Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells offer tremendous potential for cancer immunotherapy. These T cells express custom engineered T cell receptors (TCRs), allowing them to detect and attack cancer cells with greater efficacy and helping them avoid immune evasion mechanisms. Today, hundreds of clinical trials involving CAR T cells are in progress.
To manufacture CAR T cells, scientists first need to extract whole blood from either the patient being treated (autologous) or from a separate donor (allogeneic). Following this, they fraction the blood based on relative density through a process called leukapheresis, allowing the T cells to be separated and extracted. The collected T cells are expanded and transduced with the genetic material encoding CARs, then (re)-introduced to the patient.
This process can be laborious and complex, involving multiple steps, processes, and instruments. It requires care and consistency to make sure that contaminants do not enter the collected sample and ...
