Advances and trends enabling the growth of immune-based cancer research and therapeutics

With the recent successes of immunotherapies, a fresh breeze of optimism in the fight against cancer has reinvigorated the industry. Perhaps the greatest legacy will be the realization of the need to understand the interplay within the tumor microenvironment between tumor malignancy and protective immunity. Targeting the liabilities of tumors by ‘tuning’ cellular networks back into homeostatic harmony may just be the key to effective, durable therapies.

Targeting and eliminating pathogenic cells is not good enough on its own to consistently achieve long-term survival. For example, immune cells that can eliminate tumors must persist in hostile, immunosuppressive microenvironments throughout tumor elimination and be capable of renewing protective surveillance. With the emergence of quantitative, live-cell analysis platforms researchers can make the necessary sensitive, time-resolved measurements to monitor the temporal components of an ever evolving cellular network.

This talk will showcase new concepts and strategies to target cancer through an understanding of the immune response. We will discuss purpose-built applications that enable real-time measures of immune cell function, fate and fitness. This tool bench provides the capability to measure, engineer and control immune cell function, thus enabling translational researchers and developers to achieve the necessary level of therapeutic potency and safety

Learning Objectives:

1. Define new concepts and understanding of the interplay between tumors and immunity

2. Identify new solutions to model and study tumor immunity over time

3. Key strategies being tested to target tumor liabilities through immune-based drug design