Samir Koirala
Vice President & Head of Neurobiology Research Alkermes
Seminars
Thursday 17th September 2026
Panel Discussion: Redefining Therapeutic Potential in Muscarinics: Interrogating the M1/M4 Debate to Advance Next Generation Neuropsychiatric Treatments
3:30 pm
- How the recent FDA approval of an M1/M4 targeting muscarinic agonist–antagonist therapy has opened the door for next generation mechanisms, prompting the field to explore which muscarinic pathways hold the greatest future therapeutic potential
- How M1 and M4 receptor modulation may diverge in future clinical applications, with emerging evidence suggesting distinct roles in cognitive processing, behavioural regulation, and symptom domains underserved by dopamine based treatments
- How advancing Phase 1 muscarinic programs is helping define optimal translational strategies for the future, including biomarker guided dosing, refined safety monitoring, and strategic choices around patient versus healthy volunteer enrolment
- How next generation M4 selective PAMs and other muscarinic focused innovations may expand the therapeutic footprint across neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative indications, positioning muscarinic pathways as a long term pillar of future CNS drug development
- Will PAMs recapitulate efficacy of orthosteric agonists, as seen with Cobenfy?
Tuesday 15th September 2026
Panel Discussion: Evaluating Unmet Needs in Sleep: Navigating EEG Utility & Limitations Across Complex Sleep Architecture
3:15 pm
- Defining which facets of sleep (onset, maintenance, early awakening, quality, or EEG specific signals) truly matter as clinical biomarkers
- Understanding the practical and scientific limits of EEG in psychiatric sleep research: specificity, invasiveness, and placebo susceptibility
- How sponsors (orexin programs, sleep promoting or circadian targeting drugs) and EEG tech vendors interpret sleep architecture in different disease contexts
- Identifying core unmet needs in insomnia and sleep dysregulation across mood and psychiatric disorders, and what measurement innovation is required
Tuesday 15th September 2026
Interpreting Insomnia Signals as a Sleep Biomarker Across Mood Disorders
1:30 pm
- Differentiating insomnia subtypes (difficulty initiating vs. maintaining sleep vs. early awakening) and their relevance as biomarkers across depression and anxiety
- How insomnia signatures may stratify patients, predict symptom trajectories, or serve as endpoints across mood disorder trials
- Opportunities and pitfalls when using sleep related EEG and behavioral signals to map emotional blunting, anhedonia, and anxiety phenotypes
- Integrating clinical, sponsor, academic, and technology vendor perspectives to advance insomnia as a validated, scalable biomarker
Wednesday 16th September 2026
Harnessing Orexin Biology to Advance Sleep Regulation & Novel Neuropsychiatric Therapeutics
11:45 am
- Illuminating the mechanistic role of orexin pathways in stabilizing sleep-wake architecture and behavioural states
- Applying emerging orexin targeted strategies to address unmet needs across sleep related and broader neuropsychiatric disorders
- Integrating molecular, pharmacologic, and translational insights to shape next generation therapeutic candidates
- Exploring how expanding orexin centric biology opens doors to new indications beyond traditional mood and psychotic disorders
