Oncology Stream

ANTIBODIES FOR CANCER THERAPY

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3 | 10:00 AM - 1:15 PM (ET)

Antibodies are important therapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer and possess several clinically relevant mechanisms of action. This session highlights the latest developments in antibody-based cancer therapeutics, the advancement of novel constructs and identification of successful strategies across a range of antibody-based modalities, including mAbs, immune checkpoint inhibitors, agonists, bi- and multi-specific antibodies.

10:00 Chairperson's Opening Remarks 

Alem Truneh, PhD, Co-Founder & CTO, ImCheck Therapeutics

10:10 Keynote Presentation: The Next Era of Cancer Therapeutics: Defining Biologic Problems, Engineering Solutions

Daniel Chen, MD, PhD, CMO, IGM Biosciences

10:50 Development of a Next Generation Anti-Cancer Immunotherapy: A Humanized anti-BTN3A Antibody that Activates Gamma-Delta (Vg9-Vd2) T Cells

Alem Truneh, PhD, Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer, ImCheck Therapeutics

11:30 Novel Multi-specific Antibodies for Targeted Immune Modulation of Solid Tumors and Hematological Malignancies

Udaya Rangaswamy, Senior Scientist, Preclinical Development, Teneobio, Inc.

Teneobio’s unique T cell redirection platform utilizes a novel anti-CD3 arm which, when combined with an anti-tumor associated antigen arm (anti-TAA), results in efficient tumor lysis with minimal cytokine release. Using a case study in solid tumors, the modular nature of this platform enabling successful therapeutic development will be highlighted.

11:45 Refreshment Break

11:50 Selective Blockade of the Immune Checkpoint CD47 Using Bi- and Multi-Specific Antibodies

Nicolas Fischer, PhD, CEO, Light Chain Bioscience, Novimmune SA

12:25 Interactive Q&A Session with Speakers and Audience

12:55 Close of Day

CLINICAL PROGRESS OF BISPECIFICS AND COMBINATIONS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 | 10:00 AM - 1:15 PM (ET)

Many complex diseases are driven by multiple factors, so inhibiting a single target may fail to achieve significant efficacy. Bispecific antibodies aim to treat multifaceted, complex diseases by engaging two disease targets with one molecule. This stream explores the latest preclinical and clinical developments in bispecific drug development, including combinations, and the efforts being made to advance the next generation of bi- and multi-specific biologics.

10:00 Chairperson's Opening Remarks 

Paul Parren, PhD, Executive Vice President, Head, R&D, Lava Therapeutics B.V.

10:10 Keynote Presentation: Bispecific Antibody Drug Development

Paul Parren, PhD, Executive Vice President, Head, R&D, Lava Therapeutics B.V.

10:55 Tumor Targeted 4-1BB Activation with PRS-343, a HER2/4-1BB Antibody-Anticalin Bispecific

Ingmar Bruns, MD, PhD, Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Development, Pieris Pharmaceuticals

11:40 Refreshment Break

11:45 Current Status of Bispecifics Biologics and Combination Biologics Therapies

Rakesh Dixit, PhD, DABT, President & CEO, Bionavigen

12:25 Interactive Q&A Session with Speakers and Audience

12:55 Close of Day

ADVANCES IN CELL-BASED IMMUNOTHERAPY

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 | 10:05 AM - 1:00 PM (ET)

Cell-based immunotherapy, such as CAR T, offers a unique strategy to trigger or boost a patient’s own immune defenses to fight cancer by enforcing tumor recognition, improving the survival and functions of T cells and other immune effector cells. This stream focuses on the latest tools, techniques, and engineering strategies driving the development of cellular immunotherapies for cancer. Focus will be given to recent CAR-T successes, new targets and mechanisms, novel engineering approaches and targeting strategies.

10:05 Chairperson's Opening Remarks 

Peggy Sotiropoulou, PhD, Head, Research & Development, Celyad

10:10 Keynote Presentation: Development, Clinical Results and Translational Analysis of CAR T Cell Products For Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma and Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Adrian Bot, PhD, Vice President, Translational Medicine, Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company

10:50 Precise, Non-viral, CAR-T Engineering with CRISPR sgRNA and DNA Knock-in Templates

Lumeng Ye, Senior Scientist, GenScript USA, Inc.

Direct delivery of CRISPR Cas9 RNP and donor DNA has the benefit of both precise CAR KI and simultaneous KO, and without the need for a viral vector. GenScript can efficiently manufacture sgRNA and long single-stranded DNA (ssDNA or ssODN) for precise CAR KI in T cells.

11:05 Session Break

11:10 Resistance to CART19 Therapy: Mechanisms and Novel Therapeutic Strategies

Marco Ruella, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Scientific Dir. Lymphoma Program, Division of Hematology and Oncology and Center for Cellular Immunotherapies University of Pennsylvania, Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine

11:45 NeoPre^TM: GenScript’s Bioinformatics Tool for Difficult Synthesis of Neoantigen Peptides for Personalized Medicine

Raymond Miller, Senior Global Product Manager, GenScript USA, Inc. 

Peptides are a critical component for the confirmation of putative neoantigens but are difficult to synthesize. GenScript has developed the NeoPreTM algorithm which determines peptide synthesis difficulty in silico and recommends the most efficient synthesis platform. We show initial proof of concept data for a 3-month production window.

12:00 Session Break

12:05 Chemically Programmable and Switchable CAR‐T Therapy

Christoph Rader, PhD, Professor, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Florida Campus, Scripps Research

12:30 Interactive Q&A Session with Speakers and Audience

1:00 Close of Day

NEXT-GENERATION IMMUNOTHERAPIES

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 | 10:00 AM - 12:45 PM (ET)

The search for targeted, more potent immunotherapies continues. This session focuses on the latest innovations, science, novel targets, and modalities being adopted to improve immunotherapy efficacy and safety. Topics include novel IO targets and engineering strategies across a range of modalities, new approaches to immunity and combinations.

10:00 Chairperson's Opening Remarks 

Alex Franzusoff, PhD, CEO, PACT Pharma

10:10 Keynote Presentation: Glypicans as Emerging CAR T Cell Therapy Targets: GPC3 and Beyond

Mitchell Ho, PhD, Chief, Antibody Therapy Section, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Cancer Institute, NIH

10:50 Personalized Mutation-Targeted NeoTCR-T Cell Therapies for Patients with Solid Tumors

Alex Franzusoff, PhD, CEO, PACT Pharma

11:20 Expand and Rapidly Validate Antigen-Specific Function of T Cells Using Fewer Cells

Yelena Bronevetsky, PhD, Product Manager, T Cell Applications, Marketing, Berkeley Lights 

Immunogenicity validation of peptide antigens represents a bottleneck in the tumor antigen discovery process. The Opto™ Antigen Presenting Bead Kit enables users to assay HLA binding and stability, and efficiently stimulate and expand antigen-specific T cells. T cells are characterized with only a fraction of the cells in a sample.

11:35 Refreshment Break

11:40 Elucidating How Nonlinked CD4+ Help Augment OX40 plus 4-1BB Agonist Immunotherapy

Adam Adler, Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Connecticut Health School of Medicine

12:15 Interactive Q&A Session with Speakers and Audience

12:45 Close of Day