Greetings and welcome to the first edition of the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology's (PIIO) quarterly newsletter. The goal of this communication is to inform the immuno-oncology (IO) and Pelotonia communities by highlighting scientific advancements, celebrating wins and providing updates on the latest developments within the PIIO. We are nearing the end of our strategic planning phase of the institute. It is vital that we communicate what we are doing and why we are doing it.

I recently asked my lab trainees to tell me what drives them every day. What inspires them? What makes them want to get out of bed in the morning? I received diverse responses. However, I noticed that each response converged on improving the lives of others. Whether it is the general excitement for discovery or the specific identification of mechanisms underlying Treg dysfunction, ultimately the goal (the "Why") is to save lives by making paradigm-shifting breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapies. To this end, we are aggressively recruiting talented people (five offers have been accepted, and we are closing in on the recruitment of four more candidates), strengthening our Immune Monitoring and Discovery Platform (six new technologies are being implemented), and developing strategic industry partnerships (we are negotiating with three companies and establishing connections with several more). We shall share more specifics with you regarding partnerships and commercialization in the coming months.

I am honored to serve as founding director of the PIIO and excited to be a part of the Pelotonia community! To everyone associated with Pelotonia—from the 2,265 riders of the first cycling event in 2009 to the 7,484 riders in Pelotonia 2019 (with whom I rode), and to all virtual riders, volunteers, donors and funding partners—the PIIO says thank you! Our faculty and staff are working hard toward to create a cancer-free world, one patient, one discovery at a time. As you read about what we are doing, please remember that you are why.

Sincerely,
Zihai Li, MD, PhD
The Klotz Chair in Cancer Research
Professor of Internal Medicine and 
Founding Director of the OSUCCC – James Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology

The Immune Monitoring and Discovery Platform (IMDP)

The Immune Monitoring & Discovery Platform (IMDP) is preparing to offer high-parameter immunophenotyping services with both mass spectrometry and spectral flow cytometry instrument platforms. We have added a Fluidigm Helios mass cytometer and Cytek Aurora spectral cytometer to our growing lab for our members to engage in these cutting-edge technologies. We are finalizing installation, training and validation of each platform. The IMDP has also procured two of the latest and most powerful instruments that provide quantitative measurements of gene expression and protein secretion on the single-cell level. The 10X Chromium instruments provide single-cell RNA expression information for PIIO members along with the bioinformatics assistance available within the PIIO. The Isoplexis Isolight instrument is a new microfluidic platform that images single cells and quantitatively measures up to 40 secreted cytokines and chemokines from individual cells. Both of these instruments are scheduled for installation and training, and they will be operational in the near future. 

The IMDP also is evaluating technologies to support our members’ needs for highly-multiplexed tissue imaging. We are engaged with our industry counterparts to determine which platform will best serve our needs. In addition, the IMDP is recruiting technological staff; research personnel with exceptional abilities are encouraged to inquire.

The PIIO and BMI Welcome New Faculty Member Dongjun Chung, PhD

We are excited to announce that Dongjun Chung, PhD, has accepted the position of associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics (BMI). Dr. Chung, a joint recruit for the BMI and the OSUCCC – James PIIO,  received his PhD in statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his postdoctoral training in biostatistics and bioinformatics at Yale University. Dr. Chung joined the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in August 2014 as an assistant professor in the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics within the Department of Public Health Sciences. His research expertise includes statistical genetics, bioinformatics, machine learning and statistical computing. Dr. Chung is the principal investigator for two NIH-funded grants (R01 and R21) and contributes to multiple other NIH-funded grants. His research group has published more than 30 articles  in scientific journals and has developed multiple statistical methods, software and Web interface in the area of high-throughput sequencing, genomewide association studies (GWAS), cancer genomics and systems biology. Dr. Chung also has developed and taught graduate courses on topics such as statistical methods for bioinformatics and mathematical statistics. He is a vital part of the immunoinformatics team co-developed by the BMI and the PIIO. 

More information about publications and software can be found on his lab webpage (sites.google.com/site/statdchung/), lab software webpage (chunglab.io) and GitHub software repository (github.com/dongjunchung). 

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Chung to Ohio State.

Circadian rhythm-dependent and circadian rhythm-independent impacts of the molecular clock on type 3 innate lymphoid cells. Wang Q, Robinette ML, Billon C, Collins PL, Bando JK, Fachi JL, Sécca C, Porter SI, Saini A, Gilfillan S, Solt LA, Musiek ES, Oltz EM, Burris TP, Colonna M. Sci Immunol. 2019 Oct 4;4(40). pii: eaay7501. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.aay7501. PMID:31586012

Subsets of ILC3-ILC1-like cells generate a diversity spectrum of innate lymphoid cells in human mucosal tissues. Cella M, Gamini R, Sécca C, Collins PL, Zhao S, Peng V, Robinette ML, Schettini J, Zaitsev K, Gordon W, Bando JK, Yomogida K, Cortez V, Fronick C, Fulton R, Lin LL, Gilfillan S, Flavell RA, Shan L, Artyomov MN, Bowman M, Oltz EM, Jelinsky SA, Colonna M. Nat Immunol. 2019 Aug;20(8):980-991. doi: 10.1038/s41590-019-0425-y. Epub 2019 Jun 17. PMID:31209406

Thrombin contributes to cancer immune evasion via proteolysis of platelet-bound GARP for LTGF-b activation. Metelli A, Wu BX, Riesenberg B, Guglietta S, Huck JD, Mills C, Li A, Rachidi S, Krieg C, Rubinstein MP, Gewirth DT, Sun S, Lilly MB, Wahlquist AH, Carbone DP, Yang Y, Liu B and Li Z. Sci Transl Med. 2019 (in press)  

Immunological ignorance is an enabling feature of the oligo-clonal T-cell response to melanoma neoantigens. Linette GP, Becker-Hapak M, Skidmore ZL, Baroja ML, Xu C, Hundal J, Spencer DH, Fu W, Cummins C, Robnett M, Kaabinejadian S, Hildebrand WH, Magrini V, Demeter R, Krupnick AS, Griffith OL, Griffith M, Mardis ER, Carreno BM. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Nov 4. pii: 201906026. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1906026116. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31685621

Cutting edge: targeting thrombocytes to rewire anticancer immunity in the tumor microenvironment and potentiate efficacy of PD-1 blockade. Riesenberg BP, Ansa-Addo EA, Gutierrez J, Timmers CD, Liu B, Li Z. J Immunol. 2019 Sep 1;203(5):1105-1110. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1900594. Epub 2019 Jul 29. PMID: 31358658

An IL-15-based superagonist ALT-803 enhances the NK cell response to cetuximab-treated squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Pinette A, McMichael E, Courtney NB, Duggan M, Benner BN, Choueiry F, Yu L, Abood D, Mace TA, Carson WE 3rd. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2019 Aug;68(8):1379-1389. doi: 10.1007/s00262-019-02372-2. Epub 2019 Jul 23. PMID: 31338557

O-GlcNAc transferase suppresses inflammation and necroptosis by targeting receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 3. Li X, Gong W, Wang H, Li T, Attri KS, Lewis RE, Kalil AC, Bhinderwala F, Powers R, Yin G, Herring LE, Asara JM, Lei YL, Yang X, Rodriguez DA, Yang M, Green DR, Singh PK, Wen H. Immunity. 2019 Mar 19;50(3):576-590.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2019.01.007. PMID: 30770249

Cost-effectiveness analysis of pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy as first-line treatment in locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with PD-L1 tumor proportion score 1% or greater. She L, Hu H, Liao M, Xia X, Shi Y, Yao L, Ding D, Zhu Y, Zeng S, Shen L, Huang J, Carbone DP. Lung Cancer. 2019 Oct 16;138:88-94. doi: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2019.10.017. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31655368