Mini-Refrigerator-Sized Bioreactor For Growing Immune Cells

Bioengineeers at the Washington State University have developed a relatively compact machine for rapidly growing the T killer cells employed by many immunotherapeutic regimens to destroy cancer cells. Their system utilizes centrifugal flow techniques to accelerate immune cell propagation to a speed 30% faster than most current techniques. Since one popular and effective cancer immuotherapy, the CAR-T strategy used for treating leukemias, requires as many as 250 million modified T-cells for each infusion, rapid amplification of T cell numbers is mandatory. The researchers are hard at work modifying this initial bioreactor in order to produce greater numbers of cells even faster. Patents are pending to facilitate commercialization.

https://aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/btpr.3388

#bioreactor #centrifugalflow #tcells #immunotherapy #cart #leukemia