The Tumour Ecosystem: Cellular Interactions and Therapeutic Opportunities

Bergamo, Italy : 19 - 21 March 2024

Scientific Programme

Tuesday 19th March 2024

Listed times are in Central European Time (CET)

11:30

REGISTRATION & WELCOME LUNCH

13:00

WELCOME TO DAY ONE

SESSION 1 - From research insights to therapeutic opportunities

Chair: Neta Erez

13:10

Opening Keynote Lecture

Douglas Hanahan Ludwig Cancer Research, Lausanne, Switzerland

'Immunosuppression in the tumour microenvironment, and beyond'

Q&A: 13:45-13:55

13:55

Yuval Shaked Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa, Israel

'Immune-Mediated Extracellular Matrix Remodeling Promotes Tumor Resistance and Metastasis Following Anti-Cancer Therapy'

Q&A 14:15-14:25

14:25

Nicoletta Caronni San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy

Proffered Paper 1: 'IL-1β+ macrophages fuel pathogenic inflammation in pancreatic cancer'

14:40

EXHIBITOR INTRODUCTIONS

14:50

COFFEE BREAK & EXHIBITION

15:20

Alexander vom Stein University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Proffered Paper 1a: 'By perturbating fibroblast polarization, stromal LYN kinase expression in the microenvironment is immunomodulatory and promotes viability of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells. '

Q&A: 15:30-15:35

15:35

Ana Farias Imperial College London, UK

Proffered Paper 1b: 'Type I interferons induced upon RSV infection change the lung microenvironment and impair seeding of lung metastatic breast cancer cells'

Q&A 15:45 - 15:50

15:50

Johanna Joyce University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

'Unravelling the Complexity of Cancer Ecosystems'

Q&A: 16:10-16:20

16:20

MOLECULAR ONCOLOGY CALL FOR CONTENT

Siddhi Maniyar Federation of European Biochemical Societies, Cambridge, UK

16:30

POSTER SPOTLIGHTS

Ngozi Akingbesote, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA; Alessandra Riggio, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, USA; Simge Yucel, EPFL Life Sciences, Lausanne, Switzerland

16:45

SYMPOSIUM - CancerTools.org

Dr Saverio Tardito Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute, and School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow

'In vitro veritas: transforming cell culture with more physiological conditions'

17:15

NETWORKING QUIZ

Our fun, informal quiz offers conference participants the chance to make new connections on the first evening of the meeting.

17:45

WELCOME RECEPTION

18:30

POSTER DISCUSSION SESSION 1

Wednesday 20th March 2024

Listed times are in Central European Time (CET)

08:45

EARLY POSTER VIEWING (WITH COFFEE)

09:15

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT - Lunaphore Technologies

Alioune Ndoye Lunaphore

'Accelerating spatial biology with COMET'

SESSION 2: The macroenvironment and metabolism

Chair: Douglas Hanahan

09:30

Leila Akkari Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands

'Dissecting and rewiring myeloid cell heterogeneity in cancer'

Q&A: 09:50-10:00

10:00

Giulia Biffi University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Proffered Paper 2: 'SMAD4 loss in malignant cells drives a fibro-inflammatory microenvironment in pancreatic cancer'

Q&A: 10:10-10:15

10:15

Mariia Yuneva The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK

'Dissecting metabolic heterogeneity and vulnerabilities of tumours'

Q&A: 10:35-10:45

10:45

COFFEE BREAK & EXHIBITION

11:15

Julio Aguirre-Ghiso Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, US

'Age-related clonal hematopoiesis (CH) serves as a host-derived driver of awakening of dormant disseminated breast cancer (BC) cells'

Q&A: 11:35-11:45

11:45

Monica Cassandras Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA

Proffered Paper 3: 'Breast cancer metastasis: uncovering the role of chronic stress in immune evasion'

12:00

POSTER SPOTLIGHTS

Kelly McGovern, Dana Faber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA; Tatiana Rizou, Francis Crick Institute, London, UK; Tamar Shami, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

12:15

LUNCH

13:15

POSTER DISCUSSION SESSION 2

SESSION 3: Organ-specific microenvironments

Chair: Johanna Joyce

14:45

Neta Erez Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

'Stromal and Immune Plasticity Shape the Metastatic Microenvironment'

Q&A: 15:05-15:15

15:15

Yassmin Elbanna Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA

Proffered Paper 4: 'A Mechanoimmunological Basis for Metastatic Site Distribution'

15:30

Ye'ela Scharff Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Proffered Paper 5: 'Complement signaling is a hallmark of inflammatory fibroblasts in chronic diseases and cancer'

15:45

Erik Sahai The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK

'Why liver metastases are so hard to treat with immunotherapy'

Q&A: 16:05-16:15

16:15

COFFEE BREAK & EXHIBITION

16:45

Karin de Visser Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands

'Dissecting how breast tumours hijack myelopoiesis to promote metastasis'

Q&A: 17:05-17:15

17:15

Jean Albrengues Universite Cote d'Azur, Nice, France

'Neutrophil extracellular traps formed during chemotherapy confer treatment resistance via TGF-β activation'

Q&A: 17:35-17:45

17:45

MEET THE EXPERT

Neta Erez, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Leila Akkari, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Ruth Scherz-Shouval, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel; Jean Albrengues, Universite Cote d'Azur, Nice, France

19:30

CONFERENCE DINNER

The Conference Dinner will be held at the atmospheric Ristorante Taverna Valtellinese, Optional ticketed event.

Thursday 21st March 2024

Listed times are in Central European Time (CET)

08:15

EARLY POSTER VIEWING SESSION (WITH COFFEE)

08:45

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT - React4Life

Silvia Scaglione React4Life and National Research Council of Italy

'3D Humanized Tissue Cancer Models and Multi-Organ-on-Chip Platforms to Investigate Immune-Tumor Cellular Interactions and Test New Therapeutics'

SESSION 4: Stromal and immune cells shape the TME

Chair: Erik Sahai

09:00

Ruth Scherz-Shouval Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel

'Transcriptional and functional plasticity of cancer-associated fibroblasts in the tumor microenvironment'

Q&A: 09:20-09:30

09:30

Sara Zanivan CRUK Scotland Institute, Glasgow, UK

'Harnessing CAF metabolism to create an anti-tumour microenvironment'

Q&A: 09:50-10:00

10:00

Antoinette van Weverwijk Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), Amsterdam, Netherlands

Proffered Paper 6: 'Distinct p53 hotspot mutations differentially regulate immune composition and immunotherapy response in breast cancer'

10:15

COFFEE BREAK & EXHIBITION

10:45

Santiago Zelenay CRUK Manchester Institute, Manchester, UK

'Protumourigenic inflammation: a targetable immune checkpoint and a biomarker of immunotherapy response'

Q&A: 11:05-11:15

11:15

The EMBO Keynote Lecture

Clare Isacke ICR, London, UK

'Targeting the tumour microenvironment to limit metastatic relapse'

Q&A: 11:50-12:00

12:00

SUMMARY, AWARDS AND CLOSE

12:10

DEPART

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