Biotech Updates

Scientists Use GE in Immune Cells to Clear Leukemia Tumors

April 10, 2013

An article published in the Science Translational Medicine discusses the results of a clinical trial on a new therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which kills about 60% of those afflicted. The procedure involves extraction of immune cells (T cells) from patients then genetically engineered (GE) to express a receptor for a protein on other immune cells (B cells). Then GE immune cells are reintroduced into the patients. As a result, all the patients involved in the trial were cleared with tumor much faster than expected.

For more information, read the articles at http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/177/177ra38 and http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=genetically-engineered-immune-cells-found-to-rapidly-clear-leukemia-tumors.