IsoPlexis Roundtable/Literature Review - 1

EXPERT PANEL DISCUSSION

Leaps in Innovation in Cancer Immunology
Moderator: Julianna LeMieux, PhD1
Participants: James R. Heath, PhD,2 Naval Daver, MD,3
Taha Merghoub, PhD,4 and Lisa Butterfield, PhD5,6
1

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN), New Rochelle, NY.
The Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA.
3
Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX.
4
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.
5
Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, San Francisco, CA.
6
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
2

Introduction
In this roundtable, four leading cancer immunology
researchers have come together to discuss challenges
in cancer therapy development. Understanding the
complexities and interactions within the tumor microenvironment is critical in the development of effective and persistent therapies. We thank Lisa
Butterfield, PhD, Naval Daver, MD, James Heath,
PhD, and Taha Merghoub, PhD, for their keen insights
and participation.
This discussion details recent progress made in
cancer immunology, as well as future innovations.
Cancer treatments look drastically different today
than they did 20 years ago. It is now apparent that
no two cancers are alike, and as a result, personalized medicine is gaining increased importance. The
ability to harness the immune system is powerful
in combating tumors. However, to create effective
and potent therapies, it is imperative to measure cell
function. Without understanding how individual cells
perform at the proteomic level, time will be wasted
in creating treatments that prove ineffective, and it
will hamper identifying therapies that will cause
toxicity.
With the availability of single-cell functional proteomics, we now have unprecedented amounts of data
that provide insight into tumor-immune interactions.
For example, single-cell functional proteomics can
measure the functional phenotype of each cell and
identify the specific cytokines each cell secretes.
Single-cell functional proteomics is revealing the

ª 2020 by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

functional drivers of immune response and is an essential solution in every immunologist's toolkit. This
technology can be used to analyze virtually any type of
immune cell, from monocytes, T cells, and TILs to
chimeric antigen receptor-T, NK cells, circulating T
cells, and more. With these next-generation technologies, the rate of discovery in the cancer immunology
space is increasing rapidly.
In the fascinating discussion that follows, our four
experts offered their perspectives on a multitude of
topics including: the limitations of the current standard methods for evaluating the mechanisms related
to persistence, suppression, and resistance within
tumor-immune interactions; necessary biomarkers
to better define the biological drivers of antitumor
response; antigen escape; the role of cell heterogeneity in patient relapse; and the development of
cancer immunotherapies to address current challenges. Lastly, the researchers offered a glimpse at the
impressive strides over the past two decades inside
(and outside) the field of immunotherapy.
After this roundtable, you will find a literature review featuring several important peer-reviewed studies in cancer immunology where IsoPlexis' technology
has helped researchers accelerate their research.
From predicting immune persistence in two solid tumor cases to measuring phosphoproteins to identify
mechanisms of treatment resistance to predict patient
response, the flexible IsoPlexis platform is able to
provide information researchers need to accelerate
their programs.

IsoPlexis Roundtable/Literature Review

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IsoPlexis Roundtable/Literature Review