FOR ETPN MEMBERS ONLY.

FOR ETPN MEMBERS ONLY.

The generation of immunogenic cell death (ICD) by drug, chemical and physical stimuli has the potential to induce anti-tumor immunity by cell death mechanisms that facilitate the presentation of tumor neo-antigens plus the release of danger-associated molecular patterns in a wide range of cancers.  Moreover, this endogenous vaccination approach can be combined with multiple immune adjuvants, checkpoint inhibitors and other treatment modalities to allow propagation of the ICD-induced immune in heterogeneous tumor microenvironments (TME).  In this presentation, Dr Nel will elucidate the use of different nanoparticle compositions for therapeutic intervention in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) through the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents that induce different ICD response pathways, requiring creative use of combination therapy (including by the same nanoparticle) to obtain treatment synergy.  This will include discussion of the use of a novel ICD pathway that is premised on interference in lysosome fusion and autophagy flux by the topoisomerase I inhibitory, irinotecan, for PDAC treatment in combination with checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Dr Nel will also discuss the use of chemotherapeutic agents that selectively activate cytotoxic T-cell versus NK-mediated tumor cell killing in the heterogeneous TNBC environment by nanocarriers delivering lipid-based prodrugs and inhibitors of T-cell exclusion pathways.  The talk will conclude with a discussion of the advantages and pitfalls of ICD intervention in the clinic.

Even before COVID-19, the potential of messenger (m)RNA-based therapeutics and vaccines was realized and, thus, mRNA has been increasingly investigated as a platform technology for multiple applications, especially in oncology and infectious diseases. In general, mRNA as a therapeutic modality is applicable whenever expression of a protein – be it as a functional entity or as an antigen – is desired.

With respect to manufacturing, mRNA has several advantages compared to other biopharmaceuticals. The manufacturing process is completely cell-free. This leads not only to lower cost-of-goods, but also impacts manufacturing time and safety of the product with respect to microbial or animal-derived impurities. One process can be essentially used to manufacture any RNA sequence, significantly shortening development time for a new project. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, our mRNA platform was thus ideally suited to develop an mRNA-based vaccine in “lightspeed”.

In my presentation, I will give an overview about mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines and review the challenges that we faced during the development of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. In addition, I will give an outlook about future areas for mRNA as a therapeutic modality.

Nucleic acid based vaccines have certainly made a strong entrance to fend off the current pandemic. This will pave the way for future applications of nucleic acids in both, preventive and therapeutic medical products for a number of indications such as immuno-oncology and rare diseases. With some of these future products already in company pipelines, we would like to shed light and invite for abstracts on the fundamental and conceptual research ongoing in this area of future medicines along the whole value chain from formulation and characterization to design for specific disease and tissue targeting.

Invited Speakers

• Prof. Olivia Merkel – LMU Munich
• Prof. Dan Peer – Tel Aviv University
• Valentina Francia – University Medical Center Utrecht

Biomedical imaging has become an indispensable technology of everyday clinical practice. Imaging offers a new route to enhanced analyses of tissue architecture, which may give access to novel information of prognostic and predictive value and is therefore used not only for diagnostics but also for post-treatment monitoring. Imaging technologies offer a continuous better resolution, 3D rendering provides a holistic view of the area of interest or can be integrated as an online tool known as advanced reality to support complex interventions even better. The large size of the feature-rich datasets requires a multi-level data integration framework based on modern data science methods. This session will shed light on the newest development in imaging technologies, tissue analysis workflow using multi-level data integration and how imaging can contribute to new insights at the nanoscale.

Invited Speakers

• Prof Dr Raphael Sznitmann (ARTORG Bern)
• Enrico Capobianco – University of Miami
• Leonard Krupnik – Empa
• Fernando Herranz – Medicinal Chemistry Institute (IQM-CSIC)

The past several decades of nanomedicine research have generated a plethora of particle types, which can accommodate a variety of drug chemistries.  The subsequent translation of these formulations into clinical trials requires the investigator to also evaluate the drug’s pharmacokinetic (PK) and toxic liabilities, as part of the overall ADME/Tox profile.  This session will offer some insights and lessons learned in these important topics, such as avoiding undesired side effects.

Invited Speakers

• Maria Kavallaris – UNSW Sydney
• Vicky Stone – Heriot-Watt University
• Tina Bürki – Empa

Nanomedicine is a very active research field and many novel concepts are in development beyond the well-established lipid technologies and passive targeting. In this session, innovative strategies will be discussed. Some examples are: The use of the outstanding properties of nanoscaled materials for unmeet clinical needs, or the impact of treatments by programmed nanoparticles that have an autonomous capacity to synthesize diagnostic and therapeutic compounds.

Invited Speakers

• Prof. IK Herrmann (Empa/ETHZ)
• Avi Schröder  (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology)
• Mazen El-Hammadi – Universidad de Sevilla

Digital therapeutics are used for the prevention, treatment and management of diseases with a strong focus on digital biomarkers (“sensing”) and behavioral medicine (“support”). By contrast, nanomedicine uses nanotechnology for diagnosis, delivery, sensing or actuation in living organisms. The combination of both digital therapeutics and nanomedicine has the potential to push forward the boundaries of just-in-time adaptive interventions, triggered at opportune moments in advance of critical health conditions or adverse health behaviors. This session will shed light on different developments and discuss further the interconnectedness and applications in diagnostics, therapeutics and prevention for various diseases.

Invited Speakers

• Therese Triemer – Novartis Oncology and Isha Antani – Digital Solutions Director Novartis
• Alessia Pancaro – VITO

Recent events have once again highlighted the importance of drug formulation in the healthcare sector. Two of the first COVID-19 vaccines (i.e., Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech) to be clinically approved harness lipid-based nanotechnology for delivery of mRNA. Without the protection and targeted delivery enabled by these lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) such mRNA-based vaccines would not be clinically viable. While advanced drug delivery systems offer many advantages over conventional drug formulation strategies, their design and clinical translation remain non-trivial. The integration of new technological approaches into (i) drug formulation design and (ii) clinical treatment protocols has the potential to overcome some of the current limitations and accelerate the translation of nanomedicines from bench to bedside. In recent years, the Allen Lab has begun to integrate advances in artificial intelligence and experimental automation to fast track the development of advanced drug formulations. In addition, we have explored the potential of heat triggered LNPs, in combination with non-pharmaceutical clinical interventions, to improve localized drug distribution and survival in preclinical models of cancer. This work is just a starting point. Further integration of technological advancements in the pharmaceutical sciences has the potential to improve efficiency in drug development pipelines, fast-track preclinical research, and therefore improve access to effective medicines and increase patients’ quality of life.