Melt electrospun 3 D lattices for the clinical scale expansion of immunomodulaotry cells including Treg and a novel CAR-T cell targeting P2X7 (#78)
One of the most significant hurdles to the affordable, accessible delivery of cell therapy is the cost and difficulty of expanding cells to clinically relevant numbers. Immunotherapy to prevent autoimmune disease, tolerate organ transplants or target cancer critically relies on the expansion of specialised T cell populations. We have designed 3D-printed cell culture lattices with highly organised micron-scale architectures, functionalised via plasma polymerisation to bind monoclonal antibodies that trigger cell proliferation. This 3D technology platform facilitate the expansion of therapeutic human T cell subsets, including regulatory, effector, and cytotoxic T cells while maintaining the correct phenotype. This cell expansion platform is user-friendly and expedites cell recovery and scale-up, making it ideal for translating T cell therapies from bench to bedside. In addition, lentiviral gene delivery to T cells is enhanced in the presence of the lattices, making them and ideal platform for the generation and expansion of CAR-T cells. We have also developed a novel CAR-T cell against the extracellular domain of P2X7, which is conformationally altered on cancer cells, but not normal cells. We have pilot data suggesting this CAR-T cell can directly target breast cancer cells in vitro, and we aim to demonstrate broad anti cancer specificity using tissue arrays and in vivo tumour killing assays as part of pre-clinical validation.