Abstract B024: Using single-cell paired sequencing to isolate cancer-specific T-cell receptors for cancer immunotherapy

Immunocore’s ImmTAC™ (Immune Mobilising Monoclonal TCR Against Cancer) platform combines affinity-enhanced T-cell receptor (TCR)-based targeting with an anti-CD3 scFv effector function to activate a cytotoxic T-cell response against cancer cells. A key part to this process is the identification of tumour epitope specific TCRs from tumor antigen-reactive T-cells. Here, we describe an integrated in-house process leading to the isolation of TCRs specific for validated cancer epitopes, coupled with rapid identification of TCR chains from individual clones using single cell sequencing. The process involves first strand cDNA generation and universal amplification using SmartSeq2 chemistry, followed by targeted sequencing of the TCR alpha and beta chains using next-generation sequencing (NGS). We have also leveraged the 10x Genomics VDJ/5’ counting platform to label and pool multiple experimental clones for repertoire sequencing within a single run. Together with Cellular Indexing of Transcriptomes and Epitopes by sequencing (CITE-Seq), we can reliably assign each T-cell clone to its sample of origin paired with transcriptomic information of epitope specific T-cell populations, linking TCR sequences to their functional phenotype. Citation Format: Karolina Lech, Lucia Correia, Max Beckmann, Maria Busz, Sean Collison, Sterenn Davis, Paraskevi Mallini, Sarah Scaife, Joseph Dukes, Bent K. Jakobsen, Luke Williams, Michelle Teng. Using single-cell paired sequencing to isolate cancer-specific T-cell receptors for cancer immunotherapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fourth CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; Sept 30-Oct 3, 2018; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2019;7(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B024.