IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY XCHANGE
EAST COAST 2023
Boston
May 23, 2023
May 23, 2023
Welcome to hubXchange’s Immuno-Oncology Xchange East Coast 2023, bringing together executives from pharma and biotech to address and find solutions to the key issues faced in developing immuno-oncology therapies, through a series of roundtable discussions.
Discussion topics will cover Immune Biomarkers, Translational Research, Clinical Development, Cellular Therapies and Next-Generation Therapies.
Take advantage of this unique highly interactive meeting format designed for maximum engagement and collaboration with your peers.
Please note this is an In-Person meeting.
VENUE DETAILS: Hilton Boston Woburn Hotel, 2 Forbes Road, Woburn MA 01801
SNAPSHOTS OF DISCUSSION TOPICS
- Decision enabling biomarkers in IO clinical development
- Predictive biomarkers for IO treatment used in clinical practice now and in the future
- Immune landscape and gene signatures in immuno-therapy
- Applying machine learning towards drug target discovery and development
- How to select the right translational screening model to assess response and evaluate biomarkers
- Pre-clinical in vivo models for improved toxicity prediction
- Early signals of efficacy, biomarkers and confidence in early clinical I/O trials
- Targeting exhausted cells – Ab cellular therapy combinations
- Different cellular modalities
- TME-targeting combinations – improving efficacy
- Antibody discovery for ADCs and other therapeutic modalities
- Development and future prospects of targeted protein degraders for cancer therapy
Full Xchange Agenda
Click on each track for detailed agenda
Track 1: Immune Biomarkers
Track 2: Translational Research
Track 3: Clinical Development
Track 4: Cellular Therapies
Track 5: Next-Generation Therapies
Immune Biomarkers
Time
Titles and Bullets
Facilitator
08:00 – 08:30
Registration
09:05 – 10:05
Predictive biomarkers for IO treatment used in clinical practice now and in the future
Director Immuno-Oncology, Abbvie
10:10 – 10:40
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
10:40 – 11:10
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
11:10 – 11:20
Morning Refreshments
12:20 – 13:20
Networking Lunch
13:55 – 14:25
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
14:25 – 14:55
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
16:05 – 17:05
The rise of spatial omics technologies and their potential for new biomarker discovery
Principal Scientist, Genentech
17:05 – 18:00
Evening Drinks Reception
Translational Research
Time
Titles and Bullets
Facilitator
08:00 – 08:30
Registration
08:30 – 09:10
Opening Address & Keynote Presentation
The search for immunological beauty
The immune system elegantly strives to control and balance the interplay of flexibility and robustness in the interaction of an organism with its environment. Scientific understanding and appreciation of the coordinated biological complexity of the immune system is expanding on a daily basis. This growth has been paralleled by our ability to harness the power of the immune system for the development of therapeutic interventions. Subjectively we may describe the immune system as “a thing of beauty” in our attempts to abstract, acknowledge and to some degree comprehend the enormity of its intricacies. There is however merit in exploring alternative views to define and quantify immunological beauty as a means of generating fresh insights into the fundamental organization of the immune system which in turn will likely impact our ability to develop and better monitor immunotherapies.
Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder, Synexa
Justin Devine is a medical doctor, immunologist, pharmacologist (Stellenbosch University) and a co-founder of Synexa.
Currently operating as Chief Innovation Officer, his primary focus is to understand clients’ objectives in new drug development by designing biomarker strategies to bring real insight to the challenges of clinical development.
Justin has a very deep understanding of the role that biomarkers and pharmacogenetics play in understanding the performance of a candidate drug.
He is particularly passionate about improving the drug development process by bringing innovative approaches to early phase research, including new ideas in translational medicine, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence.
09:15 – 10:15
Applying machine learning towards drug target discovery and development
- Opportunities and challenges in the application of machine learning for drug target discovery and development?
- Challenges in drug development for innovation using computational approaches? What problems need innovative computational approaches, but existing methods fall short?
- How can the vast trove of publicly available data be used to supplement in-house data and/or be used to power statistical or machine learning methods?
- How do you bridge the gap between wet lab biologists and computational experts in your organization to best leverage the skills of both?
Senior Scientist, Computational Biology, Immunitas Therapeutics
10:20 – 10:50
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
10:50 – 11:20
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
11:20 – 11:30
Morning Refreshments
12:30 – 13:30
Networking Lunch
13:30 – 14:00
Spotlight Presentation
Quantitative Profiling of Immune Checkpoint Protein Target Systems with Target Sufficiency
New therapeutics targeting the immune checkpoint (IC) TIGIT are in clinical development with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors for solid tumors indications, but without protein biomarkers. We used targeted mass spectrometry to precisely quantify TIGIT, DNAM1, PVR, PD-1, PD-L1, and PD-L2 in 97 primary non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) and matched tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLN). Only 56% of NSCLC cases expressed TIGIT, which was quantifiable almost exclusively in TDLN. TIGIT, DNAM1 and PVR abundance varied over approximately 25-fold and were co-expressed only in some tumors. Quantitation of target system proteins may explain differences in response to combined anti-TIGIT anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapeutics.
Vice President, Proteomic Technology, Inotiv, Inc
Daniel C. Liebler is Vice President for Proteomic Technologies at Inotiv, Inc. He received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Vanderbilt and did postdoctoral training in Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University. He held faculty appointments for 30 years at the University of Arizona and at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Liebler has been a leader in the application of mass spectrometry and proteomic technology to chemical biology and cancer proteogenomics. In 2017, Dr. Liebler founded Protypia (acquired by Inotiv in 2022) to provide a mass spectrometry platform for drug target analysis for diverse therapeutic areas, including immuno-oncology.
14:05 – 14:35
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
14:35 – 15:05
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
15:10 – 15:40
Spotlight Presentation
From images to insights: Deep spatial profiling using Enable Medicine platform
Selecting the right biomarkers is important for success in phase transition of clinical trials.
Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) has increasingly allowed us to select high-quality protein biomarkers that correlate more strongly with patient outcomes. There is a growing need to identify high-quality protein biomarkers to support clinical research, and spatial biology is showing promise in providing these answers. We are using a 51-plex panel that covers a range of functional and tumor microenvironment-related biomarkers, including lymphoid and myeloid cell markers, tissue biomarkers, antigen presenting cells, and immune checkpoint and activation markers. By analyzing this comprehensive panel of biomarkers, we have identified cell types that are up or downregulated in different disease states. Further, we have explored the spatial relationships between cells, uncovering important differences in cell-to-cell interactions and neighborhoods between disease states. These spatial analyses provide a powerful toolkit for discovering key biomarkers in various diseases and treatments.
Business Development Executive, EnableMedicine
Ying is Business Development Executive at Enable Medicine and a scientist passionate about novel technologies. She earned her PhD in Cancer Biology and MD in General Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Ying’s research interest was understanding breast cancer’s immune tumor microenvironment and tumor molecular biology. She published over 20 papers in her 8 years of research at Cedars Sinai Medical Cancer Center. Before Enable Medicine, Ying joined Akoya Biosciences as a Technical Application Scientist and gained deep knowledge of spatial biology technologies, data analysis, and their application in translational and clinical research.
15:45 – 16:45
How to select the right translational screening model to assess response and evaluate biomarkers
- How can we define “success” in the search for biomarker in preclinical models?
- How can we reverse-model resistance and/or poor response and use those findings to generate the next question?
- How can we implement efficient, parallel testing of multiple I/O hypothesis in the same model?
Principal Scientist, Sapience Therapeutics
Claudio completed his graduate studies at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and postdoc at Columbia University. His current role is Principal Scientist at Sapience Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company focused on peptide- based cancer therapeutics. Claudio is interested in building preclinical models where the link between I/O drugs and potential biomarkers can be explored and tested.
16:45 – 17:00
Afternoon Refreshments
17:00 – 18:00
Pre-clinical in vivo models for improved toxicity prediction
- Current availabilties of pre clinical in vivo models for toxicity prediction in IO
- Do they accurately represent clinical setting (challenges and gaps)? What could be improved to bridge the gap?
- Should the models be tailored to modlaities , instead of one size fits all aproach?
- Other opportunistic options to consider – beyond in vivo
Investigator and Associate GSK Fellow, GSK
Prajna Behera is an Investigator and associate GSK Fellow in the Immuno-Oncology and Combinations Research unit at GSK in Cambridge, MA. She is an accomplished cancer biologist with experience spanning multiple modalities in both academic and industry settings. At GSK, She leads preclinical stage IO programs as Biology lead and serves as an internal scientific and technical expert in the field. She has obtained her Masters from SRM University, India.
18:00 – 19:00
Evening Drinks Reception
Clinical Development
Time
Titles and Bullets
Facilitator
08:00 – 08:30
Registration
08:30 – 09:10
Opening Address & Keynote Presentation
The search for immunological beauty
The immune system elegantly strives to control and balance the interplay of flexibility and robustness in the interaction of an organism with its environment. Scientific understanding and appreciation of the coordinated biological complexity of the immune system is expanding on a daily basis. This growth has been paralleled by our ability to harness the power of the immune system for the development of therapeutic interventions. Subjectively we may describe the immune system as “a thing of beauty” in our attempts to abstract, acknowledge and to some degree comprehend the enormity of its intricacies. There is however merit in exploring alternative views to define and quantify immunological beauty as a means of generating fresh insights into the fundamental organization of the immune system which in turn will likely impact our ability to develop and better monitor immunotherapies.
Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder, Synexa
Justin Devine is a medical doctor, immunologist, pharmacologist (Stellenbosch University) and a co-founder of Synexa.
Currently operating as Chief Innovation Officer, his primary focus is to understand clients’ objectives in new drug development by designing biomarker strategies to bring real insight to the challenges of clinical development.
Justin has a very deep understanding of the role that biomarkers and pharmacogenetics play in understanding the performance of a candidate drug.
He is particularly passionate about improving the drug development process by bringing innovative approaches to early phase research, including new ideas in translational medicine, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence.
09:15 – 10:15
Early signals of efficacy, biomarkers and confidence in early clinical I/O trials
- Learning from previous I/O clinical development experience: success and failure
- Most pertinent cPOC populations: availability and inclusions criteria, clinical trial designs and biomarkers
- Safety considerations and burden
Senior Vice President, Head of Biology, Jnana Therapeutics
Nick Pullen has >20 years of experience in the biopharma industry. Nick is currently the SVP, Head of Biology at Jnana Therapeutics, a biotech company that is exploiting its proprietary chemoproteomics platform, RAPID, to discover new classes of medicines for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Prior to joining Jnana, Nick worked for 3 years in the Integrated Sciences group at Celgene (later Bristol Myers Squibb) providing scientific leadership across a portfolio of external Drug Discovery partnerships with early-stage biotech companies. Prior to Celgene, Nick spent 17 years at Pfizer in a series of roles with increasing responsibility leading large drug discovery teams. In his career, Nick has helped advance >10 molecules, both small as well as large molecule drugs into the clinic, the most advanced, PF-00547659, reaching PhIII before being shuttered just prior to regulatory NDA submission. Nick is an author of >40 manuscripts in leading journals covering a variety of scientific discoveries and is a co-inventor on 9 patents.
10:20 – 10:50
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
10:50 – 11:20
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
11:20 – 11:30
Morning Refreshments
11:30 – 12:30
Identifying and overcoming challenges to broader application of spatial biology in drug development
- Technology and platform selection
- Assay development and standardization
- Navigating the regulatory landscape
- Path to CDx development
Chief Scientific Officer, Flagship Biosciences
Thomas Turi, Ph.D. currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer for Flagship Biosciences developing and implementing Spatial Biology and Digital Pathology solutions to accelerate drug development programs. He previously served as the Chief Scientific Officer for Nexelis where he assisted in the development of multiple approved and authorized COVID vaccine programs in addition to overseeing R&D activities in biomarkers and preclinical sciences.
In addition to his current responsibilities, Dr. Turi has served on the Board of Trustees for The Life Sciences Foundation and as a member of the Global Health Research Roundtable of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. He has previously served on the Board of Directors for Caprion Proteomics (CellCarta) and led several external partnerships including those with Rules Based Medicine, Celera, Incyte, and Affymetrix. He has also served on grant and program project review boards for NASA’s Section for Biotechnology and Tissue Engineering.
Dr. Turi received bachelor’s degrees in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his doctorate in Molecular Genetics from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed postdoctoral training at the Yale University School of Medicine applying molecular genetic techniques to investigate the mechanisms of protein transport.
12:30 – 13:30
Networking Lunch
13:30 – 14:00
Spotlight Presentation
Quantitative Profiling of Immune Checkpoint Protein Target Systems with Target Sufficiency
New therapeutics targeting the immune checkpoint (IC) TIGIT are in clinical development with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors for solid tumors indications, but without protein biomarkers. We used targeted mass spectrometry to precisely quantify TIGIT, DNAM1, PVR, PD-1, PD-L1, and PD-L2 in 97 primary non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) and matched tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLN). Only 56% of NSCLC cases expressed TIGIT, which was quantifiable almost exclusively in TDLN. TIGIT, DNAM1 and PVR abundance varied over approximately 25-fold and were co-expressed only in some tumors. Quantitation of target system proteins may explain differences in response to combined anti-TIGIT anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapeutics.
Vice President, Proteomic Technology, Inotiv, Inc
Daniel C. Liebler is Vice President for Proteomic Technologies at Inotiv, Inc. He received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Vanderbilt and did postdoctoral training in Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University. He held faculty appointments for 30 years at the University of Arizona and at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Liebler has been a leader in the application of mass spectrometry and proteomic technology to chemical biology and cancer proteogenomics. In 2017, Dr. Liebler founded Protypia (acquired by Inotiv in 2022) to provide a mass spectrometry platform for drug target analysis for diverse therapeutic areas, including immuno-oncology.
14:05 – 14:35
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
14:35 – 15:05
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
15:10 – 15:40
Spotlight Presentation
From images to insights: Deep spatial profiling using Enable Medicine platform
Selecting the right biomarkers is important for success in phase transition of clinical trials.
Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) has increasingly allowed us to select high-quality protein biomarkers that correlate more strongly with patient outcomes. There is a growing need to identify high-quality protein biomarkers to support clinical research, and spatial biology is showing promise in providing these answers. We are using a 51-plex panel that covers a range of functional and tumor microenvironment-related biomarkers, including lymphoid and myeloid cell markers, tissue biomarkers, antigen presenting cells, and immune checkpoint and activation markers. By analyzing this comprehensive panel of biomarkers, we have identified cell types that are up or downregulated in different disease states. Further, we have explored the spatial relationships between cells, uncovering important differences in cell-to-cell interactions and neighborhoods between disease states. These spatial analyses provide a powerful toolkit for discovering key biomarkers in various diseases and treatments.
Business Development Executive, EnableMedicine
Ying is Business Development Executive at Enable Medicine and a scientist passionate about novel technologies. She earned her PhD in Cancer Biology and MD in General Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Ying’s research interest was understanding breast cancer’s immune tumor microenvironment and tumor molecular biology. She published over 20 papers in her 8 years of research at Cedars Sinai Medical Cancer Center. Before Enable Medicine, Ying joined Akoya Biosciences as a Technical Application Scientist and gained deep knowledge of spatial biology technologies, data analysis, and their application in translational and clinical research.
16:45 – 17:00
Afternoon Refreshments
18:00– 19:00
Evening Drinks Reception
Cellular Therapies
Time
Titles and Bullets
Facilitator
08:00 – 08:30
Registration
08:30 – 09:10
Opening Address & Keynote Presentation
The search for immunological beauty
The immune system elegantly strives to control and balance the interplay of flexibility and robustness in the interaction of an organism with its environment. Scientific understanding and appreciation of the coordinated biological complexity of the immune system is expanding on a daily basis. This growth has been paralleled by our ability to harness the power of the immune system for the development of therapeutic interventions. Subjectively we may describe the immune system as “a thing of beauty” in our attempts to abstract, acknowledge and to some degree comprehend the enormity of its intricacies. There is however merit in exploring alternative views to define and quantify immunological beauty as a means of generating fresh insights into the fundamental organization of the immune system which in turn will likely impact our ability to develop and better monitor immunotherapies.
Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder, Synexa
Justin Devine is a medical doctor, immunologist, pharmacologist (Stellenbosch University) and a co-founder of Synexa.
Currently operating as Chief Innovation Officer, his primary focus is to understand clients’ objectives in new drug development by designing biomarker strategies to bring real insight to the challenges of clinical development.
Justin has a very deep understanding of the role that biomarkers and pharmacogenetics play in understanding the performance of a candidate drug.
He is particularly passionate about improving the drug development process by bringing innovative approaches to early phase research, including new ideas in translational medicine, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence.
09:15 – 10:15
Targeting exhausted cells – Ab – cellular therapy combinations
- Modifying the tumor microenvironment to prevent exhaustion
- Modifying CAR T cells to resist exhaustion
- Reversal of exhaustion
- Combination therapies
Senior Scientist, Computational Biology of Oncology Translational Research, Janssen
Junchen Gu is Senior Scientist, Computational Biology of Oncology Translational Research at Janssen. He is responsible for the biomarker analysis strategy and execution to support Janssen Oncology’s cell therapy and immuno-oncology portfolio in clinical development. Previously, Dr. Gu was at Bristol Myers Squibb, responsible for the discovery and early development biomarker analysis of various immuno-oncology candidates and a few genomic assay development and diagnostics start-ups. He received a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Genomics from Washington University in St. Louis, investigating the role of DNA methylation in gene regulation under the guidance of Dr. Ting Wang.
10:20 – 10:50
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
10:50 – 11:20
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
11:20 – 11:30
Morning Refreshments
11:30 – 12:30
Cell therapy immunogenicity assessment
- What are the most common analytical approaches for assessment of immunogenicity?
- What is the regulatory view on immunogenicity?
- Should changes in avidity be part of the immunogenicity workflow?
- What are the additional considerations with allogeneic cell therapies?
Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder, Synexa
Justin Devine is a medical doctor, immunologist, pharmacologist (Stellenbosch University) and a co-founder of Synexa.
Currently operating as Chief Innovation Officer, his primary focus is to understand clients’ objectives in new drug development by designing biomarker strategies to bring real insight to the challenges of clinical development.
Justin has a very deep understanding of the role that biomarkers and pharmacogenetics play in understanding the performance of a candidate drug.
He is particularly passionate about improving the drug development process by bringing innovative approaches to early phase research, including new ideas in translational medicine, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence.
12:30 – 13:30
Networking Lunch
13:30 – 14:00
Spotlight Presentation
Quantitative profiling of immune checkpoint protein target systems with target sufficiency
New therapeutics targeting the immune checkpoint (IC) TIGIT are in clinical development with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors for solid tumors indications, but without protein biomarkers. We used targeted mass spectrometry to precisely quantify TIGIT, DNAM1, PVR, PD-1, PD-L1, and PD-L2 in 97 primary non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) and matched tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLN). Only 56% of NSCLC cases expressed TIGIT, which was quantifiable almost exclusively in TDLN. TIGIT, DNAM1 and PVR abundance varied over approximately 25-fold and were co-expressed only in some tumors. Quantitation of target system proteins may explain differences in response to combined anti-TIGIT anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapeutics.
Vice President, Proteomic Technology, Inotiv, Inc
Daniel C. Liebler is Vice President for Proteomic Technologies at Inotiv, Inc. He received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Vanderbilt and did postdoctoral training in Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University. He held faculty appointments for 30 years at the University of Arizona and at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Liebler has been a leader in the application of mass spectrometry and proteomic technology to chemical biology and cancer proteogenomics. In 2017, Dr. Liebler founded Protypia (acquired by Inotiv in 2022) to provide a mass spectrometry platform for drug target analysis for diverse therapeutic areas, including immuno-oncology.
14:05 – 14:35
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
14:35 – 15:05
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
15:10 – 15:40
Spotlight Presentation
From images to insights: Deep spatial profiling using Enable Medicine platform
Selecting the right biomarkers is important for success in phase transition of clinical trials.
Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) has increasingly allowed us to select high-quality protein biomarkers that correlate more strongly with patient outcomes. There is a growing need to identify high-quality protein biomarkers to support clinical research, and spatial biology is showing promise in providing these answers. We are using a 51-plex panel that covers a range of functional and tumor microenvironment-related biomarkers, including lymphoid and myeloid cell markers, tissue biomarkers, antigen presenting cells, and immune checkpoint and activation markers. By analyzing this comprehensive panel of biomarkers, we have identified cell types that are up or downregulated in different disease states. Further, we have explored the spatial relationships between cells, uncovering important differences in cell-to-cell interactions and neighborhoods between disease states. These spatial analyses provide a powerful toolkit for discovering key biomarkers in various diseases and treatments.
Business Development Executive, EnableMedicine
Ying is Business Development Executive at Enable Medicine and a scientist passionate about novel technologies. She earned her PhD in Cancer Biology and MD in General Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Ying’s research interest was understanding breast cancer’s immune tumor microenvironment and tumor molecular biology. She published over 20 papers in her 8 years of research at Cedars Sinai Medical Cancer Center. Before Enable Medicine, Ying joined Akoya Biosciences as a Technical Application Scientist and gained deep knowledge of spatial biology technologies, data analysis, and their application in translational and clinical research.
15:45 – 16:45
Different cellular modalities
- Unbiased and tumor agnostic approaches: non-engineered comprised of multiple cell types.
- Revisiting the perennial question: allogeneic versus autologous and implications for starting materials (PBMC, cord blood, tumor and iPSC).
- Robust cell manufacturing: reliability, speed, cost and defined release criteria.
- Developing Pharmacodynamic markers of response: an early indicator of clinical activity to aid in asset development.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Alloplex Biotherapeutics Inc.
Frank Borriello is the founder and CEO of Alloplex Biotherapeutics, a private, clinical-stage Boston-based company launched in 2016 based on an original and now patented concept. He obtained his MD, PhD degrees at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in NYC where he studied Class I MHC structure-function relationships with Dr. Stanley G. Nathenson. He continued training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston with a residency in clinical pathology and a focus in cellular immunology focused on the B7-CD28 costimulatory pathway with Drs. Arlene Sharpe and Gordon Freeman. He has an extensive background in the biotech/pharma industry of over 20 years which span diverse roles such as clinical development with Wyeth, as buy-side biotech financial analyst with BB Biotech and more recently external innovation due diligence and Business Development with Millennium, Takeda, Shire, Baxter, and finally Baxalta where he was VP of Search and Evaluation before its acquisition in 2016. Dr. Borriello has lived and worked in the Boston area since 1991.
16:45 – 17:00
Afternoon Refreshments
17:00 – 18:00
TME-targeting combinations – improving efficacy
- What do you think about the anti-PD1 combination with other therapies such as anti-TIGIT, chemo, and radiotherapy?
- What cell types can we target in addition to T cells?
- How do you target multiple cell types in the TME?
Head of Computational Biology, Immunitas Therapeutics
Ming “Tommy” Tang is the Director of Computational Biology at Immunitas. Prior to joining Immunitas Tommy was at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University, where he led a team to analyze immune-oncology related single-cell sequencing datasets and spearheaded an NIH-funded project called Cancer Immunological Data Commons. Tommy has a wealth of experience as a computational biologist with over ten years in analyzing large-scale (epi)genomic/transcriptomic data and automating the analysis by using workflow languages such as Snakemake.. Prior to joining Dana-Farber, Tommy received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics from the University of Florida and completed a three-year postdoc at MD Anderson. He has a keen interest in teaching computational skills to wet biologists and is a certified instructor for Data Carpentry.
18:00 – 19:00
Evening Drinks Reception
Next-Generation Therapies
Time
Titles and Bullets
Facilitator
08:00 – 08:30
Registration
08:30 – 09:10
Opening Address & Keynote Presentation
The search for immunological beauty
The immune system elegantly strives to control and balance the interplay of flexibility and robustness in the interaction of an organism with its environment. Scientific understanding and appreciation of the coordinated biological complexity of the immune system is expanding on a daily basis. This growth has been paralleled by our ability to harness the power of the immune system for the development of therapeutic interventions. Subjectively we may describe the immune system as “a thing of beauty” in our attempts to abstract, acknowledge and to some degree comprehend the enormity of its intricacies. There is however merit in exploring alternative views to define and quantify immunological beauty as a means of generating fresh insights into the fundamental organization of the immune system which in turn will likely impact our ability to develop and better monitor immunotherapies.
Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder, Synexa
Justin Devine is a medical doctor, immunologist, pharmacologist (Stellenbosch University) and a co-founder of Synexa.
Currently operating as Chief Innovation Officer, his primary focus is to understand clients’ objectives in new drug development by designing biomarker strategies to bring real insight to the challenges of clinical development.
Justin has a very deep understanding of the role that biomarkers and pharmacogenetics play in understanding the performance of a candidate drug.
He is particularly passionate about improving the drug development process by bringing innovative approaches to early phase research, including new ideas in translational medicine, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence.
09:15 – 10:15
Antibody discovery for ADCs and other therapeutic modalities
- How do ADCs and other emerging therapeutic modalities in Immuno-Oncology compare?
- What are the most suitable Antibody Discovery strategies and screening assays for any given I/O modality and target?
- What are the potential challenges and opportunities at the Research stage?
- How can innovation enable Next-Generation Immuno-Oncology therapeutics?
Director, Biology – Antibody Engineering, Mersana Therapeutics
Vladimir’s interest in therapeutic antibodies grew as a post-doc in Professor Trout’s lab at MIT on a collaborative project between Novartis and MIT. Since then, he has held several positions in the area of antibody discovery and engineering for different therapeutic modalities, contributing to or leading a number of programs in Oncology, Immunology, Immuno-Oncology and other therapeutic areas.
10:20 – 10:50
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
10:50 – 11:20
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
11:20 – 11:30
Morning Refreshments
12:30 – 13:30
Networking Lunch
13:30 – 14:00
Spotlight Presentation
Quantitative profiling of immune checkpoint protein target systems with target sufficiency (TBC)
New therapeutics targeting the immune checkpoint (IC) TIGIT are in clinical development with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors for solid tumors indications, but without protein biomarkers. We used targeted mass spectrometry to precisely quantify TIGIT, DNAM1, PVR, PD-1, PD-L1, and PD-L2 in 97 primary non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) and matched tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLN). Only 56% of NSCLC cases expressed TIGIT, which was quantifiable almost exclusively in TDLN. TIGIT, DNAM1 and PVR abundance varied over approximately 25-fold and were co-expressed only in some tumors. Quantitation of target system proteins may explain differences in response to combined anti-TIGIT anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapeutics.
Vice President, Proteomic Technology, Inotiv, Inc
Daniel C. Liebler is Vice President for Proteomic Technologies at Inotiv, Inc. He received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at Vanderbilt and did postdoctoral training in Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University. He held faculty appointments for 30 years at the University of Arizona and at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Liebler has been a leader in the application of mass spectrometry and proteomic technology to chemical biology and cancer proteogenomics. In 2017, Dr. Liebler founded Protypia (acquired by Inotiv in 2022) to provide a mass spectrometry platform for drug target analysis for diverse therapeutic areas, including immuno-oncology.
14:05 – 14:35
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
14:35 – 15:05
1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break
15:10 – 15:40
Spotlight Presentation
From images to insights: Deep spatial profiling using Enable Medicine platform (TBC)
Selecting the right biomarkers is important for success in phase transition of clinical trials.
Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) has increasingly allowed us to select high-quality protein biomarkers that correlate more strongly with patient outcomes. There is a growing need to identify high-quality protein biomarkers to support clinical research, and spatial biology is showing promise in providing these answers. We are using a 51-plex panel that covers a range of functional and tumor microenvironment-related biomarkers, including lymphoid and myeloid cell markers, tissue biomarkers, antigen presenting cells, and immune checkpoint and activation markers. By analyzing this comprehensive panel of biomarkers, we have identified cell types that are up or downregulated in different disease states. Further, we have explored the spatial relationships between cells, uncovering important differences in cell-to-cell interactions and neighborhoods between disease states. These spatial analyses provide a powerful toolkit for discovering key biomarkers in various diseases and treatments.
Business Development Executive, EnableMedicine
Ying is Business Development Executive at Enable Medicine and a scientist passionate about novel technologies. She earned her PhD in Cancer Biology and MD in General Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Ying’s research interest was understanding breast cancer’s immune tumor microenvironment and tumor molecular biology. She published over 20 papers in her 8 years of research at Cedars Sinai Medical Cancer Center. Before Enable Medicine, Ying joined Akoya Biosciences as a Technical Application Scientist and gained deep knowledge of spatial biology technologies, data analysis, and their application in translational and clinical research.
15:45 – 16:45
Development and future prospects of targeted protein degraders for cancer therapy
- What target classes are best served by degradation?
- Novel targets, difficult targets and “undruggable” targets”?
- How to expand the scope of E3 ligases employed clinically to enable precision medicine?
- How can the immunological aspects of protein degradation be harnessed?
- What models are best for combination work?
Research Manager, Salarius Pharmaceuticals
Justine Delgado earned her PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Iowa developing small molecule anti-cancer agents. Justine then joined the University of Minnesota as an NHLBI Postdoctoral Fellow where she investigated immuno-oncology therapies. Dr. Delgado went on to work for Beckman Coulter in the in vitro diagnostic R&D department developing antibodies and immunoassays. Dr. Delgado continued her industry career with MTEM developing engineered toxin body drug conjugates and establishing a bioconjugation team. In her current role as a Research Manager with Salarius Pharmaceuticals Justine is investigating new drugs in the development pipeline and managing the non-clinical laboratory.
16:45 – 17:00
Afternoon Refreshments
18:00 – 19:00
Evening Drinks Reception
Immuno-Oncology Xchange | East Coast 2023
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