Gaining critical characterization insights for development of CAR-T therapies for solid tumors

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

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Gaining critical characterization insights for development of CAR-T therapies for solid tumors

Few would disagree that solid tumours currently present both the greatest challenge and the most significant opportunity to the T cell immunotherapy field. The scientific obstacles are far from trivial, but recent improvements to the enabling technology toolbox and promising autologous and allogeneic approaches entering the clinic suggest that the breakthrough may not be too far away.

Against this backdrop, CGTI assembled a stellar panel to participate in a free-to-view Roundtable this month. Watch Dr Sadik Kassim (Executive Director, Kite Pharma, A Gilead Company), Tamara J. Laskowski, PhD, (Senior Research Scientist – Immunotherapy, Allison Group Department of Immunology, MD Anderson Cancer Center), Dr Janani Krishnamurthy (Senior Scientist, Atara Biotherapeutics) and John O’Rourke (Head Of Product Development, Cell Analytics, Sartorius) as they explore some of the key strategic and technical questions facing academia, pharma/biotech and the enabling tool provider community alike.

Watch this free On Demand webinar today to find out:

What the future holds in terms of T cell transduction methods
What is the state of the art in terms of in vitro screening assays and how they are helping both the CAR selection process, and our understanding of the tumour microenvironment (TME)
What’s available – and what is missing – in terms of in vivo modelling tools, both for Cytokine Release Syndrome and of the TME
How we can develop more relevant predictive assays to ensure that suboptimal product candidates fail fast
Whether autologous or allogeneic cellular immunotherapy platforms are most likely to prevail in the solid tumour area.

Experts from two of the foremost cell & gene therapy biotechs seeking to drive this transition, plus a leading academic and analytics tool provider, assemble to discuss progress to date and next steps in this vital endeavor.

Dr Sadik Kassim, Executive Director, Kite Pharma, A Gilead Company
With a CV boasting the likes of Johnson & Johnson, the NIH, Novartis and Mustang Bio, Dr Sadik Kassim brings a wealth of experience and expertise spanning rare diseases, AAV-based gene therapy, immunotherapy, oncology, CAR-T cell therapies and CMC to his new role at Kite Pharma.
Tamara J. Laskowski, PhD, Senior Research Scientist – Immunotherapy, Allison Group Department of Immunology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Having originally joined Dr. Laurence J.N. Cooper’s laboratory as a fellow, where her work focused on engineering stem cells with the goal of generating off-the-shelf NK and T-cell immunotherapies for targeting solid tumor malignancies, Dr Tamara Laskowski recently transitioned to Dr. James Allison’s Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center. In her new role Dr. Laskowski’s work primarily involves immune-monitoring of patients undergoing clinical trials in Immunotherapy and development of novel immunoassays.
Dr Janani Krishnamurthy, Senior Scientist, Atara Biotherapeutics
An expert in the fields of immunology, adoptive immunotherapy and neuroimmunology, Dr Janani Krishnamurthy enjoyed stints at MD Anderson, bluebird bio and TCR2 Therapeutics before taking on her current role leading EBV+ve CAR T cell pre-clinical initiatives for targeting solid tumours at Atara Biotherapeutics.
John O’Rourke, Head of Product Development, Cell Analytics, Intellicyt, A Sartorius Company
John O’Rourke completed his PhD in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University where he studied cancer biology and gene regulation. During his postdoctoral training at Nationwide’s Children’s Research Institute and the University of New Mexico, he continued his studies in cancer biology along with the development of viral and nanoparticle-based therapeutics. John O’Rourke completed his MBA at the Andersen School of Management at the University of New Mexico and joined IntelliCyt in 2017.

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Tamara Laskowski

Scientific Project Director at MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dr. Tamara J. Laskowski received her doctorate degree in Human Molecular Genetics and Immunology from University of Texas Health Science Center where her work focused on genome editing of patient-derived stem cells to correct genetic mutations causative of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, an immunodeficiency disorder that results in severe impairments to the immune system. Subsequently, Tamara joined Dr. Laurence J.N. Cooper’s laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center as a fellow. Her work focused on engineering stem cells with the goal of generating off-the-shelf NK and T-cell immunotherapies for targeting solid tumor malignancies. Though Tamara remains as a collaborator in the Cooper laboratory, her work has led her to transition to Dr. James Allison’s Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson. In her new role as Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Laskowski’s work primarily involves immune-monitoring of patients undergoing clinical trials in Immunotherapy and development of novel immunoassays. Dr. Laskowski also shares an interest in technology innovation, and has developed multi-plex assays for testing therapies against solid tumors. In 2017, this work led to an invitation to participate in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps, an exclusive program through which she was trained to develop strategies for expanding the economic and societal benefits of innovative ideas which have commercialization potential. She was the sole recipient of an award for outstanding performance upon completion of the program. In addition to her research work, Dr. Laskowski participates in several educational programs at MD Anderson. She is a lecturer at MD Anderson’s School of Health Professions and also serves as a scientific communications coach teaching students and fellows how to effectively communicate science and medicine with scientific and lay audiences.

John O’Rourke

Head of Product Development, Cell Analytics, Intellicyt at Sartorius

John O’Rourke completed his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University where he studied cancer biology and gene regulation. During his postdoctoral training at Nationwide’s Children’s Research Institute and the University of New Mexico, he continued his studies in cancer biology along with the development of viral and nanoparticle-based therapeutics. Mr O’Rourke completed his MBA at the Andersen School of Management at the University of New Mexico and joined IntelliCyt in 2017.

Janani Krishnamurthy

CAR-T Pre-clinical lead at Atara Biotherapeutics Inc

Dr. Krishnamurthy, a pharmacist by training, graduated with a Ph.D. in the field of translational immunology from UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas. As part of her PhD project, she successfully developed a novel CAR T therapy targeting an ancient retrovirus to treat melanoma and breast cancer, which was patented and acquired by Ziopharm. Her biotech industry experiences include leading the assessment of potential CAR T to treat solid tumors, establishing R&D platforms at Bluebird Bio; Product development, process development, strategizing company’s portfolio and IND filing for phase1 clinical trial at TCR2 Therapeutics. Currently she is leading the development of allogenic off-the-shelf CAR T cell therapy to treat solid tumors at AtaraBio Therapeutics.