Despite tremendous advances made by the field, a significant number of cancer patients still fail to receive benefit from state-of-the art cancer immunotherapies. Overcoming this clinical gap will require fresh perspectives focused not only on the effector T cell but the network of interactions between adaptive, innate, stromal, and tumor cells that evolve over time and across anatomical sites to govern disease progression and response to therapy.  This conference will provide a platform to explore the interplay between developing tumors and the resident and circulating immune landscape, examining how interactions within the tumor micro- and macro- environments shape systemic immune surveillance. Emphasis will be placed on a holistic, systems-level approach to dissecting, perturbing, and treating the cancer ecosystem with spatial and temporal resolution. 

Key Sessions

• Tumor immune co-evolution and early disease interception
• The interplay between local and systemic immune responses 
• Influence of the micro and macroenvironments
• Quantitative modelling of anti-tumor immune dynamics
• Resolving and perturbing tumor-immune networks in situ

Target Audience

This meeting is targeted at bringing together investigators working to deconvolve the evolution of tumor immune surveillance over time with consideration for the impact of anatomical location (local and systemic responses), disease progression, and the macroenvironment. Our conference invites an interdisciplinary audience interested in dissecting, modelling, and predicting tumor immune responses over time.

Educational Need

This conference is designed to go ‘back to basics’ to help redefine the rules that govern immunity to cancer, showcase new tools to dissect and perturb immunological networks in cancer, and provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration that will ultimately drive the development of the next generation of cancer immunotherapeutics. 

Impact

The goal of the meeting is to tackle and redefine existing dogma based on the newest data, perspectives, and tools. By bringing diverse researchers together this meeting will provide a fresh perspective on the future of cancer immunology and immunotherapy.

Confirmed Plenary Speaker

Brian Brown (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT EVOLUTION THROUGH SPACE AND TIME
Sue Kaech (Allen Institute for Immunology)
GOOD FAT HAS GOOD EFFECTS ON TUMOR GROWTH

Confirmed Invited Speakers

Elham Azizi (Columbia University)
MACHINE LEARNING FOR DECODING TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT DYNAMICS
Gabriele Bergers (KU Leuven)
BOOSTING IMMUNE RESPONSES IN CANCER: A VASCULAR PERSPECTIVE
Jennifer Guerriero (Harvard University)
FROM COMPLEXITY TO THERAPY: TARGETING TUMOR-PROMOTING MACROPHAGES IN SOLID TUMORS
Matteo Iannacone (San Raffaele Scientific Institute)
THE TISSUE LOGIC OF IMMUNE SURVEILLANCE – LESSONS FROM THE LIVER
Kai Kessenbrock (Irvine Medical School)
FROM RISK TO PROGRESSION: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE MYELOID CELLS IN BREAST CANCER
Devon Lawson (Irvine Medical School)
NATURAL KILLER (NK) CELLS IN BREAST CANCER BRAIN METASTASIS
Enrico Lugli (Humanitas)
METABOLIC CONTROL OF T-CELL FUNCTION IN TUMORS
Anna Obenauf (IMP Vienna)
UNLOCKING IMMUNITY: DECODING AND REPROGRAMMING THE IMMUNE-EVASIVE TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT
James Reading (University College London)
TRACKING AND TARGETING PREINVASIVE PULMONARY TREGS ACROSS TIME AND TISSUE FOR LUNG CANCER INTERCEPTION
Alison Ringel (MIT)
NUTRIENT LIMITATION REPROGRAMS CYTOKINE PRODUCTION IN EFFECTOR T CELLS
Colinda Scheele (KU Leuven)
CLONAL COOPERATION DRIVES LYMPH NODE METASTASIS
Johannes Textor (Radboud University)
IN SILICO TRIALS WITH COHORT-LEVEL TWINNING
John Tsang (Yale University)
DO DIFFERENCES MAKE A DIFFERENCE: HUMAN IMMUNE SETPOINTS IN TISSUES AND IMMUNOTHERAPY RESPONSES 
Peter Westcott (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF IMMUNE SELECTION DURING COLORECTAL CANCER EVOLUTION
Ting Zhou (Westlake University)
RESCUING DENDRITIC CELL INTERSTITIAL MOTILITY SUSTAINS ANTITUMOR IMMUNITY CYCLE