Mapping the COVID-19 T Cell Response at a Single-Cell Level

Presenters:

  • Gemma Figueras


While most COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic or display mild symptoms, some patients develop severe clinical symptoms. The pathogenic basis for this difference in disease severity among patients is poorly understood. Studying the immune response across patient populations is crucial to understanding these differences and developing future vaccines capable of offering protection against novel COVID-19 variants. This webinar will present cutting edge research and provide insights from the intersection of three areas of intense current focus – COVID-19 clinical research, single cell analysis, and the measurement of T cell responses.

Ultrahigh-Content Imaging Helps to Identify CAR Target Candidates Against Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Presenter:

  • Daniel Schäfer, Team Coordinator R&D


Join Dr. Daniel Schäfer, Team Coordinator R&D at Miltenyi Biotec, as he talks us through a recent and exciting development in the fight to make cancer history. Making use of the innovative MICS (MACSima™ Imaging Cyclic Staining) technology, Dr. Schäfer has bypassed a major roadblock prohibiting effective cellular immunotherapy of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a lack of suitable tumor-specific antigens. This research has allowed the positive identification of four target candidates from among 371 candidate antigens, and the subsequent generation of 32 chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to evaluate for therapeutic impact. Dr. Schäfer will explain how this was accomplished, how CAR T cell activity was evaluated in vitro, and promising constructs in vivo with efficacies ranging from stabilized disease to complete tumor eradication! Dr. Schäfer’s approach offers a tantalizing glimpse at the new possibilities allowed by the introduction of the MACSima Imaging Platform.

  • How MICS technology with the MACSima Imaging Platform enables ultrahigh-content imaging
  • How ultrahigh-content imaging helps to identify CAR targets
  • How this technology can be combined with flow cytometry and bioinformatic expression analyses
  • How this approach was used to identify 4 target candidates for CAR T cell-based immunotherapy of PDAC

Spectral Cytometry Software Workflows and Tools that Enable Multiparametric Flow Cytometry

Presenter:

  • Angela Beal, Global Product Marketing Manager


The ID7000™ Spectral Analyzer delivers an advanced optics design with an unparalleled number of lasers and detectors to deliver the highest quality data without compromise. Along with a best-in-class hardware design, the system software has been developed to include the capabilities for high parameter data acquisition and analysis that are critical to eliminate repetitive workflow steps, improve efficiency, and reduce training needs. Software tools support guided workflows and advanced features for streamlining experiment setup as well as acquisition and analysis of data from high-complexity panels to enable scientific discoveries. In our commercial tutorial we will provide an overview of the ID7000™ Spectral Analyzer software with an in-depth review of how to setup a high parameter experiment. Built-in software tools that enable automation and standardization of multiparameter experiments and simplifying experiment setup and analysis to get high quality results will also be discussed.

Using Integrated Plasma and Single-Cell Proteomics to Identify Biological Signatures of COVID-19 Severity

Presenters:

  • Dorien Feyaerts
  • Julien Hedou

The biological determinants of the wide spectrum of COVID-19 clinical manifestations are not fully understood. In the presented study, over 1,400 plasma proteins were assessed with Olink Proteomics in a cohort of 97 patients with mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19 symptoms, and 40 uninfected controls. Plasma proteomics were complemented with 2,600 single-cell immune features comprising cell phenotype, basal signaling activity, and signaling responses to inflammatory ligands, measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells using mass cytometry. By using an integrated computational approach to analyze the combined plasma and single-cell proteomic data, we identified and independently validated a multivariate model classifying COVID-19 severity (multi-class AUCtraining = 0.799, p-value = 4.2e-6; multi-class AUCvalidation = 0.773, p-value = 7.7e-6). Features of this high-dimensional model recapitulated recent COVID-19 related observations of immune perturbations and revealed novel biological signatures of severity, including the mobilization of elements of the renin-angiotensin system and primary hemostasis, as well as dysregulation of JAK/STAT, MAPK/mTOR, and NF-κB immune signaling networks. These results contribute clinically relevant insights into patient’s immune responses during SARS-CoV-2 infection and provide promising severity-specific biological markers that may be targeted therapeutically for the prevention of severe COVID-19.

Multiplex Base Editing of Primary Human NK Cells to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy

Stemcell Technologies logo

Presenters:

  • Amanda Vanden Hoek
  • Minjing (Molly) Wang
  • Sneha Balani, Ph.D.


NK cells are an attractive cancer immunotherapy candidate. Optimizing their function while minimizing safety concerns is a focus of current research. This workshop highlights base editor technology in multiplex engineering of NK cells.  Wang et al. recently used a panel of seven genes critical to NK cell therapeutic function and achieved both high editing efficiency and enhanced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. These findings suggest that multiplex base editing in CAR-expressing NK cells may serve as a powerful platform to improve NK cell activity and toxicity for cancer immunotherapy.

Detecting Low-Abundance Proteins in a Western Blot: Overcoming Challenges for Improved Signal-to-Noise of Low-Expression and Scarce Sample Targets

Presenters:

  • Caleb Shearrow, Product Manager, Protein Biology
  • Bea Dworecki, R&D Scientist, Protein Biology


Detection of low-abundance proteins or detection of proteins from scarce samples can be a major challenge when performing western blotting. In this workshop, we will discuss specific methods from sample preparation through immunodetection that can help overcome challenges and improve signal-to-noise of low-abundance proteins for more successful western blot detection.