BATS

Date/Time:

Oct 13, 2017 - 12:00 PM

Location:

Hosts:

Bevin P. Engelward

Speaker:

Title:

Untargeted Blood Metabolomics for Disease Diagnosis–Difficulties and Opportunities

Abstract:

There are hundreds of papers showing that researchers can differentiate between sick and healthy people by measuring the metabolites in blood (metabolomics). However, most studies are hampered by small sample sizes. This is because metabolomics is expensive, combining datasets from multiple groups studying the same disease is difficult, and the field is just beginning to adopt openly accessible data as the standard. In this talk, I will share a few naive approaches to reduce cost and enable the combination of datasets from different labs.

Speaker:

Title:

Treatment-modulated Antigens: A Quantitative Approach to Identify Changes in MHC Peptide Repertoires

Abstract:

Combining current cancer therapies such as kinase inhibitors and immunotherapies can extend patient survival, but the optimal order and timing of these drugs remain poorly understood. To investigate the immune consequences of administering these agents, we developed a quantitative method to determine how antigen repertoires presented to the immune system change with treatment. Using this approach, we aim to identify “treatment-modulated” antigens that can be leveraged for targeted immunotherapies and inform combination clinical trial design.