Tumor reactive T cell functional programming in human cancer

Dr. Kellie Smith from Johns Hopkins, discusses her group's global study of the associations of neoantigen specific T cell responses with clinical outcomes to checkpoint blockades in cancer. The talk outlines the use of their MANAFEST T cell receptor sequencing technology, and by sequencing the CDR3 region, they are able to track clones that recognise the same antigen of interest. Showing that with lower clonality there is an association with higher residual tumour burden in patients. Pro5 Pentamers are also shown being used as an accurate way to validate their findings, by using them to track the neoantigen specific CD8 T cells. She also highlights the use of single cell RNA-seq in determining the phenotype of the clones in responding and non-responding patients.