Day One

Tuesday July 14, 2020

Day Two

Wednesday July 15, 2020

8:45 am

Morning Coffee

9:00 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Exploring the Challenges of Tumor Resistance

9:10 am Harnessing Disseminated PDX Models to Advance Drug Discovery for Hematologic Cancers

Synopsis

• Understanding how disease progresses in different tissues in disseminated models
• Recapitulating the bone marrow niche ex vivo to inform in vivo study design
• Employing PDX models to identify clinically actionable combinations

9:30 am Evaluating How the SHP2 Blockade Enhances Anti-Tumor Immunity Via Tumor Cell Intrinsic & Extrinsic Mechanisms

  • Ye Wang Postdoctoral Researcher, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Synopsis

• Modeling tumor-immune interaction by in vitro 3D co-culture
• Understanding the immune modulatory functions and mechanisms of SHP2 inhibitors in anti-tumor immunity by using in vitro 3D co-culture and in vivo mouse models
• Explain the importance of both tumor intrinsic signaling and its crosstalk with immune cells in tumor micro-environment

9:50 am Signaling from CD36+ Fibroblasts Induces Growth Inhibition in the Organoid Models of Breast Cancer Cell Lines

  • Bahram Parvin Director of the Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cell & Molecular Biology at the University of Reno, Nevada

Synopsis

• Explaining how CD36 expression in fibroblasts is reduced as a result of exposure to the
physiological level of tumor-secreting activin A
• How to utilize co-culture of CD36+ fibroblast cells (FB) with the organoid models of MDAMB-
231 to induce growth inhibition
• Distinguish co-culture of CD36+ FB with the MCF7 breast cancer cell lines to show the
reversion of aberrant lateral and basal polarities
• Discussing the mechanism of tumorigenicity and the relevance to colony growth inhibition
and polarity reversion

10:10 am Panel Discussion: Tissue Sample Heterogeneity – Utilizing Cell Lines to Ensure Minimal Tumor Variation & Promote Clinical Efficacy

  • Sarah Knutson Director of Preclinical Biology, Twenty Eight- Seven Therapeutics
  • Courtney Anderson Senior Scientist , AstraZeneca
  • Ye Wang Postdoctoral Researcher, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
  • Bahram Parvin Director of the Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cell & Molecular Biology at the University of Reno, Nevada

Synopsis

• Explore how to harness cell lines to tackle the challenges surrounding cancer heterogeneity
• Produce a framework of how to overcome target resistance to produce an efficacious therapy

11:00 am

Morning Break

Deep Diving into the Next Generation of Preclinical Tumor Models

11:45 am Combination Approach: A Breakthrough In Vivo Model for High-Value Identification of Oncology Candidate

Synopsis

  • How to use Inovotion’s technology to open new perspectives for in vivo screening in oncology and immune-oncology
  • Why Is the chick embryo model particularly well suited for drug discovery and early identification of high-value compounds in oncology
  • Come and learn how to explore securing preclinical and clinical results using Inovotion’s model

12:15 pm Utilizing & Translating CAR-T Cell Therapy to Solid Tumors

Synopsis

• Discuss the challenges surrounding the clinical activity of CAR-T cell therapy in solid tumors
• Exploring the degree of model translatability between preclinical studies and human CAR-T cell trials
• Next-generation CART cell therapy approaches combining novel targets with endogenous immune modulation

12:35 pm Discovery and testing of therapeutics in somatic transgenic cancer models

Synopsis

• Examples of preclinical studies investigating strategies to impede tumor growth and development by immunotherapy, metabolic targeting, and inhibition of tumor growth pathways
• Strategies for therapeutic mimicry
• Leveraging single-cell approaches to interrogate heterogeneity and response to treatment

12:55 pm Live Q&A – Ask Speakers Your Burning Questions

1:40 pm

Speed Networking Lunch

Analyzing Preclinical Toxicity, Safety & Dose Translation

2:40 pm Brain Tumor Models as a Platform to Advance Functional Diagnostics & Clinical Trials

  • Keith Ligon Director - Center For Patient Derived Models, Principal Investigator, Neuropathologist & Pathologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Synopsis

• Models of primary and metastatic brain cancer are highly valuable tools for precision medicine and preclinical testing
• Large number of common and rare brain cancer models allow large scale drug screening
• Novel approaches and technologies emerging to test patient models to personalize medicine and trials

3:00 pm Harnessing Genome-scale In Vivo T-Cell CRISPR Screen to Identify Novel Immuno-Oncology Targets For the Treatment of Solid Tumors

  • Louise Cadzow Senior Director, Head of In Vivo Pharmacology, KSQ Therapeutics

Synopsis

• Developed a novel CRISPRomics® platform that enabled in vivo genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screens in primary T-cells
• Systematic identification and validation of targets that can significantly improve T-cell function in solid tumor setting
• Developed CRISPR2 technology that enables the identification of optimal T-cell target combinations that drive anti-tumor response

3:20 pm Live Q&A – Ask the Speakers Your Burning Questions

3:45 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks & End of Conference

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