Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), in collaboration with Melbourne-based Monash University, have developed a simpler and gentler method to recover lab-grown immune cells used in T-cell-based cancer therapies. A team from the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at IIT Bombay, led by Prof Prakriti Tayalia, developed a new method to gently recover T-cells after growing them in the laboratory, the institute said in a release. The study was carried out in collaboration with Prof Neil Cameron of Monash University.

Immunotherapy, which involves boosting the body’s own immune system to recognise and destroy cancer cells, has shown promising results in cancer treatment. In immunotherapies such as CAR T-cell therapy, doctors take T-cells (a type of immune cell) from a patient’s blood and modify them in the laboratory so they can better recognise and attack cancer cells. These modified cells are then grown in large numbers and infused back into the patient’s bloodstream to help fight cancer. A key requirement for T-cell-based immunotherapy is an ample supply of healthy, active T-cells. These cells, grown outside the body, must be collected gently so that they remain alive and functional when returned to the patient. Finding safe and efficient ways to grow T-cells and retrieve them is, therefore, an important part of making these therapies work.