Review: Biomarkers for Immunotherapy of Cancer

This year, after two long years of convening virtually, it was great to see so many unite in the city of New Orleans for #AACR2022.

GEN: Typically, image analysis tools are greatly influenced by inconsistent staining results and even different techniques used for multiplexing. How does the software used by OracleBio account for inter- and intra-run variability in staining quality? Lorcan. To be honest, we do see staining variability in some sample sets, especially in complex tissues from large clinical

It was a record year of attendance at this year’s 37th annual SITC meeting. Whether reflective of waning new Covid cases from a peak in late January 2022, a new location, or merely the appetite to meet up with colleagues, check out new technologies or be part of important scientific discussions-Boston SITC had it all.

I have learned in my career that there is a special recipe for making young companies successful. You need to have an amazing product that enables customers to accomplish their goals in a better way than their current method.

Despite advances in immunotherapy, it’s clear that only a minority of patients respond. Therapies that rely on immune activation, such as checkpoint inhibitors, have been shown to be especially difficult due to the complex and heterogeneous immune escape mechanisms which can develop in each patient. Clearly there’s much anticipation and focus on new contenders for successful combination checkpoint therapy.

Adapted from a line in “Ode to a Mouse” from fellow countryman Robert Burns, the phrase, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”, indicate that no matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it unfortunately speaks to the reality of clinical trials for novel therapeutics, with approximately only 11% of drugs that begin phase I clinical trials eventually being licensed.

Alfred Hitchcock once said, “The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture”, for the immunotherapy picture, that successful villain is M1 macrophages.

As I approach my one-year anniversary with Ultivue, I am excited to be part of a vibrant, rapidly growing company committed to transforming anatomic pathology with our next generation staining technology, InSituPlex®.