Goal Is the Development of Faster, More Affordable Therapies

Streamlined manufacturing processes could yield reduced cost and lead times, lessening patient morbidity and mortality through shorter “vein-to-vein” times. [Applied DNA Sciences]

By MaryAnn Labant

A rapidly emerging immunotherapy approach, adoptive cell transfer (ACT), collects and uses a patient’s own immune cells to treat their cancer. One methodology, Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell (CAR T-cell) therapy, has advanced the furthest in clinical development. Various B-cell malignancies can be addressed with CAR-modified T cells by targeting CD19, a protein that is expressed on the vast majority of B-cell cancers.