Dr. Anne Rios is an expert in advanced 3D imaging technologies for visualization of intact organs, tumors and organoids up to sub-cellular resolution. She applied 3D imaging to gain insight into developmental processes, stem cell biology and tumor progression (Nature 2011, Nature 2014, Cancer Cell 2019, Nature Biotechnology 2021). Her lab focuses on developing multi-omics, image-based and organoid technology platforms for driving human cancer discovery in a patient-personalized manner. At this event, she will present BEHAV3D, a dynamic immuno-organoid 3D imaging-transcriptomics platform that allows for modeling and predicting the mode of action of cellular immunotherapy (CI). Applied to various solid tumor types modeled with patient derived organoids and multiple emerging T cell therapies, BEHAV3D revealed a high level of heterogeneity in targeting efficacy and functional behavior. Combined with a module of Behavior-guided sc transcriptomics, they could identify the gene signature of the most potent ‘serial killer’ T cells as well define combinatorial treatment to prime CI-mediating killing. Thus, BEHAV3D characterizes be-havioral-phenotypic heterogeneity of cellular immunotherapies and holds promise for improving solid tumor-targeting in a patient-specific manner.
Speaker: Anne Rios, Princess Máxima Center