Pre-Conference Immune-Disease Focus Day
TUESDAY, JUNE 29 | 8.55 - 16.00 EDT
8:55 am Chairperson’s Opening Remarks
9:00 am Panel Discussion – What do we need to know about the interaction between the microbiome and the immune system?
9.30am Speed Networking Session
Exploring the Microbiome’s Links to Inflammatory Bowel Disease
10:00 am Optimizing Pre-Clinical Models of Intestinal Inflammation to Better Translate Results of Microbiota Manipulation to Clinical Trials
Synopsis
• There are a broad range of preclinical models, each of which have advantages and disadvantages to guide their usefulness for a particular application. None completely replicates all features of IBD
• Replicating results in 2 or more models, at least one of which is a chronic immune-mediated, with treatment as well as prevention protocols have the best chance to predict clinical outcomes
• Animal models are best used to test proof of concepts and explore mechanisms of action
10:30 am Moving Towards Live Biotherapeutics for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Synopsis
• Discuss discovery pipeline for live biotherapeutics
• Review early stage live biotherapeutic therapies
• Highlight live biotherapeutic therapies in early stage trials
11:00 am Immunomodulation by the Human Enteric Virome
Synopsis
• Bacteria are the headliners of microbiome research, leaving the role of eukaryotic or prokaryotic viruses (collectively, the virome) that also inhabit asymptomatic humans, and fluctuate in disease including IBD, as largely undefined
• How and which constituents of the resident virome contribute to host immune state or how changes in virus composition impacts inflammation is almost completely unknown
• We demonstrate that the human enteric virome is functionally divergent and autonomously drives disease phenotypes. Harnessing the virome may be beneficial in IBD and other diseases
11.30am Networking Lunch
The Microbiome & Immuno-Oncology
12:30 pm The Gut Microbiota “Ecosystem on a Leash” Affects Immune Cell Dynamics in Humans
1:00 pm Overcoming Resistance to Anti-PD-1 Therapy Through Microbiome Modulation
Synopsis
• Microbiome modulation using responder-derived FMT overcomes primary resistance to anti-PD-1 therapy
• R-FMT results in rapid and durable perturbations in gut microbiota of recipients
• Responders to R-FMT have reduction in intra-tumoral myeloid cells and evidence of adaptive immunity and memory response peripherally
1:30 pm Mechanisms of Colonic Biofilm-Associated Tumorigenesis
Synopsis
• A subset of colonic biofilms from patients are tumorigenic in mouse models of colon cancer
• IL-17 responses are critical for biofilm-associated tumor induction
• Metabolites may play a role in biofilm-associated tumor induction as well
2:00 pm Going Bold on Cancer Immunotherapy and the Gut Microbiome
Synopsis
• Understanding the latest research looking at the microbiome and cancer immunotherapy
• The gut microbiome & cancer immunotherapy at PICI
• Collaborative work with MD Anderson on cancer immunotherapy, the gut microbiome and host factors
2:30 pm Single Pipeline Re-Analysis Revises Microbiome Associations With Anti-Tumor Response to Checkpoint Inhibitors
Synopsis
• Re-analysis of raw sequencing data through a single high-dimentional pipeline identified novel signals
• Microbial signals associated with non-response showed the strongest correlations
• An integrated index of the novel signals was tested in 3 additional cohorts and validated in two tumour types