Conference Day One
Tuesday 30th January, 2024
8:00 am Conference Registration & Morning Coffee
Reimagining Allogeneic Therapies to Mitigate Immune Response & Alloreactivity
8:50 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
9:00 am Industry Leaders’ Fireside Chat: Highlights & Hurdles from the Past Year
Synopsis
• A panel discussion with the C-level leaders who are innovating in the allogeneic cell
therapy field
• Highlighting and celebrating the big wins for allogeneic therapies in the last year
• Considering the challenges facing allogeneic research and the strategy required to
overcome them
9:30 am Exploring the Use of Genome Editing, Cell Armouring, & Other Approaches to Mitigate Immunogenicity
Synopsis
• Utilising CRISPR technologies to reduce immunogenicity of allogeneic CAR-T therapies
• Combatting T-cell exhaustion to create a sustained and hyper-active antitumoural
therapy
• Assessing shielding technologies to protect allogeneic cells from immune surveillance
10:00 am Considering Stealth Approaches for Allogeneic Therapies to Avoid Immune System Detection
Synopsis
• Exploring use of siRNA, shRNA, and microRNA to silence immunogenic signalling in
allogeneic T-cells
• Understanding the benefits awarded to patients by optimising
• Potency vs stealth: evaluating prioritisation of therapy characteristic dependent on
disease type and severity
10:30 am Speed Networking & Morning Refreshments
Predicting Responders & Building Better Banks: Innovations in Donor Selection & Patient Stratification
11:30 am Developing & Validating Biomarkers to Optimise Donor Selection & Patient Stratification
Synopsis
• Identifying and validating biomarkers to predict donor cell potency and persistence
• Stratifying patients based on predictive biomarkers of therapy response and
immunogenicity
• Investigating the biological differences between patient and disease types
12:00 pm Engineering Gamma Delta T cells to Supercharge Cytotoxic Function, Persistence, and Safety
Synopsis
- Leucid Bio's γδ [T2] Cell Platform: Enhances γδ T cell fitness through optimized serum-free cultivation of Vγ9/Vδ2+ T cells using TGF-β1 and IL-2
- Enhanced γδ [T2] Cell Efficacy: Cancer cell sensitization using amino bisphosphonates or Ara-C further enhances the efficacy of γδ [T2] cells
- Advanced performance through IL-18 armouring: Integrating IL-18 into a tailored pCAR significantly boosts cytotoxic function and persistence of γδ [T2] cells
- Enhanced potency against aggressive tumors: IL-18 armorimg and NKG2D ligand-targeted adaptor CAR empowers γδ [T2] cells against aggressive against solid tumours
12:30 pm Lunch Refreshments & Networking
Improving Persistence Without Compromising Safety: Novel Approaches to Improve Allogeneic Durability
1:30 pm Comparing Knockout Vs Modulation Approaches to Prevent T- & NK-Cell Targeting of Allogeneic Cells
Synopsis
• Reviewing benefits and risks of permanent knockout vs transient modulation of immune
response
• Strategising how to balance preventing host rejection while maintaining necessary cell
functions
• Assessing engineering strategies that offer optimal control over immune evasion timing
and degree
2:00 pm Harnessing Invariant NKT Cells as a Novel Therapeutic Platform for Blood Cancers
Synopsis
• Evaluating the superior anti-tumour potency of engineered iNKT cells vs T-cells against
B-cell lymphoma
• Developing iNKT cell immunotherapies targeting novel antigens beyond CD19 for
multiple myeloma
• Assessing opportunities and challenges in clinically translating engineered iNKT cell
therapies
2:30 pm Afternoon Refreshments & Poster Session
3:30 pm Leveraging Omics Approaches to Identify and Select Highly Potent NK Cell Products
Synopsis
- Uncovering the source of heterogeneity in NK cells using transcriptomics and proteomics approaches
- Identifying the biological differences of superior effectors, to produce more effective therapies
- Applying signatures of superior donors to product development, with the future goal of identifying them as early as the stem cell stage
4:00 pm Safety Data & Clinical Applications of ProTcell: A Novel, Thymus-Powered T-Cell Therapy Platform
Synopsis
- Overview of preclinical safety profile of ProTcells (SMART101) in mice models
- Evaluating diverse clinical applications enabled by rapid in-thymus maturation of ProTcells
- Highlighting ongoing research developing ProTcells engineered with smart CAR-T cell constructs