PICI Members and Partners Featured at #CARTCR

Three Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) member researchers and five of PICI’s partner organizations will be featured at the 8th CAR-TCR Summit, Aug. 29-Sept. 1 in Boston. The forum aims to unite the global cell therapy community across a variety of cell types with a growing focus on conquering solid tumors and indications beyond oncology.

The following PICI members are presenting:

• Zinaida Good, PhD, of Stanford Medicine
• Robbie Majzner, MD, also of Stanford
• Evan Weber, PhD, of Penn Medicine

These representatives from PICI partner organizations will also be present:

• Eytan Abraham, Vice President & Business Head of Emerging Modalities at Resilience
• Damien Hallet, Vice President, Head of CMC at Affini-T Therapeutics
• Leah Sibener, Co-Founder and Vice President, Therapeutic Discovery at 3T Biosciences
• Thomas Tredennick, Associate Director, Clinical Supply Chain at Arsenal Bio
• Sophie Xu, Associate Director, Automation and High Throughput Assay Development, also at Arsenal Bio

Below are details on their sessions. All times are Eastern Daylight Time. Please note that programming is subject to change. For the most current information, see the summit agenda. Follow the meeting live on Twitter using the hashtag #CARTCR.

Wednesday, Aug. 30

Session: Discovering & Testing TCRs for the Next Generation of Cell Therapies
Panel Discussion: De-Risking TCRs to Ensure their Safety
Panelist: Leah Sibener, 3T Biosciences
Time: Noon-12:30 p.m.

• How do we pick the right target?
• How do we identify the right parental TCR?
• How should we best screen for cross-reactivity and alloreactivity?

Session: Enhancing Cell Therapy Persistence & Reducing Exhaustion
Topic: Enforcing Memory-Associated Programs to Enhance CAR-T Cell Persistence & Potency
Presenter: Evan Weber, PhD, Penn Medicine (Twitter: @EvanWeberPhD)
Time: 4-4:30 p.m.

• Overexpressing memory-associated transcription factors to promote a memory-like phenotype, thus increasing persistence
• Enhancing CAR-T cell anti-tumor activity in multiple in vitro and in vivo models
• Providing a universal approach for achieving optimal therapeutic T-cell states for cancer immunotherapies

Session: Interfacing Effectively with Internal & External Stakeholders
Topic: Implementing an Effective Logistics Strategy for Clinical Trial Onboarding
Presenter: Thomas Tredennick, Arsenal Bio
Time: 4-4:30 p.m.

• Managing the interface with CDMOs and clinical sites to ensure supply
• Providing a start-up company perspective on how to supply planning
• Developing systems to manage early clinical logistics

 Thursday, Aug. 31

Session: Exploring CMC Strategy to Ensure Product Safety & Efficacy
Panel Discussion: Developing a Robust CMC Strategy
Panelist: Damien Hallet, Affini-T Therapeutics
Time: 12:30-1 p.m.

• When should we begin to develop a CMC strategy?
• What are the strengths and limitations of quality by design (QbD) and quality risk management (QRM) for cell therapy manufacturing processes?
• How can we develop an effective CMC regulatory compliance strategy to avoid delays in clinical development?

Session: Demonstrating Success Through Use of Preclinical Models
Topic: Determinants of Resistance to CAR-T Cell Therapy in Large B Cell Lymphoma
Presenter: Zinaida Good, PhD, Stanford Medicine (Twitter: @GoodZinaida)
Time: 2:30-3 p.m.

• CAR T cell expansion in blood is linked to toxicity but has weak to no association with response in large B cell lymphoma (LBCL)
• Using mass cytometry, flow cytometry, single-cell sequencing, and functional studies, we identified and validated that prevalence of CAR+ T regulatory (CAR Treg) cells in blood at peak CAR T cell expansion is linked to progression
• A model combining CAR Treg prevalence with baseline lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, as a surrogate for tumor burden, was superior for predicting durable clinical response compared to models relying on each feature alone
• CAR Treg cells originate from pre-existing natural Treg (nTreg) cells

Session: Utilizing High Throughput Methods to Revolutionize Drug Discovery & Development
Topic: Automation at Arsenal: Enabling Massively Parallel Genetic Engineering for Drug Product Development
Presenter: Sophie Xu, Arsenal Bio
Time: 4:30-5 p.m.

• Developing and scaling Arsenal’s automation to enable large scale research experiment for drug development and produce high quality data at an unprecedented scale
• Leveraging Arsenal’s automation capability to explore new compositions in the CAR-T and TCR space

Friday, Sept. 1 

Session: Moving Beyond αβ T-Cells: The Rise of Novel Cell Types
Topic: Congratulations on Your Successful Phase 1, Now What?
Presenter: Eytan Abraham, Resilience
Time: 8:50-9:20 a.m.

• Maturing your program into later-stage with the right manufacturing partner
• Launching your cell therapy in a commercial-ready supply chain network (vertical integration)
• Leveraging the Resilience network to help you progress your program

Session: Leveraging Dual Targeting to Improve Therapeutic Efficacy & Safety
Topic: Novel Engineering Platforms for CAR-T Cell Signaling
Presenter: Robbie Majzner, MD, Stanford Medicine (Twitter: @Majzner_Lab)
Time: 11-11:30 a.m.

• Studying T-cell signaling networks reveals CAR biology
• Coopting proximal signaling molecules enables unique CAR-T cell engineering
• Developing logic-gated CAR-T cell platforms