Updated July 29, 2021 Allogeneic cell therapy developers face a challenge as the cell and gene therapy industry grows. How can they meet the future demand for allogeneic donors that allows them to scale their capabilities to reach larger numbers of patients while maintaining consistency? Some companies suggest the use of a dedicated donor pool…
The emergence of novel cell therapy technologies has led to questions about the necessity of human leukocyte antigen matching (HLA matching) in the development of potential “universal” allogeneic cell therapies. After all, if you can eliminate alloreactive responses, what role would HLA matching play? Martin Maiers, MS, is the Vice President of Biomedical Informatics for…
This piece was originally published in November 2019 on CellandGene.com We are living through one of the most exciting eras biopharmaceutical science has ever seen. Following the first U.S. and European regulatory approvals of gene therapies and CAR-T therapies in recent years, activity in this industry has skyrocketed. In the U.S., more than 800 clinical…
Coordinating the collection and delivery of cells for cell and gene therapy developers begins long before the first patient or donor is collected. Our Be The Match BioTherapies® Collection Network Liaison team works with cell and gene therapy clients to understand their needs. Then, they use established, standardized approaches to onboard, audit and train the…
For cell and gene therapy companies developing allogeneic therapies, including allogeneic CAR-T or T-cell immunotherapies, getting high-quality starting material from healthy adult donors is critical to the success of their therapies. But, what is it like to be the allogeneic donors who get the call asking them to be volunteer donors? And why would they…
Once discarded as medical waste, cord blood is now recognized as a valuable source of stem cells that is simple to collect and store, rapidly available and is less likely to promote an immune response. Perhaps most significantly, cord blood transplant has historically not required a perfect HLA match due to the relative immaturity of…
For years, umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplant was considered an acceptable alternative unrelated donor graft for the treatment of leukemia including reconstituting a patient’s immune system. Typically UCB transplants could be performed without the worry of precise patient-donor HLA-compatibility. To date, more than 35,000 cord blood transplants have been conducted worldwide. As use of the…
Since its debut in 2012, CRISPR-based gene editing has taken the scientific world by storm. From disease modeling to prenatal screening, the innovative platform has been hyped and hailed as the ultimate scientific multi-tool—capable of revolutionizing the treatment of human disease. In the flood of headlines and hyperbole, it can often be hard to determine…
One of the core components of our MatchSourceSM technology platform is a powerful, predictive search algorithm we call HapLogicSM. We sat down with Katie Howe, Ph.D., manager, Immunogenetic Operations and Research, and Caleb Kennedy, Ph.D., senior manager, Bioinformatics Research, to learn more about HapLogic and the important role search algorithms play in allogeneic drug development.