Annual ACGT Summit Brings Together Cancer Cell Therapy and Gene Therapy Experts

Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) hosted an in-person scientific gathering of cancer experts to discuss challenges and opportunities with cell and gene therapy.

ACGT Research Fellow Daniel Powell, PhD (center), talks with ACGT Scientific Advisory Council Chair Michael Lotze, MD (left), during a break in the ACGT Summit 2023. Dr. Powell said the “level of ingenuity” among the scientists at the event was noteworthy and inspiring.

The event, Summit 2023, was held in March in New York City. It was the first in-person day-long scientific gathering hosted by ACGT, which held an ACGT Virtual Summit in 2021 due to COVID-19 precautions. Summit 2023 was an invitation-only event that brought together top scientists in the field of cancer cell and gene therapy, including ACGT Research Fellows, ACGT Scientific Advisory Council members, biotech leaders, and others.

“The level of ingenuity in this particular group is incredibly high,” said ACGT Research Fellow Daniel Powell, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania. “Some of the ideas brought forward here are going to help push the rock up the hill, so to speak. A single person making that effort on their own is not going to be sufficient. So, getting everyone in that room and having an innovative idea spoken aloud is going to be the big power of this particular meeting.”

The curated agenda allowed scientists to share ideas among their peers to help advance cell and gene therapy research and development – ultimately, to benefit patients diagnosed with difficult-to-treat cancers, especially solid tumors.

ACGT Research Fellow and Scientific Advisory Council member Noriyuki Kasahara, MD, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, called the meeting “inspirational” to attend.

“Having these meetings in-person and exchanging ideas and hearing what everyone is up to in-person, you can really dig into the details,” he added.

Read more about ACGT’s Summit 2023 on the ACGT website.