With the recent successes of immunotherapies, a fresh breeze of optimism in the fight against cancer has reinvigorated the industry. Perhaps the greatest legacy will be the pivot from targeting individual molecular liabilities of diseased cells to ‘tuning’ cellular networks back into homeostatic harmony.
Targeting and eliminating pathogenic cells is not good enough on its own to consistently achieve long-term survival. For example, immune cells that can eliminate tumors must persist in hostile, immunosuppressive microenvironments throughout tumor elimination and be capable of renewing protective surveillance. With the emergence of quantitative, live-cell analysis platforms researchers can make the necessary sensitive, time-resolved measurements to monitor the temporal components of an ever evolving cellular network.
This talk will showcase purpose-built applications that enable real-time measures of immune cell function, fate and fitness. This tool bench provides the capability to measure, engineer and control immune cell function, thus enabling translational researchers and developers to achieve the necessary level of therapeutic potency and safety.