AGBT and AACR IO 2027: What Genomics and IO Teams Should Plan For

AGBT and AACR IO 2027: What Genomics and IO Teams Should Plan For

Every year the first quarter brings the sequencing community and the cancer immunology research community together, and in 2027 the AGBT General Meeting and the AACR IO meeting fall in the same week at the turn of February and March. For translational, biomarker and platform teams, the more useful question is not which meetings to attend but which science to plan around. The technologies on show in genomics (spatial, single-cell, long-read, multi-omic) are now the same tools IO programmes use to select patients, explain resistance and design personalised therapies.

This article sets out the scientific themes genomics and immuno-oncology teams should prepare for in Q1 2027, how sequencing advances feed IO biomarker discovery, and how tools, diagnostics and CRO vendors can split budget and attention across a crowded quarter.

Key takeaways

• Q1 2027 is congested: the January partnering week in San Francisco, ImmunoMark San Diego on 10–11 February, a late February to early March cluster of US genomics and cancer immunology meetings, and ImmunoMark London on 3–4 March.
• Spatial biology has moved from discovery curiosity to translational infrastructure. The practical question for 2027 is which spatial readouts can survive clinical validation.
• Single-cell and TCR/BCR repertoire sequencing are increasingly used to explain response and resistance to checkpoint inhibitors, cell therapies and T-cell engagers.
• The first positive phase 3 readout for an individualised neoantigen therapy (August 2026) makes tumour sequencing and neoantigen prediction a manufacturing step, not just a research method.
• Vendors should match each meeting to a buyer: discovery scientists at genomics meetings, academic immunologists at research meetings, and translational, biomarker and CDx decision-makers at focused summits.

Why sequencing and IO now plan on the same calendar

Ten years ago an IO biomarker strategy could be built around a single immunohistochemistry assay. PD-L1 is still central, but the biomarkers that matter for the next wave of immunotherapies are increasingly sequencing-derived. The FDA’s 2020 accelerated approval of pembrolizumab for TMB-high solid tumours, with FoundationOne CDx approved as the companion diagnostic the same day, showed that a genomic signature could define an IO population across tumour types. (For the debate since, see our piece on tumour mutational burden from research to clinical reality.)

Since then, the direction of travel has been toward richer, multi-layered measurements: where immune cells sit in the tumour, what state they are in, which clones expand on treatment and which tumour mutations can be targeted. Each depends on a sequencing or imaging technology first shown at a genomics meeting and later validated in an IO trial, which is why genomics and IO teams should plan their conference year together.

The science themes to plan around in Q1 2027

Spatial omics: from atlas to assay

Spatially resolved transcriptomics and spatial proteomics have both been named Nature Methods’ Method of the Year (2020 and 2024 respectively). Platforms now measure hundreds to thousands of RNA targets, or tens to around a hundred proteins, at or near single-cell resolution in FFPE tissue. In IO this matters because response often depends less on whether immune cells are present than on where they are: inside tumour nests, excluded at the stroma, or organised into tertiary lymphoid structures.

The 2027 challenge is translation. Discovery-scale spatial datasets rarely survive contact with clinical constraints: limited tissue, pre-analytical variability, turnaround time and the need for a locked, reproducible readout. Teams should plan for conversations about which spatial features can be reduced to a validated multiplex immunofluorescence or digital pathology assay, and which belong in exploratory endpoints. Our comparison of spatial proteomics vs spatial transcriptomics for IO biomarker discovery covers the trade-offs in detail.

Single-cell profiling of response and resistance

Single-cell RNA sequencing, often combined with surface protein and immune receptor readouts in the same cell, has become the default method for dissecting T-cell exhaustion, myeloid suppression and the cell states linked to response. The shift now is from reference atlases to longitudinal sampling inside trials: paired pre- and on-treatment biopsies, or blood, to see what a drug changes. Fixed-sample workflows make multi-site trials more practical, but sample logistics and batch effects remain the main sources of failure.

TCR and BCR repertoire sequencing

Immune receptor sequencing tracks which T-cell and B-cell clones expand, contract or appear after treatment. It has an established regulatory precedent: in 2018 the FDA authorised clonoSEQ, an immune receptor sequencing assay, as the first NGS-based test to detect minimal residual disease in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and multiple myeloma. In solid tumour IO, repertoire data are mostly exploratory, used to link peripheral clonal expansion to tumour infiltration and response, and to monitor cell therapies and T-cell engagers. Expect more pairing of TCR sequences with single-cell phenotypes to identify tumour-reactive clones.

Neoantigen prediction becomes a clinical workflow

In August 2026 Merck and Moderna announced that the phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial of intismeran autogene plus pembrolizumab in completely resected stage IIB–IV melanoma met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and the key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival, at a pre-specified interim analysis. The companies describe it as the first positive phase 3 result for an individualised neoantigen therapy. Detailed efficacy data have not yet been presented.

For genomics teams, this turns tumour sequencing, variant calling and neoantigen ranking into a regulated, time-critical part of manufacturing. The questions that follow are practical: sample quality from routine biopsies, turnaround from biopsy to dose, how HLA typing and presentation are predicted, and how the selection algorithm is validated and controlled. Vendors of sequencing, bioinformatics and immunopeptidomics should expect these questions from IO sponsors throughout 2027.

Long-read sequencing and multi-omic biomarkers

Long-read platforms resolve structural variants, gene fusions, repeat regions, full-length transcripts and methylation in a single run, which short reads handle less well. For IO, the more immediate applications are in HLA typing, full-length immune receptor sequences and isoform-level views of tumour antigens. Meanwhile, multi-omic biomarkers (increasingly including ctDNA and MRD readouts) that combine DNA, RNA, protein, methylation and imaging are moving into trial designs, often with machine learning to integrate them. The constraints are those of any composite biomarker: a locked algorithm, reproducible inputs and a regulatory path for a multi-component test.

The two meetings in brief

Historically the leading genomics technology meeting has been a February fixture in Florida; in 2027 the AGBT General Meeting runs on 1–4 March in Orlando, while the AACR IO meeting runs on 28 February to 3 March in Los Angeles. One leans toward sequencing technology developers and genome scientists, the other toward academic and industry cancer immunologists. Both are strong for discovery science; neither is primarily built around biomarker, companion diagnostic and translational commercial decisions.

How vendors should split budget and attention across Q1

Q1 2027 offers more meetings than most tools, diagnostics and CRO teams can staff well. Match each meeting to the buyer you need to reach rather than spreading the same booth across every date.

Practical split

• Platform launches and technical data: put them where scientists who evaluate the technology will see the data first.
• Pipeline-driven selling: spend on rooms where the people who choose assays, CROs and CDx partners for specific programmes can be met one to one. Smaller, focused meetings usually deliver more qualified conversations per staff day.
• Use the quieter weeks: the US research meetings cluster in the last days of February and the first days of March, so ImmunoMark San Diego on 10–11 February is the cleaner slot for US-based teams to hold pre-arranged meetings with translational and biomarker buyers.
• Follow-up: San Diego on 10–11 February lands early enough to turn conversations into proposals before the end of the quarter.

Our 10-point scorecard for choosing biotech conferences to sponsor and our roundup of biomarker and precision medicine conferences go further on how to rank events by audience fit.

Where these themes appear at ImmunoMark San Diego

The 2027 San Diego programme puts the genomics, spatial and AI themes above in front of IO and biomarker decision-makers. Sessions in the published agenda include:

• Beyond Spatial Omics: Multimodal Measurement as Infrastructure for Precision Medicine (Ivan Lebedev, Founding Steward, Verdant Center for Spatial Biology)
• Decoding Response and Resistance to Immunotherapy in NSCLC Through Integrative Multi-Omic and AI Approaches (Ariel (Yung-Chia) Chen, Director, Biomarker and Translational Sciences, Interventional Oncology, Johnson & Johnson)
• Single-Cell Technologies and Functional Biomarkers Driving the Future of Precision Oncology
• Personalised Cancer Vaccines and Neoantigen Discovery for Next-Generation Immunotherapies

Same audience, smaller room: ImmunoMark San Diego

The science discussed at the big genomics and cancer immunology meetings ends up in the decisions made by translational, biomarker and CDx teams. ImmunoMark Summit San Diego, our immuno-oncology and biomarker conference in San Diego, brings those decision-makers into one room on 10–11 February 2027. The launch edition expects 300+ senior attendees across two parallel streams: Stream 1: Next-Gen Immuno-Oncology and Stream 2: Biomarkers & Companion Diagnostics. The format is keynotes, panels, case studies, pre-arranged 1:1 meetings and a Day 1 drinks reception.

If your company wants to meet this audience, whether you sell spatial, single-cell or sequencing platforms, bioinformatics, or assay development and CRO services, see the San Diego 2027 sponsorship opportunities or our page for biomarker technology and liquid biopsy companies. The series continues at the immuno-oncology conference in London on 3–4 March 2027 and in Boston in June 2027.

Explore San Diego 2027 sponsorship

FAQs

When are AGBT and AACR IO in 2027?

The AGBT General Meeting is listed for 1–4 March 2027 in Orlando, Florida, and the AACR IO meeting for 28 February to 3 March 2027 in Los Angeles. Both fall in the same week. ImmunoMark San Diego takes place earlier, on 10–11 February 2027, and gives US genomics and IO teams a focused meeting before that busy week.

How do sequencing advances feed IO biomarker discovery?

Sequencing defines several IO biomarkers directly, such as tumour mutational burden, and underpins newer approaches: single-cell profiling of response and resistance, TCR and BCR repertoire tracking of expanding clones, tumour-normal sequencing for neoantigen selection in personalised therapies, and spatial transcriptomics to map immune cells in tumour tissue. Most start as exploratory endpoints and only a few become validated clinical assays.

Is spatial biology ready for clinical IO biomarkers?

Not yet at full discovery scale. Spatial transcriptomics and proteomics are widely used for exploratory analyses in IO trials, but clinical use usually means reducing a spatial signature to a smaller, locked and reproducible assay, such as multiplex immunofluorescence with digital pathology, that can cope with limited tissue and pre-analytical variability.

How should a tools or diagnostics company split its Q1 2027 conference budget?

Match each meeting to a buyer. Large genomics and research meetings suit technology launches and reaching discovery scientists. Focused summits suit pipeline-driven selling to translational, biomarker and CDx decision-makers through pre-arranged meetings. Book the focused meetings early in the quarter, when your buyers have the most diary space.