School of Biomedical Sciences is pleased to invite you to join the following seminar:

Date: Thursday, 11 November 2021

Time: 4:30 pm

Via Zoom: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwlf-ioqjkvHtHMYhjHh4t5CxISJxnZJ6GD

Meeting ID: 988 8104 2545

Password: 799804

Speaker: Professor Peng Li, Principal Investigator, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, CAS (Guangzhou, China)

Title: “Developing new cancer cellular immunotherapies”

Biography

Professor Peng Li received his B. Sc. in Biology from Tsinghua University in 2006 and obtained his Ph.D from University of Cambridge in 2010. During his study in Cambridge, he found that T-cells at all developmental stages reprogram to natural killer-like cells upon Bcl11b deletion and named the NK-like cells as Induced-T-to-NK (ITNK) cells. It has been demonstrated that ITNKs has potential application in cancer immunotherapy. In 2011, Dr. Peng Li joined Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences as a principal investigator. His lab mainly focuses on the study of pre-clinical cancer immunotherapy.

Abstract

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) is a particularly promising area of cancer immunotherapy. ACT therapy uses both T cells and NK cells. Unlike T cells, natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in immune surveillance by targeting tumor cells that downregulate HLA class I molecules or express stress markers. Engineered T and NK cells that express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) with PD-1 ablation have been successfully used to treat hematopoietic malignancies but exhibit limited clinical benefits for solid tumor patients. One of the obstacles for treating solid tumors is the tumor microenvironment (TME), which contains immune suppressive molecules, including PD-L1, CTLA-4, and TGFb, and anti-inflammatory cells such as regulatory T cells and myeloid derived suppressor cells. TGFβ represses the antitumor effects of T cells directly and indirectly. TGFβ directly inhibits the development, proliferation, and function of cells in both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system, including T cells and NK cells. I am leading a team to study tumor immunology in three aspects: 1. Design new CAR-T cells to disrupt the TME, 2. Derive new types of anti-cancer immune cells as sources of ACT, 3. Establish humanized mouse models for evaluating efficacy of ACT. In the presentation, I will show recent progress in these three initiatives. Briefly, we have designed new CAR-T cells with improved killing and tumor penetration capacities and CAR molecules that rewire immune suppressive signals in the TME. Preliminary clinical trial results of these CAR-T cells will be discussed. In addition, preclinical and clinical data on a new type of tumor killing cells derived from T cells will presented. Finally, I will show a liver humanized mouse model that mimics the initiation and progression of human hepatocellular carcinoma with genetically defined factors.

ALL ARE WELCOME

Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact Miss River Wong at 3917 9216.