In this episode we take a look a look at how cytokines can be employed to modulate the tumour microenvironment in favourable ways.

You'll hear various perspectives from numerous academic and industry experts who are active in research in this field, including Dr Mario Sznol (Yale), Dr James Gulley (NCI), Dr Adi Diab (MD Anderson), Dr Jonathan Zalevsky (Nektar Therapeutics), Dr Sanjeev Mariathasan (Genentech), Prof Tom Powles (Barts Cancer Institute), Dr Kunle Odunsi (Roswell Park), and Dr Renier Brentjens (Memorial Sloan Kettering).

Some important topics that we will cover:

- What are cytokines?
- Why do they matter?
- The good and bad effects they can induce on the tumour microenvironment (TME)
- Interleukins
- Transforming Growth Factor beta (TGFβ)
- The increasingly important role for reverse translation research in helping to understand what's going on in the TME in order to improve rational future immuno-oncology (IO) combination approaches
- Can we determine differences in responders and non-responders?
- Novel approaches in clinical development, including CAR T cell therapies in solid tumours, and why they are different from previous approaches that were either too toxic or ineffective

You can find more detailed information about the topics discussed in the show notes on https://noveltargets.com. Most of the interviews were conducted at recent AACR and ASCO meetings in 2018 and full transcripts of the individual interviews can be found on https://biotechstrategyblog.com.

The music is by violinist and composer David Schulman. Listen to more at http://www.quietlifemotel.com

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