As covalent programs mature, early warhead design decisions increasingly determine whether compounds progress or stall during translation. This workshop will examine how chemistry choices interact with PK/PD behavior, developability constraints and translational expectations, helping teams design warheads that remain viable through optimization and into IND enabling studies.

This session will address:

• Exploring non-acrylamide chemotypes and beyond to evaluate how alternative warhead chemistries electrophiles, alongside electrophile choice, placement, and scaffold context drive covalent engagement and selectivity

• Leveraging chemoproteomics and cellular covalent screening to profile target engagement and proteome-wide reactivity, enabling data-driven optimization and prioritization of warhead strategies

• Learning from real-world case studies, including deprioritized programs to uncover key pitfalls, unexpected liabilities, and transferable insights that improve decision making and reduce late-stage risk