The Protein Man's Blog | A Discussion of Protein Research

For years, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has been successfully used in treating blood cancers (e.g., leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma) but, unfortunately, had been unable to replicate the results in solid tumors. This was the case until Innovative Cellular Therapeutics, a Shanghai-based biotechnology company involved in cell therapy research and development, came up with a potential CAR T-cell technology that claims to effectively reduce tumor size in patients with colorectal and thyroid cancer.

Exploring the Limitations of CAR T-Cells

While T-cells are tasked with the extremely important role of protecting the body against pathogens and cancer cells, they usually come short of fulfilling their role upon encountering solid tumors. This happens due to several reasons, which include (1) the lack of cancer-specific targets, (2) the T-cells’ limited ability to penetrate and survive in solid tumor sites, and (3) the presence of immunosuppressive factors within the hostile solid tumor microenvironment.

The brain may be one of the most fascinating organs in the human body, and yet, we still haven’t fully unlocked its mysteries. However, with the advent of optogenetics, scientists now have a better chance of understanding how the brain works.

Genome editing used to be a long, laborious, and expensive process that, for quite a long time, you’d have been forgiven for thinking only worked on mice. In the earlier days, making a single genomic modification on a target organism could take a year or so and may have cost up to several hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete. Thankfully, these limitations were addressed with the development of powerful alternative bioengineering technologies, namely ZFN, TALENs, and CRISPR.