Novel Targets

Episode 26: Coming Full Circle

The award of this year's Nobel prize in physiology or medicine to Dr Jim Allison and Dr Tasuku Honjo is a defining moment for cancer research that we want to recognize. You'll hear from Dr Allison on the very day he heard the announcement. We also take a closer look at what it takes to be a great scientist and explore the limitations on how many people the Nobel prize can recognize in a given year. If you want to increase your chance of winning, 1993 laureate Sir Richard Roberts FRS takes us through his "Ten Simple Rules to Win a Nobel Prize." We have come full circle in our journey over the last 3.5 years and now hear the results of a "practice changing" phase 3 cancer immunotherapy trial in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) that we first talked about in the inaugural episode of the podcast, "The Checkpoints Show." There's also an update from the recent ESMO congress on results from a phase 3 ovarian cancer trial that is potentially "life changing" for women with a BRCA mutation.  Scientists and clinical researchers you'll hear on this episode include a rich diversity of viewpoints and perspectives: Sir Richard Roberts FRS, Dr James Allison, Dr Phil Greenberg, Dr Ignacio Melero, Dr Pasi Jänne, Dr Tony Mok, Dr Kathleen Moore, Dr Leisha Emens, Dr Sherene Loi, Dr Peter Schmid, Dr Dan Chen and Dr Ira Mellman. Several of the interviews were recorded at the 2018 CRI CIMT EATI AACR international cancer immunotherapy conference (CICON) in New York, 2018 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Munich and the 2018 Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) annual meeting in Washington DC. This episode was sponsored by Genentech, we're grateful for their support. You can find more information about this episode and links to additional information in the show notes on https://noveltargets.com

Episode 25: In the shadow of T cells

In this episode we continue our journey looking at the innate immune system and focus on some important immune cells called natural killer (NK) cells and their potential in cancer immunotherapy. You'll hear from both academic and industry experts who are active in research in this field, including Dr Todd Fehniger (Washington University in St Louis), Dr Michael Caligiuri (City of Hope), Dr Jeff Miller (Minnesota), Prof Eric Vivier (Innate Pharma via Marseille Immunopole), Dr Nick Huntington (Walter & Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne), Dr James Gulley (NCI), and Dr Deepak Sampath (Genentech). Some important topics we will cover: - What are NK cells? - What do the do? - How do they 'see'? - How can they be boosted? - What kind of approaches have been developed therapeutically? - What kind of clinical data have we seen so far? - What's the vision for the future of NK cell therapy development? You can find more detailed information about the topics discussed in the show notes on https://noveltargets.com. These interviews were conducted in various cities around the world or at AACR, ASCO, ASH, BMT Tandem and CIMT meetings between 2016 to 2018. Full transcripts of the individual interviews can be found on https://biotechstrategyblog.com (subscription required). The music is by violinist and composer David Schulman. Listen to more at http://www.quietlifemotel.com. © 2018 Blue Ice Publishing LLC. All Rights Reserved

Episode 24: Immune System Choreography

In this episode we explore the innate immune system and find out what it is, what it does and why it matters in both health and disease. You'll hear various perspectives from both academic and industry experts who are active in research in this field, including Dr Glen Barber (Miami), Prof George Coukos (Lausanne), Dr Adi Diab (MD Anderson), Dr Tom Dubensky (Tempest Therapeutics via Aduro Biotech), Dr Tom Gajewski (Chicago), Dr Jonathan Lancaster (Myriad), Dr Ira Mellman (Genentech), Prof Eric Vivier (Innate Pharma via Marseille Immunopole/CIML), Dr Jonathan Zalevsky (Nektar Therapeutics). Some important topics we will cover: - What is the innate immune system? - What does it do? - How is it different from the adaptive immune system? - Is it really separate from the adaptive system? - STING (Stimulator of Interferon Genes) - Biomarkers - Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) You can find more detailed information about the topics discussed in the show notes on https://noveltargets.com. These interviews were conducted in various cities around the world or at AACR, ASCO and SITC meetings between 2016 to 2018. Full transcripts of the individual interviews can be found on https://biotechstrategyblog.com The music is by violinist and composer David Schulman. Listen to more at http://quietlifemotel.com. © 2018 Blue Ice Publishing LLC. All Rights Reserved

Episode 23: Modulating the Signal

In this episode we take a look a look at how cytokines can be employed to modulate the tumour microenvironment in favourable ways. You'll hear various perspectives from numerous academic and industry experts who are active in research in this field, including Dr Mario Sznol (Yale), Dr James Gulley (NCI), Dr Adi Diab (MD Anderson), Dr Jonathan Zalevsky (Nektar Therapeutics), Dr Sanjeev Mariathasan (Genentech), Prof Tom Powles (Barts Cancer Institute), Dr Kunle Odunsi (Roswell Park), and Dr Renier Brentjens (Memorial Sloan Kettering). Some important topics that we will cover: - What are cytokines? - Why do they matter? - The good and bad effects they can induce on the tumour microenvironment (TME) - Interleukins - Transforming Growth Factor beta (TGFβ) - The increasingly important role for reverse translation research in helping to understand what's going on in the TME in order to improve rational future immuno-oncology (IO) combination approaches - Can we determine differences in responders and non-responders? - Novel approaches in clinical development, including CAR T cell therapies in solid tumours, and why they are different from previous approaches that were either too toxic or ineffective You can find more detailed information about the topics discussed in the show notes on https://noveltargets.com. Most of the interviews were conducted at recent AACR and ASCO meetings in 2018 and full transcripts of the individual interviews can be found on https://biotechstrategyblog.com. The music is by violinist and composer David Schulman. Listen to more at http://www.quietlifemotel.com © 2018 Blue Ice Publishing LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Episode 22: Practice, Pitfalls, and Possibilities

Welcome back to Season 4! In this latest episode, we take a look at data from immunotherapy clinical trials from several different angles and investigate the challenges associated presented by different combination partners, control arms, patient populations, biomarkers, line of therapy, etc. When important phase 3 readouts hit the newswires, inevitable questions follow: - Is the data practice changing? - Which regimen should be used with which patient population? - What happens on the Weds after the conference in the clinic when a new patient presents; will oncologists do anything differently? While it's nice to have several positive trial results, how do physicians go about making sense of them? What are some of the hidden pitfalls of cross-trial comparisons that we should watch out for and consider? Professor Tom Powles (Barts Cancer Centre, London) is our narrator for this show and walks us through various challenges and opportunities that both investigators and oncologists face. We explore various examples from recent randomised clinical trial results in lung, renal and bladder cancers, as well as metastatic melanoma.   Along the way, we interview numerous experts who have treated cancer patients with several different types of therapy and participated in clinical trials, including Drs Roy Herbst (Yale), Hossein Borghaei (Fox Chase), Jack West (Swedish), Alan Sandler (Genentech) in lung cancer. Other specialists discuss the underlying science and practical aspects they have experienced to help illustrate the challenges and opportunities that the complexity in unravelling cancer presents and look at how emerging biomarkers can help. These include Professor Charles Swanton FRS and Dr Nicky McGranahan (UCL), Drs David Fabrizio (Foundation Medicine) and Kunle Odunsi (Roswell Park).   We also touch on the future and how important 'big data' is becoming, not just in terms of clinical trials, but the possibilities that it offers for personalising therapy. Dr Lizzie Coker (now at Sanger Institute) explains how her work on developing a public repository is intended to empower basic scientists with big datasets and the value of social media for young researchers. You can find more information in the show notes on https://noveltargets.com © 2018 Blue Ice Publishing LLC. All Rights Reserved.