Universal Killer Cells for cancer therapy

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

The use of engineered T-cells to fight cancer – termed adoptive cell therapy – is a hot field within cancer therapy and has shown its great potential through several recent clinical trials. Therapeutic T-cells are modified using mainly two types of tumor targeting molecules, namely a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) or a T-cell receptor (TCR) and currently the “drug product” is manufactured individually for each patient. This highly personalized production process makes the costs high and limits the number of patients that can receive treatment. The current project aims to transform this personalized treatment into off-the-shelf products. We do this by replacing the use of patients’ T-cells by a “universal killer cell” that is non-immunogenic and can be used across different patients. The universal killer cells can be produced in large amounts upfront, stocked and provided to patients on demand. This will significantly reduce costs associated with manufacturing and logistics which in turn would make the treatment accessible to a much larger patient population.