Shaping Tomorrow’s Cell Therapies: From Discovery to Clinics Across Stem Cell and CAR‑T Innovation

Ibon Garitaonandia
Chief Scientific Officer
CellProthera

Speaker Bio:

Ibon Garitaonandia, Ph.D., MBA, is the Chief Scientific Officer at CellProthera, a French clinical- stage biotechnology company developing stem cell-based therapies for post-acute myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke. Ibon has several years of experience advancing stem cell-based therapies from early discovery to clinical translation. Prior to CellProthera, he held executive positions at Richmond Research Institute, Histocell, and International Stem Cell Corporation, where he developed stem cell-based therapies for multiple indications including Parkinson’s disease and traumatic brain injury. He received a prestigious CIRM postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Regenerative Medicine of the Scripps Research Institute, a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Florida, and bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of the Basque Country.

Talk Title:

CD34+ cell-based therapy for the treatment of ischemic diseases

Talk Abstract:

Acute myocardial infarction remains a large unmet medical need. After a heart attack, many patients progress to congestive heart failure and eventually need a heart transplant. CD34+ cell-based therapy has the potential to repair the myocardium and improve outcomes as it promotes revascularization and cardiomyocyte regeneration through the secretion of paracrine factors. We showed in a pilot study that intramyocardial injection of autologous CD34+ cells regenerates the heart and provides long-term improvement. Even patients recommended for heart transplantation, no longer needed it after receiving the cell therapy. In a subsequent international multicentre randomized Phase 2 study (NCT02669810), we showed that transendocardial injections of autologous expanded CD34+ cells in post-AMI patients led to a reduction in hospitalisation rates, 50% reduction in infarct size, 70 % reduction in NT-proBNP, and 9% reduction of left ventricular volume (which predicts halving of cardiovascular mortality risk). We are now preparing for a pivotal Phase 3 study in this indication. We have also shown that the CD34+ cell therapy significantly improves functional recovery, neurogenesis, and angiogenesis, and reduces infarct size, cell loss, and inflammation in a rodent model of ischemic stroke. We are now preparing for a Phase 1 study in ischemic stroke.

Iosifina Foskolou
Group Leader at Sanquin Research and Assistant Professor at Amsterdam UMC

Speaker Bio:

Iosifina is specialising in T cell metabolism and cancer immunotherapy. Her lab focuses on improving T cell immunotherapies against solid tumours by better understanding the environments immune cells face in both the tumour microenvironment and lymphoid tissues.

Iosifina holds a PhD in Oncology from the University of Oxford, where she studied the effects of low oxygen (hypoxia) in solid tumours. She has extensive postdoctoral experience at both Cambridge University and the Karolinska Institute, where she investigated how metabolism can improve CAR-T cell immunotherapy. Iosifina has a robust academic background, and her work has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals, with key papers on T cell function, metabolism, and anti-tumour immunity and she recently received a VIDI grant to expand her research in this field.

Talk Title:

Enhancing CAR-T cells immunotherapies by regulating T cell metabolism

Talk Abstract:

Adoptive cell transfer with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells has transformed the treatment of haematological cancers. However, efficacy against solid tumours remains limited, in part due to the metabolically hostile tumour microenvironment (TME). Within solid tumours, T cells encounter low oxygen (hypoxia), nutrient deprivation, and immunosuppressive metabolites that collectively impair their persistence and function. New evidence suggests, that metabolic cues do not only constrain T cell activity but can also be harnessed to enhance their therapeutic potential. In this talk, I will discuss our work investigating how hypoxia and hypoxia-induced metabolites can reshape CD8⁺ T cell differentiation, epigenetic state, and effector functions. We will explore how hypoxia-driven metabolic rewiring and exposure to specific metabolites influence transcriptional and chromatin landscapes, ultimately affecting CAR-T cell fitness. We further examine how distinct metabolic intermediates differentially regulate epigenetic enzymes and T cell fate decisions, with implications for persistence and exhaustion. Together, these studies highlight metabolism as a central, targetable axis for optimising CAR-T cell function. Understanding how environmental and intrinsic metabolic programs intersect provides new opportunities to design next-generation cellular immunotherapies with improved efficacy in solid tumours.