Webinar: The Cancer-Immunity Cycle: Methods, Challenges, and Opportunities by InsideScientific

About this Series

Recent advances in cancer immunotherapy research have paved the way for the development of new clinical treatment options. Understanding the cancer immunity cycle as a whole can facilitate the identification of new putative immunotherapeutic targets, mechanisms, and strategies towards a more durable response. To be effective, treatments must retain activity despite negative feedback mechanisms, necessitating in the consideration of each step in the cycle. Fortunately, a number of innovative, advanced, and efficient techniques are now available to enable preclinical screening of new treatment approaches.

In this series, experts will review how cancer immunotherapy is studied along each step of the cancer immunity cycle, including an overview of technologies, techniques, challenges, and emerging research questions to be addressed. A number of innovative and advanced techniques to enable preclinical screening of new treatment approaches will be discussed as well as how to select appropriate in vitro methods for immunotherapeutic evaluation within the framework of the cancer immunity cycle.

Meet The Presenters

Rajendra Kumari, PhD

Global Head of Scientific Communications

After receiving her PhD from the University of Leicester in Molecular Pharmacology, Rajendra joined the Division of pre-clinical Oncology, School of Clinical Sciences, University of Nottingham as a postdoctoral fellow, building expertise in cancer cell biology, model development, in vitro, in vivo, imaging capabilities and molecular pharmacology. In 2005, Rajendra took the role of Project & Business Manager of the Preclinical Oncology Services (PRECOS) contract research business unit and lecturer/assistant professor in 2008. Rajendra was pivotal in the commercialisation of the unit and eventual spinout of PRECOS Ltd in 2010, acting as Chief Operations Officer, Board Director and co-founder. Following the merger with Crown Bioscience in 2013, Rajendra led Crown Bioscience’s European site as CSO & General Manager. In 2018, Rajendra became Global Head of Scientific Communications for all platforms at the company. Rajendra is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research and British Association of Cancer Research and has authored over 40 abstracts and publications.
Gera Goverse, PhD

Director of Immuno-Oncology

Trained as an immunologist, Gera has used novel technologies to study the role of different environmental factors on both the local and systemic immune system to suppress their responses in inflammatory disorders and in the field of immuno-oncology.

Since joining the team at Crown Bioscience, Gera has executed the design of many successful immuno-oncology projects to help national and international customers discover the full potential of their compounds.

Gera is motivated by studying the complex mechanisms of the regulation of the immune system, exploring tumor-cell interactions and refining ways to stimulate the immune responses towards the killing of the tumor.
Nataliia Beztsinna, PhD

Associate Director / Head of 3D Ex vivo Patient Tissue Platform
Marrit Putker, PhD

Director In Vitro and R&D

Dr. Marrit Putker (Director in vitro & R&D) received training in molecular cancer biology at Utrecht University, followed by postdoctoral studies at the MRC LMB (Cambridge, UK) and the Hubrecht Institute (Utrecht, NL). Concentrating on tumor stem cell biology and drug sensitivity, she has developed and gained expertise in state-of-the-art organoid technologies while working in the lab of Prof. Dr. Clevers. In 2020, she joined Crown Bioscience to setup and lead the novel research site in Utrecht. From this organoid-research-dedicated laboratory, she now continues to manage Crown’s in vitro R&D activities, driving collaborations with academic and industry partners around the globe.
Marten Hornsveld, PhD

Senior Scientist Oncology

Dr. Marten Hornsveld is a molecular biologist that focuses on understanding and targeting molecular signal transduction in cancer. During his PhD program, he studied the role of PI3K-AKT signaling in breast cancer using a variety of mouse and cell based models. In his postdoctoral research he moved into the organoid technology field and worked on building representative organoid models for pancreatic cancer. This resulted in the establishment of a novel close-to-patient mini-tumor model that can be employed for both basic research and pre-clinical studies. A year ago, he switched gears and started as a senior scientist at Crown Bioscience. Here, he continues to work on building pre-clinical tumor models to facilitate rapid discovery of promising lead compounds in the oncology field.
Saskia de Man, PhD

Scientist

Dr. Saskia De Man performed her PhD research at the University of Amsterdam with Renée van Amerongen. Here, she used advanced imaging and gene editing techniques to study WNT/beta-catenin signaling at endogenous levels. During this time, she was also a Fulbright Scholar and joined the lab of Andres Lebensohn at the National Institutes of health for several months. Since finishing her PhD, Saskia has joined the immuno-oncology department at Crown Bioscience in the Netherlands, where she applies her knowledge in cell biology and advanced microscopy to help clients test their immune modulatory drugs in a relevant 3D in vitro culture system.

Webinars in this Series

Thu Nov 3 at 11:00AM - 12:00PM (ET)
Advanced In Vitro Technologies to Investigate Therapeutic Impact on the Cancer Immunity Cycle

Thursday, November 3, 2022 · 11:00 AM EDT

In this webinar, Dr. Rajendra Kumari and Dr. Gera Goverse will discuss the basics of immuno-oncology and how cancer immunotherapies are studied along each step of the cancer immunity cycle. They will provide an overview of in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro assays available, including both traditional as well as novel assays. They will also describe the importance and applications of several technology platforms including flow cytometry, histology, single cell analysis, cytokine profiling, T cell cytotoxicity, and high content imaging, and highlight relevant examples from the literature that used them.

Key learning objectives:
- What is the cancer immunity cycle? How are the steps of the cycle regulated, and which steps are potential targets for immunotherapeutics?
- Understand the advantages and limitations of 2D, 3D, in vivo, and ex vivo models
- Applications of high-content imaging and why HCI analysis is so valuable for preclinical immuno-oncology research

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Thu Dec 1 at 11:00AM - 12:00PM (ET)
Targeting T Cells Within the Cancer Immunity Cycle

Thursday, December 1, 2022 · 11:00 AM EST

In the second webinar in this series, Dr. Marrit Putker, Dr. Pirouz Daftarian and Dr. Saskia De Man focus on the impact of T cell-directed immunotherapy on the cancer-immunity cycle. Mechanisms and targets capable of modulating and enhancing T cell activity will be presented, including the application of relevant methods such as organoid models and co-cultures, and the integration of High Content Imaging (HCI).

Key learning objectives include:
- Identify the right assays targeting T cell biology with immunotherapeutics at the different steps of the cancer immunity cycle such as T cell activation, migration, infiltration, and tumor killing
- Application of a unique 3D organoid platform with immune cell co-culture for immunotherapy studies and the advantages of autologous systems
- Integration of high content imaging-based screening to evaluate drug responses in 3D assays
- Modeling T cell exhaustion in a more physiologically relevant in vitro human system for the function-based screening of successful immunotherapeutics that delay or reverse this roadblock in antigen-specific T cell activity/proliferation

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Thu Jan 26 at 11:00AM - 12:00PM (ET)
Analyzing the Suppressive TME in in Vitro Based Assays

Thursday, January 26, 2023 · 11:00 AM EST

In the third webinar in this series, Dr Nataliia Beztsinna and Dr. Marten Hornsveld will describe the role of tumor microenvironment (TME) compartments in clinical responses, as well as ex vivo patient-derived tissue technologies capable of maintaining the native TME for pre-clinical testing. Complex in vitro models with the use of human stromal and immune co-cultures will be discussed, together with the advantages of HCI to quantify intact tumor biology.

Key Topics Include:
- Examine the key components of the TME that affect immunotherapy responses
- Discuss the main approaches to analyse the TME composition and the differences between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ solid tumors
- Identify ex vivo assays capable of maintaining native human TME
- Discuss the advantages of high content imaging assay on fresh patient tissue in 3D for deciphering complex immuno-oncology drug responses
- Comparison between in vitro based assays containing native TME or reconstituted TME
- How myeloid cells in the TME affect tumors and methods to study and target this compartment
- Advances in modelling the mesenchymal TME compartment in vitro and constructing pre-clinical mini-tumor platforms

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Thu Mar 2 at 11:00AM - 12:00PM (ET)
What's Next in Preclinical Cancer Immunotherapy Research?

Thursday, March 2, 2023 · 11:00 AM EST

The final webinar in this series will include a panel discussion of key topics in the field of cancer immunotherapy, including new and emerging methods, recent publications, and future directions. The links between preclinical research, in vivo studies, and biomarkers will be explored, as well as the unique advantages of Crown Bioscience and their service offerings.

Key learning objectives:
- How our understanding of the cancer immunity cycle impacts cancer immunotherapy development
- Which new in vitro technologies provide more physiological and translatable drug responses
- Why HCI is providing deeper insights into drug responses
- What novel solutions are on the horizon to overcome the challenges of immunotherapeutic development

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