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Non-Viral Engineering of Primary Human T Cells via Homology-Mediated End-Joining Targeted Integration of Large DNA Templates
Published on: May 9, 2025
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Engineered cellular immunotherapies in cancer and beyond
Amanda V Finck1,2, Tatiana Blanchard3,4, Christopher P Roselle3,4
1Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, Perelman School of Medicine, and Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. finckam@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
Nature Medicine
|April 20, 2022
Summary
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy celebrates ten years for leukemia. Advances in genome engineering and cell therapy promise new cancer treatments and applications for other diseases.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Oncology
- Biotechnology
Background:
- The tenth anniversary of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy for refractory leukemia highlights significant progress in cellular immunotherapy.
- Commercial approval of CAR-T cells for blood cancers offers hope and underscores the potential of genetically engineered T cells.
- The integration of human genome engineering with cell therapy is poised to create novel cellular therapeutics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the goals of cellular immunotherapy in cancer treatment.
- To identify and discuss key challenges currently facing the field of cellular immunotherapy.
- To explore emerging strategies designed to overcome these obstacles and advance the field.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on CAR-T cell therapy and cellular immunotherapy.
- Analysis of challenges and emerging strategies in the development of cellular therapeutics.
- Exploration of the potential applications of cancer immunotherapy developments in other diseases.
Main Results:
- CAR-T cell therapy has achieved widespread commercial approval for various blood cancers.
- Significant advancements in human genome engineering and cell therapy are enabling new therapeutic approaches.
- The field is actively developing strategies to address existing challenges in cellular immunotherapy.
Conclusions:
- Cellular immunotherapy, particularly CAR-T cell therapy, has demonstrated success in treating refractory leukemia.
- Future developments in genome engineering and cell therapy hold great promise for a new generation of cancer therapeutics.
- Progress in cancer immunotherapy is paving the way for the application of cellular immunotherapeutics in non-cancerous diseases.
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