Putting CAR-T Therapy on the Fast Track
An ongoing research collaboration between Sartorius and University College London has captured major time and efficiency gains in CAR-T cell therapy production. Since 2017, seven autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies— treatments that reengineer a patient’s own immune cells to recognize and attack cancer—have gained FDA approval, transforming outcomes for many patients. Yet as a treatment method, CAR-T therapy is not fully mature. Current applications remain largely restricted to a narrow range of blood cancers, including B-cell malignancies and multiple myeloma, while high costs and manufacturing complexities limit its availability even to eligible patients.
Nevertheless, CAR-T therapies are poised for significant growth as developers seek to extend the technology to solid tumors, autoimmune conditions, and other diseases. They’re also looking into additional therapeutic cell types, including allogeneic T cells and natural killer cells. Realizing these broader applications, however, depends on addressing fundamental bioprocessing bottlenecks. Encouragingly, recent results from a longstanding collaboration between Sartorius—a solutions provider for life science research and the biopharmaceutical industry—and the Cell and Gene Therapy Bioprocessing group at University College London (UCL), led by Qasim Rafiq, show considerable potential to do so.
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