IMMUNOLOGY2026™ Conference Recordings For Attendees-Spatial and metabolic guidance on tailoring anti-tumor immunity

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Dr. Ping-Chi Ho, recipient of the 2026 AAI BD Biosciences Investigator Award, was introduced as a leading early-career scientist in tumor immunology and immunometabolism. The lecture highlighted his career path from Taiwan to the University of Minnesota, Yale, and now the University of Lausanne and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, where his lab studies how the tumor microenvironment reshapes immune cell metabolism and function.<br /><br />Dr. Ho’s talk focused on how CD8 T cells adapt to the nutrient-poor, hypoxic tumor microenvironment. He explained that tumor-infiltrating T cells are forced to shift toward mitochondrial dependence when glucose is scarce, but this adaptation comes at a cost: they accumulate damaged mitochondria because hypoxia and chronic antigen stimulation impair mitochondrial cleanup. His group showed that these cells increase proteasome-mediated degradation of mitochondrial proteins, which releases free heme into the cytoplasm.<br /><br />That free heme acts as a signaling molecule that promotes T cell exhaustion by targeting BACH2, reducing stem-like programs and pushing cells toward a terminal exhausted state marked by PD-1, TIM3, and BLIMP1. A mutant BACH2 that cannot bind heme helped preserve progenitor-like T cell states in tumor settings. Dr. Ho also showed that low-dose proteasome inhibition during CAR T cell production can improve T cell stemness and function, with promising evidence from mouse models and patient datasets.<br /><br />Overall, the lecture described a new metabolic-to-epigenetic pathway linking mitochondrial damage, heme release, and T cell exhaustion, with implications for improving cancer immunotherapy.

Meta Tag

Date April 16, 2026 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Room 153C

Session AAI-BD Biosciences Investigator Award Presentation and Lecture

Speaker Ping-Chih Ho

Track Tumor Immunology: Cellular Responses and Tumor Microenvironment (TIME)

Year 2026

Keywords

tumor immunology

immunometabolism

CD8 T cells

tumor microenvironment

mitochondrial metabolism

free heme

BACH2

T cell exhaustion

CAR T cells

cancer immunotherapy

April 16, 2026 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

153C

AAI-BD Biosciences Investigator Award Presentation and Lecture

Ping-Chih Ho

Tumor Immunology: Cellular Responses and Tumor Microenvironment (TIME)

2026