Under the leadership of Founding Director Zihai Li, MD, PhD, the PIIO has developed a strategic plan and recruited several staff members and scientists with expertise ranging from development of cancer vaccines to bioinformatic and statistical modeling for high-throughput immunogenomic screening. More than 80 PIIO scientists are pursuing immuno-oncology (IO) approaches to clinical trials at the OSUCCC – James.
Moreover, PIIO members to date have obtained $29 million in annual funding from new grants (including $19 million from the NIH), published more than 500 peer-reviewed articles, launched some 60 clinical trials, added 13 technologies to the institute’s Immune Monitoring and Discovery Platform, and entered research agreements with corporations such as Alphamab Oncology, Heat Biologics, Genentech and others.
In addition, the PIIO has initiated a cancer immunotherapy cohort database to help scientists determine risk factors associated with efficacy and adverse drug events related to cancer immunotherapies. Li believes the PIIO has a strong framework and IO research capabilities that are enabling it to move quickly forward. “We’re becoming a national leader in driving IO breakthroughs. Just during this calendar year, we have recruited seven new faculty and have appointed four new PIIO members from existing Ohio State University faculty,” Li says.
“In partnership with the Department of Biomedical Informatics, we have developed an IO database to drive discovery and inform clinical decisions in the advancement of precision medicine.” To develop early-phase, first-inclass cancer immunotherapies, he adds, “We are establishing a partnership with a clinicalstage biopharmaceutical company to advance clinical knowledge of a next-generation antitumor efficacy-mediated antibody. We will share more information about this partnership in the coming months.” In partnership with Ohio State’s Buckeye Wellness Innovators Program and with an eye on the well-being of the community, Li continues, “We are developing WE3, an online resource for updates on events and information that promote health and wellness.” Li says plans call for opening up to 130 IO clinical trials over the next five years and for creating a pipeline of novel cancer immunotherapeutics, many of them driven by Ohio State discoveries that will be tested at patient bedsides.
Among the new technologies recently added to the PIIO’s Immune Monitoring and Discovery Platform (IMDP), Li says, is the Vectra Polaris Imaging Platform. This fully automatic, high-throughput system allows multispectral imaging that enables researchers to reliably visualize, analyze, quantify and phenotype cells in situ. With high-speed digital scanning at 10x, 20x and 40x, as well as up to seven unmixed colors, scientists can identify and quantify up to six overlapping biomarkers without the interference of auto-fluorescence.
Importantly, the PIIO comprises a team of data scientists and computation biologists to convert big data (including spatial information) into immunooncology breakthroughs. Li describes the PIIO mission as a vast team effort and expresses gratitude to all who have contributed, including the entire Pelotonia community of Riders, Challengers, Volunteers, Donors and Funding Partners.
To guide PIIO research efforts, the institute has organized into four interconnected centers of research excellence: Cancer Immuno-Genomics, Cell Therapy, Systems Immuno-Oncology and Translational ImmunoOncology.
- Cancer Immuno-Genomics is a program conducted with Nationwide Children’s Hospital that involves understanding the relationship between cancer genomics and immune evasion. It encompasses epigenetics, neo-antigen vaccines, epitope prediction, T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire analysis, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) screening.
- Cell Therapy involves collecting immune cells from a patient’s blood, engineering them to target and eradicate cancer cells and returning them to the patient. This includes adoptive cell therapy with T cells and natural killer (NK) cells.
- Systems Immuno-Oncology seeks a better understanding of cellular systems to create more efficient and effective immunological tools to fight cancer. This includes immune regulation, microbiome, NK-cell and T-cell biology, and tumor microenvironment.
- Translational Immuno-Oncology focuses on transforming IO discoveries into new or improved cancer treatments applicable at patient bedsides. This team works with the Drug Development Institute (DDI) at the OSUCCC – James to develop drug therapies.