New tools for new treatments

Source Nature From antibiotics and organoids to CRISPR, improved biomedical methods and apparatus are enabling new therapies. Organoids Mini organs stand in for test models The term ‘organoid’ didn’t exist a decade ago. Now it’s a buzzword in biomedical science for a three-dimensional multi-cellular structure or ‘mini organ’. Thanks to advances with pluripotent stem cells

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USC-led advance in groundbreaking cancer treatment eliminates severe side effects

An advance in the groundbreaking cancer treatment known as CAR T-cell therapy appears to eliminate its severe side effects, making the treatment safer and potentially available in outpatient settings, a new USC study shows. “This is a major improvement,” said Si-Yi Chen of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology

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CAR T Cell Toxicity

By late 2018, 2 chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell products have been approved by US and European regulatory authorities. Tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah, Novartis) is indicated in the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is refractory or in second or later relapse (ELIANA trial), or

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‘Off-the-shelf’ CAR-Ts have an important role to play – but are they ready for prime time?

Allogeneic CAR-Ts could serve an important niche – particularly for patients who can’t receive autologous CAR-Ts – but the earliness of the data makes conclusions tough to draw. Since their transition from small, academic clinical trials to commercial production, CAR-T cell therapies have won recognition as a novel and highly effective therapeutic modality, particularly in

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