Immuno-Oncology Xchange
Europe
December 1, 2021

Welcome to hubXchange’s European Immuno-Oncology Xchange 2021, 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, Preclinical Research, Clinical Development, Cell 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 now a fully VIRTUAL meeting.

Immune Biomarkers & Translational Research

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

8:00 – 8:30am

Registration

8:30 – 9:00am

Opening Address & Keynote: Uncovering the Complexities of TiME in a Digital Era

Florian Leiss

Vice President, Digital Health Strategies
Ultivue

Florian Leiss is VP Digital Health Strategies at Ultivue. He is responsible for digital and data-driven offerings and image analysis. Florian has been working for the 10+ years in software development for healthcare to make AI-powered CDx in oncology a reality, to support radiologists with routine reporting, or to empower pathologists with image analysis. He previously worked at AstraZeneca, Smart Reporting and Definiens. He holds PhDs in neuroscience and philosophy.

9:05 – 10:05am

Integrating biomarker and
clinical response data from
IO based clinical trials

Late stage clinical IO studies – when to select, when to stratify according to biomarkers?
Which assays are best suitable for clinical practice to select patients for IO treatment?
Immune protein and gene expression versus gene alterations for prediction

Regula Deurloo

Medical Affairs Biomarker Leader – Breast/Gyn Cancer
Roche

Regula has 12 years of experience in Pharma Development at Roche and is leading the Medical Affairs Biomarker Team in Basel since 2016. She is responsible for the implementation of the biomarker and CDx strategy specifically in the breast and GYN cancer disease area. In her work, she is bringing global biomarker leaders and biomarker scientists from Affiliates together and is collaborating with academic leaders.

Regula has obtained her Ph.D. from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) where she worked in the Laboratory for Transplantation Immunology. She joined Roche in 2008.

10:10 – 10:40am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

10:40 – 11:10am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

11:10 – 11:20am

Morning Refreshments

11:20am – 12:20pm

Novel biomarkers strategies to illuminate insights into the TME

Exploring the dynamic nature of the TME
The need for new biomarker discovery and development
Harnessing the ability to derive more meaningful information from precious tissue samples
Novel strategies for advanced image analysis

Angela Vasaturo

Associate Director, Scientific Affairs
Ultivue

Angela Vasaturo is Associate Director, Scientific Affairs at Ultivue. Prior to Ultivue, Angela was a Senior Researcher in Dr. Jerome Galon’s Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology at the Cordeliers Research Center. From 2010-2015 Angela was a postdoctoral researcher in the field of Tumor Immunology at the NCMLS in Nijmegen, NL, and was the recipient of an EMBO short-term fellowship, amongst others. In 2012, Angela was among the first postdocs in Europe to be involved in the development of multiplex IHC and multispectral imaging and analysis of up to six immunofluorescence markers, and today is considered a leading European expert in multiplex IHC techniques, multispectral digital pathology, and tissue imaging.

12:20 – 1:20pm

Networking Lunch

1:20 – 1:50pm

Spotlight Presentation – A Decade of Immunotherapy for Cancer: Co-Evolution of Drug Development and Biomarker Strategies

Charting the progress and calling out high level milestone achievements for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) and blockade therapy including PD-L1 and CTLA-4
Peering in to Bicycle’s TICA™ (tumor-induced immune cell agonist) and the high therapeutic potential target CD137 (4-1BB) from their recent published findings (J Immunother Cancer 2021, authored by Hurov K et al.) and Mirati’s TKI, sitravatinib plus nivolumab in oral cavity cancer (J Immunother Cancer 2021, by Marc Oliva et al)
An overview of biomarker strategies to better inform pharmacodynamics and clinical management, including development of biomarker-driven strategies to select for patients most likely to respond to therapy. A “Multi-Omics” approach.

Scott Reid

Vice President, Strategic Alliances and CDx
NeoGenomics

Scott Reid heads up companion diagnostic services and strategic alliances at NeoGenomics. He has been with NeoGenomics since 2016 and previously covered Business Development for the New England territory. He has been working in oncology since graduate school with a focus on diagnostics and IVD commercialization that has included previous positions at LabCorp and Covance. Scott completed his PhD in Biochemistry and MBA at Duke University.

1:55 – 2:55pm

Predicting patient responses to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

In vitro, in vivo, ex vivo – What tools seem feasible for translational research?
How to identify appropriate biomarker?
Predicting patient responses to combination treatments – are we multiplying the problem?
What are the key lessons to be learned from approved immuno-oncology therapeutics?

Randolf Kerschbaumer

Chief Executive Officer
OncoOne

Randolf Kerschbaumer holds a degree in biotechnology and a PhD from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. He has more than twenty years of experience in research and development of biotherapeutics in big pharma organizations and small biotech companies. During his career he held various senior positions, including Head of Oncology Research at Shire and Head of Antibody Technology at Baxter. He acquired detailed knowledge of the entire drug development process, from early drug screening to clinical development, in areas of oncology, inflammation and hematologic disorders. Randolf is founder and CEO of OncoOne, an early stage biotech start-up company based in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, Austria.

3:00 – 3:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

3:30 – 4:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

4:00 – 4:10pm

Afternoon Refreshments

4:10 – 4:40pm

Poster Session: Multicolour identification of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and dendritic cell (DC) subsets in PBMC and peripheral blood

Immunotherapy has shown astounding success for the treatment of advanced cancers. Due to the variability seen in patient responses to such therapy, there is keen interest to identify multiple cell types responsible for promoting or suppressing anti-tumor immune responses. Dendritic cells (DC) and myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are leukocytes known to have alternate roles in modulating immune responses, with DC as promoters and MDSC as suppressors of immune function. Both DC and MDSC are rare cell types, normally constituting only a small fraction of circulating leukocytes. Both DC and MDSC show further subdivision within their respective subsets, each varying in the capacity to promote or inhibit immune responses. Although differing in their immuno-modulatory capacity, DC and MDSC share some common phenotypic characteristics, which complicates the identification of these subsets by flow cytometry. Here, we define a single multicolor flow cytometry panel for the identification and qualification of all major DC and MDSC subsets. Due to the limited longevity of these subsets ex-vivo, and the resultant complications this can incur for clinical studies, we make the comparison between DC/MDSC isolated from fresh peripheral blood and from cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) displaying the advantages and disadvantages of each matrix.

Ben Fancke

Senior Scientist, Immunoassays & Flow Cytometry
NeoGenomics

Ben Fancke is the Senior Scientist of Immunoassays and Flow Cytometry for NeoGenomics Europe and Asia Pacific regions. As Senior Scientist he supervises teams to validate, implement and conduct laboratory testing in support of early to late phase clinical trials. He earned his PhD from Monash University Australia researching cell biology of the innate immune system. Ben’s knowledge of flow cytometry spans 20 years’ experience in academia, biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Spending time as a core cytometry facility manager and vaccine biology research scientist at Bavarian Nordic in Munich Germany, as the Senior Scientist and Team Leader for CRO’s 360Biolabs and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne Australia, he is now situated at the Rolle, Switzerland site for NeoGenomics Laboratories.

4:45 – 5:45pm

Frontiers in immuno-oncology: Exosome biology and analysis

Approaches to the robust analysis of exosomes.
Future trends for exosomal biomarkers.
Exosomes as a therapeutic target

Justin Devine

Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder
Synexa

Justin is a medical doctor, immunologist and pharmacologist and a co-founder and CMO of Synexa.

His primary focus is to understand our clients’ objectives in new drug development and to implement biomarker strategies that bring real insight to the challenges of clinical development and the immunological underpinning of health and disease.

5:45 – 6:45pm

Closing Address & Canape/Drinks Reception

Preclinical Research

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

8:00 – 8:30am

Registration

8:30 – 9:00am

Opening Address & Keynote: Uncovering the Complexities of TiME in a Digital Era

Florian Leiss

Vice President, Digital Health Strategies
Ultivue

9:05 – 10:05am

Solving common challenges of drug efficacy testing in mice

How can we prevent ulceration?
How can we increase the homogeneity of tumor growth to achieve good statistical value?
How can we use alternative implantation methods to improve study outcomes?

Holger Weber

Head, In Vivo Pharmacology
Reaction Biology

Holger Weber studied biology and obtained his Ph.D. at the Max-Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg, Germany. In 2001 he joined the research group of Prof. Augustin at the Tumor Biology Center, Freiburg. The scientific focus and interest during that time was the field of angiogenesis, first as a Post-Doc, later as a group leader. In 2007 he left basic research and started to work at ProQinase (acquired by Reaction Biology Corp.) as a group leader in the Department of Cellular Drug Discovery. Since 2014, Holger Weber is Head of In Vivo Pharmacology responsible for the resorts Project Management and Internal Innovations.

10:10 – 10:40am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

10:40 – 11:10am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

11:10 – 11:20am

Morning Refreshments

11:20am – 12:20pm

IMMUNE BIOMARKERS & TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH topic: Studying immunogenicity with the expressed Ig-ome through polyclonal antibody sequencing and quantification

What issues have you faced in stratifying patient populations?
How have you overcome specificity hurdles with ELISAs and other assays?
Have you considered the pathogenesis of abundant polyreactive antibody species?

Anthony Stajduhar

Director, International Business Development
Rapid Novor

Anthony has been heading the business development at Rapid Novor for nearly 5 years, merging his previous 8 years of experience in the business roles with a strong passion for biomedical research, stemming from his training in biomedical engineering. His current efforts are focused on the growth of the REpAb™and NovorIg™ platforms with pharmaceutical and biotech companies globally. His partnerships are focused on using REpAb in patients or animal models to sequence monoclonal antibodies from polyclonal sera, as well as immune system profiling using NovorIg, the team’s NGS based analysis to monitor the relative quantity of specific antibodies over time. Anthony’s a maker and in his spare time takes advantage of the Toronto HackLab to do biological research and other engineering projects.

12:20 – 1:20pm

Networking Lunch

1:20 – 1:50pm

Spotlight Presentation – A Decade of Immunotherapy for Cancer: Co-Evolution of Drug Development and Biomarker Strategies

Charting the progress and calling out high level milestone achievements for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) and blockade therapy including PD-L1 and CTLA-4
Peering in to Bicycle’s TICA™ (tumor-induced immune cell agonist) and the high therapeutic potential target CD137 (4-1BB) from their recent published findings (J Immunother Cancer 2021, authored by Hurov K et al.) and Mirati’s TKI, sitravatinib plus nivolumab in oral cavity cancer (J Immunother Cancer 2021, by Marc Oliva et al)
An overview of biomarker strategies to better inform pharmacodynamics and clinical management, including development of biomarker-driven strategies to select for patients most likely to respond to therapy. A “Multi-Omics” approach.

Scott Reid

Vice President, Strategic Alliances and CDx
NeoGenomics

3:00 – 3:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

3:30 – 4:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

4:00 – 4:10pm

Afternoon Refreshments

4:10 – 4:40pm

Poster Session: IMMUNE BIOMARKERS & TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH topic – Alternative applications of multiparameter flow cytometry in immune-oncology clinical development

The applications of multiparameter flow cytometry are extensive due to the versatility of this technology and the depth of data that can be generated from a single sample. Continual improvement of this technology as well as the broadening of our understanding of human biology has led to flow cytometry becoming a widely used technique. As flow cytometry has become more accessible, this technology has been used for a broader scope of applications. These alternative applications require additional analytical considerations and optimisations on an assay-specific level. Applications like receptor occupancy (RO) analysis, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) assays, polyamine transport assays, functional anti-drug antibody (ADA) assays and extracellular vesicle (EV) analysis combined with classical phenotypic analysis can provide valuable pharmacodynamic insights in in clinical studies.

Matti Kimberg

Chief Scientific Officer
Synexa

Matti is a molecular geneticist (University of Stellenbosch) and immunologist (University of Cape Town) and has more than 10 years’ experience in regulated bioanalysis and clinical biomarkers. As CSO, his primary focus is to ensure that the execution of all work performed at Synexa is scientifically driven by the objective of generating data that is informative towards answering the specific questions being asked in the context of each study. He has a deep understanding of the principals of the regulatory framework supporting bioanalysis and applying the guidelines provided by regulators to novel analytical technologies and therapeutic modalities.

5:45 – 6:45pm

Closing Address & Canape/Drinks Reception

Clinical Development

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

8:00am – 8:30am

Registration

8:30 – 9:00am

Opening Address & Keynote: Uncovering the Complexities of TiME in a Digital Era

Florian Leiss

Vice President, Digital Health Strategies
Ultivue

9:05 – 10:05am

Challenges in I-O – how to effectively target regulatory T cells and other immune suppressive cells in the TME?

Best techniques for assessing T regulatory T cells in clinical trials with novel immunotherapies – in tumor tissue or peripheral blood?
Which Immune related toxicities limit the development of drugs targeting T regulatory cells?
Novel drug combination in early drug development overcoming resistance associated with T regulatory cells

Michael Lahn

Chief Medical Officer
iOnctura

After obtaining his Medical Doctor degree in Medical Microbiology at the University of Mainz (Germany) in 1992, Michael Lahn was a fellow at the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Freiburg (Germany). In 1996, he joined the Department of Immunology at National Jewish Research and Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, where he was Instructor. During this time he investigated the role of γδ T cells in early immune responses. In 2000, Michael joined Eli Lilly and Company, where he led drug development teams in early phase drug development for anti-inflammatory and oncology medicines. He was responsible for the development of several novel oncology drugs, including the second generation ASO LY2181308 and the TGF-beta small molecule inhibitor galunisertib. In 2014 Michael joined AstraZeneca’s osimertinib team and contributed to the registration of osimertinib in NSCLC. In Fall of 2015, Michael was named Head of Clinical Development, Europe, at Incyte. He built the global cross-functional drug development team at Incyte’s European hub in Switzerland. In 2019, he joined iOnctura as Chief Medical Officer in Geneva. Michael has authored or co-authored over 100 publications.

10:10 – 10:40am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

10:40 – 11:10am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

11:10 – 11:20am

Morning Refreshments

11:20am – 12:20pm

Key clinical challenges in immunotherapy

Understanding organ-specific tumor immune contexture
Assessing immunotherapy in early-phase clinical studies
Optimising precision medicine approaches through composite biomarkers

Richard Hughes

Director, Strategic Marketing, Pharma Services
NeoGenomics

Richard Hughes is a strategic commercial leader with >29 years’ experience spanning clinical diagnostics, genomic services and life sciences with deep sector and market knowledge within oncology and infectious diseases. This couples with international expertise from operating largely in EMEA and US regions. Richard has held several senior positions, including his current role as Director, Strategic Marketing, Pharma Services, NeoGenomics, along with previous tenures at Meridian Bioscience, Almac Diagnostics and Applied Biosystems (Thermo Scientific). Richard holds an honors degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Greenwich, UK and is professionally qualified in marketing.

12:20 – 1:20pm

Networking Lunch

1:20 – 1:50pm

Spotlight Presentation – A Decade of Immunotherapy for Cancer: Co-Evolution of Drug Development and Biomarker Strategies

Charting the progress and calling out high level milestone achievements for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) and blockade therapy including PD-L1 and CTLA-4
Peering in to Bicycle’s TICA™ (tumor-induced immune cell agonist) and the high therapeutic potential target CD137 (4-1BB) from their recent published findings (J Immunother Cancer 2021, authored by Hurov K et al.) and Mirati’s TKI, sitravatinib plus nivolumab in oral cavity cancer (J Immunother Cancer 2021, by Marc Oliva et al)
An overview of biomarker strategies to better inform pharmacodynamics and clinical management, including development of biomarker-driven strategies to select for patients most likely to respond to therapy. A “Multi-Omics” approach.

Scott Reid

Vice President, Strategic Alliances and CDx
NeoGenomics

1:55 – 2:55pm

Redefining endpoints for I-O clinical trials to drive more efficient drug development

How can we define the patient population in early clinical trials to identify proof of mechanism and proof of concept as early as possible?
How early should we think about patient enrichment to drive more efficient drug development?
What are the most appropriate endpoints in I-O trials? Should we think beyond ORR, PFS and OS?

Theresa Kolben

Principal Senior Medical Director
Roche

Theresa is board-certified in Gynecology from the LMU Munich, Germany where she also received her Ph.D. and still teaches and holds a faculty position. After her residency, she completed a translational fellowship in Breast Cancer at the European School of Oncology as well as a basic research fellowship in the Cancer Vaccine Lab, LMU Munich, Germany.

Theresa joined Roche/Genentech in 2017. She now serves as a Senior Principal Medical Director in pRED leading the exploratory medicine strategy for early oncology drug assets and driving the exploration of clinical-translation data to design the clinical development strategy for new compounds.

3:00 – 3:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

3:30 – 4:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

4:00 – 4:10pm

Afternoon Refreshments

4:10 – 4:40pm

Poster Session: Safeguarding endpoint protection in immuno-oncology trials

Discusses patient safety in relation to irAE, IRR, and TLS
Explores efficacy guidelines between iRECIST and RECIST 1.1
Considers when choosing a lab: central lab versus local lab
Considerations for study timelines

Cindy Synaeve

Director, Clinical Trial Manager
Medpace

Cindy Synaeve, is Director, Clinical Trial Manager with over 10 years of clinical research experience with a focus in oncology; her experience includes managing early phase, immuno-oncology and solid and hematological tumor studies involving multidisciplinary teams and vendors. Cindy received her Master of Science in Immunology from Paris Diderot University.

5:45 – 6:45pm

Canape/Drinks Reception

Cell Therapies

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

8:00am – 8:30am

Regitration

8:30 – 9:00pm

Opening Address & Keynote: Uncovering the Complexities of TiME in a Digital Era

Florian Leiss

Vice President, Digital Health Strategies
Ultivue

10:10 – 10:40am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

10:40 – 11:10am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

11:10 – 11:20am

Morning Refreshments

12:20 – 1:20pm

Networking Lunch

1:20 – 1:50pm

Spotlight Presentation – A Decade of Immunotherapy for Cancer: Co-Evolution of Drug Development and Biomarker Strategies

Charting the progress and calling out high level milestone achievements for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) and blockade therapy including PD-L1 and CTLA-4
Peering in to Bicycle’s TICA™ (tumor-induced immune cell agonist) and the high therapeutic potential target CD137 (4-1BB) from their recent published findings (J Immunother Cancer 2021, authored by Hurov K et al.) and Mirati’s TKI, sitravatinib plus nivolumab in oral cavity cancer (J Immunother Cancer 2021, by Marc Oliva et al)
An overview of biomarker strategies to better inform pharmacodynamics and clinical management, including development of biomarker-driven strategies to select for patients most likely to respond to therapy. A “Multi-Omics” approach.

Scott Reid

Vice President, Strategic Alliances and CDx
NeoGenomics

1:55 – 2:55pm

Overcoming challenges with allogeneic cell therapy

Which critical parameters for either TCR, CAR T cell/NK cells are needed to be successful in the field?
How could we increase the cellular yield of an allogeneic product?
How could we harmonize product characteristics, and which would be crucial?

Eytan Breman

R&D Manager, CAR Engineering Group
Celyad

Eytan Breman is the R&D manager and current head of the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) engineering group at Celyad Oncology. He started his work in the field of immunology focused specifically on transplant immunology back in 2009, and from 2015 onwards has left academia to focus on developing CAR T cells for the treatment of cancer at Celyad. He has developed both the allogeneic and autologous CAR T cell platforms for the treatment of both haematological and solid cancers and has worked extensively on developing new tools for the future of the CAR T cell field.

3:00 – 3:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

3:30 – 4:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

4:00 – 4:10pm

Afternoon Refreshments

4:45 – 5:45pm

How can cell therapies make an impact on solid tumors?

Can we improve homing and tumor infiltration – which cell types, modifications, and application routes work?
Can we improve anti-tumor activity – optimizing signaling, countering resistance, changing the micro-environment?
Can we improve persistence – autologous versus allogeneic – IPSC vs donor-derived – lymphodepletion – are there gene engineering solutions?
Can other immune-oncology modalities or standard of care treatments help, and how could this best be investigated in the clinic?
Which solid tumor indications provide the best opportunities for cell therapy?

Marc van Dijke

Chief Technology Officer
MiNK Therapeutics

Marc van Dijk, Ph.D. is the Chief Technology Officer at MiNK Therapeutics. He brings more than 25 years of experience leading platform development. He was previously Chief Technology Officer at Agenus. He was also Chief Technology Officer of 4-Antibody, a subsidiary of Agenus, where he oversaw the development of Retrocyte Display™, Agenus’ proprietary antibody discovery platform. In this role, Dr. van Dijk led the antibody discovery programs in the alliance with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research branch in New York, including the CTLA4, PD1, GITR and OX40 programs, the resulting antibodies are in clinical development. Dr. van Dijk was previously Vice President, Antibody Technology at Genmab, and Director of Applied Research at Innogenetics (now Fujirebio). At Medarex and Genmab, he managed partnerships with Immunex (now Amgen), and Roche, and served as project leader on numerous discovery projects including Humax-CD20 (Arzerra™). He held a tenure track position in the Department of Immunology at the University Medical Center in Utrecht and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Biology at the University of California, San Diego. He obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Utrecht University.

5:45 – 6:45pm

Closing Address & Canape/Drinks Reception

Next-Generation Therapies

Time

Titles and Bullets

Facilitator

8:00 – 8:30am

Registration

8:30 – 9:00am

Opening Address & Keynote: Uncovering the Complexities of TiME in a Digital Era

Florian Leiss

Vice President, Digital Health Strategies
Ultivue

9:05 – 10:05am

HERA-Ligand platform as a next-generation agonistic approach in immuno-oncology

What are the most desired targeting moieties in the immuno-oncology field?
Monoclonal antibodies are bivalent in nature for agonistic receptor activation of target cells and often associated with dual modes of action, how can we overcome this?
Next–generation receptor agonists are required to overcome these drawbacks presented by conventional mAb therapies
Are bispecific molecules the next step in immune-therapeutics?

Jamie Frankish

Head of Immunology
Apogenix

Jamie Frankish is the Head of Immunology at Apogenix where he heads the department for immunology and is the principal scientist for preclinical R&D of novel cancer therapies in the immuno-oncology field.
Prior to this Jamie was a post-doctoral researcher at BioMedX in Germany where he conducted research & development regarding pathogen mediated modulation of innate immunity in collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim, screening for new therapeutic targets.
Jamie did his doctorate at the German Cancer Research Centre (dkfz) where he focused on the dynamics of early viral infection and the innate antiviral response, amongst other antiviral research.
He has an M.Sc. in Immunology from Trinity College Dublin and a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University College Dublin.

10:10 – 10:40am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

10:40 – 11:10am

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

11:10 – 11:20am

Morning Refreshments

11:20am – 12:20pm

IMMUNE BIOMARKERS & TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH topic: Early-stage characterization of immuno-oncology leads through in-vitro cell-based assays and beyond

From checkpoint inhibitors towards neoepitope vaccines, does one size fits it all?
Which functional assays; Types and Stages
From early characterization towards clinical biomarkers. Strengths & Limitations? Challenges?

Thibaut Janss

Lead Scientist
ImmunXperts

Thibaut Janss holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular biology from the University of Liège. He received his PhD (2012-2016) at the GIGA research center in Liège, where he acquired a strong experience in the immunology field, working on dendritic cells and T cells interactions. During this period, he also developed an in-depth knowledge of flow cytometry. He joined ImmunXperts in 2017 and currently acts as Lead Scientist in the Immuno-Oncology team.

12:20 – 1:20pm

Networking Lunch

1:20 – 1:50pm

Spotlight Presentation – A Decade of Immunotherapy for Cancer: Co-Evolution of Drug Development and Biomarker Strategies

Charting the progress and calling out high level milestone achievements for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) and blockade therapy including PD-L1 and CTLA-4
Peering in to Bicycle’s TICA™ (tumor-induced immune cell agonist) and the high therapeutic potential target CD137 (4-1BB) from their recent published findings (J Immunother Cancer 2021, authored by Hurov K et al.) and Mirati’s TKI, sitravatinib plus nivolumab in oral cavity cancer (J Immunother Cancer 2021, by Marc Oliva et al)
An overview of biomarker strategies to better inform pharmacodynamics and clinical management, including development of biomarker-driven strategies to select for patients most likely to respond to therapy. A “Multi-Omics” approach.

Scott Reid

Vice President, Strategic Alliances and CDx
NeoGenomics

1:55 – 2:55pm

Tumour-localised stimulation of the immune system for effective cancer immunotherapy

Which strategies can be used to mediate tumour-localized immune stimulation?
What are the key limitation of tumour-localized immune stimulation and how can we approach them?
How can you use biomarkers to examine activity in early clinical trials given that the activity is localized to the tumour microenvironment?

Janet Peper-Gabriel

Senior Scientist, Immuno-Oncology
Pieris Pharmaceuticals

Janet Peper-Gabriel has 10 years of experience in Immuno-Oncology and joined Pieris Pharmaceuticals in 2016. As Senior Scientist she supports the preclinical development of several IO programs as biological and project leader. Since 2018 she is leading the Preclinical Assay Development team being responsible for the implementation of new functional preclinical and translational assays and methods. Janet obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Tuebingen (Germany) working on the identification of HLA presented ligands for establishing an anti-tumor vaccination in ovarian cancer.

3:00 – 3:30pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

3:30 – 4:00pm

1-2-1 Meetings/Networking Break

4:00 – 4:10pm

Afternoon Refreshments

4:10 – 4:40pm

Poster Session: IMMUNE BIOMARKERS & TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH topic: In vitro killing assays for immuno-oncology candidates
The need to better understand the tumour microenvironment (TME) dictates the characterization of the cell types involved, the roles they play and how they respond to treatment. To develop better cancer immunotherapies, in vitro primary immune cell bioassays offer an early assessment of their effects on the various players of the TME.
Cytotoxic cells are key players in the anti-tumour immune response. CD8+ T cells, also known as cytotoxic T lymphocytes, recognize and kill cells presenting antigens bound to MHC class I molecules, such as neoantigen present on the tumour cells.
Activation of CD8+ T cells requires at least two signals from antigen presenting cells: binding of their T cell receptor (TCR) to the appropriate peptide presented on MHC I and co-stimulation by B7 binding to CD28. However, tumour environment developed different mechanisms to reduce this immune cell killing such as checkpoint inhibitors expression. In that case, the immune system will be dampened. A second type of cytotoxic cells, named Natural killer cells, are an innate immune cell type that plays an important role in anti-cancer immunity. NK cells target cells lacking MHC I expression, including cancer cells that have lost expression of MHC I. NK cells induce apoptosis in cancer cells via release of perforin and granzymes from granules, like CD8+ T cells. But here too, NK cells can be broken down by the tumour cells, notably by the PD1/PDL1 interaction.
Increasing their efficacy as a therapeutic strategy has made the development of new therapeutics enhancing their anti-tumour response a priority. Those new therapeutics can have several shapes. The Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity of the IgG1 isotypes is one of the mechanisms that can be applied by immunoglobulin-based therapeutics. Another way to increase the killing of cancer cells is to target tumour antigens expressed by those cells using for example bispecific molecules that will enhance on the other side the T cell activation.
Using primary immune cells, in vitro bioassays were developed to better screen the potential effect of new therapeutics on immune cell killing activity. Their ability to increase or induce a cytotoxic activity and facilitate the anti-tumour immune response can as a result be assessed early in the drug development process.

Thibaut Janss

Lead Scientist
ImmunXperts

5:45 – 6:45pm

Closing Address & Canape/Drinks Reception

Immuno-Oncology Xchange
Europe
December 1, 2021

Immune Biomarkers & Translational Research

Preclinical Research

Clinical Development

Cell Therapies

Next-Generation Therapies

Lead Partner

Partners

Immuno-Oncology XchangeEurope December 1, 2021

Immune Biomarkers & Translational Research

Lead Partner

Partners

Immuno-Oncology Xchange
Europe
December 1, 2021