INNOVATE, TRANSLATE, MANUFACTURE AND CHARACTERIZE
The Immune Cell Manufacturing group lies upstream of BTI's spectrum of R&D activities. It aims to develop expertise in the engineering and manufacturing of cellular immunotherapy products by collaborating with downstream groups.
We have three major research directions.
The first is design optimization of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for expression in autologous T and other immune cells to treat haematological and solid malignancies. CAR-T cells generated via viral or non-viral CAR delivery are evaluated for on-tumor cytotoxic efficacy and off-target adverse effects in vitro by employing a suite of characterization assays involving immuno- and nucleic acid analytics and in vivo using mouse models of tumour.
The second is to devise novel CAR transduction methods, develop media formulations and establish scalable, continuous manufacturing of allogeneic, off-the-shelf engineered T and NK cells. We hope to substantially reduce the cost and increase accessibility of cell therapy (CT) products to patients.
The third is to define analytics-assessable critical quality attributes that facilitate release testing of various types of biologics, including CT, and enhance product batch consistency and reliability.