: How has research in cancer immunotherapy changed in the past decade and how have technological developments contributed to this evolution?
MH: Immunotherapy a decade ago was predominantly monoclonal drug therapy like Herceptin or Rituximab. Immunotherapy now includes a larger list of monoclonal antibodies, cancer vaccines, immune system modulators, and immune system inhibitors such as cytokines, small molecules, and T-cell therapy. All of these approaches can be used alone, in combination with one another, and in combination with chemotherapy and/or radiation. These advances in immunotherapy are possible because of big technological leaps in cell analysis, which include molecular technology, gene sequencing, flow cytometry, and cell sorting. The Cytek Aurora has the capability to deliver deep profiling from a single sample, providing scientists in academia, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals with a powerful tool for characterizing the immune system’s response to cancer. That information can then be used to improve patient treatments.
: What are some of the biggest hurdles/challenges facing researchers in this field and do you think they are being adequately addressed?
MH:
- The complex nature of our immune systems—Not only do we need to better understand all the different cell types involved in our immune response, but we must also examine how they all interact with one another.
- Cancer itself is complex—This means the more data collected about its interaction with the immune system, the better scientists will be able to develop therapies to manipulate that interaction.
- Cancer acts differently in different patients and the same immunotherapies act differently in different patients—Each patient sample is being used for various analyses to characterize the different immunotherapies, whether that be next-generation sequencing (NGS), protein analysis, or flow cytometry. This presents a challenge when only limited sample is available.
: Are there technological solutions that are currently being developed that you are excited about?
MH: There are numerous solutions and developments specifically in immunotherapy that are exciting to watch, such as CAR-T cell therapy. Gene editing is exciting too. But neither of these new therapies are possible without really understanding and researching the unknowns. This is where laboratory diagnostic and monitoring technologies play a very important role. Our spectral flow cytometers enable the doctors who monitor the effectiveness of immunotherapies to truly understand the potential for adverse effects like hematological problems, inflammation, and other toxicities. Again, flow cytometry plays a critical role in monitoring the patient’s response to treatment.
: What are some of the new trends that you are seeing in this field? Will existing technology keep up with those trends?
MH: To measure the relative efficiency of different immunotherapies, we need to dive deeper into specific cell populations, whether that be T-cells or NK-cells. Flow cytometry supports this endeavor, as it lets researchers look at more markers and pile more dyes onto each cell.
: Are there gaps in current technology offerings for cancer immunotherapy? How do they relate to lack of instrumentation, technical know-how, data deluge, translational issues?
MH: From a fluorescence-based technology perspective, some of the major gaps include the lack of information that can be obtained from a limited amount of sample and tumor cell auto-fluorescence that can mask the fluorescence tags on positive cells. For example, typical flow cytometers can analyze around 15–20 markers per sample tube. And the high auto-fluorescence in the tumor cell microenvironment makes resolving these extra challenging.
: As a technology/service provider, how are you impacting progress in this field? What can you do more/better, and what will help to make this happen?
MH: The promise of flow cytometry will never be fulfilled until the technology is completely operator-independent. By that, I mean we are able to reduce or eliminate inconsistencies between individual scientists in specimen handling and sample preparation on the front end, as well as data analysis and interpretation on the back end. Cytek Biosciences has brought us much closer to this reality with the introduction of the Cytek Aurora, a new flow cytometry system with an easy-to-use intuitive workflow from daily QC to data analysis. What’s more, the sensitivity of the instrument allows for higher quality data, thereby reducing ambiguity in assay settings, instrument setup, and manual data analysis—as well as lending itself more obviously to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our primary mission at Cytek is to continue bringing the benefits of full spectrum flow cytometry, whether that is through larger panels or more flexible experimental design, to researchers and clinicians across the globe.
: If you could change one thing to drive progress in this field what would that be?
MH: We need to speed up regulation and approval of new immunotherapies.