2026 Cancer Immunotherapy Winter School Schedule

February 16-18, 2026 In Boston, MA and Virtually

The following is the schedule for the 2026 SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Winter School, taking place Feb. 16–Feb.18, 2026. Send us an email with any questions. 

Winter School Homepage

Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026

5–7 p.m. ET 

Early Registration and Badge Pick Up

Location: Essex Ballroom Foyer - 3rd floor

 

 

Monday, Feb. 16, 2026

7–8 a.m.

Registration and Coffee 

Location: Essex Ballroom Foyer - 3rd floor

8–8:50 a.m.

Tumor Microenvironment: Complexity of Cells and Molecules Regulating Intratumoral Immunity 
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Gavin Dunn, MD, PhD - Massachusetts General Hospital

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor
8:50–8:55 a.m. Transition
8:55–9:45 a.m.

Tumor Immunosuppression Mechanisms
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Ana Anderson, PhD - Harvard Medical School

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor
9:45–10 a.m. Break
10–10:50 a.m.

Immunotherapeutic Strategy: Adoptive Cell and CAR T Therapies
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Oladapo Yeku, MD, PhD, FACP - Massachusetts General Hospital

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor
10:50–10:55 a.m. Transition
10:55–11:45 a.m.

Immunotherapeutic Strategy: Immune Checkpoint Blockade
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Sumit Subudhi, MD, PhD - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor
11:45–1:15 p.m.

Networking Lunch

Location: Essex Ballroom Foyer - 3rd floor
1:15–2:05 p.m.

B Cell and TLS

Tullia Bruno, MD - University of Pittsburgh

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor
2:05–2:10 p.m. Transition
2:10–3 p.m.

Presenting Your Data in Talks and Manuscripts
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Yana Najjar, MD - UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor
3–3:10 p.m. Break
3:10–4:05 p.m.

Developing a Sustainable Writing Practice

Kristin Anderson, PhD - University of Virginia

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor
4:05–4:10 p.m. Transition
Breakout Sessions
4:10–5 p.m.

Antigen Presentation
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Nir Hacohen, PhD – Broad Institute

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South 

T Cell Exhaustion
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Gordon Freeman, PhD – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom

Innate Immune Mechanisms Dendritic Cells and NK Cells
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Lewis Lanier, PhD – University of California San Francisco

Location: Essex Ballroom, North

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026

7:30–8 a.m.

Registration & Coffee

Location: Essex Ballroom Foyer - 3rd floor
Researcher's Track
8–8:55 a.m.

Synthetic Immunology: Harnessing the Tools of Synthetic Biology and Gene Editing to Engineer Next Generation Cell Therapies 
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Yina Huang, PhD - Dartmouth College

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom
8:55–9 a.m. Transition
9–9:55 a.m.

Pre-Clinical Combination Immunotherapy
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Gregory Lesinski, PhD, MPH - Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University 

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom
9:55–10 a.m. Transition 
10–10:55 a.m.

Immunotherapeutic Strategy: Can Cancer Vaccines Really Work?
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Craig Slingluff, MD - University of Virginia School of Medicine

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom
10:55–11:10 a.m. Break 

Clinician's Track
8–8:55 a.m.

Off-the-Shelf Cell Products (VIRTUAL)
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

May Daher, MD - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center 

Location: Essex Ballroom, North
8:55–9 a.m. Transition
9–9:55 a.m.

Combination Immunotherapies
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Bambi Grilley, RPh – Baylor College of Medicine

Location: Essex Ballroom, North
9:55–10 a.m. Transition
10–10:55 a.m.

Preclinical Assessment of Cell and Gene Therapy Products to Support IND
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A) (VIRTUAL)

Yves Morillon, PhD - U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Location: Essex Ballroom, North
10:55–11:10 a.m. Break

 Sessions for Everyone
11:10–12:40 p.m.

Patient Considerations that Impact Treatment and Clinical Trials and How to Work with Patient Representatives to Make Your Research More Successful

(90 min. presentation)

Deborah Collyar, BS - Patient Advocates in Research

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor
12:40–2:10 p.m.

Networking Lunch

Location: Essex Ballroom Foyer - 3rd floor

Breakout Sessions

2:10–3 p.m.

Cytokine-based Immunotherapies 
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Jon Wigginton, MD - Bright Peak Therapeutics

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South

Importance of T Cell Subsets
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Chloe Villani, PhD - Massachusetts General Hospital

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom

The Microbiome and Immunotherapy
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A) (VIRTUAL)

Melody Smith, MD, MS - Stanford University

Location: Essex Ballroom, North

Researcher's Track

3:05–4 p.m.

Antigen Identification

Jim Heath, PhD - Institute of Systems Biology

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom

4–4:15 p.m.

Break

4:15–5:10 p.m.

Pre-Clinical Animal Models

Maryland Franklin, PhD - Labcorp

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom

5:10–5:15 p.m.

Transition

5:15–6:10 p.m.

Autoimmunity and irAEs

Kerry Reynolds, MD – Massachusetts General Hospital 

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom

Clinician's Track

3:05–4 p.m.

Phase I Immunotherapy Clinical Trials

Ryan Sullivan, MD - Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital

Location: Essex Ballroom, North

4–4:15 p.m.

Break

4:15–5:10 p.m.

Phase II and Phase III Immunotherapy Clinical Trials

Praveen Bommareddy, PhD – Replimune 

Location: Essex Ballroom, North

5:10–5:15 p.m.

Transition

5:15–6:10 p.m.

How to Get a Predicitive Biomarker out of every Clinical Trial 

Gregory Lesinski, PhD, MPH - Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University 

Location: Essex Ballroom, North

6:30–7:30 p.m.

CIWS and SCION Reception 

Location: Essex Ballroom Foyer - 3rd floor

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026

7:30–8 a.m.

Registration & Coffee

Location: Essex Ballroom Foyer - 3rd floor
Researcher's Track
8–8:55 a.m.

Tumor Cell Analyses (Pathology)
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Tricia Cottrell, PhD - Queen's University

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom
8:55–9 a.m. Transition
9–9:55 a.m.

Applications of Computational Biology/Machine Learning to Immuno-Oncology
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Arman Aksoy, PhD - Obsidian Therapeutics

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom
9:55–10:10 a.m. Break
Clinician's Track
8–8:55 a.m.

Regulatory Issues Related to Cancer Immunotherapy
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Bambi Grilley, RPh - Baylor College of Medicine

Location: Essex Ballroom, North
8:55–9 a.m. Transition
9–9:55 a.m.

Immunotherapy in Special Patient Populations
(45 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Edmund “Ned” Waller, MD, PhD – Emory University 

Location: Essex Ballroom, North
9:55–10:10 a.m. Break
Breakout Sessions
10:10–11 a.m.

Deep TCR and BCR Sequencing as a Biomarker for Cancer 
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Sacha Gnjatic, PhD  - Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom

Industry-Led Session: New Agents
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Johanna Kaufmann, PhD  - Deck Bio

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South

TCR T Cell Therapy
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Kristin Anderson, PhD - University of Virginia

Location: Essex Ballroom, North
 11–12 p.m.

Lunch

Location: Essex Ballroom Foyer - 3rd floor
Small Group/Hands On Sessions for Everyone
12–12:55 p.m.

GMP: The Science of Manufacturing
(25 min. presentation with a 5-minute transition)

 Andrew Fesnak, MD - University of Pennsylvania

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor

In Vivo Engineering
(25 min. presentation with a 5-minute transition)

Michael Birnbaum, PhD - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor

 
12:55–1 p.m. Transition

Breakout Sessions
1–1:50 p.m.

Development of a Grant/Translational Idea and Career Development Awards
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Christian Capitini, MD - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Sumit Subudhi, MD, PhD - University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Location: Staffordshire Ballroom

Methods to Assess and Discover Biomarkers
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Tricia Cottrell, PhD - Queen’s University

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South

Emerging technologies and tackling high-throughput, high-dimensional genomic data in Cancer Immunotherapy Research
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Arman Aksoy, PhD - Obsidian Therapeutics

Location: Essex Ballroom, North
1:50–2:05 p.m. Break
Small Group/Hands On Sessions for Everyone
2:05–3:05 p.m.

Careers in Cancer Immunotherapy Panel Discussion
(50 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Paola Grandi, PhD, MBA - Adze Biotechnology Inc.

Maryland Franklin, PhD - Labcorp

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor

  
3:05–3:10 p.m. Transition
3:10–4 p.m.

Perspective on Direction of the Field
(40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A)

Kristin Anderson, PhD - University of Virginia

Daniel Powell, Jr., PhD - University of Pennsylvania

Ryan Sullivan, MD - Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor

    
4–4:10 p.m.

Closing Remarks

Location: Essex Ballroom, Center & South - 3rd floor