9th International Conference on Tumor Microenvironment and Cellular Stress: Signaling, Metabolism, Imaging and Therapeutic Targets

Program

Each session consists of invited talks (20+5 for Q&A) and some w short talks (12+3 Q&A)

Day 1-Sunday, September 17

Conference Registration:   7:00-8:00pm    Hotel Lobby

Welcome Reception and Dinner 8:00-10:30pm 

Day 2-Monday, September 18 

7:30am - Breakfast

9:00    Costas Koumenis, UPenn - Opening remarks

Session I (9:05 am- 10:45 am): Age-related changes in the TME and cancer cells

Chair: Costas Koumenis

9:05 Ashani Weeraratna, Johns Hopkins - Age Against the Machine: How the aging microenvironment drives tumor progression            

9:30 Sheila Stewart, Washington Univ. - Age-related stromal changes drive breast cancer progression

9:55 Ravi Amaravadi, UPenn - Understanding the role of Mitochondria in Cancer and Ageing

10:20 Sandra McAllister, Harvard Univ. - Unraveling the Complexities of the Aging Breast Cancer Microenvironment for Improved Treatment Strategies


10:45 Coffee Break-Discussions & Poster Viewing (10:45 am-11:20 pm)

 

Session II (11:20am-1:30pm): The immune landscape of tumors, cancer cell plasticity & immune evasion 

Chair: Sandra Ryeom

11:20  Malay Haldar, UPenn - Glutamine metabolism regulates dendritic cell distribution in the tumor microenvironment 

11:45 Tim Padera, Harvard Univ. - The lymph node microenvironment induces cancer cell plasticity and evasion of anticancer immunity

12:10 Yi Fan, UPenn - Metabolic reprogramming of endothelial cells for cancer immunotherapy

12:35 Quynh Le, Stanford Univ. - NFE2L2 mutation enhances radioresistance in head & neck cancer by modulating intratumoral myeloid cells

1:00 Richard Groen, U Amsterdam - Investigating the bidirectional interaction of tumor cells and the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment.

1:15 James Schofield, Notre Dame - Enhanced Acod1 expression in cancer cells promotes immune evasion

 

1:30 pm   Lunch/Informal Discussions

3:00pm    Informal Discussions

7:30pm    Dinner/Informal Discussions

Day 3-Tuesday, September 19

7:30am - Breakfast

 

Session III (8:30am- 10:40am) TME stress responses I: UPR and ISR               

Chair:  Ravi Amaravadi

8:30 Albert Koong, MDACC - IRE1a Regulates Ferroptosis through Regulation of Glutathione Synthesis: Implications for Cancer Therapy

8:55 Eric Chevet, INSERM - Endoplasmic Reticulum proteostasis in brain cancer

9:20 Christina Munoz-Pinedo, IDIBELL - Metabolic stress in the tumor microenvironment and the Integrated Stress Response

9:45 Xi Chen, Baylor Coll. Med. - Stressing Out Therapy-Resistant Cancers

10:10 David Soto-Pantoja, WFUSM - PKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase is a marker and target to enhance immune checkpoint therapy response

10:25 Lucie Malbeteau, U Toronto - PRDX4 loss triggers antitumor immune responses through DNA damage in pancreatic cancer

 

10:40 Coffee Break-Discussions & Poster Viewing (10:40 am-11:30 pm)

 

Session IV (11:30am-1:35pm): TME Stress responses II: Autophagy, differentiation & senescence

Chair:  Ashi Weeraratna

11:30 Rushika Perera, UCSF - Identifying and disabling lysosome dependent adaptive programs in primary and metastatic pancreatic cancer 

11:55 Jayanta Debnath, UCSF - Autophagy and metastatic differentiation

12:20 Ravi Amaravadi, UPenn - Understanding the role of Mitochondria in Cancer and Ageing 

12:45  Pataje Prasanna, NCI - Therapy-Induced Senescence Landscape

1:10 David Gewirtz, VCU - Senescence and senolytic strategies to enhance the response to standard of care in preclinical cancer models

 

1:35 pm   Lunch/Informal Discussions 

3:00pm    Informal Discussions

7:30 pm   Dinner/Informal Discussions

Day 4-Wednesday, September 20

7:30am - Breakfast 

Session V (8:30am -10:35am): Metabolism in primary and metastatic tumors

Chair: Yi Fan

8:30 Eileen White, NJCI/Rutgers - Metabolic alterations in tumor and host in cancer

8:55 Thales Papagiannakopoulos, NYU - Dissecting the crosstalk of nutrient sensing, stress response signalling and immune evasion

9:20 Davide Ruggero, UCSF - Selective remodeling of the translatome underlies ketogenesis and diet associated tumor growth

9:45 Jiangbin Ye, Stanford Univ.  - Deciphering the Warburg effect: mitochondrial uncoupling reprograms cancer metabolism and epigenome to induce differentiation

10:10 Marcia Haigis, Harvard Univ. - Understanding the role of Mitochondria in Cancer and Ageing


Coffee Break-Discussions & Poster Viewing (10:35 am-11:15 am) 


Session VI (11:15am-1:30pm) Tumor-stroma interactions

Chair: Ioannis Verginadis

11:15 Ruth Scherz-Shouval, Weizmann Inst. - Tumor-stroma coevolution

11:40 Sandra Ryeom, Columbia Univ. - Tumor innervation in cancer progression

12:05 Carla Kim, Harvard Univ. - Cell-cell interactions in regulation of lung homeostasis, disease and cancer

12:30 Gina Bouchard, Stanford Univ. - Tumor-stroma assembloids of lung adenocarcinoma reveal the spatial cell-cell "colocatome”

12:45  Monika Dzwigonska, Polish Acad. Sci. - Hypoxia shapes the chromatin accessibility changes in glioma reprogrammed microglial cells.

1:00 Krista Dalton, VCU - Exploring the relationship between metabolism and the epigenome in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma 

1:15  Katherine Wu, NYU - Dissecting the role of redox homeostasis and ferroptosis in lung adenocarcinoma

 

1:30 pm      Lunch/Informal Discussions

3:30pm       CULTURAL TOUR

7:30pm       Dinner/Informal Discussions 

Day 5-Thursday, September 21

7:30am - Breakfast

Session VII (8:30am- 10:10am) Tumor stem cells, cell-autonomous signaling 

Chair: Maria Tsiarli 

8:30 Seamus Martin, Trinity Coll. - Cell Stress, Cell Death and Inflammation: What doesn’t Kill you Makes you Stronger 

8:55 Irfan Asangani, UPenn - Loss of PP2A activity drives prostate cancer progression and therapy resistance

9:20 Lenka Munoz, Univ of Sydney - Targeting lipid metabolic vulnerabilities in chemotherapy-tolerant persister cells

9:45 Yang Shi, Oxford Univ. - Chromatin regulation and cancer  

  

Short Coffee break (10:10 am-10:25 am)

  

Session VIII (10:25am-11:15am) Latest developments in Radiotherapy-FLASH Radiation I

Chair: Michele Kim

10:25  Marie Catherine-Vozenin, U Geneva - Overcoming radiation resistance of tumors with FLASH?

10:50 Charles Limoli, UC Irvine - Elucidating the protective neurological mechanisms of hypofractionated FLASH radiotherapy in pediatric and adult mouse models

 

Coffee Break-Discussions & Poster Viewing (11:15 am-11:45 am)

 

Session IX (11:45am-1:40pm) Latest developments in Radiotherapy-FLASH Radiation II

Chair: Erato Stylianou-Makridou

11:45 Michele Kim, UPenn - Physics considerations for clinical translations of proton FLASH radiotherapy

12:10 Amit Maity, Univ. Utah - Effects of FLASH proton radiotherapy on bone/soft tissue and tumor growth using single dose and fractionated regimens 

12:35 Costas Koumenis, UPenn - A surprising role for IFN signaling behind the FLASH sparing effect in normal intestinal tissues

1:00 Keith Cengel, UPenn - Investigating the Effects of FLASH Radiotherapy Using Large Animal Models: The Issue at Hand is the Tissue at Hand

1:25 Yiannis Verginadis, UPenn - FLASH proton radiotherapy mitigates inflammatory and fibrotic pathways and preserves cardiac function in a preclinical mouse model of radiation-induced heart disease. 

1:40 Sandra Ryeom, Columbia Univ. - Closing remarks  

  

1:45pm     Lunch/Informal Discussions

3:00pm    Informal Discussions

7:30pm     Farewell Dinner

Day 6–Friday, September 22 

7:00am - Breakfast

Departure

 

All remaining abstracts have been accepted as a poster presentation