NSI annual meeting

We were glad to attend to the NSI annual meeting 2023.

Congratuations to our team for their active participation and a special thanks to our selected speakers, Nicholas and Christopher (best presentation prize winner):

Pictures: Sandy Joaquina

Publication: rechallenge protocol

 

It's not always easy to recapitulate in vivo activity in plastics. Re-challenge is one of these methods that might contribute to a better understanding of CAR Tc biology, while avoiding the use of animals. This is one of our protocols, there are many more (we hope we cited most of them) and there is still a long road until an artificial environment will be able to help us to predict how T cell will behave in clinical settings.

Here is a link to your free pdf (valid for a month or so): https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hlxb,25QIopT0

Innovation prize 2023 goes to our team

Delighted to announce that we received the Innovation prize 2023 from our TTO (Inven2). DogBite is a collaboration with our friends (and colleagues) from the University of Bergen which we hope will be the first step towards realistic animal models for validation of immunotherapy. More information can be found here: (article in Norwegian but movie in English). We are grateful to Inven2 for their support (and the nice party)!

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The winning team: Pascal Gelebart-Sébastien Wälchli-Vibeke Samuelsen Fosse-Emmet McCormack

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The supporting team: Sandy Joaquina-Klara Krpina-Christopher Forcados-Shoaib Diaa Ahmed-Alicia Villatoro-Lindsey Scott

 

 

OSCARs published in Nature Communications

Finally out! We are extremely happy to announce the publication of two other babies from our CAR factory: OSCARs which, like their brothers and sisters, were designed from antibodies isolated long time ago at Oslo University Hospital.
The article can be found here: https://rdcu.be/dd5IY

CD22CAR paper published in JBC

Our home-made anti-CD22 CAR is now published in JBC: here

In addition to show that IS7 antibody generates an efficient CAR, we also show that anti-CD22 can be used as a BiTE. We are gratefull to all the co-authors and to our collaborators in Poland for their excellent work!

IPerGlio kick-off meeting in Oslo

IPerGlio project started with this meeting on the 13th of June, with the aim of improving personalised glioblastoma treatment by immunomics and AI approaches!
We are glad to coordinate this project that will certainly result in a fruitful collaboration with
our excellent partners from Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Germany. The project is supported by RCN, IT-MoH, FNR, ISCIII/FCAECC, and BMBF, under the frame of ERA PerMed.
Looking very much forward to work together!

CIMT 2023

Our Unit was nicely represented at the last CIMT meeting:

Sandy                                               Lea

Nadia                                                Alicia

Happy New Year 2023 from our Team!

Rad4 TCR clinical protocol published

NSI meeting 2022

This year our lab participated actively to the NSI annual meeting. Congratulations to all the poster presenters and to our two speakers: Nadia Mensali and Benjamin Caulier who obtained the prize for the best presentation!

Our heroes in action:

 

Digital Life Conference 2022

Congratulations to the team for the Best Poster Award!

A good collaboration established between NTNU, OUS and ThermoFischer on the CellFit project.

Contact meeting through Digital Life Norway (2022):

 

 

Euronanomed-3 video contest

We are very proud to be part of the NAN-4-TUM consortium (Leader: S. Scala), videos from the different projects have been published, you can vote for ours!

 

Interview about combination immunotherapy from Anna Winge-Main

Interesting interview (in Norwegian) about combination immunotherapy from our lab member Anna Winge-Main who is also an expert clinician on the subject.

 

Nadia Mensali will give a presentation

Nadia Mensali has been invited by the Hellenic Society of Gene Therapy
and Regenerative Medicine to give a presentation:

"Design and validation of CAR directed against osteosarcoma"

at the

"Gene and Cell Therapies: New Perspectives for old diseases - Web Event" on Friday 26 November. More information can be found here

PIVAC is still alive!

Thanks to the Local Organizing Committee & the International Scientific Committee for this fantastic PIVAC21 meeting in beautiful Granada!

 

A new publication from our group

We are happy to share our new publication about a modified version of PD-1 receptor, or how to turn something negative to an enhancing molecule. There have been a few reports this year showing technologies similar to ours, suggesting that interest for associated molecules to increase the binding might represent a solution to improve cell -based therapy. We thank all co-authors and of course our support: Helse Sør Øst, The Research Council of Norway and The Norwegian Cancer Society

Two new papers from/in collaboration with our group

Paper 1:

Targeting KRAS mutations with HLA class II-restricted TCRs for the treatment of solid tumors

Pierre Dillard, Nicholas Casey, Sylvie Pollmann, Patrik Vernhoff, Gustav Gaudernack, Gunnar Kvalheim, Sébastien Wälchli & Else Marit Inderberg

Paper 2:

Circulating Tumor Cell Persistence Associates with Long-TermClinical Outcome to a Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine inProstate Cancer

Ingrid Jenny Guldvik, Lina Ekseth, Amar U. Kishan, Andreas Stensvold, Else Marit Inderberg and Wolfgang Lilleby

 

Congratulations to Synne !

We are very proud of Synne Halvorsen Hougsnæs who succesfully defended her Master of Science in Biotechnology:

"CMV-specific Immune Responses Induced by Dendritic Cell Vaccines in Glioblastoma patients
And Clinical Benefit"

The normal protocol was respected:

Defense                                                                       Flowers                                                         Cake

Anna Winge-Main and ASCO-2021

Anna Winge-Main, who is medical oncologist (melanoma), but also PhD student in our unit has been interviewed (here) to give an overview of the melanoma studies presented in ASCO-2021:

 

 

 

Congratulation to Clara, our future colleague!

Clara has successfully defended her Master thesis today and will join us next week.

We now know that one should be careful when selecting LB medium.

Credit: C. Forcados laptop at OCCI social area

New article

Congratulations to our collaborator and friend Andres Maturana for his last publication integrating some of our design (NB: this is not immunotherapy!)

 

News Course on advanced therapy for EATRIS

Find out more about this excellent training program of ADVANCE 

Credit: ADVANCE, linkedIN

Two new publications

Targeting telomerase with an HLA class II-restricted TCR for cancer immunotherapy.

Freshly published in Molecular Therapy

and Combinatorial CAR design improves target restriction.

Published in Journal of Biological Chemistry

Your are most welcom to read the first article here and the second here !

Jubileumsintervju Inven2 10 år: Else Marit Inderberg – Inven2

Inven2 celebrates 10 years of collaboration with leading senior researchers bringin new products and services on market. Therefore, find out more informations about Dr. Else-Marit Inderberg's (group leader and head of immunomonitoring) interview here !

Else Marit Inderberg på laben. Foto: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersen.

We are happy to welcome our new labmate : Seahorse !

The Seahorse XFe96 Analyzer (Agilent) measures the oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) of live cells in a 96-well plate format.

OCR and ECAR rates are key indicators of mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis as well as ATP production rate. Together these measurements will provide a clear view of cellular metabolic function in cultured cells such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)- and T-cell Receptor (TCR)-modified cells !

More informations here !

Credit: Janne Nestvold (OCCI)

Solveig Mjelstad Olafsrud (Engineer) and Benjamin Caulier (Postdoc) will take care of it !

We are looking for a motivated Master student !

Immunotherapy & Biotechnology: Validation of humanized Chimeric Antigen Receptors targeted against solid tumour

A Master position is available for 2021 at the Unit of Translational Research, Department of Cellular Therapy, Oslo University Hospital (OUS) Radiumhospitalet under the supervision of Sébastien Wälchli (Senior researcher, group leader).

We offer: (1) a position in a dynamic environment within a modern/fully equipped facility (Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator next to Radium hospital) and (2) the possibility to use advanced technology.

Successful candidates might be sent to an international conference.

Find out more here !

Any questions about the position can be sent to the following e-mail address: sebastw@rr-research.no

Virtual Event: What Does it Take to Impact Innovation?

Join the Oslo Cancer Cluster virtual event presented during Oslo Innovation Week (September 2020) and hear from stakeholders who inspire innovation, protect innovation and provide the necessary tools for innovation.

Found out more at OCCi website !

Credit: OCCi

 

Vanishing data !

This is how lab discussions emerge ;)

Here is Patrik Vernhoff (Postdoc NFR, our favorite biostatistician !) air-presenting vanishing expression profil on PCA.

Credits: SW

Lab's Journal CLub - 14th of September 2020

Don't miss the journal club of Monday, 14th of September 2020.

Benjamin CAULIER, Postdoc, will present an article published in Immunity that deals with sustainability of CAR expression and response persistence using Ubiquitination modifications.

 

Credits: From Wentao Li et al:, Article in Immunity Volume 53, ISSUE 2, P456-470.e6, August 18, 2020

The journal club will take place in the usual 5th floor meeting room after the lab meeting (around 12h). See you there !

The Translational Research Unit will present some papers at the Immunology Journal Club on Friday 4th of September 2020 !

Hakan Köksal will present: Designed protein logic to target cells with precise combinations of surface antigens (Marc J. Lajoie et al., 2020) (https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/19/science.aba6527.full)

Nadia Mensali will present: An RNA vaccine drives immunity in checkpoint-inhibitor-treated melanoma ( Ugur Sahin et al., 2020) (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2537-9)

The Zoom link will be uptaded soon, make sure to schedule this event in your agenda !

The Translational Research Unit has licensed NK-TCR to Zelluna Immunotherapy

The Norwegian biotech Zelluna Immunotherapy, based on a licence from our Translational Research Unit (Group leaders: Else Marit Inderberg and Sebastien Wälchli's group), received NOK 83 million to pursue their development on TCR-redirected NK cells !

We are very happy that an innovation developped five years ago by the early team (G. Gaudernack, G. Kvalheim, EM Inderberg and S. Wälchli) is now being developed as a therapeutic product. We thank our co-workers for their hard work, Inven2 for their support in the commercial development, and NFR, Helse Sør-Øst and Kreftforeningen  for their financial support and guidance.  

The team in Boston concluded that lobster is better than business:

The concept (with the old name):

Design: P. Dillard

Find more about this here !

New review on TCR therapy against melanoma

Process of T cell therapy production for patient use

We published a new review in Scandinavian Journal of Immunology on how to adapt TCR redirected T-cells therapy to fight melanoma!

Make sure to have a look here!

New review!

We published a review on putative targets in ovarian cancer for CAR therapy in Scandinavian Journal of Immunology! Make sure to have a look here!

 

Hakan Köksal, Ph.D.

Hakan Köksal successfully defended his Ph.D. entitled “Novel designs and approaches in CAR T cells” Thursday 28th May.

All of his colleagues are proud of his work and his achievements!

PhD defense: Hakan Köksal

M.Sc Hakan Köksal at Institute of Clinical Medicine will be defending the thesis “Novel designs and approaches in CAR T cells” for the degree of PhD (Philosophiae Doctor).

Due to the current pandemic situation, the University of Oslo is closed and the public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom here.

The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.

New case report!

Else Marit Inderberg and Nadia Mensali took part in a paper showing the treatment of posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disease by using retransplantation, make sure to check it here!

New papers

Baoyan Bai, June Helen Myklebust and Sébastien Wälchli just published a protocol on how to edit B cell lymphoma using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, make sure to have a look here!

Gene Editing in B-Lymphoma Cell Lines Using CRISPR/Cas9 Technology

 

 

Sébastien Wälchli and Mouldy Sioud published also a protocol on CRISPR/Cas9 as a tool for adoptive cell therapy. More information here!

Next Generation of Adoptive T Cell Therapy Using CRISPR/Cas9 Technology: Universal or Boosted?

 

Finally, Nicholas Casey published recently a paper on the use of RNAi with TCR transfer to enhance safety and efficiency. Follow the guide!

 

New review !

A new review from Else Marit Inderberg and Sebastien Wälchli was published in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. The review described how we can isolate and identify therapeutic TCRs from long-term surviving patients.

Make sure to have a look here!

New publication !

Nadia Mensali and Marit R. Myhre published a new study entitled: "Preclinical assessment of transiently TCR redirected T cells for solid tumour immunotherapy". A copy of the study published in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy can be found here.

Two news, one stone !

We were at the last PIVAC (Progress in Vaccination Against Cancer) 2019 !

Else Marit and Hedvig presented our most recent developments !

Make sure to check their abstracts !

Yesterday Lizet Baken successfully defended her Bachelor Thesis at the Avans University of Applied Sciences.

Part of this thesis was performed in our lab where she has been working on an anti-Ig-lambda CAR.

Congratulations Lizet, we are all very proud of you!

We will be at CIMT 2019

    

 

Else Marit Inderberg, Sebastien Wälchli, Nadia Mensali and Elizabeth Baken will attend CIMT 2019 meeting in Mainz (21 to 23 May).

Make sure to look at their abstracts.

CIMT website

CIMT program

First norwegian CAR publication!

We published pre-clinical results of the first 100% Norwegian CAR: CD37CAR, an alternative to CD19CAR.

Make sure to have a look here and here !

Hakan Köksal And Pierre Dillard are first authors of this publication.

 

We will be at AACR 2019

 

Gunnar Kvalheim, Hakan Köksal and Pierre Dillard will be at the next AACR meeting (29th of March to 3rd of April, Atalanta) to talk about new developments in CAR.

Hakan will present a novel combination method for IGKCAR that prevents B-cell aplasia.

Pierre will present the pre-clinical validation of CD37CAR, an alternative to CD19CAR.

Make sure to have a look!

A new Postdoc joined us !

Emmanuelle Benard who did her PhD in Biophysics and Immunology in Marseille, just joined us ! 

She will be in charge of the development of new CAR T-cells.

First JOVE shooting

We had our first JOVE shooting on a new metod to generate spheroid for CAR T-cells screening.

Make sure to give it a look (once it is out) !

 

 

 

 

PIVAC 2018 was held in Oslo

PIVAC 2018 was held in Oslo, co-organized by the department of Cell Therpay. The conference permitted to share new advance in the field of vaccination and future prospects for immunotherapy. 

We will be at CIMT 2018!

    

 

Gunnar Kvalheim, Else Marit Inderberg, Sebastien Wälchli and Nadia Mensali will attend CIMT 2018 meeting in Mainz (15 to 17 May).

Make sure to look at their abstracts.

CIMT website

CIMT program

We will be at AACR 2018

 

 

Pierre Dillard will attend the 2018 meeting of the American Association for Cncer Research (AACR). He will present our recent work on universal killer, make sure to have a look !

New publication from our group in Cancer Immunology

Human c-SRC kinase (CSK) overexpression makes T cells dummy

Patient safety upon immunotherapy treatment is a challenge that still need to be adressed.

In this publication we report how by affecting c-SRC kinase we can make T-cells "dummy": effector cells are still able to recognize and bind to the target but unable to carry on with their activation. This mechanism could potentially open the way for a safe-lock system permitting to reduce off-target toxicity.

Image from: Ellen Tenstad/Science Shaped

We will be at SITC 2017 !

 

Nadia Mensali and Pierre Dillard will attend the 2017 meeting of the Society for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (SITC). They will present our recent work on universal killer and CD4 Adoptive cell therapy, make sure to have a look !

We will be at PIVAC 2017 at the end of September

 Marit Renee Myhre has been selected to give a talk at  the 17th International Conference on Progress in  Vaccination Against Cancer (PIVAC 2017) in Loutraki,  Corinth, Greece

 She will present our latest work on our new CD4-based therapy, make sure to have a look at the abstract if you want  to learn more !

 

New publication: therapeutic T-cell receptors in healthy donor blood, is safety predictable?

Our team has published a new paper in Translational Cancer Research:


New publication in our team: therapeutic T-cell receptors in healthy donor blood, is safety predictable? by Hakan Köksal and Sébastien Wälchli.
They are commenting a paper published in 2017 in Blood by Jahn et al. that presents a novel TCR-based therapy trageting intracellular transcription factor. Make sure to have a look at both papers!