SITC-NCI Computational IO Series

Program DetailsCollaborative PartnersSchedule and FacultyProgram FlyerOrganizersPast 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 fifth iteration of the "SITC-NCI Computational Immuno-oncology Webinar Series" throughout April-December 2025. This year's series will focus specifically on advanced methods and clinical utility for biomarker development in IO.

Organized by the SITC Big Data and Data Sharing Committee, these ten 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 for biomarker development. The goal of this series is to help foster better communication concerning data science technologies and analyses between cancer immunotherapy researchers and clinicians. All webinars in this series will take place live and be made available in their entirety on the SITC ConnectED platform as enduring materials.

TARGET AUDIENCE

This series will serve as an excellent resource for all stakeholders interested in expanding their knowledge on clinical utility for biomarker development 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 are to ensure participants remain on the cutting edge of computational immuno-oncology, to increase the participants’ awareness of the NCI-supported Immunotherapy Networks, to enhance scientific engagements between the Immunotherapy Networks and the broader Cancer Immunotherapy community, and to fulfill the goal of acceleration of progress in cancer research.

Collaborative Partners

National Cancer Institute

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

The 2025 SITC-NCI Computational Immuno-oncology Webinar Series is supported, in part, by grants from Kite Pharma, Inc., Lunit Inc., and Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. (supporters as of March 5, 2025), as well as the NIH/NCI.

Gold Sponsor:

Gold Sponsor:

Bronze Sponsor:

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 ten webinars in the series. 

Course 1

Advanced Biomarker Development and Clinical Translation: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

April 2, 2025 - 2–3:30 p.m. ET 

Biomarker discovery for cancer immunotherapy entails using high-dimensional multi-omic assays that can be difficult to interpret, particularly in the setting of challenging clinical trial designs such as small cohort size or unbalanced response rates. This webinar will therefore address advances in computational science and biostatistics that allow for rigorous interpretation of complex exploratory biomarker data, when most studies are typically only powered for clinical endpoints.

Register

Industry Faculty

Aparna Chhibber, PhD

Bristol Myers Squibb

Academic Faculty

Sacha Gnjatic, PhD

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Moderator

Benjamin Vincent, MD

University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Course 2

Guidelines and Best Practices on Designing Clinical Trials with Exploratory Surrogate Endpoints and CDX: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

May 8, 2025 - 2:15–3:45 p.m. ET

Exploratory surrogate endpoints and companion diagnostics (CDX) are transforming clinical trial design in immuno-oncology, crucial for advancing personalized medicine. By incorporating these innovative approaches, researchers can gain early insights into treatment efficacy, enhancing the likelihood of successful drug approval. Join us to explore how these guidelines and best practices can shape the future of clinical trials and drive progress in immunotherapy.

 Register

Academic Faculty

Janice M. Mehnert, MD

NYU Langone Health

Industry Faculty

Rui Sammi Tang, PhD, MBA

Astellas Pharma US, Inc.

Moderator

Julie Rytlewski, PhD

Bristol Myers Squibb

Course 3

Lessons from the CIMAC-CIDC Network: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

May 29, 2025 - 12–1 p.m. ET

The focus of this webinar will be to explore how machine learning-driven modeling of multimodal data can be used to profile patient heterogeneity and analyze diverse immunotherapy treatments, enabling the identification of cellular and molecular markers linked to clinical outcomes.

 Register

Faculty Speaker

Brian Capaldo, PhD

National Cancer Institute

Faculty Speaker

Edgar Gonzalez-Kozlova, PhD

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Moderator

Holden Maecker, PhD

Stanford

Course 4

Medical Imaging; Non-invasive Biomarkers for irAE and IMTX Response: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

June 18, 2025 - 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. ET

More webinar information to come.

Register

Faculty Speaker

Alexandra-Chloé Villani, PhD

Massachusetts General Hospital

Moderator

Carsten Krieg, PhD

Medical University of South Carolina

Course 5

Multi-dimensional Computationally Defined Biomarkers: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

July 8, 2025 - 12–1 p.m. ET 

This webinar will describe four approaches for predicting patients’ response to checkpoint immunotherapy recently developed in Dr. Ruppin’s lab, including: (1) predicting patients’ response to the tumor bulk transcriptome, (2) predicting response directly from the blood via simple routine lab tests and the tumor mutational burden, (3) predicting patients’ immunotherapy response from the tumor histopathological images, and (4) building predictors of the tumor microenvironment and developing spatially-grounded biomarkers of treatment response. We will conclude by discussing challenges and the road ahead.

Register

Faculty Speaker

Eytan Ruppin, MD, PhD

National Institutes of Health

Moderator

Timothy Shaw, PhD

Moffitt Cancer Center

Course 6

Assessing the Tumor Microenvironment with Systems Immunology: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Aug. 21, 2025 - 12–1 p.m. ET

Understanding the diverse states of cancer and tumor microenvironment (TME) cells, and their spatial and temporal interactions, is essential for advancing immuno-oncology research. This webinar will delve into how computational science and single-cell spatial technologies are revolutionizing the study of the TME, with a focus on tumor-immune interactions. Attend this webinar to learn about cutting-edge computational tools and analytical approaches that reveal the complexities of the TME and tumor immunobiology, including mechanisms underlying responses to immunotherapy.

Register

Faculty Speaker

Linghua Wang, MD, PhD

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Moderator

Timothy Shaw, PhD

Moffitt Cancer Center

Course 7

Unlocking the Power of Spatial Omics with AI: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Sept. 10, 2025 - 12–1 p.m. ET

Spatial omics technologies have revolutionized cancer research, but their high cost, long turnaround times, and limited tissue capture areas have hindered widespread adoption. This webinar will discuss how AI can unlock the full potential of spatial omics, driving advancements in immuno-oncology.

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Faculty Speaker

Mingyao Li, PhD

University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Moderator

Marshall Thompson, PhD

The Rare Cancer Research Foundation

Course 8

Liquid Biopsy Approaches for Cancer Diagnosis and Monitoring: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Oct. 16, 2025 - 12–1 p.m. ET

In this webinar, we will explore the transformative potential of liquid biopsy approaches in cancer characterization, residual disease tracking and therapy response monitoring. Focusing on analyses of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), we will review how liquid biopsies provide unique insights into tumor dynamics and enable clinicians and researchers to make data-driven decisions that improve patient outcomes. The webinar will also cover a comprehensive assessment of current and emerging technologies together with computational methodologies developed for analyses of ctDNA sequencing data. We will end with a discussion on clinical integration, focusing on cancer immunotherapy and will discuss where we stand with implementation of liquid biopsies in ctDNA molecular response-adaptive clinical trials for patients receiving immunotherapy.

Register

Faculty Speaker

Valsamo Anagnostou, MD, PhD

Johns Hopkins University

Moderator

Riyue Bao, PhD

UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

Course 9

Using Spatial Biology to Monitor Tumor Immune Interactions: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Nov. 13, 2025 - 1–2 p.m. ET

In this webinar we will review some methods for extracting information on the tumor immune microenvironment from spatial imaging and spatial genomics assays. We will also explore methods that relate the information obtained from different spatial assay types.

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Faculty Speaker

Vesteinn Þórsson, PhD

Institute for Systems Biology

Moderator

Sandhya Prabhakaran, PhD

Moffitt Cancer Center

Course 10

AI, Upcoming Technologies, and Potential Applications: Computational Science in Immuno-oncology

Date of Live Event

Dec. 2, 2025 - 12:30–2 p.m. ET

Patient burden dynamics, serum, tumor genomic, and functional profiles contain valuable insights for cancer research. This webinar demonstrates how AI, computational, and mathematical driven approaches can integrate these profiles to model the tumor-microenvironment interactions, discover novel IO targets and biotherapeutics, predict patient responses to immunotherapy, elucidate mechanisms of IO resistance, and develop therapies that exploit drug dosing and sequencing.

Register

AI Leader Faculty

Xiaole Shirley Liu, PhD

GV20 Therapeutics

Mathematician Faculty

Alexander Anderson, PhD

Moffitt Cancer Center

Clinician Faculty

Marco L. Davila, MD, PhD

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

Moderator

Carsten Krieg, PhD

Medical University of South Carolina


Series Organizers

Song Liu, PhD

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

Riyue Bao, PhD

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

Past Series

2024 SITC-NCI COMPUTATIONAL IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY WEBINAR SERIES 4

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