Science Says
B + T = Immunotherapy: Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer
Join us for Science Says on Tuesday, April 27, to meet researchers who are using the power of the immune system to create personalized therapies. Dr. Bruce Clurman, Fred Hutch Executive Vice President and Deputy Director, will moderate a Q&A with three pioneering scientists who are transforming the alphabet soup of the immune system — T cells, B cells, and others — into cures for cancers and viruses.
And we'll have COVID Corner with Dr. Rachel Bender Ignacio, medical director of our one-of-a-kind COVID-19 Clinical Research Center, who will talk about treatments and answer your questions.
Thank you to our Science Says partner
Mercer Advisors
Speakers
Dr. Bruce Clurman
Dr. Bruce Clurman is Fred Hutch's executive vice president and deputy director and holder of the Rosput Reynolds Endowed Chair. A stem cell transplant physician and scientist, he studies how cancer disrupts normal cellular mechanisms. In his leadership role, he facilitates interdisciplinary research, including a unique collaboration between immunotherapy and data science researchers at the Lake Union Steam Plant.
Dr. Rachel Bender Ignacio
Dr. Rachel Bender Ignacio is medical director of the Fred Hutch’s COVID-19 Clinical Research Center, a stand-alone facility designed to test new interventions to treat and prevent COVID-19. Her own research focuses on the link between immune responses and HIV infections, and she has quickly become a respected authority on the intersection of HIV and COVID-19.
Dr. Jim Boonyaratanakornit
Dr. Jim Boonyaratanakornit studies B cells, the body’s antibody factories, to learn why different people have different types of immune responses to the same infection. He is also working to identify specific B cells (and their associated antibodies) that could be used to treat common respiratory viruses that affect immunocompromised cancer patients.
Dr. Stanley Riddell
Dr. Stanley Riddell is a world leader in developing CAR T-cell therapies, “living drugs” that are made by re-engineering patients’ own immune cells to fight their cancers. He is working to improve CAR T-cell therapies and expand the repertoire of cancers they can treat. He holds the Burke O’Reilly Family Endowed Chair in Immunotherapy.
Dr. Shivani Srivastava
Dr. Shivani Srivastava has developed an innovative preclinical model to study how normal T cells and engineered CAR T cells respond to cancer before, during, and after treatment. She is using this model to identify ways to build new CAR T-cell therapies that are more effective, particularly in solid tumors like breast and lung cancer.