Ann L. Lee

Executive Vice President of Technical Operations, Juno Therapeutics, and Head of Cell Therapy Development and Operations, Celgene

Wednesday, April 17 from 3:15–4:30 p.m. in Perlstein Hall Auditorium

Reception to follow

Abstract

“Developing and Manufacturing Autologous CAR-T Cell Therapy Products to Fight Cancer”

Immunotherapy using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells has demonstrated high response rates in patients with B-cell malignancies and offers further promise for additional hematological indications as well as potentially for solid tumors. Engineered T cells represent a new paradigm in anti-cancer therapy. CAR-T cells are generated by removing T cells from a patient’s blood and engineering the cells to express the chimeric antigen receptor, which reprograms the T cells to target and destroy tumor cells. Commercializing these CAR-T therapies presents numerous challenges for manufacturing and the timely delivery of the product to the patient. In particular, process and product control, vein-to-vein turnaround time, building a robust supply chain, patient tracking, and manufacturing facility design strategies are among the many technical and logistical challenges that will be presented. In addition, some considerations on next-generation technologies will be discussed.