Cell therapy weekly: Sangamo test CAR-T against kidney rejection
This week: new GMP-compliant tissues from HemaCare and Singapore General Hospital name their favorite ESC transfection agent.
The news highlights:
Sangamo test CAR-T against kidney rejection
New GMP-compliant bone marrow aspirate produced by HemaCare
Singapore General Hospital find GenePORTER2 best for transfecting hESCs
Sangamo test CAR-T against kidney rejection
Sangamo (CA, USA) have announced the UK approval of their Phase 1/2 clinical trial, which would see them test CAR-Treg therapy, TX200, in post-transplant patients with end-stage renal disease. The team hope to demonstrate an ability to mitigate the immune rejection of a mismatched donor kidney through the accumulation of autologous TX200 cells at the transplanted organ. If successful, this could make obtaining donor organs far simpler and remove a major risk of the surgery.
“Being the first company to test a CAR-Treg candidate in humans is an important milestone for Sangamo and this exciting new frontier of cellular therapy. We believe that the TX200 program will be invaluable in expanding our understanding of the safety and mechanism of action of CAR-Treg cells and their relevance in the clinic,” explained Adrian Woolfson (Sangamo). “This innovative and personalized cellular therapy approach for HLA-A2 mismatched kidney transplantation is designed to help regulate the body’s immune system specifically and locally to promote acceptance of an immunologically mismatched donor organ. Beyond transplantation, we plan to explore the potential of CAR-Tregs in a range of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”
New GMP-compliant bone marrow aspirate produced by HemaCare
A new line of GMP-compliant bone marrow aspirate has been released by HemaCare (CA, USA), expanding their range of GMP-compliant tissues. The new product will help sate the growing demand for bone marrow aspirates which play a vital role in a range of cell and gene therapies. Obtained via HemaCare’s FDA-registered collection centers, sample collection follows a rigorous and standardized protocol for maximum purity and viability.
“Bone marrow-derived cell therapy starting materials are being used to support the development of a wide variety of new cell and gene therapies,” commented Dr Dominic Clarke (HemaCare). “Launching HemaCare’s GMPrime bone marrow aspirate ensures the industry experiences a smoother transition from research to process development through to commercialization. This product adheres to the same stringent quality standards and optimized protocols as our HemaPrimeTM (research use only) bone marrow aspirate. It will, however, come with the added full QA review and documentation necessary to meet regulatory requirements needed for commercial development.”
Singapore General Hospital find GenePORTER2 best for transfecting hESCs
Working in collaboration with AMSBIO (Milton, England), Singapore General Hospital (Singapore) has tested a range of products for transfecting human embryonic stem cells and have determined that GenePORTER® 2 is the best replacement for the current favorite, GeneIn. The lipid-based transfection reagent has specifically designed for use with difficult to transfect mammalian cells, providing high transfection efficiency while maintaining low toxicity.
“Human embryonic stem cells are notoriously difficult to transfect primary cells. GenePORTER 2 enabled us to deliver our target genes into hESCs with an improved efficiency, compared to some other commercially available transfection reagents,” explained senior researcher, Christine Chan Hui Shan (Singapore General Hospital).
For more weekly cell therapy news, read previous editions of the cell therapy weekly.
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