Harnessing the power of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes for cell therapy

Sponsor

Join us as we explore the use of adoptive cell transfer therapy for the treatment of refractive metastatic melanoma.

The immune system is a formidable adversary. This complex network of cells serves as the gatekeeper of the human body, defending it against infection and maintaining a record of every germ that has dared to permeate its boundaries. Understanding its innate power, researchers began looking at ways to treat cancer patients by using leukocytes taken from their own tumors.

While this medical breakthrough has resulted in several effective immuno-oncology applications, many challenges persist in using effector cells for immunotherapy. Join Dr. Sandy Pelletier as she discusses her Montreal-based team’s approach to overcoming these obstacles, including their progress in successfully isolating rare cells from solid tumors with the purpose of using these cells for tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) adoptive cell transfer therapy. Pelletier will highlight her team's work using the MACSQuant® Tyto® Cell Sorter—a GMP-compliant flow cytometry-based cell sorting platform—to isolate endogenous TILs expressing a tumor-reactive marker prior to ex vivo expansion.

As an attendee, you will learn:

How to choose your cell sorter instrument, cell surface markers for sorting, and flow cytometry antibodies when working with TILs
How to prepare your cell suspension from a solid tissue for use in adoptive cell therapies
How to optimize your cell sorting purity and efficiency for cell therapy applications

Dr Sandy Pelletier

Scientific Coordinator, Adoptive Cell Transfer (ACT) Immunotherapy Program, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM)

Dr Sandy Pelletier is the Scientific Coordinator of the Adoptive Cell Transfer (ACT) Immunotherapy Program at the Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM) since 2016. She works under the supervision of Drs Simon Turcotte and Réjean Lapointe to develop new clinical trials focussing on tumor infiltrating lymphocyte ACT to treat metastatic cancers. She has been instrumental in the establishment of cGMP manufacturing of these cell products. Prior to this Dr Pelletier was a research associate in Dr Turcotte’s laboratory specializing in translational tumor immunology. She obtained her PhD in Immunology in 2013 and her MSc in Biomedical Sciences in 2007 both from the Université de Montréal.

Felix Eppler, PhD

Group Leader, Cell Sorting Product Management, Miltenyi Biotec

Felix is currently leading the global product management team for the MACSQuant Tyto Cell Sorting platform. Before joining Miltenyi Biotec as Global Product Manager for the MACSQuant® Tyto® Cell Sorting System in 2018, Felix worked as a research associate at the LIMES Institute, University of Bonn, Germany, with a strong focus on Molecular Immunology and Cell Biology. He obtained his PhD in Molecular Biomedicine from the University in Bonn in 2017.

Niloufar Monhasery

Global Product Manager, Miltenyi Biotec

Niloufar Monhasery received her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2016. She continued her studies in cancer research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto and then at the University Hospital of Cologne, before joining Miltenyi Biotec as a Global Product Manager for T Cell Immunology.

Watch now

SPEAKERS

Dr Sandy Pelletier

Scientific Coordinator, Adoptive Cell Transfer (ACT) Immunotherapy Program, Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM)