Expert Roundtable: overcoming challenges in analytical assays for cellular therapies

Abstract

<div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><img src="https://bioinsights.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/Jara photo copy.jpg" data-image="1"></div><div class="author-det"><h3 class="author-name" style="color:#5D538A;">Jara Joedicke</h3><h5 class="author-title" style="color:#5D538A;">Senior Scientist, Max Delbrück Center</h5> Jara Joedicke is an immunologist with a passion for the development of novel cancer therapies. She has over 10 years molecular biology experience in both academia and industry. Throughout her career she has managed a variety of employees from students and postdoctoral researchers to technical staff. Her aim is to bring novel cell and gene therapies rapidly from the bench to the clinic, especially those utilizing CAR T cells. </div></div></div><div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><img src="https://bioinsights.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/E Alonzo portrait-sq.jpg copy.png" data-image="1"></div><div class="author-det"><h3 class="author-name" style="color:#00A795;"><strong>Eric Alonzo</strong></h3><h5 class="author-title" style="color:#00A795;">Strategy Lead, Oncology, Analytical Development &amp; CMC Lead, bbT369 Program, bluebird bio</h5> Dr Alonzo serves as the CMC Lead for the bbT369, a pre-clinical program for the treatment of B-NHL and Analytical Strategy Lead for the Oncology Divsion at bluebird bio. Previously, Dr Alonzo led the Oncology Characterization Team where he focused on the development of analytical and characterization assays for CAR T/TCR cell programs. Prior to bluebird bio, Dr Alonzo lead efforts developing T-cell-based therapies at Agenus, and previous to his work at Agenus, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School studying transcriptional and epigenetic dysregulation that leads to the development of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Dr Alonzo received his PhD from the Cancer Biology Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. </div></div></div><div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><strong><strong><strong><img src="https://bioinsights.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/Marsilius Mues_Portrait copy.jpg" data-image="1"></strong></strong></strong></div><div class="author-det"><h3 class="author-name" style="color:#007589;"><strong><strong>Marsilius Mues</strong></strong></h3><h5 class="author-title" style="color:#007589;">R&amp;D Group Leader at Miltenyi Biotec</h5> Dr Mues joined the R&amp;D Department of Miltenyi Biotec in 2017. In his current role he leads the interdisciplinary research and development in the field of immuno-oncology and cellular therapeutics, with a focus on CAR T cell engineering for personalized immunotherapy. He oversees the establishment of multiparametric immune assays for functional characterization of engineered T cells, along with automated data acquisition and analysis tools for translational research, cell therapy manufacturing, and patient immune monitoring during clinical trials. He performed his PhD studies at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology on T cell signaling during autoimmune disease and completed his postdoctoral research at UCSF where he focused on novel combinatorial therapies using high-complexity lentiviral shRNA &amp; CRISPR/Cas9 libraries for T-cell leukemia. </div></div></div>