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

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

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.

Portrait picture of Regula Deurloo
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

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.

Portrait picture of Angela Vasaturo
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.

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?

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.

Portrait picture of Randolf Kerschbaumer
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.

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

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

Lead Partner

Partners

Immuno-Oncology Xchange | Europe 2021
Register