2022 JITC Best Paper Award Recipients

Papers nominated in this category present research that covers tumor antigens, innate and adaptive anti-tumor immune mechanisms, immune regulation, immune response, cancer and inflammation, preclinical models, chemotherapy and radiotherapy interactions/combinations of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and other combination treatments with the antitumor immune response.

JAMES MCAULIFFE, DPHIL

University of Oxford

“Heterologous prime-boost vaccination targeting MAGE-type antigens promotes tumor T-cell infiltration and improves checkpoint blockade therapy”
James McAuliffe, Hok Fung Chan, Laurine Noblecourt, Ramiro Andrei Ramirez-Valdez, Vinnycius Pereira-Almeida, Yaxuan Zhou, Emily Pollock, Federica Cappuccini, Irina Redchenko, Adrian VS Hill, Carol Sze Ki Leung, Benoit J Van den Eynde

Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2021;9:e003218 (2 September 2021)

Articles nominated in this category present clinical research that has a clear potential to optimize patient care, with particular emphasis on high-quality randomized control trials, novel combination therapies, novel diagnostic or prognostic insights, and new insights into mechanisms of action.

SHRUTI GUPTA, MD

Brigham and Women's Hospital

“Acute kidney injury in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors”
Shruti Gupta, Samuel A P Short, Meghan E Sise, Jason M Prosek, Sethu M Madhavan, Maria Jose Soler, Marlies Ostermann, Sandra M Herrmann, Ala Abudayyeh, Shuchi Anand, Ilya Glezerman, Shveta S Motwani, Naoka Murakami, Rimda Wanchoo, David I Ortiz-Melo, Arash Rashidi, Ben Sprangers, Vikram Aggarwal, A Bilal Malik, Sebastian Loew, Christopher A Carlos, Wei-Ting Chang, Pazit Beckerman, Zain Mithani, Chintan V Shah, Amanda D Renaghan, Sophie De Seigneux, Luca Campedel, Abhijat Kitchlu, Daniel Sanghoon Shin, Sunil Rangarajan, Priya Deshpande, Gaia Coppock, Mark Eijgelsheim, Harish Seethapathy, Meghan D Lee, Ian A Strohbehn, Dwight H. Owen, Marium Husain, Clara Garcia-Carro, Sheila Bermejo, Nuttha Lumlertgul, Nina Seylanova, Lucy Flanders, Busra Isik, Omar Mamlouk, Jamie S Lin, Pablo Garcia, Aydin Kaghazchi, Yuriy Khanin, Sheru K Kansal, Els Wauters, Sunandana Chandra, Kai M Schmidt-Ott, Raymond K Hsu, Maria C Tio, Suraj Sarvode Mothi, Harkarandeep Singh, Deborah Schrag, Kenar D Jhaveri, Kerry L Reynolds, Frank B Cortazar, David E Leaf

Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2021;9:e003467 (8 October 2021)

Articles in this category present research that presents predictive/prognostic biomarker studies, gene expression studies in cancer immunotherapy, serological immune biomarkers, multiparameter flow cytometry-defined immune biomarkers, high content immunohistological studies, and/or clinical trial analyses and identification of novel immune biomarkers.

JINZHU MAO, PHD

Peking Union Medical College Hospital

DONGXU WANG, PHD

Peking Union Medical College Hospital

JUNYU LONG, PHD

Peking Union Medical College Hospital

XU YANG, PHD

Peking Union Medical College Hospital

“Gut microbiome is associated with the clinical response to anti-PD-1 based immunotherapy in hepatobiliary cancers”
Jinzhu Mao, Dongxu Wang, Junyu Long, Xu Yang, Jianzhen Lin, Yiwei Song, Fucun Xie, Ziyu Xun, Yanyu Wang, Yunchao Wang, Yiran Li, Huishan Sun, Jingnan Xue, Yang Song, Bangyou Zuo, Junwei Zhang, Jin Bian, Ting Zhang, Xiaobo Yang, Lei Zhang, Xinting Sang, Haitao Zhao

Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2021;9:e003334 (6 December 2021)

Papers nominated in this category present research that discusses approaches, new targets, novel functionalities, clinical trial results, correlative studies in patients who have received cell-based therapies, novel engineering strategies (molecular switches, conditional expression, logic gating), gene-edited cells to knock out or knock in novel functions, and/or synthetic gene circuit.

AMANI MAKKOUK, PHD, MS

Adicet Therapeutics

“Off-the-shelf Vδ1 gamma delta T cells engineered with glypican-3 (GPC-3)-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and soluble IL-15 display robust antitumor efficacy against hepatocellular carcinoma”
Amani Makkouk, Xue (Cher) Yang, Taylor Barca, Anthony Lucas, Mustafa Turkoz, Jonathan T S Wong, Kevin P Nishimoto, Mary M Brodey, Maryam Tabrizizad, Smitha R Y Gundurao, Lu Bai, Arun Bhat, Zili An, Stewart Abbot, Daulet Satpayev, Blake T Aftab, Marissa Herrman

Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2021;9:e003441 (16 December 2021)

Papers nominated in this category present research that focuses on the role of therapeutic agents designed for targeting tumor cells and/or the tumor microenvironment. This includes oncolytic viruses, microbial agents, innate immune agonists, direct and systemically delivered proteins and DNA/RNA products that act within established tumors. Articles on translational and clinical investigation involving new oncolytic immunotherapy agents or those that include an oncolytic approach as part of combination therapeutic regimens are also represented.

MONIKA SEMMRICH, PHD

BioInvent International AB

JEAN-BAPTISTE MARCHAND, PHD

Transgene SA

“Vectorized Treg-depleting αCTLA-4 elicits antigen cross-presentation and CD8+ T cell immunity to reject ‘cold’ tumors”
Monika Semmrich, Jean-Baptiste Marchand, Laetitia Fend, Matilda Rehn, Christelle Remy, Petra Holmkvist, Nathalie Silvestre, Carolin Svensson, Patricia Kleinpeter, Jules Deforges, Fred Junghus, Kirstie L Cleary, Mimoza Bodén, Linda Mårtensson, Johann Foloppe, Ingrid Teige, Eric Quéméneur, Björn Frendéus

Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2022;10:e003488 (19 January 22)

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