Development of novel cell and gene therapies

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The Center for Cellular Engineering (CCE) is working to develop and improve cancer cellular therapies including Dendritic Cell (DC) therapies, Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies and T cells engineered to express T cell receptors (TCRs) specific to tumor antigens. The laboratory is also working to improve the methods used to produce CAR T cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for regenerative medicine applications. The CCE New Production Management (NPM) laboratory has developed and is manufacturing several CAR T cell therapies. CD22-CAR T cells, CD19/CD22-bispecific T cells and CD19/CD22-bicistronic CAR T cells are being manufactured in order to treat pediatric patients with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The laboratory has also developed CD19/CD20-bispecific CAR T cells which will soon be used to treat patients with lymphoma. The laboratory has developed procedures to manufacture CD19/CD22-CAR T cells using a completely automated instrument. This automated instrument has been used to develop anti-Glypican-3 CAR T cells which are being used to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The laboratory has also compared the characteristics of the same CAR T cells manufactured using different methods and found some important differences. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with a number of cancers. The NPM laboratory has developed a method to produce T cells that express a T cell receptor (TCR) that is specific for the HPV-16 oncoprotein E7. These cells are being used to treat patients with HPV-associated cervical and oropharyngeal cancers. The laboratory has also recently completed the development of KK-LC-1 specific TCR engineered T-cells. These cells will also be used to treat patients with HPV-associated cancers. The Cell Processing Laboratory is collaborating with investigators in the National Eye Institute to develop methods to manufacture iPS cells from CD34+ cells isolated from the blood and to differentiate the iPS cells in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. The RPE cells will be used to treat patients with age related macular degeneration.