Webinar: The Importance of Immune Profiling in CAR-T Therapies
The precision of the immune system, allows for a targeted approach to killing cancer cells, whilst sparing healthy cells. This has led to the development of various immunotherapies, where knowledge of the immune system is exploited for clinical purposes. Successful use of immunotherapies to combat cancer is expanding rapidly, with an increasing number of therapies approved for clinical use.
One key area has been the use of gene-modified cell therapies, with the introduction of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells leading the field. The CAR construct is designed to interact with a specific surface epitope or antigen present on the tumor cell, which once in close proximity, enables the immune cell to kill the tumor cell.
Despite progress, obstacles remain around the technical difficulties of phenotyping, profiling and purifying immune cells, together with observed differences in patient responsiveness to therapy.
Research is now progressing to explore the introduction of CAR constructs into alternative immune cells, for example CAR-macrophages or CAR-NK, and to investigate gene modified cells which target solid tumors.
This webinar explores the power of flow cytometry in this growing research area.
The webinar includes:
- An overview of the importance of profiling immune cells, during development of advanced cell therapies
- Details on how to generate more biologically-relevant data, through measurements of phenotypes and functions
- Discussion on what the future holds for CAR research
Tiffany Hood
Doctoral Candidate
University College London (UCL)
Tiffany Hood is currently in the final year of her PhD in Qasim Rafiq’s Cell and Gene Therapy Bioprocessing research group at University College London (UCL). Her research is focused on how to develop a more automated and reproducible manufacturing process for CAR-T therapies using technologies, such as stirred tank bioreactors. Prior to UCL, Tiffany worked for MilliporeSigma in the R&D cell therapy bioprocessing group. Tiffany earned her undergraduate degree in Biological Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Nicola Bevan
Manager of Cell Imaging Applications
Sartorius
Nicola Bevan is a Manager of a Cell Imaging Applications Group, working within the European based BioAnalytics research team, where she is involved in the research and development of novel kinetic applications for the iQue® Advanced Flow Cytometry Platform and for Incucyte® Live-Cell Analysis Systems, expanding their capabilities. She is a highly experienced cellular pharmacologist with more than 25 years’ experience. She has worked within the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries, where she has gained broad experiences in a large pharmaceutical industrial screening department (GSK), and has supported early drug discovery programs.
