Evolving the role of gene editing in cell therapy

Tuesday 08:00 PDT / 11:00 EDT / 16:00 BST / 17:00 CEST

Sponsor

Evolving the role of gene editing in cell therapy

Cell therapy is a rapidly evolving field and while there has been some success for delivering novel treatments for liquid tumors, novel approaches are required for overcoming the challenges of cell therapy treatments for solid tumors. One such approach is utilizing gene editing on the underlying primary cell line and improving its persistence, proliferation as well as its ability to survive in the toxic tumor microenvironment.

Attendees will learn about:

Scientific rationale for utilizing gene editing in cell therapy
The various gene editing technology options available (CRISPR / Base or Prime Editors / ZFNs / TALENs, etc.)
Therapeutic approach; Autologous vs Allogeneic
Gene editing workflow considerations (equipment, sample tracking, biobanking, etc.)

Jonathan Frampton

Horizon Discovery at Horizon Discovery

Dr. Jonathan Frampton is a business development professional who has been working for Horizon Discovery for the past 9 years and currently as their Corporate Development Partner. He is always scouting for exciting novel technology that could complement Horizon’s already extensive gene engineering toolkit. In addition to this he works closely with Horizon’s partners to manage out-licensing opportunities.

Tristan Thwaites

Lead Technical Scientist at Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult

Tristan is a Lead Technical Scientist at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGTC). He has been working in the field of gene editing for >7 years, including researching TALENs and CRISPR across a range of targets. At CGTC he leads the Cellular Engineering program, which is looking to employ gene editing modalities like CRISPR/Cas9 to address industry barriers in advanced therapy manufacture. Prior to joining CGTC, he was head of the High-throughput Gene Editing facility at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Tristan is a Cell Biologist by training and has obtained his PhD Degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at Imperial College London in 2013. His education and research paths span several areas including host-pathogen interaction, stem cell differentiation and disease modelling, gene editing and viral vector analytics.

Torsten Meissner

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Stem Cell & Regenerative Biology at Harvard Medical School

Torsten Meissner obtained his PhD in biology at Free University, Berlin and moved on to do postdoctoral research in immunology and stem cell research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Torsten is currently an Instructor in the Department of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, a Harvard Medical School affiliated research hospital. His research combines genome, cell, and tissue engineering with the overall goal to take down the immune barrier to transplantation. Torsten is currently developing methods to generate immune-silent, living blood vessels from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) that can be used for disease modeling and vascular reconstruction.