliest days under the leadership of Dr. Donald Pinkel, whose “Total Therapy” approach for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia demonstrated the transformative potential of rationally designed therapeutic combinations.

The goal of this symposium is to bring together thought leaders across disease areas to identify shared conceptual, methodological, and translational challenges in drug combination research, with the aim of helping to shape the next century of discovery.

The symposium will be hosted in person at St. Jude. Registration is free.

Researchers, clinicians, fellows, and students are invited to submit abstracts for the Therapeutic Combinations Symposium. Abstracts should highlight original research related to therapeutic combinations across disease areas.

Submission Deadline: September 1, 2026

Agenda coming soon.

Adam Palmer
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 

Jennifer Roth
Broad Institute at MIT

Jerome (Jay) Mettetal
AstraZeneca 

David Weiss
Emory University 

Jeffrey West, PhD
Moffitt Cancer Center