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Immune Cell Manufacturing
Enabling Production of Tomorrow’s Cellular Immunotherapies
The Immune Cell Manufacturing group focuses on developing feeder-based or feeder-free processes coupled with media optimisation to support the scalable biomanufacturing of highly potent and durable allogeneic NK and T cells for tumour therapy or Tregs for amelioration of autoimmune diseases and enforcement of organ transplantation tolerance. Cell products are then characterised in-depth for quality assurance and may be modified or conditioned to improve their tumour targeting and metabolic fitness.
Focus Areas
- Process development to enable scalable expansion of allogeneic immune cells for tumour therapy
- Process development to enable production of autologous alpha beta CAR-T cells for tumour therapy
- Rational manufacturing of Tregs for treatment of autoimmune diseases and host tolerisation to organ transplantation
Our Capabilities
Genetic Modification of Immune Cells
Rational design of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and other immunomodulatory genes, viral gene vector production and editing of immune cells.Feeder-Based and Feeder-Free Approaches to Immune Cell Production
Engineering of feeder cells, optimisation of immunomodulatory agents and media to promote expansion of allogeneic and autologous immune cells with enhanced function.Allogeneic NK / NKT / T and Autologous Effector T (Teff) / Regulatory T (Treg) Immunotherapies
Process development for manufacturing “off-the-shelf” and individualised cellular immunotherapy assets.Comprehensive Insights into Large Scale Immune Cell Production
Identification of critical process parameters (CPPs) for process scale-up and critical quality attributes (CQAs) that define cells of high quality.
Our Technologies
Allogeneic NK / NKT / Gamma Delta T Cell Therapy
- Improved targeting of tumours and other diseases using viral/non-viral engineered NK / NKT / Gamma Delta T cell therapies
- Enhanced expansion and potency against tumours and other diseases via optimised feeder-based and feeder-free approaches
- Scalable manufacturing of allogeneic immune cells by development of CPPs and CQAs linked to their efficacy
- Clinical translation of by establishing pre-GMP banking processes for CAR virus-producing, engineered feeder and immune cells
Autologous Alpha Beta Teff Cell Therapy
- Platform for CAR engineering and expansion of alpha beta effector T (Teff) to generate pre-GMP bank from multiple donors
- Immunophenotypic and functional characterisation of CAR-Teff cells using flow cytometry and bioluminescence assay to assess function, persistence and exhaustion
Engineering of Tregs for Immune Tolerance
- Study of immune tolerance in health and disease, developing therapeutic strategies using Tregs
- Combining knowledge of cellular biology and machine learning approaches for Treg process development
- Exploitation of gene circuitry in Tregs to engineer improved therapeutic function
The Team
2ffbacd5a25d4f78a98f6c39d6be861f.jpg?sfvrsn=e1a6e3b2_0 "Andy Tan (resized)")
.jpg?sfvrsn=4a4764c1_0 "Alison Lee (resized)")
.jpg?sfvrsn=fbd68688_0 "Chelsia Wang (resized)")
.jpg?sfvrsn=bb99ecb3_0 "Zhao Yu (resized)")
.jpg?sfvrsn=45ce3119_0 "Esmond Lee (resized)")
Our Track Record
Featured Publications
- Chelsia Qiuxia Wang †, Leonard Leong †, Lei Yang †, Shengli Xu, Kong-Peng Lam, Andre Boon-Hwa Choo †, Andy Hee-Meng Tan † (2025) Nucleofection-based screening of chimeric antigen receptor candidates in human natural killer cells. Frontiers in Immunology 16: 1557766
- Chelsia Qiuxia Wang †, Pei Yu Lim † and Andy Hee-Meng Tan (2024) Gamma/delta T cells as cellular vehicles for anti-tumor immunity. Frontiers in Immunology 14: 1282758
- Chelsia Qiuxia Wang, Fong Chan Choy, Arleen Sanny, Takashi Murakami, Andy Hee-Meng Tan & Kong-Peng Lam (2023) An Inhibitory Role for Human CD96 Endodomain in T Cell Anti-Tumor Responses. Cells 12: 309
- Zhenzhong Chen †, Seokgyu Han †, Arleen Sanny, Dorothy Leung-Kwan Chan, Danny van Noort, Wanyoung Lim, Andy Hee-Meng Tan & Sungsu Park (2022) 3D hanging spheroid plate for high-throughput CAR T cell cytotoxicity assay. Journal of Nanobiotechnology 20: 1–14
- Chelsia Qiuxia Wang & Andy Hee-Meng Tan (2021) Driving CARs on the biomanufacturing road to clinical success. Cell and Gene Therapy Insights 7: 1613–1621
† These authors contributed equally to the work.
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