What the HEK is Immunotherapy?

How can we improve outcomes for cancer patients undergoing surgery? With Immunotherapy! In this episode we discuss perioperative immunotherapy with Dr. Rebecca Auer, a Surgeon-Scientist and the CEO & Scientific Director at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She discusses how her background in surgery and interest in research led her to explore how we can enhance the immune system after surgical removal of cancers to prevent relapse.More information about the clinical trial using a blood thinner to boost the immune response after colon cancer removal: News articleMedical Journal publication--Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠wthisimmunotherapy@gmail.com⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes!--Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

To end off the year Grace and Gillian dive into some of the scientific findings and news they found most interesting in the immunotherapy field for 2024! We hope this gets you excited about the progress of immunotherapy and the many breakthroughs to come! For more information on the immunotherapies discussed here check out the links below: Lifileucel, the first FDA-approved TIL product: https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2024/fda-amtagvi-til-therapy-melanoma CAR T cell therapy for autoimmune disease: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2308917 and https://www.science.org/content/article/breakthrough-cancer-immunotherapy-now-taking-aim-autoimmune-disease 7th approved CAR T cell product (AUCATZYL): https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resources-information-approved-drugs/fda-approves-obecabtagene-autoleucel-adults-relapsed-or-refractory-b-cell-precursor-acute First FDA-approved CAR T cell product for CLL: https://www.lls.org/news/fda-approves-first-car-t-cell-therapy-chronic-lymphocytic-leukemia#:~:text=Rye%20Brook%2C%20N.Y.%2C%20March%2019,not%20responded%20to%20previous%20treatments. Breast cancer vaccine: https://ascopost.com/news/november-2024/breast-cancer-vaccine-could-be-preventive-well-tolerated-in-high-risk-patients/ FDA approval of first TCR therapy for synovial sarcoma (Afami-cel): https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2024/fda-tecelra-synovial-sarcoma-mage-a4 Personalized engineered TCR TIL therapy phase II study: https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/press-releases/2024/personalized-immunotherapy-shrinks-solid-tumors Long term checkpoint blockade therapy followup: https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2024/09/long-term-metastatic-melanoma-survival-dramatically-improves-on-immunotherapy -- Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠wthisimmunotherapy@gmail.com⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes! -- Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

So you may have heard us talk about animal work in this podcast - specifically working with mice. But we wanted to dive a little deeper into what that looks like - specifically from the ethics/regulations side of things. In this episode we talk to Dr. Michael Brunt, who is a postdoctoral fellow who is interested in looking at the welfare of laboratory animals. With Dr. Brunt we touch on what regulations exist for working with animals, why we need animal work, and more! Including how we can improve welfare for laboratory animals in the future. -- Papers/resources mentioned in podcast: 1. Brunt, M. W., Kreiberg, H., & von Keyserlingk, M. A. (2022). Invertebrate research without ethical or regulatory oversight reduces public confidence and trust. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9(1), 1-9. ⁠https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01272-8⁠ 2. Garner, J. P., Gaskill, B. N., Weber, E. M., Ahloy-Dallaire, J., & Pritchett-Corning, K. R. (2017). Introducing Therioepistemology: the study of how knowledge is gained from animal research. Lab animal, 46(4), 103-113. ⁠https://doi.org/10.1038/laban.1224⁠ 3. Canine Oncology Clinical Trials, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. ⁠https://ovcclinicaltrials.uoguelph.ca/canine-oncology-clinical-trials/⁠-- Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠wthisimmunotherapy@gmail.com⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes! -- Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

Last month, Dr. Lee-Hwa Tai taught us about what oncolytic viruses or "OVs" are. So naturally we followed up with a trainee to learn about some cool research going on in the field. Dr. Reza Rezaei, a recent PhD graduate, studied OVs and now is taking it further to learn how we can combine OVs with CAR T/NK cells during a postdoctoral fellowship. In the second half of the episode we are joined by our podcast's own content creator: Lauralie Short. Lauralie did her master's in OV research so her and Grace provide some clarification on some of the more technical and difficult to understand OV topics. -- Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our website ⁠wthisimmunotherapy.com⁠. Or feel free to reach out to us at ⁠wthisimmunotherapy@gmail.com⁠ if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes! -- Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (⁠https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/⁠)

Wait, viruses as cancer therapy?? That's right! Oncolytic viruses or OVs are a newer and promising type of therapy that uses viruses to take down cancer in a safe manner. But how the HEK do they work? This month we sit down with Dr. Lee-Hwa Tai from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec to discuss all about OVs. Join us as we dive into how OVs kill cancer, their current status in the clinic, how safety is managed, exciting research in the field, and more! -- Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our new website wthisimmunotherapy.com. Or feel free to reach out to us at wthisimmunotherapy@gmail.com if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes! Access Transcript here. -- Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/)

Some cool and emerging immunotherapies use viruses to kill cancer cells. But what the HEK are viruses and how do they work? In this week's episode we chat with Trinity Tooley, a graduate student studying viruses at Queen's University. Trinity helps us break down exactly what viruses are and how they function. So sit back and unlock the wonderful world of viruses with Grace and Trinity! Interested in learning more about immunotherapy? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! And check out our new website wthisimmunotherapy.com. Or feel free to reach out to us at wthisimmunotherapt@gmail.com if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes! Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/)

Last episode we learnt all about tumour infiltrating lymphocyte or TIL therapy through interviewing Dr. Simon Turcotte. We touched on his research, but what other research is going on within the TIL space in Canada? Well, in this episode we chatted with two students, Meghan Kates & Allyson Banville, all about their cool research on TILs! Want to learn more about cool immunotherapy research? Check out our other episodes and give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy and twitter @WTHisImmunoT! Or feel free to reach out to us at wthisimmunotherapt@gmail.com if you have any questions or any ideas for episodes! Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/)

This month Gillian and Pauline learn all about Tumor infiltrating Lymphocyte (aka TIL) therapy with Dr. Simon Turcotte! Dr. Turcotte is a surgical oncologist at the CHUM Research Centre in Montreal, Quebec, who has a keen interest in TIL therapy. Listen in as we discuss things such as what TIL therapy is, what types of cancer it's been approved for, the TIL therapy scene within Canada, and what Dr. Turcotte researches and how he hopes to bring TIL therapy to Canada through a clinical trial! Below are some useful links if you want to learn more: Lifileucel approval Melinda's story TIL clinical trial in Canada led by Dr. Turcotte Transcript Don't forget to give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy or feel free to reach out with questions at wthisimmunotherapy@gmail.com Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance Music is by Lara Antebi (https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/)

So we learnt all about CAR T cell therapy on episode 2 with Dr. Scott McComb, but what exactly is the current landscape of CAR T cell therapy research like? To answer some students we chatted with 4 PhD students to learn a bit about their research and what they are excited for in the future. Big thank you to our guests: Alex Shepherd, Bigitha Bennychen, Lorenzo Lindo, and Katie Flight Also, don't forget to give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy! Or feel free to reach out to us at wthisimmunotherapt@gmail.com Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/)

This week we are doing something a bit different - Grace and I sit down with Danielle Eldridge to chat about her experience receiving immunotherapy. About Danielle: Danielle recently graduated in May 2023 with a degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. She grew up in Houston, Texas , works in technical marketing at Siemens, and is a Leukemia survivor. Danielle was diagnosed in June 2023 with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia but is happy to report that as of September 2023 she is in complete remission and is currently undergoing maintenance chemotherapy. Danielle completed 2 rounds of the hyper-CVAD frontline chemotherapy regime and 4 rounds of blinatumomab accompanied by periodic infusions of Rituximab and Inotuzumab. Danielle is currently competing for Visionary of the Year, a 10-week fundraising competition benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She is the youngest candidate this year and 1 of only 3 cancer survivors in her regional division. Danielle would very much appreciate any possible donations to her fundraising page. DONATE HERE:https://pages.lls.org/voy/txg/houston24/deldridge Also, don't forget to give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy! Or feel free to reach out to us at wthisimmunotherapt@gmail.com Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/)

On this month's episode we are joined by Dr. Scott McComb, a researcher at the National Research Council of Canada, to talk about Chimeric Antigen Receptor aka CAR T cells! Listen in as we discuss topics such as what exactly is a CAR T cell, how it is currently being used, some current challenges with this therapy, what Dr. McComb brings to the field, and what we are excited to see in the future with CAR T cell therapy! Below are some useful links of things mentioned in the episode: About BioCanRx: https://biocanrx.com/about/about-biocanrx CLIC-01 Trial: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1074740 Paper mentioned on CAR T cells for autoimmune diseases: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2308917 CD22 CAR Paper from Dr. McComb's lab: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omton.2024.200775 Episode Script: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h0jUDBnVgdZcZk6aPCJ6IwaCIAt9uRml/view?usp=sharing Don't forget to give us a follow on instagram @wthisimmunotherapy! Or feel free to reach out to us at wthisimmunotherapt@gmail.com Creators & Producers: Gillian Savage, Grace Bernard, and Dr. Pauline Loos  Podcast Logo is designed by Mia Portelance  Music is by Lara Antebi (https://laraantebi.bandcamp.com/)

What the HEK is immunotherapy? With this podcast we are trying to answer that question! Through interviews with professors, students, patients, and other experts in the field we hope to introduce different types of immunotherapy and the research that is ongoing, specifically within the Canadian field. Join us as we try to make immunotherapy more digestible!

Before we dive into the different types of immunotherapy we wanted to take a step back to actually give a primer on what the HEK is immunotherapy? In this month's episode, hosts Gillian and Grace, along with co-creator Dr. Pauline Loos, describe the different components of the immune system, including the innate immune cells, adaptive immune cells such as T and B cells, and how these cells contribute to vaccine and cancer responses. We hope this immunology primer serves to get everyone up to speed on the major players in immunology that are utilized to fight cancer, or other diseases, in immunotherapy treatments.