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7:30 am

Morning Coffee

8:30 am Chair’s Opening Remarks

Navigating Regulatory & Ethical Guidelines, Compliance & Patient Tissue Accessibility

8:40 am Access To Patient-Derived Cancer Models: Data, Services And Collaboration.

  • Enzo Medico Professor, research Infrastructure Coordinator, EuroPDX

Synopsis

  • How to search for specific patient-derived cancer models (PDCMs): current PDCM data repositories
  • Outline of available PDCM-related services provided by European Research
  • Infrastructures for academic and industrial research
  • Discussing the potential benefits of collaboration with academics for advanced research on PDCMs

9:10 am Humanised Models for Pre-Clinical Antibody Development

Synopsis

  • Immunodeficient mice for immune system engraftment
  • Genetic modifications for humanised antibody targets
  • Bi-specific antibody development

9:40 am Gamma Delta T-Cell Therapy: Development of ICT01, A First-In- Class, Anti-BTN3A Antibody For Activating Vγ9Vδ2 T Cell–Mediated Antitumor Immune Response

  • Aude de Gassart Head of Preclinical Model Development, ImCheck Therapeutics

Synopsis

  • Preclinical models for the development of monoclonal antibody targeting BTN3A, a membrane receptor with no ortholog in mice
  • Biomarker package to support Phase 1 clinical studies with a first-in-class therapeutic activating Vg9Vd2 T cell–mediated antitumor immune response
  •  How biomarkers allow to define the best combination strategies

10:10 am Best Study Conduct and Data Management Practices for Improving Animal Study Reproducibility

Synopsis

  • Overcoming the challenges of in vivo research of generating results with a high level
    of integrity, detail, and reproducibility on a consistent basis
  • How to critically examine, improve, and standardize processes for
    animal study conduct
  • Understanding the factors contributing to poor data quality and irreproducible
    study results and implement effective “best practices” for data integrity, study
    conduct, and scientific rigor
  • Reviewing practical approaches, and study workflow software approaches to make
    animal studies more reproducible

10:40 am

Morning Break & Networking

11:00 am Identification of Target Candidates for Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Immunotherapy

Synopsis

  • Miltenyi Biotec has combined high-throughput flow cytometry with a novel highcontent
    cyclic immunofluorescence instument “MACSima” for the early identification
    of target candidates for cellular immunotherapy
  • Learn how MICS technology enables you to visualise hundreds of markers from fixed
    tissue to lift your sample analysis to the next level
  • Get insights on our recent scientific findings and related cutting-edge tools,
    ranging from the preparation of primary and xenografted tumor specimens to the
    comprehensive antigen screening and deep phenotyping

Immuno-Involvement? How Do We Turn The Tide On Tumours

11:30 am T-Cell Therapy: How to Model a Trispecific T-cell Engager For MM: Lessons from ISB

  • Adam Drake Senior Director In Vivo Pharmacology, Ichnos Sciences

Synopsis

  • Discussing the efficacy, safety of T-cell engagers
  • Assessing the benefits and restrictions of collecting data in vivo vs in vitro for a T-cell engager
  • Overviewing the translational relevance of various datasets

12:00 pm MC38: Exploring Immunomodulation in the Tumour Model We Love to Hate

  • Sheri Barnes Associate Director, Scientific Development, Labcorp

Synopsis

  • MC38 is a very popular tumor model due to its characteristics as an immunologically warm tumor and response to immunotherapies.
  • Using the MC38 murine model of colon cancer, NanoString® and flow cytometry were used to provide gene and cell-specific signatures of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in response to immunomodulatory agents.
  • NanoString® and flow analyses were complementary and demonstrated evidence of T cell recruitment and upregulation of genes associated with a number of immune-related pathways following treatment of some, but not all, agents tested.  These data can be used mechanistically as well as to inform rational combination strategies.

12:15 pm

Networking Lunch

1:15 pm Fireside Chat: Organ-on-a-Chip in IO – Where Are We Today?

Synopsis

  • The potential of creating an autologous environment, conversely limitations of
    personalisation using organ-on-a-chip
  • Can we replicate/recapitulate the TME?
  • Understanding the complexity of layering of specific cell lines and components

1:45 pm Searching for Tumor Models can be Tedious – How to Cut Your Sourcing Time from Weeks to Minutes

Synopsis

  • Leverage the Disease Model Finder’s bioinformatic tools to search for and
    compare tumor models across industry-leading suppliers at no cost
  • Connect with suppliers you already work with and, perhaps more importantly,
    suppliers you haven’t worked with yet
  • Source the exact models you want without delay thanks to Scientist.com’s preestablished
    supplier legal and finance agreements

2:00 pm 3D Tumour Modelling of Non-Canonical T Cell Immunotherapy

Synopsis

Credible modelling of innate lymphocyte immunotherapy in animals has been
a bottleneck affecting clinical translation of novel products. As scientific and
regulatory emphasis moves away from murine models, ex vivo organoid models
present an exciting path forward:

  • Types of preclinical evaluation which organoids have been shown to be
    reproducible in: Efficacy, replicability, toxicology, immune interaction?
  • Can organoids and Tumouroid mimic the human immune system?
  • Is it worth the hype/investment?
  • Depicting a standardised protocol which can increase reproducibility

2:30 pm Precise and translational preclinical models for assessment of immune-targeting agents

Synopsis

  • Outlining BRGSF-HIS mice: immunodeficient mice displaying functional human lymphoid and myeloid compartments, without side effects
  • Assessing efficacy and toxicity induced by immune checkpoint inhibitors, cell engagers and combo therapies in BRGSF-HIS mice, which displays a wide therapeutic window
  • Showcase of assessment of immune targeting agents in syngeneic humanized models

3:00 pm Panel Discussion: How to Predict Your Immuno-Modulation & Immuno-Stimulatory Response?

  • Fernando Estrada Lecturer in Innate Immunology, University of Surrey
  • Aude de Gassart Head of Preclinical Model Development, ImCheck Therapeutics
  • Adam Drake Senior Director In Vivo Pharmacology, Ichnos Sciences
  • Anita Seshire Head of Laboratory in Exploratory Cancer Research , Merck Healthcare

Synopsis

The potential of using IO, combinational or cell therapy to dial up another biologic to aid in the anti-tumour response. Could this be the next phase of development for immuno-oncology and what are the potential limitations of this approach? This panel will discuss:

  • Methods of stimulating/dialling up a biologic
  • Understanding of the differences between alternate types of biologics: Cytokine, Macrophage, NK cell
  • What are the benefits of utilising these biologics instead of an ADC/cell-therapy?
  • Sharing examples of effective and less effective biologic stimulation
  • Drawbacks of specific biologics
  • Understanding if this improve the clinical success?

3:30 pm Combination Approach: Using Chicken Egg In vivo assay for High-Value Identification of Oncology and Immuno-Oncology drugs Candidates

Synopsis

  • How to use INOVOTION’s technology to open new perspectives of in vivo screening in oncology and immuno-oncolog
  • Why does the chicken embryo model have several advantages for drug discovery of anti-cancer treatments over traditional in vivo models?
  • The chicken embryo model fills the gap between in vitro studies and in vivo mouse models, but is it possible to predict mouse data from chicken embryo results?

4:00 pm

Afternoon Refreshments & Networking

Next Gen Preclinical Models to Maximise Clinical Success

4:30 pm Optimising clinical therapeutic window using modelling and simulation, validating with nonclinical translational models and utility in an ongoing clinical study

Synopsis

  • An example of a cross-functional collaboration between clinical and non-clinical functions enabling dose and schedule optimisation for clinical testing
  • Illustrates the importance of translational understanding in light of increasing probability of successful drug development
  • Highly relevant considering recent regulatory moves towards optimisation of clinical dose and schedule.

5:00 pm Application of a Bone Marrow Microphysiological System to Quantify Haematological Risk for Oncology Drug Combination

Synopsis

  • Leveraging the use of microphysiological systems (MPS) to generate safety data
    for drug development
  • Assessing the capability of MPS to improve clinical relevance over more
    traditional 2D cell culture and animal models.

5:30 pm Understanding Gene Signatures if Macrophage Activation to Access Immunological Memory

Synopsis

  • Bone marrow and spleen monocytes represent the main source of Tissue Macrophages in infection and malignancy
  • Monocyte derived macrophage activation programmes are plastic and single biomarkers are not adequate to characterise their activation
  • Gene signatures enable to understand the activation history of cells and point tophenotypic mosaicism in complex milieus such as tumours

6:00 pm Chair’s Closing Remarks & End of Summit