Precision Immunotherapy to Fight Infections, Inflammation (and Cancer)

Recent developments in medical sciences supplemented by next generation sequencing tools, enable us to understand yet another level of the underlying principles in i) the immune response during infections, ii) the deregulated immune response in (auto)inflammatory disorders, and iii) the limitation of anti-tumor immunity. While the term immunotherapy has been used for 30 years, novel data suggest true therapeutic breakthroughs that have not been seen before.

During the breakfast, the following topics will be discussed:
1. Current and potential future diagnostic tools to enable a better, patient-tailored understanding of individual changes in immunity in a given disease (including, but not limited to, genetic screens, tools and technological advances thinkable, usefulness of knowledge obtained from rare genetic disease).
2. New targets for therapeutic and preventive interventions that enable us to modulate immunity to improve survival from infections and cancer (including cancer vaccination strategies, immunoadjuvant approaches, gene therapy, etc.).

Panellists
Moderator: Sylvia Knapp, MD, PhD, Prof. of Infection Biology (MedUni Vienna)
Principal Investigator (CeMM)
Young Scientist: Cecilia Domingues Conde
Nobel Laureate: Bruce Beutler