Meetings

June 11^th, Berlin

Join us at EPO's Spring Meeting 2025

Dear Colleague,

The EPO team cordially invites you to attend the EPO 2025 Spring Symposium on June 11th at the historic Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus in the heart of Berlin.

After last year's successful meeting, we are pleased to once again provide a platform for scientists, clinicians and industry professionals to share their latest findings and discuss the challenges and opportunities in tumor modeling.

During the day, scientific presentations will be accompanied by networking opportunities and a joint lunch for in-depth discussions. We look forward to welcoming you and sharing our knowledge and expertise on new developments in tumor modeling. Please find a list of all speakers below and details in the attachment.

As space is limited, please register with Turn on Javascript!. We look forward to seeing you in Berlin on June 11th!

Best wishes,
Jens Hoffmann & Wolfgang Walther & Antje Wengner
CEO & CSO & CSO at EPO

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5th – 6th May 2025

EPO will attend the Swiss Biotech Day, Basel

The Swiss Biotech Day is a premier biotechnology conference in Europe, attracting professionals from the global life sciences community. In 2025, it will once again provide a platform for networking, engaging discussions, and the exploration of advancements in R&D, manufacturing, data management, artificial intelligence, and innovative financing.

EPO is proud to be exhibiting as a sponsoring partner in Basel.

25th – 30th April, 2025

EPO will attend the AACR Annual Meeting 2025 in Chicago, IL

Meet us at the AACR and gain insights on how EPO’s services can accelerate your preclinical oncology programs. Watch out for our posters and talks!

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5th – 7th March 2025

EPO will attend the 22nd International AEK Cancer Congress in Berlin

EPO is presenting posters and talks at the 22^nd International AEK Cancer Congress taking place in Berlin this year.
https://www.aek-congress.org/

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29th – 30th January 2025

EPO will attend the 9th Tumor Models San Francisco Summit

Meet us in San Francisco at the 9^th Tumor Models Summit!
https://tumor-models-sf.com/

4th – 7th November 2024

EPO will attend the 15th World ADC, San Diego, US

Meet us in San Diego at the world-leading and largest ADC-focused conference to maximize the therapeutic window of ADCs.
https://worldadc-usa.com/

4th – 6th November 2024

EPO will attend BIO-Europe, Stockholm, Sweden

Join us at BIO-Europe, Europe's leading partnering event. Let’s connect and meet in in Stockholm, Sweden, November 4–6, 2024.
https://informaconnect.com/bioeurope/

23th – 24th July 2024

Join us at Tumor Models Boston Summit

Dear Colleague,

We are thrilled to be part of Tumor Models Boston Summit July 23-24. We are hoping to see you at the conference and talk about latest advancements in our translational and predictive models and how we can assist in de-risk the validation of novel targets, predict therapeutic response, and support biomarker discovery.

Key topics include implementing state-of-the-art, reproducible and predictive oncology models to enhance target selection, facilitate biomarker discovery and facilitate clinical translatability.

Come by our booth and meet our CEO Jens Hoffmann and our colleague Joseph Herbert for an expert chat. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Joseph Herbert as our new Business Development colleague for the US. Joe brings a wealth of experience to the role, and we are thrilled to have him supporting our US clients. Please feel free to schedule a meeting with Joe and Jens in advance via this Turn on Javascript!.

We look forward to seeing you soon in Boston!

Best wishes,
Jens Hoffmann & Wolfgang Walther
CEO & CSO at EPO

10th – 13th June 2024

EPO is presenting at the EACR Meeting in Rotterdam

Poster #398: Pancreatic cancer patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models: establishment and thorough molecular characterization

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is associated with poor prognosis, reflected by a high mortality and incidence rate. To overcome current insufficient treatment options for PC, EPO has established a well characterized cohort of 45 PC PDX models with heterogeneous pheno- and genotype, which has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Cancers (Behrens D et al., Establishment and Thorough Characterization of Xenograft (PDX) Models Derived from Patients with Pancreatic Cancer for Molecular Analyses and Chemosensitivity Testing. Cancers (Basel). 2023, 15(24):5753). We compiled comprehensive information on genome data, mutational- and HLA status, morphology and in vivo growth as well as in vivo chemosensitivity towards standard of care drugs. This robust PDX panel allows the identification of biomarkers for treatment response and for new therapeutic vulnerabilities and broadens the spectrum of models of EPO.

Presenter: Dr. Diana Behrens

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Poster #345: Long-term humanization of NOG mice and next-generation NOG strains to induce lineage-specific differentiation of immune cells for assessment of novel immune cell therapies, check point inhibitors, and immune cell engagers for translational immuno-oncology research.

The preclinical evaluation of novel immune therapies requires humanized immune system (HIS) mouse models. In previous studies we have demonstrated that either peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), subsets of PBMCs like T and NK cells or CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) can be used to establish a HIS model.

With the development of next-generation NOG mice, lineage-specific differentiation of immune cell sub-populations of interest can be supported. We investigated the long-term humanization in these different mouse strains. Furthermore we transplanted cell line-derived (CDX) or patient-derived (PDX) tumor xenografts on these HIS mice to establish a full model for human tumors for the investigation of checkpoint inhibitors (CPI), as well as novel cell therapies and immune cell engagers.

Poster #345 + #398 in Poster Session June 11, 11:00 am - 20:15 pm

Presenter: Dr. Diana Behrens; Author: Dr. Maria Stecklum

6th June 2024

Join us at EPO's Spring Meeting 2024

The EPO team cordially invites you to attend EPO’s 2024 Spring Symposium on June 6th at the historical Magnus-Haus located in the heart of Berlin.

After last year’s successful meeting we are happy to again providing a platform for scientists, clinicians, and industry professionals to share their latest findings and discuss the challenges and opportunities in tumor modeling.

During the day, scientific talks will be accompanied by networking opportunities and a joint lunch for in depth discussions. We are glad to welcome you and share knowledge and expertise around novel developments in tumor models. Please find a list of all speakers below and details in the attachment.

As place is limited, please register until March 22^nd with Turn on Javascript!. We look forward to seeing you in Berlin on June 6th!

SpringMeeting program >>>

Best wishes,
Jens Hoffmann & Wolfgang Walther
CEO & CSO at EPO

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15th – 17th May 2024

EPO is presenting at the 21st CIMT Annual Meeting in Mainz

Poster #180 : Assessment of therapeutic antibody efficacy without the interference of murine Fc receptors allows for investigation of human antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity mediated by NK cells in the FcResolv™ hIL-15 NOG mouse model

In our collaboration project with Taconic Bioscience, we analyzed the antibody efficacy on different tumor models in the new mouse model FcResolvTM hIL-15 NOG that lack the murine Fc receptors and expresses human IL-15. The murine Fc receptors can have positive or negative effects on the treatment efficacies of antibodies. In a following investigation we combined the antibody treatment with NK cell transfer to explore the antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity mediated by NK cells. We will present the results on the upcoming CIMT meeting in Mainz in the poster session.

Poster #180 in Poster Session May 16th, 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm.

Presenter: Dr. Simone Rhein

22nd – 23rd April 2024

EPO will attend the Swiss Biotech Day, Basel, Switzerland

The Swiss Biotech Day is a premier biotechnology conference in Europe, attracting professionals from the global life sciences community. In 2024, it will once again provide a platform for networking, engaging discussions, and the exploration of advancements in R&D, manufacturing, data management, artificial intelligence, and innovative financing.

EPO is proud to be exhibiting as a sponsoring partner in Basel.

16th – 17th April 2024

EPO will attend the German Biotechnology Days (DBT), Berlin, Germany

The event is regarded a national forum for the German biotechnology industry. The DBT brings together entrepreneurs with scientists and partners from politics, funding institutions and administration. The two-day program will highlight the diverse fields of application and potential of biotechnology, from health research to the bioeconomy.

5th – 10th April 2024

AACR Annual Meeting 2024

San Diego Convention Center

Meet us at the AACR and schedule a 1:1 meeting with an expert of our team to gain insights on how EPO’s services can accelerate your preclinical oncology programs.

Turn on Javascript!

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21th – 24th February 2024

36. Deutscher Krebskongress Berlin (36th German Cancer Congress Berlin, Germany)

In February 2024 the 36th German Cancer Congress will take place in Berlin. The EPO scientists will attend and present new methodological developments and data on their humanized mouse models for preclinical immune oncology research and drug development in the poster sessions of the congress. The EPO team will be happy to meet and to discuss the achievements at the congress in Berlin.

6th – 7th December 2023

EPO will attend the 12th Tumor Models London Summit, London, UK

The Tumor Models London Summit in December is an industry-led meeting dedicated to preclinical and translational oncology. This meeting will provide an update on newest tumor model developments, and their use in translating preclinical data into clinical applications. During the meeting EPO will be part of the dialogue between biopharma, research institutes and academia. 

EPO is proud to be listed as exhibition partner of the meeting.

11th to the 15th of October

EPO will attend the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston from the 11th to the 15th of October

The 2023 Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics conference, hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute, and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, will take place at Boston's Hynes Convention Center. The conference focuses on advancements in cancer drug development, target selection and early clinical trials.

We are very proud to announce that two of our abstracts have been accepted for poster presentation:

Poster 1: Patient-derived xenograft models from hematological malignancies for preclinical drug development and biomarker research (Abstract # 35592, Poster Session A)

Poster 2: Preclinical evaluation of novel immune cell therapies, check point inhibitors, and immune cell engagers in humanized mouse models (Abstract # 35527, Poster Session A)

Download: Poster 1 , Poster 2

11th – 14th September 2023

EPO is presenting at the German Conference on Bioinformatics (GCB) from 11th to 14th of September 2023 in Hamburg, Germany

EPO is pleased to announce its active participation in the annual international GCB conference, held this year at the DESY accelerator centre in Hamburg, Germany. This conference is devoted to all areas of bioinformatics research. In the poster session, EPO presents its comprehensive HLA profile portfolio of 453 PDX models and its importance in enabling personalized, preclinical immune-oncology studies.

Poster #74: Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing of a broad panel of cancer patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models enables personalized, preclinical immune-oncology studies

Presenter: Dr. Theresia Conrad

Download poster

7th – 8th July 2023

EPO presents novel data on its HNSCC PDX models at the AACR-AHNS Head and Neck Cancer Congress in Montreal, QC, Canada

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) host the third AACR-AHNS Joint Conference in Montreal, Canada, where EPO is also actively participating with a poster. This poster shows EPOs new data on its head and neck cancer PDX model panel regarding chemosensitivity testing, molecular characterization and HLA-matching analyses. We are happy to meet you at the poster to discuss our models and potential collaboration opportunities!

Poster: : New patient derived head and neck xenograft (PDX) for drug development, immune-oncology and translational research

Download this poster (8th July 2023)

June 12th – 15th 2023

EPO will present current research topics at the Annual EACR Congress in Torino, Italy

The European Association of Cancer Research will have its Annual Meeting on Innovative Cancer Science in June 2023 in Torino, Italy. This meeting is covering a broad spectrum of preclinical and translational aspects of cancer research and EPO is proud to present its own newest research during this meeting. Our posters will provide interesting insights into our achievements with an excellent opportunity for scientific discussions.

• Poster # 1: Humanized mouse models for preclinical evaluation of novel immune cell therapies, check point inhibitors, and immune cell engagers (EACR23-0871; Section Tumour Biology)
  

Presenter:  Dr.-Ing. Maria Stecklum, who was awarded with the EACR Travel Grant

Download this poster (June 15th 2023)


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• Poster # 2: Peritoneal metastasis of colorectal cancer (pmCRC): Identification of predictive molecular signatures by a novel preclinical platform of pmCRC PDX models (EACR23-1083; Section Translational Research)
  

Presenter:  Dr. Mathias Dahlmann

25th of May 2023

EPO is proud to invite to the EPO Spring Meeting in Berlin, Germany

EPO is pleased to announce the EPO Spring Meeting 2023 and to invite scientists from academia and industry to talk about novel developments in cancer models and to discuss future directions of research and collaborative activities. This Spring Meeting, which will take place in the historic Magnushaus, close to the Museum Island at the Spree River, right in the city center. The meeting covers different topics of cancer immunology, humanized mouse models, cancer biology, funding opportunities for collaboration of CROs and academia to expedit cancer research for novel therapies.

This symposium offers great opportunities for scientific exchange and discussions and the detailed program can be found here. Please register as soon as possible by writing an email to Katja Bolle (Turn on Javascript!) as the number of participants is limited to 80.

3rd – 5th May 2023

EPO will participate at the Cancer Immunotherapy Meeting (CIMT) Meeting 2023 in Mainz, Germany

The annual CIMT event is Europe’s largest immunotherapy meeting and EPO will be presenting its very recent developments in immune oncology research at this meeting in May 2023 in Mainz, Germany. We will be happy to meet everyone at our posters, who is interested in our research and services in immune oncology, humanized mouse and PDX models for scientific exchange and discussions.

• Poster # 115: Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching of cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDX) models with immune cell-humanized mice
  
• Matching of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) profiles of patient-derived xenografts (PDX) with human immune cell populations that are used for humanization of mouse models is a prerequisite for testing immune checkpoint inhibitors and mimics closer the clinical situation.
• HLA profiles of 291 established PDX models from 18 different tumor entities were analyzed and matched to known peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) donors according to the donor-recipient HLA matching criteria recommended by the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network.
• HLA-matched PDX and immune cells were engaged in an in vivo model and showed a response to checkpoint inhibition.

  Download this poster (5th May 2023)


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• Poster # 273: Humanized mouse models for the preclinical evaluation of novel cancer immunotherapy options
  
• The preclinical evaluation of many novel immune therapies requires the use mouse models with a functional human immune system. To this end, we have established human tumor-immune-cell models of different entities using CDX or PDX in combination with different donor derived immune cell subsets as effector cells.
• Our human tumor-immune-cell models allow preclinical, translational studies on tumor immune biology as well as evaluation of new therapies, drug combinations and biomarker identification and validation.

  Download this poster (5th May 2023)

14th – 19th April 2023

EPO will be present at the AACR Annual Meeting 2023 in Orlando, FL

EPO will be presenting its newest achievements in research and development at the AACR Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, held from 14th to 19th of April 2023. We will present posters and will be happy to meet you at the posters for lively discussions

• Poster # 5204: Preclinical models for translational immuno-oncology research: rare patient-derived xenografts on humanized mic
  
• Fully humanized mouse models for immuno-onoclogy research by co-transplantation of PDX and human hematopetic stem cells (HSC) or immune cells from whole blood (PBMCs, T, or NK cells).
• Several rare and difficult to establish tumor models have been investigated in humanized HSC mice.
• The models have been experimentally validated in preclinical studies with checkpoint inhibitors, novel bispeci¬c immune cell engagers (BITE) or cell therapy options such as CAR-T cells.

Download this poster


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• Poster # 4674: Patient-derived xenograft and PDX-derived cell line models from glioblastoma for drug development and identification of molecular signatures
  
• Establishment of 39 PDX glioma models on immunodeficient mice, fiveteen out of these by orthotopic (i.cer.) transplantation.
• Subcutaneously transplanted PDX models show individual growth and chemosensivity profiles and matching orthotopic PDX models have a reduced sensivity towards most tested drugs, possibly due to the blood-brain barrier and altered microenvironment.
• PDX-derived GBM cell cultures for in vitro pre-testing are free of murine cells, show individual morphology and similar response patterns towards selected drugs as their matching in vivo counterparts

  Download this poster

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• Poster # 44: An in vivo platform of pre-characterized renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patient-derived xenograft models allows the preclinical evaluation of patient-tailored intervention strategies
  
• A comprehensive panel of subcutaneous RCC PDX models with well-conserved molecular and pathological features.
• Drug screening towards four SoC drugs, targeting the VEGF and PI3K/mTOR pathway revealed individual and heterogeneous response profiles in these model which resembles the clinical situation.
• Intra-tumor heterogeneity can be assessed via PDX models from multi-tumor regions from one patient.

Download this poster

15^th - 17^th of February 2023

EPO is attending the International AEK Cancer Congress in Kassel, Germany

EPO will attend the 21st International AEK Cancer Congress in Kassel, Germany, which is funded by the German Cancer Society. This meeting covers different topics of current cancer research including cancer immunology, metastasis research, cancer biology and many more.

EPO will participate actively at this meeting and presenting a talk on “Humanized mouse models for preclinical evaluation of novel immune cell therapies, check point inhibitors, and immune cell engagers” on 16^th of February and a poster on our newest achievements regarding“Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching of cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDX) models for preclinical immune-oncology studies”.

This is a good opportunity to meet us at the AEK Cancer Congress and to discuss new developments and projects.

13th – 16th of November 2022

35. Deutscher Krebskongress Berlin (35th German Cancer Congress Berlin)

EPO scientists presented new models for preclinical translational cancer research in two lectures at the plenary session "Translational Oncology: Innovative Tumor Models - Translation into the Clinic or Remaining in the Laboratory?" Our colleague Dr. Simone Rhein presented new "Humanized tumor models for immuno-oncology research" and Dr. Jens Hoffmann reported on "New approaches for the use of patient-derived xenografts in translational oncology".

In the poster sessions of the congress, further EPO researchers presented the development of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models from high-risk childhood cancers for preclinical evaluation of novel therapeutics, presented new data on HLA-typing of PDX models for improved immune oncology applications and on thorough characterization of newly established PDX models derived from peritoneal metastases of colorectal cancer (all published in the special issue of Oncol Res Treatment, Vol. 45, Suppl. 3, 2022).

26^th - 28^th October 2022

See and meet EPO at the 34th EORTC-NCI-AACR (ENA) Meeting in Barcelona, Spain:

EPO is happy to announce its presence at the 34th ENA-Meeting on molecular targets and cancer therapeutics from 26. - 28. October at the “Centre de Conventions International” in Barcelona, Spain. You can meet EPO’s experts at the EPO-booth during the meeting to discuss our service portfolio, which is ready to aid your projects or specific studies. We will be happy to talk about your needs, answer your questions and discuss potential collaborations.

In addition, EPO is presenting the following scientific posters at the meeting: 

• Humanized mouse models for preclinical evaluation of novel immune therapies, checkpoint inhibitors and immune cell engagers (Poster #32)
• Establishment and characterization of a preclinical platform of subcutaneous renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patient-derived xenograft models to
  evaluate novel treatment strategies (Poster #33)
• New patient derived lymphoma xenograft (PDX) panel for drug development, immune-oncology and translational research (Poster #115)

Take your chance and meet us at our posters during the meeting to gain more insights on our expertise and capabilities as a contract research organization with more than 25 years of experience.

26^th August 2022

Meet EPO at the Immunotherapy Of Cancer (ITOC) Meeting from the 22nd to the 24th of September in Munich, Germany:

EPO will be present at this important European meeting of translational research in immuno-oncology. The meeting will be the perfect opportunity to meet our experts for cancer immuno therapy as well as humanized mouse models and to discuss your projects in the prospect of potential collaborations.

During the meeting, EPO and TACONIC are happy to invite interested researchers to their first joint dinner-symposium at the 22^nd of September with focus on Humanized Immune System Mice in Oncology Research at the Hotel zum Erdinger Weissbräu in Munich. This symposium offers great opportunities for scientific exchange and discussions and the detailed program can be found here. Please register as soon as possible by writing an email to Katja Bolle (Turn on Javascript!) as the number of participants is limited to 50.

4^th April 2022

EPO is presenting at the AACR Annual Meeting 2022 in New Orleans

Get up-to-date on the latest discoveries in cancer research and meet us at the AACR Annual Meeting held from the 8th to the 13th of April in New Orleans.
Please use the opportunity to view our posters which have been accepted by the AACR for presentation:

Poster: Humanized mouse models for preclinical evaluation of novel immune cell therapies, checkpoint inhibitors, and immune cell engangers (PDF)
Poster: Breaking the crosstalk of the Cellular Tumorigenic Network in NSCLC by a highly effective drug combination (PDF)