Immune Symposium 2017

Immune Engineering Symposium banner

Biological, chemical, and materials engineers are engaged at the forefront of immunology research. At their disposal is an analytical toolkit honed to solve problems in the petrochemical and materials industries, which share the presence of complex reaction networks, and convective and diffusive molecular transport. Powerful synthetic capabilities have also been crafted: binding proteins can be engineered with effectively arbitrary specificity and affinity, and multifunctional nanoparticles and gels have been designed to interact in highly specific fashions with cells and tissues. Fearless pursuit of knowledge and solutions across disciplinary boundaries characterizes this nascent discipline of immune engineering, synergizing with immunologists and clinicians to put immunotherapy into practice.

Agenda

Day One: October 16, 2017

7:00–8:15 Registration


8:15–8:30  Introductory Remarks

Darrell Irvine | MIT, Koch Institute; HHMI
K. Dane Wittrup | MIT, Koch Institute


8:30 - 9:45Session I

Moderator: Douglas Lauffenburger | MIT, Biological Engineering and Koch Institute

Garry P. Nolan | Stanford University School of Medicine
Pathology from the Molecular Scale on Up

Susan Napier Thomas | Georgia Institute of Technology
Transport Barriers in the Tumor Microenvironment: Drug Carrier Design for Therapeutic Delivery to Sentinel Lymph Nodes

Douglas Lauffenburger |  MIT, Biological Engineering and Koch Institute
Integrative Multi-Omic Analysis of Tissue Microenvironment in Inflammatory Pathophysiology


9:45 - 10:15Break


10:15 - 11:30  Session II

Moderator: Tyler Jacks | MIT, Koch Institute; HHMI

Tyler Jacks | MIT, Koch Institute; HHMI
Using Genetically Engineered Mouse Models to Probe Cancer-Immune Interactions

Wendell Lim | University of California, San Francisco
Synthetic Immunology: Hacking Immune Cells

Darrell Irvine | MIT, Koch Institute; HHMI
Engineering Enhanced Cancer Vaccines to Drive Combination Immunotherapies


11:30 - 1:00Lunch Break


1:00 - 2:15Session III

Moderator: Darrell Irvine | MIT, Koch Institute; HHMI

Nicholas P. Restifo | National Cancer Institute
Extracellular Potassium Regulates Epigenetics and Efficacy of Anti-Tumor T Cells

Jennifer Elisseeff | Johns Hopkins University
The Adaptive Immune Response to Biomaterials and Tissue Repair

Marcela Maus | Massachusetts General Hospital
Engineering Better T Cells


2:15 - 2:45 Break


2:45 - 4:00Session IV

Moderator: Arup K. Chakraborty | MIT, IMES

Laura Walker | Adimab, LLC
Molecular Dissection of the Human Antibody Response to Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Arup K. Chakraborty | MIT, Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
How to Hit HIV Where it Hurts

William Schief | The Scripps Research Institute
HIV Vaccine Design Targeting the Human Naive B Cell Repertoire

Day 2: October 17, 2017

8:30 - 9:45Session V

Moderator: Stefani Spranger | MIT, Koch Institute

K. Christopher Garcia | Stanford University
Exploiting T Cell and Cytokine Receptor Structure and Mechanism to Develop New Immunotherapeutic Strategies

Stefani Spranger | MIT, Koch Institute
Batf3-DC as Mediators of the T Cell-Inflamed Tumor Microenvironment

George Georgiou | University of Texas at Austin
The Human Circulating Antibody Repertoire in Infection, Vaccination or Cancer


9:45 - 10:15Break


10:15 - 11:30 Session VI

Moderator: K. Dane Wittrup | MIT, Koch Institute

Harvey Lodish | Whitehead Institute and Koch Institute
Engineered Erythrocytes Covalently Linked to Antigenic Peptides Can Protect Against Autoimmune Disease

Sai Reddy | ETH Zurich
Molecular Convergence Patterns in Antibody Responses Predict Antigen Exposure

K. Dane Wittrup | MIT, Koch Institute
Temporal Programming of Synergistic Innate and Adaptive Immunotherapy


11:30 - 1:00Lunch Break


1:00 - 2:15 Session VII

Moderator: Michael Birnbaum | MIT, Koch Institute

Kai Wucherpfennig | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Discovery of Novel Targets for Cancer Immunotherapy

Michael Birnbaum | MIT, Koch Institute
An Unbiased Determination of pMHC Repertoires for Better Antigen Prediction

Jennifer R. Cochran | Stanford University
Innate and Adaptive Integrin-targeted Combination Immunotherapy


2:15 - 2:45Break


2:45 - 3:35Session VIII

Moderator: Jianzhu Chen | MIT, Koch Institute

Jennifer Wargo | MD Anderson Cancer Center
Understanding Responses to Cancer Therapy: The Tissue is the Issue, but the Scoop is in the Poop

Jianzhu Chen | MIT, Koch Institute
Modulating Macrophages in Cancer Immunotherapy