The Translational Cancer Immunotherapy Retreat is an interactive, one-day event, designated to foster collaboration and share ongoing cancer immunotherapy related research. Invited speakers include St. Jude trainees who will share their cancer immunotherapy focused projects, St. Jude faculty who will present updates on state of cancer immunotherapy and ongoing clinical trials at St. Jude as well as a keynote presenter Jian Xu, PhD, Department of Pathology. Key challenges and future directions of the program will be discussed to generate engagement and collaboration.
Hosts
Organized by the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and the Department of Immunology.
Agenda
Session I
Chair: Elizabeth Wickman, PhD
| Time | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00-8:30 am | Breakfast | |
| 8:30-8:45 am | Welcome and Update on Cell Therapy at St. Jude | Stephen Gottschalk, MD |
| 8:45-9:00 am | Single-cell functional genomics to map antitumor immunity | Peipei Zhou, PhD (Chi Lab) |
| 9:00-9:15 am | GPR65 inactivation in tumor cells drives antigen-independent CAR-T resistance via VEGF-mediated macrophage remodeling | Jayadev Mavuluri, PhD (Geiger Lab) |
| 9:15-9:30 am | Regnase-1 deletion improves B7-H3-CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors | Adeleye Adeshakin, PhD (Gottschalk Lab) |
| 9:30-9:45 am | Investigating the impact of epigenetic modification on the anti-tumor efficacy of CAR T cells against Group 3 medulloblastomas | Meghan Dukes, PhD (Krenciute Lab) |
| 9:45-10:00 am | Clinical Update | Chris DeRenzo, MD, MBA |
| 10:00-10:15 am | Break and poster setup | |
Session II: Keynote Speaker
Chair: Hongbo Chi, PhD
| Time | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 10:15-11:00 am | Decoding the pathogenic non-coding genome in blood cancers | Jian Xu, PhD |
| 11:00-11:30 am | Panel Discussion: Immunotherapy Initiatives at St. Jude | Moderator: Stephen Gottschalk Panel: Hongbo Chi, Julie Park, Paul Thomas, Stephen Gottschalk |
| 11:30 am- 12:45 pm | Lunch and poster viewing | |
Session III
Chair: Jaquelyn Zoine, PhD
| Time | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 12:45-1:05 pm | Featured: Update on St. Jude Clinical Research Administration | Elizabeth Fox, MD, MS (Clinical Trials Administration) |
| 1:05-1:20 pm | Chemokine receptor mediated homing of CAR T cells | Lindsay Talbot, MD |
| 1:20-1:35 pm | Learning the rules of endogenous antitumor immune responses | Ricky Tirtakusuma, PhD (Thomas Lab) |
| 1:35-1:50 pm | Go with the flow: monitoring clinical trials | Deanna Langfitt, PhD (BMTCT Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core) |
| 1:50-2:05 pm | B7-H3 CAR T cells for pediatric solid tumors: 3CAR clinical update | Rebecca Epperly, MD |
| 2:05-2:20 pm | Break | |
Session IV
Chair: Meghan Dukes, PhD
| Time | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2:20-2:40 pm | Featured: Tackling the often-forgotten foe in cancer immunotherapy and the Department of Host-Microbe Interactions | Victor Torres, PhD (Host Microbe Interactions) |
| 2:40-2:55 pm | (CETi2) Taking immunoinformatics into the future | Jeremy Chase Crawford, PhD, Immunology, CeTI2 (footnote: Center for Translational Immunology and Immunotherapy) |
| 2:55-3:10 pm | DAMP-mediated T cell dysfunction in AML | Grace Ward, PhD (Youngblood and Zebley labs) |
| 3:10-3:25 pm | Clinical update: CAR T cell therapy for AML | Swati Naik, MBBS |
| 3:25-3:40 pm | Break | |
Session V
Chair: Sarah Moore
| Time | Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 3:40-3:55 pm | Alternative signaling underlies CD7 negative T cell biology and CAR effector function | Chris Nevitt, PhD (Velasquez Lab) |
| 3:55-4:10 pm | The Pore forming protein Gasdermin E antagonizes tumor cell recovery from apoptosis and consequent mutagenesis | Beiyun Liu, PhD (Green Lab) |
| 4:10-4:25 pm | BMTCT’s Immune Monitoring Core: What do we do? | Jean-Yves Metais, PhD (Immune Monitoring Core-Molecular) |
| 4:25-4:40 pm | Clinical Update | Aimee Talleur, MD |
| 4:40-4:50 pm | Wrap-up | Paulina Velasquez, MD; Giedre Krenciute, PhD; Paul Thomas, PhD |
| 4:50-6:00 pm | Poster viewing and Happy Hour | |
| 6:00-8:00 pm | Dinner | |