CCBIO Seminar – Vibeke Fosse

Speaker: Vibeke Fosse, MS in veterinary companion animal oncology and veterinary surgeon, and currently a PhD candidate in the McCormack and Bjørge groups. Her project is on the development of targeted fluorescence image-guided surgery, with a focus on using clinically relevant animal models for translation. In particular, she is developing a comparative oncology approach, using pets with cancer as models for development of therapies for human disease.
Title: Comparative oncology:  a valuable model for cancer immunotherapy research 
Host: Emmet McCormack
Where: Auditorium 4, BB-building
When: January 25, 2024 at 14.30-15.30

No registration necessary. 

Abstract: The field of cancer immunotherapy seeks to modulate the immune system to recognise and kill tumour cells. Manipulation of the immune system holds significant promise to create durable responses and improve outcomes in cancer patients. The recent advances in immunotherapeutics for human patients have stimulated an increased interest in veterinary oncology as a powerful tool in cancer immunotherapy research, acting as an important link between mouse models and human clinical studies. The strategy of using veterinary cancer patients as a model for human disease is often referred to as «comparative oncology». Naturally occurring cancers in companion dogs and humans share many features including histological appearance, tumour genetics, biological behaviour, and response to conventional treatment. In addition, pets are exposed to the same environmental factors as their owners, and dogs have a similarly high incidence of cancer as people. Thus, comparative oncology presents an opportunity to advance the understanding of cancer biology, prevention, and treatment, which will benefit dogs as well as humans. However, one of the challenges in comparative oncology is the lack of well-established investigational tools.

Our research group is currently developing novel cell-based immunotherapeutic options for dogs with cancer, with the overall goal of translating the treatments to both adult and paediatric cancer patients.  The novelty of this approach means that there is a lack of species-specific reagents, necessitating molecular cloning of dog-specific immunotargets, which is performed in collaboration with the group of Dr. Sébastien Wälchli at the Translational Research unit at Oslo Universitetssykehus. In this seminar, I will introduce the concept of comparative oncology and the promise this model holds for advancing cancer treatments for humans.