Rapidly dissolving biomaterials for high-efficiency viral transduction

Cell and gene therapy represent the frontier of genetic medicine for treating devastating diseases, yet they continue to face a critical bottleneck: inefficient genetic cell modification. While viral vectors remain our most powerful genetic delivery tools, their application suffers from significant transport insufficiencies with most viral particles wasted before reaching their cell targets. This fundamental challenge undermines the efficiency, safety, and economic viability of these potentially transformative therapies. Current transduction enhancers provide only partial solutions with significant drawbacks. RetroNectin works only with retroviruses and hematopoietic cells, spinoculation is time consuming and laborious, while polycationic polymers like polybrene pose toxicity concerns that preclude clinical applications. In this report, we introduce DUCTS (Dissolving Ultrafast Cell Transduction Sponges), a transduction enhancer based on uncrosslinked alginate cryogels that works within five minutes and completely dissolves, enabling rapid and easy workflows. DUCTS demonstrates broad versatility, boosting cell transduction across a variety of viral vectors (gamma retrovirus, lentivirus, and adeno-associated virus) in both suspension and adherent cells. Notably, DUCTS achieves comparable transduction efficiency while reducing viral concentration requirements by an order of magnitude compared to standard protocols. This cell- and virus-agnostic platform streamlines gene transfer procedures, reduces viral consumption and associated costs, and enhances the accessibility and scalability of cell and gene therapies. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: In this report, we present DUCTS (Dissolving Ultrafast Cell Transduction Sponges), a major advance to improve transduction technology, addressing critical bottlenecks in cell therapy manufacturing. Unlike existing methods that require lengthy procedures, specialized equipment, or toxic additives, DUCTS achieves comparable transduction efficiency in just five minutes using a simple, dissolving alginate sponge. This platform works across multiple virus types (lentivirus, retrovirus, AAV) and cell types, dramatically reducing viral vector requirements by 10-fold while maintaining cell viability. A modified DUCTs can also simultaneously activate and transduce T cells in a single step to revolutionize CAR-T cell manufacturing. With exceptional shelf stability and GMP-compatible materials, DUCTS offers a practical solution to reduce costs, accelerate production timelines, and enhance accessibility of life-saving cell therapies for patients worldwide.