8:00 am Morning Networking Coffee
8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Translating Effective Combination Candidates Into the Clinic
9:00 am Panel Discussion: Exploring Strategies to Bridge the Translatability Gap to the Clinic
Synopsis
• Addressing the need to fill the current gap with potential models with better translatability
• Assessing the computational approaches and analysis methods that can be used to improve translation into the clinic
• Manoeuvring the next steps needed to be taken to overcome these challenges, particularly to improve patient prediction outcomes
Moderated by: Katie Grausam, Postdoctural Scientist, Cedards-Sinai Medical Center
9:30 am Humanized Mice for Better Therapeutic Antibody Development
Synopsis
- Humanized gene targets
- Immuno Deficient Models
- Human Antibody Producing mice
10:00 am Leveraging Reverse Translation to Improve Drug Combination Efficacy in the Clinic for Lung Cancer
Synopsis
• Strategizing learnings from the clinic and combining late-assets with approved drugs in a combination approach to improve efficacy
• Developing models that recapitulate patient vulnerability using clinical biomarker endpoints
• Implementing in vitro and mouse models to study patient drug resistant mechanism
10:30 am Syngeneic Model Analysis: How Implant Location and Tumor Heterogeneity Factor In
Synopsis
• Exploring the effect that tumor location can have on tumor infiltrating immune cell subsets
• Exploring the differences between tumor infiltrating immune cell subsets from halved tumors (mean half 1 vs mean half 2)
• Exploring the differences between tumor infiltrating immune cell subsets from whole tumors or halved tumors (mean whole tumors vs mean tumor halves)
10:40 am Morning Break & Networking Session
Implementing Tumor Models for Drug Discovery & Screening
Track Chair: Katie Grausam, Postdoctoral Scientist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
11:15 am Mastermind Session: Implementing Solid Tumor Models to Study CAR-T Therapy
Synopsis
• Assessing an ideal model to study CAR-T therapy in the context of solid tumors
• Overcoming challenges associated with CAR-T therapy toxicity
• Understanding the next steps to drive translation to patients
11:45 am Exploring Transcriptomic and Immunopeptidome Heterogeneity in Brain Tumor Models for Downstream Targeted Immunotherapies
Synopsis
• Understanding the ramifications of these datasets for baseline mutations and neoepitope discovery
• Leveraging data from mass spectrometry to compare the in vivo peptidome with computational modelling from sequencing
12:15 pm Comparing Mouse Models with the Patient Molecular Profile in Brain Tumors
Synopsis
• Exploring the distinctions between the different immune environments and different patient mutation profile
• Leveraging these insights to increase translation for treatments into humans
Implementing Tumor Models For Efficacy Evaluation & Biomarker Discovery
Track Chair: Erin Trachet, Senior Director of Scientific Engagement, TD2
11:15 am Maximizing Target Discovery for CAR-T Therapy – VIRTUAL
Synopsis
• Addressing off-target effects and increased toxicity in patients
• Honing current strategies for reliable CAR-T testing
11:45 am Implementing Combination Targeting to Improve Safety in Cell Therapy
Synopsis
• Honing gene-engineering to improve safety and specificity of CAR-Ts
• Discovering strategies to translate results into the clinic
12:15 pm Are Chemically Induced Mouse Models More Predictive of Efficacy?
Synopsis
• Spotlighting learnings from this model in ER-positive breast cancer
• Benchingmarking data against gold-standard mouse models and 2D data
• Strategies to translate these findings into the clinic
12:45 pm Networking Lunch
Assessing the Future for Tumor Models
1:45 pm In Vivo Expansion of CAR T Cells and its Association with Safety and Efficacy in Patients Treated with Tisagenlecleucel
Synopsis
• Understanding in vivo expansion of CAR T cells
• Correlation of in vivo expansion with efficacy and safety endpoints such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurological events
• Exploring trends across indications (leukaemia and lymphoma)
2:15 pm Modelling the TME in a Tumoroid Model
Synopsis
• Evaluating strategies to recapitulate the TME within an organoid model system
• Implementing ex vivo modelling of TME to test cell-based cancer immunotherapies
2:45 pm Fireside Chat: The Future of Preclinical Tumor Models
Synopsis
• How can we use preclinical models to streamline drug development and make it more cost-effective?
• Highlighting the importance of optimizing translatability into the clinic – the next steps
• How can models be used in the context of precision oncology?
Moderated by: Katie Grausam, Postdoctural Scientist, Cedards-Sinai Medical Center
3:30 pm Spotlighting a Next-Generation Platform to Study Cell Therapy
Synopsis
• Leveraging bioengineering, microfluidics and human ex-vivo tumors to model drug response and resistance mechanisms
• Deploying a comprehensive set of tools with ex-vivo platforms to efficiently study cell therapy including infiltration, immune response and activation of molecular pathways