When Precision brings Hope

💡 When Precision Brings Hope: Boosting CAR T Cells Against Aggressive Tumors

🤔How can we guide the immune system to fight even the toughest tumors — and win for the long run?

💪At iFIT this is among others the question that drives us every day! In their newest Nature Magazine (Nature Cancer) publication, our members Judith Feucht, Josef Leibold, Philip Bucher (Universitätsklinikum Tübingen) and colleagues are bringing immunotherapies one step closer in fighting solid tumors!

🔬They made an important step toward more effective CAR T-cell therapies. Using CRISPR base editing, a highly precise advancement of the 🧬 ✂️“gene scissors,” they were able to 🪛 engineer 🧫immune cells that target and destroy tumor cells more efficiently — including those in solid tumors that have been difficult to treat so far.

🧪This fine-tuned gene modification strengthens the cells’ natural abilities and improves their long-term persistence. Most notably, in preclinical mouse models the enhanced CAR T cells showed powerful effects not only in blood cancers but also in metastatic neuroblastoma, a very aggressive childhood cancer.

👩‍🔬“Targeted molecular interventions can significantly boost the effectiveness of cell therapies,” says Judith, who led the study together with 👨‍🔬Josef. First author 👨‍🔬Philip adds, “Our method lays the foundation for longer-lasting and more personalized cancer treatments.”

At iFIT, we are dedicated to turning cutting-edge science into new hope for patients — step by step, cell by cell. 💙

🙏A huge thank you to all researchers who participated in this great study such as Nadine Brückner, Jan Schleicher, Karlotta Bartels, Steffen Hardy, Hannah Wurzer, PhD, Meike Thiemann, Mara Mitstorfer, Dennis Christopher Letzgus, Denis Ispan, Yu-Jui Ho, Francisco J. Sánchez-Rivera, Leticia Quintanilla-Fend, Christoph Trautwein, Manfred Claassen and many more!

➡️Check out the study: https://lnkd.in/gUvwB8U6