Immune Cell Manufacturing

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.

CAR-T Cell Manufacturing
Immuno Nucleic Acid Analytics

PEOPLE

andy tan

Dr. Andy Tan

andy_tan@bti.a-star.edu.sg
Senior Lead Scientist

PhD in Immunology (2008), National University of Singapore Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, Singapore

Research Focus/Interests

  • Engineering and manufacturing of immune cells for immunotherapy against cancer
  • Transcriptomics and epigenomics characterization of mammalian (CHO, immune) and microbial cell factories to determine bioprocess and product critical quality attributes
  • Derivation and expansion of primary cells from food species for cultivated meat manufacturing
alison lee

Dr. Alison Lee

alison_lee@bti.a-star.edu.sg
Senior Scientist

PhD in Bioinformatics (2009), NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Research Focus/Interests

  • Transcriptomics and epigenomics of cell factories of biotechnological interest such as Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines and microbial cells to identify crucial regulatory networks influencing product quality and yield
  • Genomics-based approaches to understand cell phenotypes
Chelsia Wang

Dr. Chelsia Wang

chelsia_wang@bti.a-star.edu.sg
Associate Staff Scientist

PhD in Biological Sciences (2012), National University of Singapore, Singapore

Research Focus/Interests

  • Immuno-oncology
  • Leukemia therapy
  • Hematopoiesis
Danai Georgiadou2

Dr. Danai Georgiadou

danai_georgiadou@bti.a-star.edu.sg
Project Scientist

PhD in Human Development and Embryology (2022), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Research Focus/Interests

  • Stem cell research
  • Embryology
  • Cellular agriculture - Cultivated meat: cell line derivation of novel species, reprogramming and transdifferentiation
Yang Lei

Dr. Yang Lei

yang_lei@bti.a-star.edu.sg
Project Scientist

PhD in Immunology (2019), National University of Singapore, Singapore

Research Focus/Interests

  • Cancer immunotherapy
  • Translational research