T Cells: From Basic Biology to Therapeutic Applications (J2)
January 11-14, 2027  | Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, AB, Canada
Andrea Schietinger, Daniel Campbell and Ansuman Satpathy
Scholarship Deadline: Sep. 16, 2026 | Abstract Deadline: Dec. 22, 2026 | Early Registration Deadline: Nov. 13, 2026
* Session Chair † Invited but not yet accepted | Program current as of October 25, 2026 2 PM | For the most up-to-date details, visit https://www.keystonesymposia.org
Monday, January 11, 2027
4:00–8:00 PM Registration Van Horne Foyer
6:00–8:00 PM Welcome Mixer Van Horne Foyer
Tuesday, January 12, 2027
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast President's Hall
8:00–8:10 AM Welcome Remarks (Joint) Van Horne A/B
8:10–9:00 AM Keynote Address (Joint) Van Horne A/B
  Catherine J Wu, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Personalizing Medicine through Cancer Vaccines		  
9:00–11:00 AM T Cells and Innate Allies: Partners in Vaccination (Joint) Van Horne A/B
  Robert A. Seder, NIAID, National Institutes of Health
Vax-Innate		  
  Peter C DeMuth, Elicio Therapeutics
Targeting mKRAS Immunotherapy to the Lymph Nodes to Promote Anti-Tumor Immunity		  
  Gloryn Chia, National University of Singapore
Short Talk: Targeting an NK Cell Checkpoint to Overcome Immune Escape in MHC I Deficient Tumours		  
  Cameron Manes †, University of Colorado Anschutz
Short Talk: CD138+ B Cells Promote CD8 T Cell Responses to Vaccine Via IL-27		  
9:30–9:50 AM Coffee Break Van Horne Foyer
9:50–9:55 AM Award Recipient Acknowledgement Van Horne A/B
11:00–11:05 AM Jessica Langer, Helmsley Trust Introduction Van Horne A/B
11:00–1:00 PM Poster Setup Van Horne C
11:00–2:30 PM On Own for Lunch
1:00–10:00 PM Poster Viewing Van Horne C
2:30–4:30 PM Symposia Spotlight 1: T Cell Function and Differentiation: Connecting the Epigenome, Metabolome and Proteome Van Horne A
  Omar B Abousaway †, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Short Talk: CAR T Cell Mediated Depletion of cDC1s as a Potential Therapy for Autoimmunity and Graft Vs Host Disease		  
  Kaitlyn Pirogovsky, Saint Louis University
Short Talk: Transcriptomic Conservation Defines Autoimmune Stem-Like T Cells and Uncovers Their Dependence on Apex1		  
  Joshua Briggs †, University of Manchester
Short Talk: Integrin αvβ8 Expression Marks a Transcriptionally Distinct Regulatory T-cell Population with Enhanced TGF-β Signaling		  
  Christine Seeleitner †, TU Munich
Short Talk: Cell–Intrinsic CARD11 Gain-of-Function Expression Triggers Lymphoproliferative Disease In Vivo		  
  Gayathri Dileepan †, The Ohio State University College of Medicine
Short Talk: Aiolos Promotes Lung-Resident CD8 T Cell Memory After Influenza a Virus Infection		  
  Hakimeh Ebrahimi-Nik, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
Short Talk: An Unrecognized Adaptor Protein, FHL2, Orchestrates CD8 T Cell Migration and Anti-Tumor Immunity		  
  Michael Kilian, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Short Talk: MHC Class II Dependent Dura Immune Cell Clusters Promote Effector T Cell Responses to Glioblastoma		  
  Noah Pascual Maier †, Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford
Short Talk: Zeb2 Drives CD8+ T Cell Memory Inflation		  
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available Van Horne Foyer
5:00–7:00 PM T Cell Differentiation and Functions Van Horne A
  E. John Wherry, University of Pennsylvania
T Cell Exhaustion		  
  Andrea Schietinger, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
T Cell Stemness and Differentiation in Autoimmunity and Cancer		  
  Chrystal M. Paulos, Emory University School of Medicine
Th17-B Cell Cooperation for Adoptive T Cell Therapy		  
  Zachary Earley, UCSF
Short Talk: GPCR-Gα13 Signaling Regulates Survival of Intestinal Intraepithelial CD8 Lymphocytes Through Migration to Cytokine-Rich Niches		  
  Yusuke Takeuchi, Institute for Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University
Short Talk: Tissue-restricted Secondary TCR Engagement Drives the Phenotypic Transition from Tcf1+ stem-like to CD200+ Egr2hi Pathogenic Th17 Cells in Autoimmune Arthritis		  
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Dinner President's Hall
7:30–10:00 PM Poster Session 1 Van Horne C
Wednesday, January 13, 2027
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast President's Hall
8:00–11:00 AM Functional Diversity in Tissues Van Horne A
  Bruno Silva-Santos, University of Lisbon
γδ T Cells in Tissue Physiology and Surveillance		  
  Caroline Sokol, Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard
From Sensing to Response: Circuit Control of Tissue T Cells		  
  Yasmine Belkaid, Institut Pasteur
Unconventional T Cells and Functions in Tissues		  
  Daniel Campbell, Benaroya Research Institute
CD4 T Regulatory T Cells		  
  Jayendra Singh, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Short Talk: Mitochondrial Respiration is a Critical Differentiation Checkpoint for Tissue- Resident Regulatory T Cells		  
  Jonathan Jantsch †, University of Cologne
Short Talk: T Cell-Driven Immunovascular Remodeling Reverses Tissue Hypoxia to License Myeloid Effector Function		  
9:00–9:20 AM Coffee Break Van Horne Foyer
11:00–1:00 PM Poster Setup Van Horne C
11:00–2:00 PM On Own for Lunch
1:00–10:00 PM Poster Viewing Van Horne C
2:00–3:00 PM Career Roundtable (Joint) Van Horne B
3:00–4:30 PM Debate: (Re-)defining Exhaustion and Dysfunction Van Horne A
  E. John Wherry, University of Pennsylvania
  
  Andrea Schietinger, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  
  Ansuman Satpathy, Stanford University School of Medicine
  
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available Van Horne Foyer
5:00–7:00 PM Innate Signals in T Cells (Joint) Van Horne A/B
  Eduardo Davila, University of Colorado
Rewiring T Cell Fate to Increase Anti-tumor Activity and Persistence While Reducing Exhaustion Resistance		  
  Nicolas Manel, Institut Curie
Activation of Intracellular Innate Immune Sensors		  
  Jelena Bezbradica Mirkovic, University of Oxford
Cytosolic Innate Sensing and Lytic Cell Death in Autoinflammation		  
  Junko Sawada, Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital
Short Talk: Junko Sawad		  
  Shirley Le †, The University of Melbourne
Short Talk: γδ T Cell-Derived Signals Initiate T Cell Immunity to Plasmodium		  
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Dinner President's Hall
7:30–10:00 PM Poster Session 2 Van Horne C
Thursday, January 14, 2027
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast President's Hall
8:00–11:00 AM Genomics and Cell Engineering for Therapeutic Applications Van Horne A
  Ansuman Satpathy, Stanford University School of Medicine
Immunogenomics		  
  Justin Eyquem, University of California, San Francisco
In vivo T Cell Engineering		  
  Paul Beavis, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Novel T Cell Engineering for Treatment of Solid Tumors		  
  Georg A Schett, Uniklinikum Erlangen
The Future of T Cell Engagers and CAR-T in Autoimmune and Inflammatory Diseases		  
  Shivani Srivastava †, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Short Talk: A Recurrent Point Mutation in the Chimeric Antigen Receptor is Associated with Pathological CAR-T Cell Expansion and Toxicity		  
  Christopher Waters †, Genentech
Short Talk: Uncovering Regulators of T-cell Cytokine Secretion Via Optical Pooled Screening (OPS)		  
9:00–9:20 AM Coffee Break Van Horne Foyer
11:00–1:00 PM Poster Setup Van Horne C
11:00–2:30 PM On Own for Lunch
1:00–10:00 PM Poster Viewing Van Horne C
2:30–4:30 PM Symposia Spotlight 2: Next-Generation T Cell Engineering, Therapies, and Analytics Van Horne A
  Keely Ji †, Massachusetts General Hospital
Short Talk: Epigenome-Scale Screens Identify Drivers Of T Cell Fate Decisions In Cancer		  
  Aneela Nomura †, RIKEN
Short Talk: Runx3-R122C Boosts Anti-tumour Immunity Via Effector progenitor-exhausted Induction		  
  Adi Nagler, DFCI
Short Talk: Spatial Colocalization Of Neoantigen-Expressing Tumor Cells And Cognate T Cells In Cancer		  
  Christian P Otero †, Stanford University
Short Talk: Bidirectional Epigenetic Editing of FOXP3 Cis-Regulatory Elements Induces Stable Endogenous FOXP3 Activation in Conventional Human T Cells		  
  Michael Harbell †, University of Colorado, Anschutz
Short Talk: Variable Integration of Co-stimulation Dictate the Cellular Basis of Vaccine Efficacy		  
  Priyanga    Appasamy †, Hebrew University
Short Talk: Beyond Knockout: Isoform-Directed CRISPR Engineering Preserves Function in Rapidly Expanded T Cells and Attenuates Expansion-Associated Exhaustion		  
  Grace Bugos †, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Short Talk: Structural Flexibility of γδ TCRs Expands Targetable Epitope Space For Chimeric T Cell Receptor Therapy		  
  Kevin Bi †, Broad Institute
Short Talk: In Vivo Screening Reveals That HOXD8 Overexpression in CAR T Cells Enhances Stemness And Efficacy in Solid Tumors		  
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available Van Horne Foyer
5:00–7:00 PM Spatial Instruction of T Cell Function Van Horne A
  Rong Fan, Yale School of Medicine
Decoding Tissue Immunity through Next-Gen Spatial Omics Technologies		  
  Wolfgang Karl Kastenmueller, Institute of Systems Immunology, Max-Planck Research Group
Dynamic Orchestration of Cellular Networks in Tissues		  
  Ananda W. Goldrath, University of California, San Diego
Tissue-Specific Spatial Cues Instructing T Cell Function		  
  Carlo Bifulco, Providence Genomics
Decoding Tissue Microenvironments with Spatial Biology and AI		  
6:45–7:00 PM Meeting Wrap-Up: Outcomes and Future Directions (Organizers) Van Horne A
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Dinner President's Hall
7:30–10:00 PM Poster Session 3 Van Horne C
Friday, January 15, 2027
12:00–11:59 PM Departure