8:00 am Morning Check-In & Coffee
8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Probing Model Selection Criteria Across Different Indications
9:00 am Panel Discussion: Evaluating the Different Preclinical Tumor Models & Their Applications Across Oncology Therapeutic Development
Synopsis
- Assessing the pros and cons of the most commonly implemented models, and sharing strategies to select the most appropriate model for your cancer study
- Discussing their contexts of use across oncology drug development and how to leverage biomarkers, and apply reverse translation to bridge the translational gap
- What impact has the FDA announcement to phase out animal testing for certain therapies had on research and the tumor modeling field?
9:45 am Session Reserved for GemPharmatech
Synopsis
- Presentation details to be announced
10:15 am Generation & Characterization of a Post-Checkpoint Inhibitor Mouse Tumor Model of Resistance
Synopsis
- Mouse models that mimic the patient population in the clinic who have acquired resistance to checkpoint therapies
- Combination efficacy of our clinical assets in the IO refractory tumor models
- Leveraging these findings to improve translation to benefit Post-CPI patients
10:45 am Morning Networking Break & Poster Awards
Synopsis
The winning poster will be announced at this time. The winner will receive their award, and have their poster showcased on our website as a downloadable file
Applications in Drug Discovery & Screening
11:30 am Determining Activity of ADC & IO Combinations Through Preclinical Tumor Models
Synopsis
- Considerations when developing immunocompetent models to study ADC activity
- Syngeneic vs. humanized models – rationale and challenges
- Optimizing clinical relevance – dose and schedule selection
12:00 pm Optimizing a Patient-Derived Lung Organ-On-A-Chip Model to Deliver More Translatable Insights
Synopsis
- Discussing the use of organ-on-a-chips to better mimic the tumor microenvironment and cellular interactions for small cell lung cancer
- Exploring the integration of multiple cell types, including immune cells and stromal cells, to create more physiologically relevant models
- Discovering the application spatial transcriptomics to characterize these models and gain readouts on CAR-NK assessments
Applications for Efficacy Evaluation & Biomarker Discovery
11:30 am Harnessing Patient-Derived ex vivo Models to Empower Immunotherapy & ADC Combination Development
Synopsis
- Explaining the need and advantages of using tumor explants to remodel the tumor immune microenvironent and better understand tumor biology
- Assessing strategies to implement patient-derived tumor explant models from tissue slices to study drug interactions in a spatial context
- Sharing the future hopes to combine the different model and assays to develop combination strategies for ADC and IO agents and simulate patient response
12:00 pm Uncovering Translational Biomarkers to Better Understand Tumor Biology Across in vitro & in vivo Models
Synopsis
- Showcasing optimized methods to develop orthotopic mouse models and GEMMS to enhance understanding of the tumor microenvironment
- Sharing new techniques to implant tumoroids onto mice for research
- Discussing strategies to accurately image for translational biomarkers across multiple models and disease indications including bladder, glioblastoma colorectal and more
12:30 pm Lunch Break & Networking
1:30 pm Optimizing Syngeneic Mouse Models to Better Develop Cell Therapies
Synopsis
- Highlighting the rationale behind selecting the model and discussing techniques to optimize them for the study
- Benchmarking data outputs from these models
- Uncovering mechanisms of action through these models for cell therapies
1:30 pm Blocking Fatty Acid Oxidation Inhibits Growth of Human Malignancies
Synopsis
- Fatty acid oxidation (FAO) is absolutely essential for ATP production by cancers
- Inhibiting FAO significantly decreases human cancers growth in vitro and in vivo
- Inhibiting FAO in human patients with metastatic cancers that are refractory to standard of care treatment extends survival in Phase 1 study
2:00 pm Afternoon Networking Break
Empowering Cell Therapy Safety & Assessing Practical Applications of Digital Pathology & AI to Advance Oncology Drug Development
3:00 pm Enhancing Safety & Efficacy: sCD70-Armored CAR-T Cells
Synopsis
- The study introduces a novel sCD70-armored CAR-T construct that improves CAR-T cell expansion, memory, ultimately enhancing antitumor efficacy
- This sCD70 CAR-T demonstrated superior in vivo performance with sustained cytotoxicity, and significant tumor control compared to unarmored CAR-T cells
- When compared to existing armor methods, this novel armor design shows potential to address safety concerns while maintaining robust antitumor efficacy
3:30 pm Leveraging Spatial Biology to Select the Right Tumor Models for Better Drug Development
Synopsis
- Best practice to harness spatial biology tools including transcriptomics/proteomics/ multi-omics to improve understanding of your data read-outs
- Best practice to integrate AI/ML with spatial omics to develop a better understanding of the tumor microenvironment
- Leveraging spatial data to refine patient stratification methods and enhance the design of future clinical trials for improved treatment outcomesÂ