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. 

Cancer Immunotherapy Winter School Homepage

Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026

5–7 p.m. ET 

Early Registration and Badge Pick Up

 

 

Monday, Feb. 16, 2026

7–8 a.m. Registration and Coffee 

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
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
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
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)

Justin Gainor, MD - Massachusetts General Hospital
11:45–1:15 p.m. Networking Lunch
1:15–2:05 p.m.

B Cell and TLS

Tullia Bruno, MD - University of Pittsburgh
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
3–3:10 p.m. Break
3:10–4:05 p.m.

Developing a Sustainable Writing Practice

Kristin Anderson, PhD - University of Virginia
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

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

Gordon Freeman, PhD – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 

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

Lewis Lanier, PhD – University of California San Francisco

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026

7:30–8 a.m. Registration & Coffee
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
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 
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
10:55–11:10 a.m. Break 

Clinician's Track
8–8:55 a.m.

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

May Daher, MD - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center 
8:55–9 a.m. Transition
9–9:55 a.m.

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

Justin Gainor, MD – Massachusetts General Hospital 
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)

Yves Morillon, PhD - U.S. Food and Drug Administration
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
12:40–2:10 p.m. Networking Lunch

Breakout Sessions

2:10–3 p.m.

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

Jon Wigginton, MD - Bright Peak Therapeutics

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

Chloe Villani, PhD - Massachusetts General Hospital

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

Melody Smith, MD, MS - Stanford University

Researcher's Track

3:05–4 p.m.

Antigen Identification

Jim Heath, PhD - Institute of Systems Biology

4–4:15 p.m.

Break

4:15–5:10 p.m.

Pre-Clinical Animal Models

Maryland Franklin, PhD - Labcorp

5:10–5:15 p.m.

Transition

5:15–6:10 p.m.

Autoimmunity and irAEs

Kerry Reynolds, MD – Massachusetts General Hospital 

Clinician's Track

3:05–4 p.m.

Phase I Immunotherapy Clinical Trials

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

4–4:15 p.m.

Break

4:15–5:10 p.m.

Phase II and Phase III Immunotherapy Clinical Trials

Praveen Bommareddy, PhD – Replimune 

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 

6:30–7:30 p.m.

CIWS and SCION Reception 

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026

7:30–8 a.m. Registration & Coffee
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
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
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
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 
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

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

Johanna Kaufmann, PhD  - Deck Bio

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

Kristin Anderson, PhD - University of Virginia
 11–12 p.m.

 Networking Lunch
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)

Bruce Levine, PhD - University of Pennsylvania

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

Michael Birnbaum, PhD - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

 
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

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

TBD

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
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

  
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

Chrystal Paulos, PhD - Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University

Daniel Powell, Jr., PhD - University of Pennsylvania

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

    
4–4:10 p.m. Closing Remarks