James P. Allison

And so that's what we're doing now is we try to work stuff out in mice, get a good idea it works, and then as soon as we can, with the help of Pam Sharma, who runs our clinical thing, go into patients, do a 12-patient trial. Safety and mechanism, not necessarily looking for an anti-tumor effect yet. but just did we at least not hurt the patient and did we learn something about the mechanism?

And so that's what we're doing now is we try to work stuff out in mice, get a good idea it works, and then as soon as we can, with the help of Pam Sharma, who runs our clinical thing, go into patients, do a 12-patient trial. Safety and mechanism, not necessarily looking for an anti-tumor effect yet. but just did we at least not hurt the patient and did we learn something about the mechanism?

Maybe VISTA is the name of another one of these checkpoints. Maybe VISTA plays a role. Maybe the next time we need to add VISTA to the cocktail. You know, so we go back and we add Vista then. See if that works. So that's the idea is do this iterative thing. That's how we get it from 55% to 100%.

Maybe VISTA is the name of another one of these checkpoints. Maybe VISTA plays a role. Maybe the next time we need to add VISTA to the cocktail. You know, so we go back and we add Vista then. See if that works. So that's the idea is do this iterative thing. That's how we get it from 55% to 100%.

Yeah, I mean, I think in a way we do ourselves a bit of a disservice by calling it like the antibody that we made to CTLA-4. It's the drug. It's not the drug. It's the thing that it's the prodrug. It's the T cell that's the drug. Right. And so that antibody is gone in a few weeks. The T cell is there for the rest of your life.

Yeah, I mean, I think in a way we do ourselves a bit of a disservice by calling it like the antibody that we made to CTLA-4. It's the drug. It's not the drug. It's the thing that it's the prodrug. It's the T cell that's the drug. Right. And so that antibody is gone in a few weeks. The T cell is there for the rest of your life.

No, that's an excellent question. But I think that if we can learn how to reverse this, we could treat autoimmunity. There's increasing evidence that a lot of neurodegenerative diseases involve dysfunctions in the immune system. If we can really understand what we're doing, we might be able to do something about Alzheimer's down the road or Parkinson's or diseases like that.

No, that's an excellent question. But I think that if we can learn how to reverse this, we could treat autoimmunity. There's increasing evidence that a lot of neurodegenerative diseases involve dysfunctions in the immune system. If we can really understand what we're doing, we might be able to do something about Alzheimer's down the road or Parkinson's or diseases like that.

I mean, we're thinking about that all the time. you know, and hoping that, you know, some of the data that we have will just, people, I mean, it's the very simplest oversimplification is we can just do the opposite of what we're doing now.

I mean, we're thinking about that all the time. you know, and hoping that, you know, some of the data that we have will just, people, I mean, it's the very simplest oversimplification is we can just do the opposite of what we're doing now.

Maybe we can cure those diseases, you know, and, you know, so that, no, we, our institute is, our goal is to use the advances in basic science to advance medical practice. Right now it's cancer. After we cure cancer, then we'll go after neurological cancer.

Maybe we can cure those diseases, you know, and, you know, so that, no, we, our institute is, our goal is to use the advances in basic science to advance medical practice. Right now it's cancer. After we cure cancer, then we'll go after neurological cancer.

I think, you know, of course, I'm biased, but I think that it's a wonderful time to be doing this work. And it's become a systems biology story. problem more and more. And so single-cell analytical techniques, the ability to take a slide, you know, now to diagnose a cancer, you get a piece of the cancer and you stain it with hematoxin and ESN, you know, you get this purplish

I think, you know, of course, I'm biased, but I think that it's a wonderful time to be doing this work. And it's become a systems biology story. problem more and more. And so single-cell analytical techniques, the ability to take a slide, you know, now to diagnose a cancer, you get a piece of the cancer and you stain it with hematoxin and ESN, you know, you get this purplish

that you could look at shapes. The pathologist could say, that's a cancer, that's not, there's some immune cells over there. Now we can look at that, and by doing some different analytical techniques, we could tell you every gene that's expressed in that cell.

that you could look at shapes. The pathologist could say, that's a cancer, that's not, there's some immune cells over there. Now we can look at that, and by doing some different analytical techniques, we could tell you every gene that's expressed in that cell.

And what we already know is that the same cell that's here next to the cancer cell is gonna be different than an otherwise pretty much identical cell over here that's not in contact with the cancer cell. And the immune cell, the same thing, the immune cell that's next to the tumor cell is not going to be like the immune cell that's in the blood.

And what we already know is that the same cell that's here next to the cancer cell is gonna be different than an otherwise pretty much identical cell over here that's not in contact with the cancer cell. And the immune cell, the same thing, the immune cell that's next to the tumor cell is not going to be like the immune cell that's in the blood.

And so now we can start to unravel one of those one of those differences. And how can we send the cells down? You know, we know that there are certain inhibitory molecules that the myeloid cells, particularly those that are in these complexes near the tumor cells, express the turn the T cells off. We can figure out how to just turn those molecules off. Myeloid cells, you know,

And so now we can start to unravel one of those one of those differences. And how can we send the cells down? You know, we know that there are certain inhibitory molecules that the myeloid cells, particularly those that are in these complexes near the tumor cells, express the turn the T cells off. We can figure out how to just turn those molecules off. Myeloid cells, you know,