On Demand Webinar Series: Unlocking Tomorrow's Cure for Cancer

Patient-Derived Organoid and Immune Cell Co-Cultures for Immunotherapy Development

Patient-derived models are viewed as the gold standard in bridging the gap between the lab and the clinic. Advancements in organoid technology, using patient material to generate “mini-organs” in a dish, have revolutionized in vitro predictivity over standard 2D and 3D cultures, bringing clinically-relevant early-stage models to drug development and enabling clinical translation of preclinical results. Co-culturing tumor organoids with immune cells offers a unique opportunity to interrogate novel immuno-therapies in these “mini-organs”, derived from both tumor and normal tissue.

In this webinar, part of our “Unlocking Tomorrow´s Cure for Cancer” series, Dr Yujun Huang reviews the establishment of patient-derived tumor organoid and immune cell co-cultures, and presents key case studies on how this cutting-edge system can be used for immunotherapy development.

Watch this Webinar to Learn:

• How to and fast track your early-stage immunotherapy programs using in vitro co-cultures
• The key difference between autologous and non-autologous cultures
• How to investigate tumor-antigen specific immune cell reactivity using autologous co-cultures
• When non-autologous co-cultures should be preferred for enhanced flexibility and greater scalability
• Optimal applications for a tumor organoid co-culture platform

Who Should Watch:

• Decision makers from biotech and pharmaceutical companies who want to optimize their early stage immunotherapy programs
• Drug developers who are interested in exploring optimal applications of tumor organoid co-cultures with autologous and non-autologous immune cells
• Scientists interested in reviewing the key benefits and challenges with tumor organoid-co-cultures

Watch Now!

About The Presenter:

Dr Yujun Huang, Senior Director Immuno-Oncology at Crown Bioscience
Yujun joined Crown Bioscience as an experienced immunologist/immuno-oncologist, with a track record of success in supporting drug development programs for small molecules and biologicals at various stages, from early discovery to clinical development. Before joining Crown Bioscience, Yujun was an Associate Director of Translational Medicine at Oncomed Pharmaceuticals where he supported the identification of immuno-oncology biomarkers in preclinical and clinical settings for an anti-TIGIT monoclonal antibody. Prior to that, he was a Principal Scientist at Halozym, where he led the in vivo immuno-oncology team to support the preclinical development of α-PEGPH20 and cancer immunotherapy program. Yujun also led the immuno-oncology research program at Pharmacyclics, an AbbVie company.

Yujun’s academic background includes a PhD in immunology from Loyola University Chicago, a MS in Surgical Pathology and a BS in Medicine from Fudan University (formerly Shanghai Medical University). His PhD work was focused on tumor immunology and cancer vaccine. He received his postdoc training at La Jolla Institute for Immunology, a world leader in immunology research, where his research focused on studying the role of tissue-resident T cells in cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases. His work was published in top-tier immunology journals and has provided technical leadership across multiple immuno-oncology programs.