Emerging Cellular Therapies at the Forefront of Cancer Immunotherapy (A4)
January 29-February 2, 2023 | Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, AB, Canada
Francesco M. Marincola, Lisa H. Butterfield, David F. Stroncek and Marcela V. Maus
Scholarship Deadline: Nov. 1, 2022 | Abstract Deadline: Nov. 1, 2022 | Early Registration Deadline: Nov. 30, 2022
* Session Chair † Invited but not yet accepted | Program current as of August 23, 2025 4 AM | For the most up-to-date details, visit https://www.keystonesymposia.org
Sunday, January 29, 2023
4:00–8:00 PM Arrival and Registration Van Horne Foyer
6:00–8:00 PM Welcome Mixer Van Horne Foyer
Monday, January 30, 2023
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast Van Horne B/C
8:00–9:00 AM Welcome and Keynote Address Van Horne A
  * Marcela V. Maus, Harvard Medical School
Session Chair		  
  Crystal L. Mackall, Stanford University
CAR T Cells for Solid Tumors		  
9:00–11:30 AM Successes and Challenges of Cancer Immunotherapies in the Clinic Van Horne A
  * Marcela V. Maus, Harvard Medical School
Session Chair		  
  Nirali N. Shah, NCI, National Institutes of Health
CAR T Cells 		 
  Rayne H. Rouce, Baylor College of Medicine
Native T Cells for ACT		  
  Marcela V. Maus, Harvard Medical School
Novel CAR T Targets		  
  Aude G. Chapuis, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
T-Cell Therapy using Engineered TCRs		  
9:30–9:50 AM Coffee Break Van Horne Foyer
11:30–1:00 PM Poster Setup Van Horne B/C
11:30–5:00 PM On Own for Lunch
1:00–10:00 PM Poster Viewing Van Horne B/C
2:30–4:30 PM Workshop 1: Manufacturing Cell Therapies Van Horne A
  * David F. Stroncek, National Institutes of Health
Session Chair		  
  Michael Traxlmayr, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, CD Laboratory for Next Generation CAR T Cells
Enhancing Tumor Specificity of EGFR-targeting Therapies		  
  Ely Porter, RootPath
Fully Synthetic TIL Enriched for Tumor Reactivity by Computational Prediction and High-Throughput TCR Synthesis		  
  Nickolas Serniuck, McMaster University
Generating a Universal T-Cell Therapy Using Covalent Immune Recruiters		  
  Lukas Egli, University of Zurich
Head-to-head Comparison of CD19 Directed Human CAR T and CAR NK Cells across CD28 and 4-1BB CAR Constructs		  
  Andrew Frisch, University of Pittsburgh
Improving Persistence and Efficacy of Cellular Therapies for Cancer through Glycolytic Reprogramming		  
  John B. Haanen, Netherlands Cancer Institute
In Depth Analyses of TIL Infusion Products and Correlations with Outcome of the Randomised Controlled Phase 3 Trial Comparing TIL to Anti-CTLA-4 in Advanced Melanoma		  
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available Van Horne Foyer
5:00–7:00 PM T-Cell Factors Affecting the Potency of Cancer Immunotherapies Van Horne A
  * Marco Davila, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Session Chair		  
  * Marco Davila, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Mechanisms of Resistance to CAR T Cells in Hematologic Malignancies		  
  Dalia Haydar, Children's National Hospital
Evaluating the Impact of CAR Design on the Tumor Immune Microenvironment and Anti-tumor Response in Syngeneic Glioma Model		  
  Zachary Steinhart, Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology
Genome-wide CRISPR Activation and Interference Screens Discover Key Drivers of Primary Human T Cell Function		  
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Lite Bites Van Horne B/C
7:30–10:00 PM Poster Session 1 Van Horne B/C
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast Van Horne B/C
8:00–11:00 AM Conditional Reprogramming of CAR T-Cells Van Horne A
  * Lei (Stanley) Qi, Stanford University
Session Chair		  
  Francesco M. Marincola, Kite Pharma
Synthetic Biology Approaches to Increase Specificity and Versatility		  
  Daniel J. Powell †, University of Pennsylvania
Inducible Programming of CAR T cell Function and Intrinsic Properties for Cancer Immunotherapy		  
  Robbie G. Majzner, Stanford University School of Medicine
Coopting T Cell Signaling Networks for Enhanced CAR T Cell Specificity and Efficacy		  
  Leo Scheller, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Short Talk: Short Talk: Controlling T-cell Signaling with Engineered Caffeine-induced Nanobodies		  
  Paul-Joseph P. Aspuria, Synthekine
Short Talk: Short Talk: Engineered Human IL-2/IL-2Rb Orthogonal Pairs Selectively Enhance Anti-GPC3 CAR T Cells to Drive Complete Responses in Solid Epithelial Tumor Models		  
  Satoru Aoyama, Tokyo Medical and Dental University
Short Talk: Short Talk: Novel Protease-mediated Double Antigen Recognizing Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) Enhances the Directionality of CAR-T cell Activity and Improves Target Cell Specificity		  
  Yama A Abassi, Agilent
Short Talk: Short Talk: Real-Time Assessment of Engineered Immune Cell Potency, Persistence and Migration from Discovery to Process Development and Manufacturing		  
9:00–9:20 AM Coffee Break Van Horne Foyer
11:00–1:00 PM Poster Setup Van Horne B/C
11:00–5:00 PM On Own for Lunch
1:00–10:00 PM Poster Viewing Van Horne B/C
2:30–4:30 PM Workshop 2: Equipment and Regents for Cell Therapy Problem Solving Van Horne A
  * David F. Stroncek, National Institutes of Health
Session Chair		  
  Juliane Mietz, University of Zurich
A Novel Autologous Tumor Model for the Study of Cellular Immunotherapy using Humanized Mice		  
  Brendan Galvin, Arsenal Biosciences
CRISPR/Cas9-based Integration of a Large and Modular Cassette into a Safe Harbor Site to Improve CAR T Cell Therapy Efficacy and Safety		  
  Samir Patel, Nexcelom from Perkin Elmer
High-throughput Method to Analyze the Cytotoxicity of CAR T Cells in a 3D Tumor Spheroid Model using Image Cytometry		  
  Garrett R. Rettig, Integrated DNA Technologies
Large Knock-in in Primary T Cells with Optimized Cas9 HDR Methods and Design		  
  Jasdeep Mann, Notch Therapeutics Inc
MAD7-based Gene Editing Platform for Rapid and Efficient iPSC Engineering		  
  Reka Geczy, Precision NanoSystems
Multi-Step Engineering of Gene-Edited CAR T Cells Using a Novel RNA Lipid Nanoparticle Reagent		  
  Lucas E. B. de Souza, University of Sao Paulo
Optimized Virus-free Manufacturing of Allogeneic CAR T Cells via CAR Targeting to the TRAC Locus using CRISPR/Cas9		  
  Robin Loesch, Horizon Discovery Ltd. Perkin Elmer Group
Pin-pointTM Technology: A Versatile Base Editing Solution for the Generation of Cell Therapies		  
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available Van Horne Foyer
5:00–7:00 PM Improving Expansion and Persistence Adoptive T-Cell Therapies Van Horne A
  * Justin Eyquem, University of California, San Francisco
Session Chair		  
  Justin Eyquem, University of California, San Francisco
Modification of CAR Signaling Domain		  
  Sine Reker Hadrup, Technical University of Denmark
Tracking and Characterizing Antigen-Specific T cells in Cancer Immunotherapy		  
  Yvonne Y. Chen, University of California, Los Angeles
Engineering Next-Generation CAR-T Cell Therapy for Cancer		  
  Nayan Jain, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Short Talk: Short Talk: Disruption of H3K9me3-mediated Gene Silencing Improves CAR T Cell Function		  
  Gengwen Tian, Baylor College of Medicine
Short Talk: Short Talk: Harnessing CRISPR/Cas9 Mutagenesis Screening for Rational Design of Next-generation CAR-NKT Therapy against Neuroblastoma		  
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Lite Bites Van Horne B/C
7:30–10:00 PM Poster Session 2 Van Horne B/C
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast Van Horne B/C
8:00–11:00 AM Cell Trafficking and Modulating the Tumor Microenvironment Van Horne A
  * Stephen Gottschalk, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Session Chair		  
  Caetano Reis e Sousa, Francis Crick Institute
Dead Cell Recognition in Immunity to Cancer		  
  Andreas Lundqvist, Karolinska Institutet
Regulation of NK Cell Activity is Solid Tumors		  
  Stephen Gottschalk, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Two Cell Therapy Vignettes: Synapse Tuning and Targeting the ECM		  
  Christopher A. Klebanoff, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Targeting Solid Malignancies With Patient-Derived ‘Public' Neoantigen TCRs		  
  Stephen P. Schoenberger, La Jolla Institute for Immunology
Evaluating the Therapeutic Potential of Natural Neoantigen-specific CD4+ T Cells		  
9:00–9:20 AM Coffee Break Van Horne Foyer
11:00–1:00 PM Poster Setup Van Horne B/C
11:00–5:00 PM On Own for Lunch
1:00–10:00 PM Poster Viewing Van Horne B/C
3:00–4:30 PM Career Roundtable Van Horne B/C
  Lei (Stanley) Qi, Stanford University
Associate Professor		  
  Erin Nevius, BMS
Senior Principal Scientist		  
  Steve Mao, Cancer Cell
Editor-in-Chief		  
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available Van Horne Foyer
5:00–7:00 PM Engineering Improved T-Cells Van Horne A
  * Kole T. Roybal, University of California, San Francisco
Session Chair		  
  Kole T. Roybal, University of California, San Francisco
Towards the Development of Synthetic Immunity to Cancer		  
  Wilson Wong, Boston University
Engineering CAR Circuits		  
  Lei (Stanley) Qi, Stanford University
Valency-controlled Receptor for Inducible CAR T Control and Multiplexed T Cell Engineering		  
  Jeroen W. van Heijst, Neogene Therapeutics
Short Talk: Short Talk: Engineering TCR-edited T Cells with Enhanced Antigen Reactivity to Target Solid Cancers Expressing the TP53 R175H Driver Mutation		  
  Greg Allen, University of California San Francisco
Short Talk: Short Talk: Synthetic Cytokine Circuits Drive Targeted Infiltration and Proliferation of T Cells in Immune Excluded Tumors		  
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Lite Bites Van Horne B/C
7:30–10:00 PM Poster Session 3 Van Horne B/C
Thursday, February 2, 2023
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast Van Horne B/C
8:00–11:00 AM Novel Targets and the Role of Endogenous Antigen Presentation Van Horne A
  * Lisa H. Butterfield, University of California San Francisco
Session Chair		  
  Catherine J. Wu, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
T-Cell Therapy using Neoantigen Reactive TCRs		  
  Lisa H. Butterfield, University of California San Francisco
Critical Aspects of DC Metabolism		  
  Michael Klichinsky, Carisma Therapeutics
CAR Macrophages for Solid Tumor Immunotherapy		  
  Angela Zhang, MIT
Universal Redirection of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells against Solid Tumors via Tumor Cell Membrane-inserting CAR Ligands		  
  Katherine Audsley, Telethon Kids Institute
Short Talk: Short Talk: Identifying Novel Therapeutic Targets to Improve Adoptive Cell Therapy using a Model of Flt3L-mediated Tumor Suppression		  
9:00–9:20 AM Coffee Break Van Horne Foyer
11:00–5:00 PM On Own for Lunch
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available Van Horne Foyer
5:00–6:45 PM Allogeneic Immunotherapies Van Horne A
  * David F. Stroncek, National Institutes of Health
Session Chair		  
  Barbra Sasu, Allogene Therapeutics
Engineering Allogeneic CAR T Cells to Avoid GvHD and to Prevent Immune Rejection		  
  George Coukos, University Hospital of Lausanne - CHUV
Orthogonal Cytokine Engineering Drive Synthetic T Cell Effector States		  
  David F. Stroncek, National Institutes of Health
Optimizing Engineered T Cell Manufacturing		  
  Liam R Campion, Century Therapeutics
Short Talk: Short Talk: Preclinical Characterization of CNTY-101, an Allogeneic iPSC-derived NK Product Candidate for the Treatment of B Cell Malignancies		  
6:45–7:00 PM Meeting Wrap-Up and Future Directions (Organizers) Van Horne A
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Lite Bites Van Horne B/C
8:00–9:00 PM Cash Bar Van Horne B/C
Friday, February 3, 2023
8:00–8:00 AM Departure