Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products with a focus on Oncology, Hematology & Immunotherapy

Posts tagged ‘Dr Holbrook Kohrt’

Pinning down potential new opportunities for IL–8 and 4–1BB

The keynote address at the 2018 CRI CIMT EATI AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference in New York last month was given by Ignacio Melero (Pamplona). Professor Melero gave an engaging and informative presentation entitled, “The immunotherapy faces of Interleukin–8 and CD137.” He also had a related talk on “4–1BB and Metabolism” at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) meeting this weekend.

Pinning down new opportunities in IL-8 and 4-1BB

The late and sadly missed, Dr Holbrook Kohrt (Stanford), worked closely with Prof Melero on targeting CD137 or 4–1BB, as it’s more commonly known.

Regular readers may recall our interview wth Dr Kohrt back at Immunology 2015 in New Orleans (Link).

Professor Melero kindly spoke to BSB at SITC 2018 and shared his thoughts on where we are three years on and where his research is currently focused in relation to cytokines, and in particular, IL–8.

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Are checkpoints playing with fire?

Honolulu: Yesterday we learnt the sad news that Dr Holbrook Kohrt (pictured) had died.

Dr Holbrook Kohrt He was a Stanford hematologist/oncologist and rising star in the cancer immunotherapy field. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.

I had the privilege to interview him last May at the Immunology 2015 meeting in New Orleans. One area of Dr Kohrt’s research was in combination immunotherapies, and how we can optimize efficacy, while avoiding significant immune adverse events.

So are checkpoints playing with fire when given in combination?

That was one of the provocative questions to come out of a scientific session entitled, “Fast Cars and No Brakes: Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation as a platform for Novel Immunotherapies” at the BMT Tandem meeting in Hawaii last weekend. The session, chaired by Miguel-Angel Perales (@DrMiguelPerales) from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was both informative and interesting.

All the presentations were excellent, but one by Philippe Armand from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, “Checkpoint Blockade in SCT, Data & Hope, Promise & Peril” stood out for me. Dr Armand discussed checkpoint data pre and post stem cell transplantation and offered a perspective I had not heard before.

One of the provocative questions it raised was could checkpoints be playing with fire in some patients? Dr Armand kindly spoke with BSB after his talk.

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