The Cell Therapy Catapult, which is focused on the development of the UK cell therapy industry to increase the nation’s health and wealth, has launched its White Paper series with ‘T Cell Therapies: An Overview’. This first paper provides an up-to-date review of the field, and was compiled to help inform the organisation’s strategy in this area.
Other White Papers, including one on dendritic cell therapies later this year, will be published on an ongoing basis, and the Cell Therapy Catapult welcomes suggestions from the community on other topics of interest.
Commenting on ‘T Cell Therapies: An Overview’, Chief Clinical Officer Dr Natalie Mount said, ‘Very promising clinical results for immunotherapies to treat cancers are now emerging. The potential of this field has been recognised by both big pharma and the journal Science, which named cancer immunotherapy its ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ for 20131,2. Within the field of cancer immunotherapy, engineered T cells have recently shown early but very promising clinical trial results, with much having been learned from the disappointments of early work. As a result, engineered T cell therapies are becoming an important sphere of activity for the Cell Therapy Catapult, and we are working with the cell therapy community to develop innovative solutions to the challenges around clinical trials and scale-up for these exciting new products.’.
1 EDITORIAL – Cancer Immunotherapy McNutt, M. Science 20 December 2013: Vol. 342 no. 6165 p. 1417
2 Cancer Immunotherapy, Couzin-Frankel, J. Science 20 December 2013: Vol. 342 no. 6165 pp. 1432-1433