Download robarts research retreat abstract submission form

ROBARTS RESEARCH RETREAT
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM
Name of Presenter:
Would you like to be considered for a 15 minute ORAL presentation? :
Would you like to be considered for a 3 minute ORAL presentation? :
All accepted submissions will present a poster.
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Position: (ie. MSc student, PhD student, PDF):
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ABSTRACT GUIDELINES – Please submit as a PDF document to [email protected]
 Your submission MUST be limited to the ONE page provided, and fit within the boxed area on the form
 You must include a title in bold as well as author and affiliations lists
 Use 10 point Times New Roman font
ALL ABSTRACTS NOT ADHERING TO THE ABOVE GUILDELINES WILL BE RETURNED FOR REVISION
– Submission Deadline – May 2, 2016 11:59PM
Please choose up to 3 keywords that best describe your research:
 Brain and Mind
 Cardiac Health
 Stroke and Neurovascular
 Vascular Health
Disorders
 Diabetes and Metabolic Health
 Neurodegenerative Disorders
 Lung and Pulmonary Health
 Concussion and Spinal Cord Injury
 Cancer
 Regeneration and Tissue Repair
 Musculoskeletal health
 Image-Guided Interventions
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Fluorine (19F) cellular magnetic resonance imaging to monitor in vivo therapeutic cell migration
Fink C1,2, Gaudet J1,3, Foster P1,3, Dekaban G1,2
Robarts Research Institute1, Departments of Microbiology and Immunology2 and Medical Biophysics3, Western
University
Cancer immunotherapy is an emerging research area that uses one’s own immune system to combat cancer. An
example involves the ex vivo preparation and loading of antigen presenting cells (APC) with tumor-specific antigen
(TSA) to create a cancer vaccine. TSA-loaded APC must track to secondary lymphoid organs post injection to serve
as adjuvants, whereby they present TSA to T cells and induce TSA T cell responses. It has been demonstrated that
the quantity of TSA-loaded APC reaching the lymph node is directly proportional to the magnitude of the ensuing
TSA immune response. We propose that 19F cellular MRI can non-invasively track and quantify in vivo human APC
migration by loading APC with a 19F MRI cell labeling agent, Cell Sense. In this way, the migration and anatomical
fate of APC-based cancer vaccines can be quantitatively assessed. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells
(PBMC), which contain APC, were obtained from male volunteers and prostate cancer patients and were
successfully labeled with Cell Sense without observable toxicity. Human PBMC/APC migration post footpad
injection to the popliteal lymph node has been detected and quantified in a mouse model using 19F cellular MRI.
Work is being conducted using prostate cancer patient PBMC to optimize this novel imaging technique in order to
progress towards imaging autologous Cell Sense-labeled PBMC in humans.