By Zaid Taha (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute) and Hyojin Song (University of Calgary), HQP Working Group members
Another successful Summit for Cancer Immunotherapy (Summit4CI) was taken in Ottawa, Ontario (so-called “la Capitale du Canada”) this year! The 4-day summit was filled with intriguing and insightful talks given by great speakers from diverse fields along with active discussion and networking between the attendees!
To help organize HQP-focused activities, and to ensure a diverse pool of insight and expertise, the HQP working group is set up each year. This year’s HQP Working Group was headed by Sarah Ivanco, Manager of Training, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at BioCanRx. Members included Emily Carter (Graduate Student, Dalhousie University), Lauren Daniel (Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Sherbrooke), Charu Sankaran (Graduate Student, BC Cancer Research Institute), Alex Shepherd (PhD candidate, National Research Council of Canada), Hyojin Song (Postdoctoral Associate, University of Calgary), and Zaid Taha (PhD candidate, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute).
Plenaries
At this year’s Summit4CI, we had a very exciting lineup of speakers spanning a breadth of topics related to cancer immunotherapy. The talks themselves were incredible, and brought a diversity of high-impact and highly-relevant research to us trainees. What was also thrilling was having a platform to ask questions to these speakers, and either listening in or contributing to the discussions that followed. As always, the Summit plenaries are very engaging!
The first plenary session focused on “Extracellular Vesicles – An Emerging Nanoplatform for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapeutics”, chaired by Dr. Carolina Ilkow (OHRI) and Dr. Sheela Abraham (Queen’s University). This theme was a very well-timed follow-up to the opening scientific keynote speaker, Dr. Peiter Cullis, who spoke on his history in establishing lipid nanoparticle technology, which would come to be the same technology utilized in gene therapies and mRNA vaccine (think COVID19 vaccine!) delivery.
Chaired by Dr. Laura Evgin and Dr. Robert Holt (both from BC Cancer), the 2nd Plenary Session covered “Novel Targets and Immunotherapy Approaches”. This session introduced up-to-date immunotherapeutic approaches involving (1) oncolytic viruses, (2) siglecs (i.e., sugar-binding receptors), and (3) neoepitope-specific T cell responses and a novel CAR-T target in melanoma. As HQPs, we enjoyed hearing their insightful findings which envision prospective directions of the current immunotherapeutic approaches!
This 3rd plenary session focused on “RNA Strategies and Lipid Nanoparticles for Cancer Immunotherapies” and was chaired by Dr. John Bell (OHRI) and Dr. Christine Allen (UofT). During this session, we learned about how this technology can be effectively used to deliver therapeutic payloads, including cytokines, neoantigen vaccines, and even special types of thermally-activated drugs.
The 4th Plenary Session entitled “Clinical Application of Immune Cell-based Therapies” chaired by Dr. Natasha Kekre (OHRI) and Dr. Simon Turcotte (CHUM) included clinical trial cases with favourable responses which involved different therapeutic approaches. Apart from the clinical actionability of newer approaches to immune cell-based therapies, this session suggested other viewpoints on considering the economic side of bringing these therapies to real-world patients and also showed how the first move of the “Canadian-Led Immunotherapies in Cancer (CLIC)” clinical trial can be successfully established and develop to overcome some challenges!
The 5th Plenary Session chaired by Dr. Conor Douglas (York Univ) and Dr. Christine Williams (OICR) embraced “International and Alternative Models for Access to Immunotherapies, and Prospects for the Canadian Healthcare System”. Throughout this session, we had a better understanding of different infrastructures and clinical trial models established in the EU (i.e., Spain and the Netherlands), the US, and Canada to bring immunotherapies to patients! Besides, it was very worthwhile to directly hear from one of the directors of Health Canada where his talk covered an overview of programs and procedures that we should be noted of, especially when we work in the translational research field.
The 7th and final plenary session focused on “Non-traditional and emerging cell therapies” and was chaired by Dr. Michele Ardolino (OHRI) and Dr. Douglas Mahoney (University of Calgary). In this session, we learned about how specialized bacteria can be used as forms of cancer immunotherapy, the use of CAR NK cells, and some types of stem cell therapy.
HQP Development Day
HQP Development Day, hosted before the conference even opened, was full of excitement and excellent presentations that are key to our career development as HQP.
Publication of our exciting scientific findings would be one of the fruitful achievements that probably every HQP is eager to do! To successfully manage this goal, we began the HQP Development Day with the Keynote Address given by Dr. Luca Danelli (Senior Editor, Cancer Team, Nature Communications). Dr. Danelli shared his career journey to his current position, followed by some advantages and challenges of being an editor and how to prepare a successful manuscript for acceptance to a journal.
Next, we had a great opportunity to hear from both Dr Bruno Lemire (GSK Canada) and Louise Binder (Save your Skin Foundation, on behalf of Merck). As the majority of our HQPs work in academic fields, it was a nice heads-up session for us to learn about opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry field and kind career advice. Additionally, as we work in the translational research field, this session pointed out we should also be aware of keeping patient-related data safe after clinical trial studies and should not overlook data “de-identification” without losing valuable information.
It was nice to see that almost every HQP attended this session, really emphasizing the importance of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) to trainees. At this panel discussion, the HQP audience engaged with our panelists: Sarah Ivanco (Manager of Training and EDI at BioCanRx), Karine Morin (NSERC Director and EDI expert), and Gillian Carleton (PhD student, EDIA advocate, and Olympic medalist!). With the diverse background of these panelists, us HQP had great extensive discussions and learned much about navigating EDIA in improving lab culture.
As always, the HQP breakout sessions offered a variety of very exciting workshops for us to attend. At every one of these breakout sessions there were length engaging discussions between speakers and trainees, which led to exciting conversations after these sessions.
First, there was the “Improving Research with the Patient Perspective”. This session was led by a group of speakers: Dr. Scott McComb (NRC), Dr. Risini Weeratna (NRC), Meredith Conboy (OHRI), Madison Foster (OHRI), and Owen Snider (patient partner). This session focused on helping HQP understand when, where, and how to involve patients and patient advocates in preclinical research. HQP also learned about how to manage expectations and goals for involving patients, as well as gaining a better understanding of how our work affects the people who receive the treatments.
There was also the “Research in the Era of AI” session, led by Dr. Arvind Mer (uOttawa/OHRI). This session focused on helping HQP understand the safe and ethical use of AI in biomedical research and developing an understanding for the limitations of AI. Dr. Mer also provided a brief demonstration to show trainees the extent with which AI tools can be accessed, beginner-friendly, and entry-level applications to augment day-to-day work.
Dr. Laura Evgin (BC Cancer) led the session on “Developing Soft Skills for Effective Collaboration”. Here, Dr. Evgin highlighted important keys to understanding the context of collaborative work in the scientific field. She also touched on how to deal with situations wisely when you (or your group) have different perspectives, and emphasized the importance of having tangible communication to resolve the difficulties. She also discussed how to persuade others with scientific supporting details.
The fourth workshop was titled “Navigating Academia and Industry”, led by Glenn Lesko (Pender & Howe Executive Search) This session focused on providing graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and research associates valuable insights and guidance on the transition between academia and industry while exploring the similarities and differences between these two career paths. This session resonated profoundly with many HQP who were at these crossroads and led to great discussions.
Meet-the-Experts
As with prior Summits, we had the opportunity to have lunch while chatting and networking with different experts. There was a very diverse range of experts who attended, spanning both industry, academia, and government, and also included experts from different career levels. These experts were seated at different tables and HQP would cycle between, allowing for quick meet-and-greet style discussions. Most HQP came loaded with questions, especially for Experts that had the chance to present during the plenary sessions, or those that led the Breakout Sessions during HQP Development Day. Many HQP used this opportunity to introduce themselves and reached out to specific experts for longer discussions after the Meet the Experts lunch.
Keynotes
The opening keynote session came right after HQP Development Day, and I remember sitting together with a group of eager trainees, ready to start the conference. The opening plenary was chaired by Dr. John Bell (BioCanRx Scientific Director) and Dr. Stephanie Michaud (BioCanRx President). After a few words to initiate the conference, we received a heartwarming, spiritual, and a very emotional blessing from Claudette Commanda, who is an Algonquin Elder, Knowledge Keeper, and uOttawa Chancellor. This set the tone for the night: hopefulness. We were also introduced to the members of the Learning Institute, as the patient scholars went up on stage and told us very briefly their individual stories and their reasons for attending the conference. Again, more hope, more optimism. We next heard from Camille Leahy, who spoke on the patient perspective. Camille’s talk was very emotional and again drew on the very essence of “hope”, as we learned about the remarkable success CAR T-cell therapy had for her. At this point the majority of the audience and HQP were in tears, lots of hopeful and optimistic tears, as all of our work and our efforts were refocused to what is really important: making a difference. Dr. Pieter Cullis (UBC) spoke as the scientific keynote of the night and discussed how he and his team established the technology that later became the delivery vehicle for the COVID19 mRNA vaccines. He discusses the ups and downs of his journey, and emphasized that eventually, hard work pays off and makes a real difference. Hearing this message from someone whose innovation changed the course of a pandemic and impacts the globe…it really drove that feeling of hope. You would really feel the excitement, the hunger for learning, and the passion, in the entire audience, and especially the HQP at the end of the night.
For the very last session of the Summit4CI 2023, we were honoured to hear a talk on “Lymphocytes as a Living Drug for the Treatment for Cancer” from Dr. Steven Rosenberg (Center for Cancer Research, NCI, US) who is one of the pioneers in cancer immunotherapy! Dr. Rosenberg spoke about the background of adoptive cell therapy (ACT) and how this approach can mediate durable regressions in patients with metastatic solid epithelial cancers such as cholangiocarcinoma, cervical cancer, colon cancer, and pancreatic cancer) that are refractory to other treatment strategies. Additionally, Dr. Rosenberg’s talk emphasized the significance of investigating T cell populations which drive to anti-tumour immunity.
Subsequently, Ms. Melinda Bachini (Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation) shared her positive, heart-touching experience of receiving the TIL therapy to overcome the dreadful rare cancer as a 14-year survivor of stage 4 cholangiocarcinoma. (She mentioned that she was the first participant in Dr. Rosenberg and his team’s gastrointestinal tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (GI TIL) trial.) She also talked about her current actions to support others with the same cancer to find a better cure and improve the quality of life for them. As we, HQPs, working in the cancer immunotherapy-related research field, her talk inspired us to not only ignite our scientific motivation but also feel proud that our work can contribute to finding hope and enlightening in someone’s life as we all work in immunotherapy-related fields!
Debate
One of the most exciting plenary sessions at the BioCanRx Summit4CI has always been the Oxford-style debate, which was the 6th plenary here. This debate was moderated by Dr. Mathieu Crupi and Dr. Jennifer Quizi (OHRI, Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Center (BMC)). Dr. Aled Edwards (UofT) debated back and forth with Beverley Moore (BLG Intellectual Property Litigation Group) on whether or not intellectual property helps or hinders innovation and therapies for Canadian patients. While the debaters had great spirit and put on a very entertaining show, as is customary for these annual debates, both experts touched on very interesting and thought-provoking points on this extremely relevant matter.
Networking
As HQP, one of the most important things for us is to network. As always, I met many new people at this summit, including new investigators, new HQP, and new collaborators! It is also a great opportunity to see some old friends who have gone on to different labs or taken different career paths. The Summit really is a great gathering of all things cancer immunotherapy, and brings together lots of very bright people, making for a very exciting forum for knowledge-exchange. Whether it was during the social events organized, during the HQP development day, during the extravagant Fairmont meals, or during the engaging and bustling poster sessions, this Summit was more than just a conference. The Summit is a great opportunity to expand our network of peers that will help us navigate our future academic or industrial career paths. The vendor booths that were set up also led to locking down some great contact points at companies we all work with on a day-to-day basis.
