INTEREST GROUP
WMIS COMMUNITY
ABOUT ICIT
Recent developments in immunology and biotechnology have led to an increasing number of clinically available cellular and immune-therapies that require administration of biologics and cells of different origins. These therapies are based on novel immunologically active drugs and the ex-vivo manipulation of different therapeutically useful cell types (stem cells, lineage progenitors, mesenchymal cells, lymphocytes, dendritic cells, etc.) followed by local or systemic administration to patients. A promising role of cellular and immunotherapies in treatments of various diseases is reflected by the constantly growing number of clinical trials.
Until recently, immunostaining of whole-body slices of small animals was the most straightforward, reliable, and traditional approach used for assessing the efficacy of immunotherapeutics. However, the invasive nature of classical pathology precludes the repetitive monitoring of immune response in the same animal over time. Methods for non-invasive and repetitive evaluation of trafficking, homing, tumor targeting, differentiation, and persistence of immune and other cells and respective drugs would significantly aid the development of cellular and immunotherapeutic approaches and facilitate their implementation in the clinic.
Mission Statement
To foster collaboration between imaging and immunology disciplines aimed at implementing molecular imaging in cell-based and molecular immunotherapy development and use.
The Imaging in Cell and Immune Therapies (ICIT) Interest Group:
- provides a platform for researchers interested in visualizing and quantifying immune responses as part of basic and/or translational research;
- encourages and educates next-generation researchers in imaging immune system/responses;
- establishes global cooperation to develop, advance, and standardize imaging methods to quantify immune responses;
- connects academic and industry research to advance clinical application of molecular imaging in immunotherapy.
Our mission is aligned with the WMIS goal of accelerating the global growth of molecular imaging in academic institutions and industry.
Strategic Directions
- Provide exposure of the field to graduate students and postdocs in related disciplines;
- Attracting students from chemistry, biology and clinical medicine to pursue a career in imaging of immunotherapy;
- Increasing the number of top scientists from the physical and imaging sciences and clinical medicine who specialize in cellular and immunotherapy;
- Developing global collaborations and mentoring;
- Developing industry collaborations;
- Provide a stronger, higher visibility network of scientists involved with research of ID at all career levels;
- Nominate molecular imaging scientists to serve on relevant journal editorial boards;
- Prevent duplication of efforts, enhancing cooperation and synergy with all other interest groups within WMIS;
- Work with other committees/groups that have the shared goal to advance molecular imaging sciences in diagnosis and treatment of disease;
- Establish a subgroup for graduate students and postdocs who will develop workshop and seminar concepts.
Leadership
Chair
Israt Alam, PhD
Stanford University, USA
Co-Chair
Kirstin Zettlitz, PhD
Sego Therapeutics, USA
Co-Chair
Michael Farwell, MD
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, USA
Past Leadership
Gilbert Fruhwirth, PhD
King’s College London, UK
More information>>
Vladimir Ponomarev, MD PhD
Founding Leader and Chair
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA
More information>>
Sridhar Nimmagadda, PhD
Chair
Johns Hopkins Medicine, USA
More information>>
Member Resources
ICIT Education
ICIT Town Hall 2026 Recording
DPICT Database (Data Portal for Imaging Cell Therapies; by HESI CT-TRACS)
DPICT is a publicly accessible repository of cellular therapy-related studies including in vivo cell-tracking methodologies to evaluate the biodistribution and fate of the therapeutic cells after administration.
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