Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Non-Viral Engineering of Primary Human T Cells via Homology-Mediated End-Joining Targeted Integration of Large DNA Templates
Published on: May 9, 2025
Supernatural T cells: genetic modification of T cells for cancer therapy
Michael H Kershaw1, Michele W L Teng, Mark J Smyth
1Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Saint Andrews Place, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002, Australia. michael.kershaw@petermac.org
Abstract:
Immunotherapy is receiving much attention as a means of treating cancer, but complete, durable responses remain rare for most malignancies. The natural immune system seems to have limitations and deficiencies that might affect its ability to control malignant disease. An alternative to relying on endogenous components in the immune repertoire is to generate lymphocytes with abilities that are greater than those of natural T cells, through genetic modification to produce 'supernatural' T cells. This Review describes how such T cells can circumvent many of the barriers that are inherent in the tumour microenvironment while optimizing T-cell specificity, activation, homing and antitumour function.
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