OUR THEME

Speakers at BIG19 will be covering the broad topic of evolution - from both a microscopic and macroscopic perspective. Our diverse speakers have unique perspectives on cancer biology, population dynamics, and the evolution of therapies to treat disease.

For a full schedule of last years’ events, click here.

PLENARY SESSION I:

Cooperation incarnate: How regulation and cheater detection stabilize cooperation from cells to human societies

Cooperation is part of what defines us – as multicellular organisms, as social animals and as humans. As multicellular organisms, we are made of trillions of cooperating cells – we are literally cooperation incarnate. We cooperate with each other as well, sometimes without expecting anything in return. My work explores the question: Are there general principles that underlie cooperation across all systems, from cellular societies to human cooperation? In The Human Generosity Project, we incorporate computational modeling, experiments with human participants in the lab and work at nine fieldsites around the world to understand human sharing. In my work on cooperation and cheating in the evolution multicellularity, I focus on the question of how large multicellular bodies can evolve cooperation among trillions of cells despite the constant threat of cellular cheating, i.e., cancer. Cancer is essentially a breakdown of multicellular cooperation, and so cooperation theory is an essential tool for understanding why we get cancer and what we can do to better prevent and treat it. Across all of these systems, cheater detection and behavior regulation play important roles in stabilizing cooperation. In this talk I will discuss the fundamental principles of cooperation that span from cellular societies to human societies, and how these principles can be leveraged to improve human health and wellbeing.

PLENARY SESSION II:

Deciphering and re-engineering the immune response to cancer

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) are associated with survival in virtually every human cancer, but the mechanisms by which they confer protective immunity remain incompletely understood. Focusing on ovarian cancer, our group applies genomic and molecular pathology approaches to define the mechanisms by which the human immune system responds to the evolving tumor genome over space and time. We find that optimal anti-tumor immunity involves interactions between T cells and antibody-producing B cells in the tumor microenvironment. We have evidence that T cell clones track tumor clones over space and time and apply selective pressure that leads to reduced tumor clone diversity and progressive loss of immune recognition through several mechanisms. Our findings suggest new strategies to overcome these challenges through T cell engineering and other approaches. Toward this goal, I will discuss BC Cancer’s new clinical trials program focused on T cell engineering strategies for gynecological and lymphoid cancers.

CONCURRENT SESSION I

Antibody revolution and technology evolution, Dr. Veronique Lecault (PhD)

The immune system has evolved over millions of years to fight diseases and infections. Through several mechanisms, B cells generate an immense diversity of antibody molecules, with each B cell producing a different antibody. These defense proteins target and bind precisely to bacteria, viruses, or other foreign molecules, and help the immune system neutralize and destroy pathogens. It is this unique specificity that makes some antibodies extremely potent and low side-effect drugs. Antibodies have been the fastest growing class of therapeutics over the past decade, with approved therapies spanning multiple indications including cancer, autoimmune disorders, inflammation, and infectious diseases. Finding the rare antibodies with therapeutic properties out of the billions produced by an immune system can be challenging. Based on technology originally developed at UBC, AbCellera has built a discovery engine to search through immune repertoires with greater depth than any other platform. Dr. Lecault will share how the technology has evolved to become a leading-edge platform, and how it contributes to accelerating discovery in this new era of immunotherapy.

From Mustard Gas to Immunotherapy : A survey of anti-cancer therapies, Dr. Donald Yapp (PhD)

The evolution of strategies for diagnosing and treating cancer has occurred in conjunction with our growing knowledge of the disease. The use of cytotoxic agents, targeted therapies and drug delivery methods to treat cancer will be discussed. Novel treatments that are being developed will be described.

Dr. Peter Zandstra (PhD)

CONCURRENT SESSION II

How to deal with biofilms: A common, adaptive multidrug resistance bacterial lifestyle, Dr. Robert Hancock (PhD)

The inexorable increase in multidrug resistant infections combined with a decrease in new antibiotic discovery and the lack of compounds to treat recalcitrant chronic biofilm infections is creating a potential crisis in human medicine. Biofilms are the main growth form of the bacteria in the environment, cause two thirds of infections, are very difficult to treat being (adaptively) resistant to almost all antibiotics, and there are no licensed treatments. Thus it is imperative to consider alternatives to conventional antibiotics for treating infections. I will discuss our development of a class of broad-spectrum peptides, based on a template of natural cationic host defence (antimicrobial) peptides, that act against biofilms, formed by many bacteria, both in vitro and in vivo, and are highly synergetic with conventional antibiotics.

The Darwinian Disease: Evolutionary Biology and Genetics of Cancer, Dr. Bernard Crespi (PhD)

Carcinogenesis is a somatic evolutionary process. As a result, the concepts and tools of evolutionary biology are central to studying it. But how do they help? Predominantly by changing how people think about the disease: in terms of variation, natural selection, trade-offs, conflicts, and evolutionary mismatches. Bioinformatic analyses and genomic data collection are of key importance in applying evolutionary thinking and tools to collecting data and treating patients. In this workshop, we will discuss how.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Click here to see members of the organizing committee for BIG 2019.

Thank you to all of the 2019 participants, speakers, and sponsors!