After an introduction from Professor Tim Elliott highlighting how far OCION has come since it was launched 2 years ago, we embarked on the 'Next Generation Therapies' session chaired by Associate Professor Eileen Parkes. Professor Ellie Barnes presented cancer vaccine platforms whilst Professor Paul Klenerman discussed anti-tumour impacts of antiviral responses. The session concluded with Professor Ronjon Chakraverty showing how the bone marrow microenvironment can impact CAR-T cell function and a flash talk by Dr Mariolina Salio on work Immunocore and undertaking developing an EPCR-reactive γδTCR as bispecific T-cell engager.
After coffee Professor Audrey Gérard chaired the 'Inflammation and Immunometabolism' session, with fantastic talks from Associate Professor Calli Dendrou, Professor Kim Midwood and Dr Pablo Céspedes Donoso. Their talks spanned longitudinal single cell analysis of anti-TNF therapy in IBD, the link between interferons and eosinophil deactivation in breast cancer, and ex vivo models for studying human adaptive immunity. Flash talks from Dr Maksim Chan and Dr Adrien Hallou covered interferon exhaustion and tools for spatial mechano-transcriptomics respectively.
Over lunch attendees discussed the varied posters, chatted with our exhibitors and patient representatives. Congratulations to our poster prize winner Matthew Jackson and runner up Paul Tarlatt.
This year, we challenged the audience's understanding of patient and public engagement. Led by Dr Catriona Gilmour-Hamilton, an audience quiz guided a well-received panel discussion. A big thanks to our panel Hazel Beaver, Bep Dhaliwal, Sally Jeans, Carol Green and Julliet Lwindi.
Professor David Withers chaired the 'Tumour Microenvironment' session, with the first talk from Dr James Bundred discussing the importance of lymph node yield in colorectal cancer. Dr Matthew Bottomley was up using spatial profiling to better understand skin cancer in high-risk groups.
Next up, Professor Ester Hammond presented the role of hypoxia in repressing MHC-I and antigen presentation. This was followed by flash talks from Dr Eleni Adamopoulou and Gusztav Milotay presenting on multi-omic approaches to identifying tumour antigens, and the role of MAIT cells in predicting risk of checkpoint inhibitor dermatitis in melanoma.
Last but not least was the keynote presentation by Professor Alfred Zippelius based on understanding the mechanisms and clinical strategies surrounding therapy resistance. His talk focussed on three main areas: targeting T cells, deciphering NK cell dysfunction and rationalising combination therapies.
OCION's Founding Director Professor Tim Elliott said:
It was fantastic to be able to showcase and witness the breadth and depth of the immuno-oncology research happening across Oxford. A huge thank you to all of our presenters, patient representatives, funders (CRUK Oxford Centre, 10X Genomics, Immunocore, Immunotherapy Advances and Nanopore Technologies), chairs, the operations team and attendees who made the Symposium such a successful event. I look forward to seeing how the network develops over the coming months and years!
If you are a member of the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals Trust and would like to join OCION mailing list to hear more about future events and funding calls, and/or have any feedback, then please email elizabeth.mann@medsci.ox.ac.uk. Our annual Pump Prime Funding scheme is now open (deadline 12th September) - visit the OCION website to find out if you are eligible and how to apply.