Translational Immuno-oncology – TIO

Topics

• Antibodies and antibody-like constructs that bind tumor cells or the tumor vasculature/microenvironment, to either directly modulate tumor cell biology (e.g., receptor agonists or antagonists), activate direct anti-tumor immune effector functions (complement, ADCC, phagocytosis), or antibody delivered cytotoxic payloads (e.g., drugs, toxins, radionuclides, liposomes or nanoparticles).
• Antibody-based constructs and other strategies to deliver immune stimulatory signals or to block immune suppressive receptors and cytokines, in order to promote endogenous anti-tumor immunity.
• Tumor vaccines of all types (protein/peptide, viral, DNA/RNA, dendritic cell, tumor cell) and formulations to induce or amplify tumor-specific immunity.
• Predictive biomarkers of an individual patient’s or tumor’s clinical response to immunotherapies.
• Oncolytic viruses that incorporate immunomodulatory transgenes to modulate tumor immunity and increase efficacy as well as reduce systemic side effects.
• Immune checkpoint inhibitors including biologics and small molecule drugs for well-known immune checkpoints such as PD1/PD-L1, CTLA-4, OX40 as well as other emerging immune checkpoints.
• Data mining and computational approaches for new target discovery, novel technologies for studying cancer immunobiology

Shared Interests and Overlaps

There are shared interests with Molecular Cancer Diagnosis and Combination (MCDC) in monitoring the clinical response. Applications that focus on the general area of cancer biomarkers in early diagnosis and in response to non-immunologic therapy of cancers may be reviewed in MCDC. Applications that focus on the predictive biomarkers of patients’ clinical response to immunotherapies may be reviewed in TIO.

There are shared interests with Cellular Immunotherapy of Cancer (CIC) in antibodies engineering such as single chain Fc for cancer therapy. Applications that focus on engineering the antibody for generating CAR-T cells and evaluation of their antitumor effects may be reviewed in CIC. Applications that focus on using the engineered antibody as standalone or combined with other therapeutics may be reviewed in TIO.

There are shared interests with Therapeutic Immune Regulation (TIR) in developing non-cellular immunotherapeutics for cancer treatment. Applications that focus on understanding the mechanism of tumor resistance to the immunotherapeutics or developing methods and models of immune response to cancer may be reviewed in TIR. Applications that focus on developing therapeutics including antibody, virus-based agents, vaccines and small molecule immune checkpoint inhibitors and evaluation of their antitumor immune responses may be reviewed in TIO.

There are shared interests with Gene and Drug Delivery Systems (GDD) in the areas of therapeutic delivery strategies and methods. Applications that focus more on the design and delivery of novel vehicles, vectors, or payloads may be reviewed in GDD. Applications that focus on cancer immunotherapy using delivery vehicles such as antibody, nanoparticles, vesicles may be reviewed in TIO.

There are shared interests with Cancer Prevention Study Section (CPSS) in the areas of tumor vaccines and immune-stimulatory natural products. Applications that focus on vaccines or immune-modulating natural products that are primarily applied to prevent emergence of tumors or premalignant lesions may be reviewed in CPSS. Applications that focus on vaccines and natural products intended as immunotherapeutic interventions (after development of disease) may be reviewed in TIO.

There are shared interests in the areas of neural and brain tumors with Clinical Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumors (CNBT). Applications that emphasize the immunopathology and immunotherapy of CNS tumors (glioma, medulloblastoma, etc.) with the focus on non-cellular therapeutics are reviewed in TIO. Applications that emphasize the immunopathology and immunotherapy of CNS tumors (glioma, medulloblastoma, etc.) are reviewed in CNBT. 

There are shared interests in the areas of oncolytic virotherapy and chemoimmunotherapy with Advancing Therapeutics (ATA). Applications that focus on the immunological aspects of virotherapy are reviewed in TIO. Applications that are more focused on the non-immunological aspects such as gene therapy are reviewed in ATA.