What the HEK is Immunotherapy?

So we have talked a lot about immunotherapy for cancer - but its also used to treat autoimmune diseases! In this episode we talk with Dr. Marc Horwitz, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of British Columbia, about what autoimmunity is and how immunotherapy is being used to treat autoimmune diseases. Dr. Horwitz also recently co-started a research cluster called the Autoim...

Patients are the centre of why we do what we do in immunotherapy research - so shouldn’t they have a say?? Well that's where patient engagement in research comes in! It is becoming increasingly common to involve patients throughout the research pipeline since patients provide lived experience that we as scientists often do not see. To discuss how this works, their own personal journey with pat...

You've heard of clinical trials - but how do they actually work? We get into the nitty gritty of clinical trials in part 1 of our miniseries on clinical trials where we here about it from the scientist's perspective! In this episode we are joined by Dr. John Bell to discuss his experience on taking therapies from his own lab into the clinic for treating patients! Learn more about the exoso...

Vaccines not only prevent infectious diseases - they can also help cure cancer! To learn how this works and all about the field of cancer vaccines we are joined by Dr. Brian Lichty, an associate professor in Medicine at McMaster University. More information of the startup Dr. Lichty talks about can be found on their website: https://espherasynbio.ca/ -- Interested in learning more about immunother...

How can we improve outcomes for cancer patients undergoing surgery? With Immunotherapy! In this episode we discuss perioperative immunotherapy with Dr. Rebecca Auer, a Surgeon-Scientist and the CEO & Scientific Director at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She discusses how her background in surgery and interest in research led her to explore how we can enhance the immune system after su...

To end off the year Grace and Gillian dive into some of the scientific findings and news they found most interesting in the immunotherapy field for 2024! We hope this gets you excited about the progress of immunotherapy and the many breakthroughs to come! For more information on the immunotherapies discussed here check out the links below: Lifileucel, the first FDA-approved TIL product: https://ww...

So you may have heard us talk about animal work in this podcast - specifically working with mice. But we wanted to dive a little deeper into what that looks like - specifically from the ethics/regulations side of things. In this episode we talk to Dr. Michael Brunt, who is a postdoctoral fellow who is interested in looking at the welfare of laboratory animals. With Dr. Brunt we touch on what regul...

Last month, Dr. Lee-Hwa Tai taught us about what oncolytic viruses or "OVs" are. So naturally we followed up with a trainee to learn about some cool research going on in the field. Dr. Reza Rezaei, a recent PhD graduate, studied OVs and now is taking it further to learn how we can combine OVs with CAR T/NK cells during a postdoctoral fellowship. In the second half of the episode we are joined by o...

Wait, viruses as cancer therapy?? That's right! Oncolytic viruses or OVs are a newer and promising type of therapy that uses viruses to take down cancer in a safe manner. But how the HEK do they work? This month we sit down with Dr. Lee-Hwa Tai from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec to discuss all about OVs. Join us as we dive into how OVs kill cancer, their current status in the clinic, ho...

Some cool and emerging immunotherapies use viruses to kill cancer cells. But what the HEK are viruses and how do they work? In this week’s episode we chat with Trinity Tooley, a graduate student studying viruses at Queen’s University. Trinity helps us break down exactly what viruses are and how they function. So sit back and unlock the wonderful world of viruses with Grace and Trinity! Interested...

Last episode we learnt all about tumour infiltrating lymphocyte or TIL therapy through interviewing Dr. Simon Turcotte. We touched on his research, but what other research is going on within the TIL space in Canada? Well, in this episode we chatted with two students, Meghan Kates & Allyson Banville, all about their cool research on TILs! Want to learn more about cool immunotherapy research? Ch...

This month Gillian and Pauline learn all about Tumor infiltrating Lymphocyte (aka TIL) therapy with Dr. Simon Turcotte! Dr. Turcotte is a surgical oncologist at the CHUM Research Centre in Montreal, Quebec, who has a keen interest in TIL therapy. Listen in as we discuss things such as what TIL therapy is, what types of cancer it's been approved for, the TIL therapy scene within Canada, and wha...

So we learnt all about CAR T cell therapy on episode 2 with Dr. Scott McComb, but what exactly is the current landscape of CAR T cell therapy research like? To answer some students we chatted with 4 PhD students to learn a bit about their research and what they are excited for in the future. Big thank you to our guests: Alex Shepherd, Bigitha Bennychen, Lorenzo Lindo, and Katie Flight Also, don’t...

This week we are doing something a bit different - Grace and I sit down with Danielle Eldridge to chat about her experience receiving immunotherapy. About Danielle: Danielle recently graduated in May 2023 with a degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. She grew up in Houston, Texas , works in technical marketing at Siemens, and is a Leukemia survivor. Danielle was diagnosed...

On this month’s episode we are joined by Dr. Scott McComb, a researcher at the National Research Council of Canada, to talk about Chimeric Antigen Receptor aka CAR T cells! Listen in as we discuss topics such as what exactly is a CAR T cell, how it is currently being used, some current challenges with this therapy, what Dr. McComb brings to the field, and what we are excited to see in the future w...

What the HEK is immunotherapy? With this podcast we are trying to answer that question! Through interviews with professors, students, patients, and other experts in the field we hope to introduce different types of immunotherapy and the research that is ongoing, specifically within the Canadian field. Join us as we try to make immunotherapy more digestible!

Before we dive into the different types of immunotherapy we wanted to take a step back to actually give a primer on what the HEK is immunotherapy? In this month's episode, hosts Gillian and Grace, along with co-creator Dr. Pauline Loos, describe the different components of the immune system, including the innate immune cells, adaptive immune cells such as T and B cells, and how these cells con...