CELL THERAPY

• The CRISPR gene editing technique is used in humans to remove specific genes to allow the immune system to be more activated against cancer, potentially leaving normal cells unharmed & increasing the effectiveness of immunotherapy.
• The CRISPR gene editing technique was previously used in humans to remove specific genes to allow the immune system to be more activated against cancer.
• CRISPR not only take out specific genes but inserts new ones in immune cells efficiently redirecting them to recognise mutations in patient's own cancer cells.
• When infused back to patients, these CRISPR-engineered immune cells preferentially traffic to the cancer & become the most represented immune cells.

• The human immune system has specific receptors on immune cells that can specifically recognise cancer cells & differentiate them from normal cells.
• These are different for every patient, so finding an efficient way to isolate cancer cells & insert them back into immune cells to generate a personalised cell therapy to treat cancer is key to making the approach feasible on a large scale.
• An efficient way to isolate the immune receptors from the patient's own blood was found by researchers.
• After isolation, the immune receptors are used to redirect immune cells to recognise cancer using CRISPR Gene editing.
• This is a leap forward in developing a personalised treatment where the isolation of immune receptors that specifically recognise mutations in the patient's own cancer is used to treat cancer.
• The personalised cell treatment for cancer would not be feasible without the newly developed ability to use the CRISPR technique to replace the immune receptors in clinical-grade cell preparations in a single step.