The National Cancer Institute (NCI) will hold a virtual workshop on “In Vivo Engineering of Immune Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy” (https://events.cancer.gov/nci/iveic-cancerimmunotherapy) on January 28-29, 2025. This workshop is open to the public and free to attend, although registration is required to access the event virtually. The workshop Overview is copied below:
Overview
Adoptive cellular therapies (ACT) for cancer involve complex and laborious processes, including leukapheresis, ex vivo manipulation and expansion of immune cells, and GMP cell manufacturing and production, which hampers the clinical accessibility. In contrast, the in vivo engineering of immune cells (IVEIC) approaches bypass the tedious, complex and costly process of ex vivo immune cell production by reprogramming specific immune cells in situ, thus offering a true off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapy. The IVEIC approach takes advantage of advances in in vivo gene delivery technologies using viral vectors or non-viral nanocarrier-based vehicles to deliver genetic materials of interest to immune cells, and in gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 and base-editing systems for precision gene modifications in immune cells. We envision a parallel development of in vivo cellular immunotherapies along with ACT to allow faster and broader access for patients with both hematologic and solid tumors.
If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Dr. Zhang-Zhi Hu (zhang-zhi.hu@nih.gov).