Method Enables Lab-Grown T Cells To Live Longer and Better Destroy Cancer Cells
Source: Technology Networks, January 2025
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have developed a new way to grow T cells in the lab that enables them to live longer and better destroy cancer cells in a mouse model of melanoma compared to those grown in traditional growth media.
The findings, published Jan. 28 in Cell Metabolism, have the potential to greatly improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies that involve taking T cells from a patient and growing them to enormous numbers in the lab before reinfusing them back into the body.
“The way we traditionally grow T cells in the lab is horribly inefficient,” said senior author Greg Delgoffe, professor of immunology at Pitt School of Medicine and director of the Tumor Microenvironment Center at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. “We make millions of T cells and we infuse them back into a patient, but most of the cells die. Our research is uncovering new ways to manufacture T cells that live for a long time with the goal of making cell therapies more effective.”