What the HEK is Immunotherapy?

As part of our Autoimmunity x Immunotherapy series we explore the autoimmune disease known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or more simply, lupus with Dr. Maria Tokuyama. Dr. Tokuyama is an assistant professor in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia, where she also runs a lab exploring the relationship between viruses and autoimmunity. With her we explore what lupus is, current treatments, and how immunotherapy is being used to treat it!

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

So we have talked a lot about immunotherapy for cancer - but its also used to treat autoimmune diseases! In this episode we talk with Dr. Marc Horwitz, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of British Columbia, about what autoimmunity is and how immunotherapy is being used to treat autoimmune diseases. Dr. Horwitz also recently co-started a research cluster called the Autoimmune Biomedical collaborative to get researchers, clinicians, and patients together to better tackle autoimmune diseases.

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

Patients are the centre of why we do what we do in immunotherapy research - so shouldn’t they have a say?? Well that's where patient engagement in research comes in! It is becoming increasingly common to involve patients throughout the research pipeline since patients provide lived experience that we as scientists often do not see. To discuss how this works, their own personal journey with patient engagement, and how to get involved in patient engagement, either as a scientist or a patient partner, we are joined by two special guests. First, Dr. Manoj Lalu, a scientist and anesthesiologist who has been paving the way of what patient partnerships in research should look like. And second, Nadine, a patient partner in the lab of your host’s Gillian and Grace (Evgin Lab).

Nadine and Dr. Lalu mentioned many resources throughout the episode which are provided below:

CIHR’s definition of Patient Engagement

CIHR’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) - Patient Engagement Framework

LabPartners (patient engagement in preclinical research)

Additionally if you want to learn more - reach out to us and we can connect you with Dr. Lalu and his team!

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions orideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

You've heard of clinical trials - but how do they actually work? We get into the nitty gritty of clinical trials in part 1 of our miniseries on clinical trials where we here about it from the scientist's perspective! In this episode we are joined by Dr. John Bell to discuss his experience on taking therapies from his own lab into the clinic for treating patients!

Learn more about the exosome work Dr. Bell is excited to take to the clinic here.

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

Vaccines not only prevent infectious diseases - they can also help cure cancer! To learn how this works and all about the field of cancer vaccines we are joined by Dr. Brian Lichty, an associate professor in Medicine at McMaster University.

More information of the startup Dr. Lichty talks about can be found on their website: https://espherasynbio.ca/

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

How can we improve outcomes for cancer patients undergoing surgery? With Immunotherapy! In this episode we discuss perioperative immunotherapy with Dr. Rebecca Auer, a Surgeon-Scientist and the CEO & Scientific Director at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She discusses how her background in surgery and interest in research led her to explore how we can enhance the immune system after surgical removal of cancers to prevent relapse.

More information about the clinical trial using a blood thinner to boost the immune response after colon cancer removal:

News article

Medical Journal publication

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

To end off the year Grace and Gillian dive into some of the scientific findings and news they found most interesting in the immunotherapy field for 2024! We hope this gets you excited about the progress of immunotherapy and the many breakthroughs to come!

For more information on the immunotherapies discussed here check out the links below:

Lifileucel, the first FDA-approved TIL product: https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2024/fda-amtagvi-til-therapy-melanoma

CAR T cell therapy for autoimmune disease: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2308917 and https://www.science.org/content/article/breakthrough-cancer-immunotherapy-now-taking-aim-autoimmune-disease

7th approved CAR T cell product (AUCATZYL): https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resources-information-approved-drugs/fda-approves-obecabtagene-autoleucel-adults-relapsed-or-refractory-b-cell-precursor-acute

First FDA-approved CAR T cell product for CLL: https://www.lls.org/news/fda-approves-first-car-t-cell-therapy-chronic-lymphocytic-leukemia#:~:text=Rye%20Brook%2C%20N.Y.%2C%20March%2019,not%20responded%20to%20previous%20treatments.

Breast cancer vaccine: https://ascopost.com/news/november-2024/breast-cancer-vaccine-could-be-preventive-well-tolerated-in-high-risk-patients/

FDA approval of first TCR therapy for synovial sarcoma (Afami-cel): https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2024/fda-tecelra-synovial-sarcoma-mage-a4

Personalized engineered TCR TIL therapy phase II study: https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/press-releases/2024/personalized-immunotherapy-shrinks-solid-tumors

Long term checkpoint blockade therapy followup: https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2024/09/long-term-metastatic-melanoma-survival-dramatically-improves-on-immunotherapy

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

So you may have heard us talk about animal work in this podcast - specifically working with mice. But we wanted to dive a little deeper into what that looks like - specifically from the ethics/regulations side of things. In this episode we talk to Dr. Michael Brunt, who is a postdoctoral fellow who is interested in looking at the welfare of laboratory animals. With Dr. Brunt we touch on what regulations exist for working with animals, why we need animal work, and more! Including how we can improve welfare for laboratory animals in the future.

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Papers/resources mentioned in podcast:

1. Brunt, M. W., Kreiberg, H., & von Keyserlingk, M. A. (2022). Invertebrate research without ethical or regulatory oversight reduces public confidence and trust. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9(1), 1-9. ⁠https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01272-8⁠

2. Garner, J. P., Gaskill, B. N., Weber, E. M., Ahloy-Dallaire, J., & Pritchett-Corning, K. R. (2017). Introducing Therioepistemology: the study of how knowledge is gained from animal research. Lab animal, 46(4), 103-113. ⁠https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.1224⁠

3. Canine Oncology Clinical Trials, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. ⁠https://ovcclinicaltrials.uoguelph.ca/canine-oncology-clinical-trials/⁠--

Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

Last month, Dr. Lee-Hwa Tai taught us about what oncolytic viruses or "OVs" are. So naturally we followed up with a trainee to learn about some cool research going on in the field. Dr. Reza Rezaei, a recent PhD graduate, studied OVs and now is taking it further to learn how we can combine OVs with CAR T/NK cells during a postdoctoral fellowship.

In the second half of the episode we are joined by our podcast's own content creator: Lauralie Short. Lauralie did her master's in OV research so her and Grace provide some clarification on some of the more technical and difficult to understand OV topics.

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

Wait, viruses as cancer therapy?? That's right! Oncolytic viruses or OVs are a newer and promising type of therapy that uses viruses to take down cancer in a safe manner. But how the HEK do they work?

This month we sit down with Dr. Lee-Hwa Tai from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec to discuss all about OVs. Join us as we dive into how OVs kill cancer, their current status in the clinic, how safety is managed, exciting research in the field, and more!

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Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our new website wthisimmunotherapy.com. Or feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!

Access Transcript here.

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Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos 

Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance 

Music is by Lara Antebi (https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/)