Registration to attend the OCION symposium will be open until 12:00, Friday 23rd of May 2025, but spaces are limited.

The Oxford Cancer Immuno-Oncology Network (OCION) Annual Symposium brings together scientists from different disciplines, cutting-edge technologies and patient samples to progress our immuno-oncology understanding to the next level. The 3rd OCION Annual Symposium will be hosted at the Mathematics Institute in Oxford on 13th June 2025. The conference aims to help catalyse immuno-oncology research across Oxford.

If you are interested in presenting a flash talk or submitting a poster please see guidance on this below (deadline 16th May).

Membership:

All University of Oxford or OUHFT researchers with an interest in immunology are welcome to join the network. If you wish to become a member and to be added to the mailing list to hear about future events and funding opportunities, please email: cancer@medsci.ox.ac.uk.

Programme: (Please check back for final timings and speaker list)

08:30 Arrival and registration

09:00-09:15 Welcome Tim Elliott

Next Generation Therapies

09:15-09:35 Vaccine platforms for cancer vaccines – much of a muchness or fundamentally different? (Ellie Barnes)

09:35-09:55 Anti-tumour impacts of Antiviral responses (Paul Klenerman)

09:55-10:15 The impact of the bone marrow microenvironment upon CAR-T function (Ronjon Chakraverty)

10:15-10:20 FLASH

10:20-10:25 FLASH

10:25 -11:00 Coffee

Inflammation and Immunometabolism

11.00-11.20 TBC (Calli Dendrou)

11:20-11:40 Eosinophil deactivation by the breast tumour microenvironment can be reversed by interferons (Kim Midwood)

11:40-12:00 Developing ex vivo models for investigating natural and therapeutic regulation of human adaptive immunity (Pablo Céspedes Donoso)

12:00-12:05 FLASH

12:05-12:10 FLASH

12:10-12:15 Immunotherapy Advances (Tim Elliott)

12:15-13:45 Lunch (posters 12:45-13:30)

13:45-14:15 PPIE Quiz! (Catriona Gilmour-Hamilton)

Immunotherapy-Refractory Cancers

14:15-14:35 Lymph node yield as an immunological marker of primary colorectal cancer biology (Simon Buczacki)

14:35-14:55 Scratching below the surface of skin cancer in high-risk groups using spatial profiling (Matthew Bottomley)

14:55-15:15 Hypoxia-mediated repression of MHC-I and antigen presentation (Ester Hammond)

15:15-15:35 TBC

15:35-15:40 FLASH

15:40-15:45 FLASH

15:45-16:10 Coffee

16:10-16:50 Keynote: Rewiring immune responses for advancing cancer immunotherapy (Alfred Zippelius)

16:50-17:00 Awards and closing remarks Tim Elliott

17:00-18:15 Drinks reception

Brochure:

For sustainability reasons, we will not be printing our brochure for the conference. There will be copies of the agenda displayed. You will be able to access the brochure via a QR code during the event. Please note if you submit for a poster your abstract will feature in the brochure.

Oxford attendee no-show % rates - CRUK item costings:

As with all events Oxford Cancer organise, we are conscious of how much they cost to run. We are currently offering this event as a free ticketed event however will be monitoring our no show numbers as in future years we may have to start charging attendees to ensure we can keep costs low and avoid food wastage.

The events we run are funded with charitable money. On average, the Oxford Cancer annual symposium costs £25K with a 30% dropout rate each year. This amounts to £7,500 in attendee charges that we have to cover.

To give you an insight as to what this could fund:

£5 buys 100 plastic test tubes.
£13 buys agarose gel, which is a vital component for a technique that scientists use to measure the length of pieces of DNA.
£20 buys a lab coat.
£50 buys a microscope lens.
£95 buys a Wright-Giemsa cell staining kit, which our scientists use to distinguish between different types of blood cells.
£21k could fund a research nurse for 6 months.

The above are real examples given by CRUK. If you cannot attend the event, we please ask you to let us know as soon as possible. We do not want to start charging attendees and want to avoid having to pay the fees of the non-attendees.

Venue:

Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Andrew Wiles Building, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6GG

FLASH TALK GUIDANCE:

Upon registering to attend the event, please indicate if you would like to be considered to present a flash talk by adding an add-on ticket. Please note: it is not guaranteed you will automatically be selected for a flash talk, the abstracts will be judged by a panel of experts and winners chosen. You will hear the outcome of your submission at least 2 weeks before the conference.

To submit an abstract, please follow the below guidance:

Email your abstract to elizabeth.mann@medsci.ox.ac.uk
Indicate that you wish your abstract to be considered for a flash talk
Name
Position
Department
Abstract title
Abstract (max 250 words)
Deadline midday, Friday 16th of May 2025

POSTER ABSTRACT GUIDANCE:

We will feature poster sessions showcasing the work that is taking place in Immuno-oncology. Posters are open to all levels of researchers and are not limited to younger scientists. 40 places will be available.

Please submit an abstract for your poster using the below guidance and note that chosen abstracts will feature in our digital events brochure:

Email your abstract to elizabeth.mann@medsci.ox.ac.uk
Indicate that you wish your abstract to be considered for a poster
Name
Position
Department
Poster/abstract title
No longer than one side of A4 with standard margins, and 12pt text. This is inclusive of images and references, if appropriate
The abstract should be submitted in Word format
Should follow the format: background, method, results, conclusions, contact email for the presenter
Deadline, midday, Friday 16th of May 2025
There will be x1 overall winner and x1 runner-up. A cash prize or a voucher will be given.

Registrations are closed

Oxford Cancer Immuno-Oncology Network (OCION) Annual Symposium 2025