AI in IO: SITC-NCI Computational IO Series


Program Details

In partnership with and partial funding by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) is pleased to launch our fourth "SITC-NCI Computational Immuno-oncology Webinar Series" throughout May-December 2024. This year's series will focus specifically on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of immuno-oncology (IO). As such, the series has been rebranded to "AI in IO: SITC-NCI Computational Immuno-oncology Webinar Series".

Organized by the SITC Big Data and Data Sharing Committee, these nine free-to-attend digital events will help individual research labs to embrace the computational challenges of analyzing and integrating diverse assay data across the spectrum of immuno-oncology using AI. The goal of this special series is to explore the exciting applications and promising implications of the rapidly advancing field of AI for immuno-oncology. All webinars in this series will take place live and be made available in their entirety on the SITC ConnectED platform as enduring materials.

This series will serve as an excellent resource for all stakeholders interested in expanding their knowledge in artificial intelligence and immuno-oncology. Specifically, early career scientists who want to further their training, as well as more senior career individuals who want to implement these techniques for the first time will greatly benefit from the series.

Learning Objectives

The key goals of this training program is to ensure participants remain on the cutting edge of computational immuno-oncology, to increase the participants’ awareness of the NCI-supported Cancer Moonshot Immunotherapy Networks, to enhance scientific engagements between the Cancer Moonshot (SM) Immunotherapy Networks and the broader Cancer Immunotherapy community, and to fulfill the Blue Ribbon Panel goal of acceleration of progress in cancer research.

Collaborative Partners

National Cancer Institute

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

The AI in IO: SITC-NCI Computational Immuno-oncology Webinar Series is partially supported through NIH/NCI Grant #: 3 U24 CA232979-01SA

Interested in supporting this program? The SITC Development team would love to work with you. Contact development@sitcancer.org for more information on how your organization's support can help advance cancer immunotherapy and make "cure" a reality.


Series Schedule and Faculty Information

The following are the dates, times and faculty/moderator information for each of the nine webinars in the series. 

Course 1

Real-Time AI Monitoring & Early Detection of Immune-Related Adverse Events: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

May 2, 2024 - 12–1 p.m. ET 

Faculty

Sarah Mullin, PhD, MS
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

Moderator

Riyue Bao, PhD
UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

AI is being investigated for real-time monitoring of patients receiving immunotherapy for immune-related adverse events (irAE). Earlier and more accurate detection of toxicities can vastly improve patient outcomes. The first webinar in our series will educate participants on the current application of AI in irAE monitoring and detection, as well as discuss future applications of these technologies across the field.

Course 2

AI in Personalized Immunotherapies: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

May 15, 2024 - 12–1 p.m. ET

Faculty

Rachel Karchin, PhD
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Moderator

Carsten Krieg, PhD
Medical University of South Carolina

The vision of personalized medicine based on tumor-specific biomarkers comes closer to reality with each new scientific discovery. With the advent of AI, researchers now have a novel and expansive tool that can better analyze large-scale data sets for actionable markers that can fuel immunotherapy development and discovery. Attend this webinar to learn more about the novel application of AI in immunotherapy target discovery and how these advances could rapidly enhance clinical care.

Course 3

Opportunities and Implications for IO Using AI and Digital Pathology: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

June 20, 2024 - 12:30–1:30 p.m. ET

Faculty

Anne Martel, PhD
University of Toronto

Moderator

Sandhya Prabhakaran, PhD
Moffitt Cancer Center

Digital pathology is becoming an increasingly important technique for immunotherapy drug development and clinical care. As AI becomes further entrenched across the field of immunotherapy, researchers have begun considering how AI and digital pathology may coexist for enhanced pathologic analyses as well as scientific and clinical decision making. The focus of this webinar will be to better understand the benefits and caveats of mixing AI and digital pathologic analyses across the field of immunotherapy. 

Course 4

Social Determinants of Health with Large/Moderate Language Models on EHR Data: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

July 30, 2024 - 1:30–2:30 p.m. ET 

Faculty

Danielle Bitterman, MD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Moderator

Matthew Reilley, MD
University of Virginia

Social determinants of health are becoming increasingly understood as having significant impact in immunotherapy patient care. Many of these determinants are captured in the electronic health record (EHR), but very few methods can effectively analyze these data to better determine correlations between determinants and immunotherapy outcomes. This webinar will focus on new, prospective methods to analyze health record data for social determinant indicators that could help enhance immunotherapy administration and access.

Course 5

Predicting Early Diagnosis and Response with Multimodal AI: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Aug. 29, 2024 - 2:30–3:30 p.m. ET

Faculty

Anant Madabhushi, PhD
Emory Winship Cancer Institute

Moderator

Alan Hutson, PhD
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

Earlier cancer diagnosis, as well as rapid determination of tumor response after treatment, could lead to enhanced immunotherapy patient outcomes. Multimodal AI that can accept various data inputs, especially as treatments become more personalized, are prime for helping facilitate advances in cancer diagnosis and response classification. This webinar will describe current efforts in the development of multimodal AI for these purposes, with a specific focus on how these models can better serve immunotherapy clinical decision making.

Course 6

Predicting Drug Resistance and Drug Repurposing with Imaging-Based AI: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Sept. 25, 2024 - 1:30–2:30 p.m. ET

Faculty

James Zou, PhD
Stanford

Moderator

C. 'Harris' Floudas, MD, DMSc, MS
National Cancer Institute

Increased understanding of immunotherapy mechanisms of action may enhance researchers’ ability to circumvent resistance and identify alternative therapeutic uses. Imaging-based AI that can closely analyze drug-specific structures and interactions are being developed to help expedite discoveries in these two critical areas. Come attend this exciting webinar where specific applications of imaging-based AI for better understanding of immuno-therapeutic mechanisms will be discussed.

Course 7

Rationalized Patient Match and Clinical Trial Design with Large/Moderate Language Models on EHR Data: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Oct. 15, 2024 - 1–2 p.m. ET

Faculty

Zhiyong Lu, PhD
National Center for Biotechnology Information

Moderator

C. ‘Harris’ Floudas, MD, DMSc, MS
National Cancer Institute

Thousands of IO clinical trials are currently available to cancer patients, all of which are aiming to identify the next generation of potential life-saving treatments. However, it can be difficult to design trials that will be able to efficiently enroll patients, especially in the field of immunotherapy where mechanisms of action have increased in complexity. This webinar will describe advances in AI application for analyzing electronic health record (EHR) data in order to better design immunotherapy clinical trials and more efficiently match potential patients.

Course 8

Federated AI in Training Prediction Models: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Nov. 13, 2024 - 12–1 p.m. ET

Faculty

Spyridon Bakas, PhD, MS
Indiana University

Moderator

Riyue Bao, PhD
UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

Data privacy and security has become critical for all researchers to consider as they generate significant amounts of data across their immunotherapy studies. A federated AI teaching approach across the field of immunotherapy, where data remains localized, may help alleviate the privacy and security concerns for using sensitive patient data. Advances in the development of federated AI development will be discussed during this webinar, with a specific emphasis on how immunotherapy prediction models could utilize these processes.

Course 9

Increasing Awareness and Addressing Disparities with Fairness AI: AI in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Dec. 17, 2024 - 1–2 p.m. ET

Faculty

Hugo Aerts, PhD
Harvard-Mass General Brigham

Moderator

Sandhya Prabhakaran, PhD
Moffitt Cancer Center

Fairness AI are actively being developed to more effectively analyze patient data and to limit disparities. Reduced disparities across the field of immunotherapy will help ensure that all cancer patients will be able to better access life-saving treatments. Come learn more about advances in fairness AI development towards reducing disparities in immunotherapy treatment during the concluding webinar of our fourth series.


Series Organizers

Song Liu, PhD

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center NCI Cancer Moonshot IOTN & DRSN
Big Data and Data Sharing Committee, Chair

Carsten Krieg, PhD

Carsten Krieg, PhD

Medical University of South Carolina
Big Data and Data Sharing Committee, Co-Chair

Alan Hutson, PhD

Alan Hutson, PhD

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center NCI Cancer Moonshot IOTN & DRSN
Big Data and Data Sharing Committee, Past Chair

Riyue Bao, PhD

UPMC Hillman Cancer Center
Big Data and Data Sharing Committee, MEMBER

Past Series

2023 SITC-NCI COMPUTATIONAL IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY WEBINAR SERIES 3

2022 SITC-NCI COMPUTATIONAL IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY WEBINAR SERIES 2

2021 SITC-NCI COMPUTATIONAL IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY WEBINAR SERIES 1

Related Resources

SITC offers a variety of resources about bioinformatics, imaging and technology development and application. Explore the pages below to learn more.

Bioinformatics

Technology Developments