A new strategy to broaden the availability of CAR-T cancer therapies

Marc Güell

Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

CAR-T cell therapies represent a promising new medical modality for the treatment of various types of blood cancer. This therapy is based on the genetic manipulation of a type of immune cell, the patient’s own T lymphocytes (or T cells), to recognise and destroy cancer cells with unprecedented precision.

Despite their remarkable effectiveness, the widespread application of these therapies is hampered by their inherent customisation, which involves the extraction, modification and expansion of the patient’s T cells in the laboratory before reintroducing them. The complexity of the procedure, coupled with its high cost, are significant barriers to its broader application.

This project proposes a new approach that involves using viral vectors directly in the body (in vivo) to generate therapeutic cells carrying the CAR gene. This strategy would significantly simplify the complex processes of cell extraction and modification, facilitating the in vivo engineering of CAR-T therapies. This method would make CAR-T therapies more accessible, simplify their manufacturing, reduce costs and improve safety by increasing precision in targeting specific cell subpopulations compared to existing methods.

Development of a Synthetic Viral-like Particle Delivery System for Precision In vivo Gene Therapy

€499,750.00