Abstract B300: Discovering immune-mediated therapy for cancer biologics is informed by in vitro cellular assays.

Immune-mediated therapy for cancer (IMT-C) biologics are an emerging class of cancer drugs which target cells of the immune system to enhance the immune response to cancer. Cross-reactivity of IMT-C mAbs and other biologics to rodents is rare, emphasizing the importance of human in vitro assays in IMT-C discovery and development. Typically there is a trade-off between the physiological relevance of an assay and its throughput, hence higher-throughput assays are used in the early stages of drug discovery, and more complex, lower-throughput assays are subsequently used to profile lead candidates. Here, we review a panel of in vitro cellular assays currently used for IMT-C drug programs at MedImmune including transgenic reporter cell systems, bead-based assays, and multi-cellular systems using cell-lines and primary human immune cells. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):B300. Citation Format: Geoff Williams, Edmund Poon, Samantha Ireland, Janette Dillon, Ross Stewart, Robert Wilkinson. Discovering immune-mediated therapy for cancer biologics is informed by in vitro cellular assays. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2013 Oct 19-23; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2013;12(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B300.