CAR-T Meeting 2022 | Generating off-the-shelf CAR-Ts with iPSCs

John Maher, BA, MBBCh, BAO, MRCPI, MRCP, MSc, FRCPath, King’s College London, London, UK, talks on the potential of using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to generate off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-Ts) for the treatment of solid tumors. Currently manufactured autologous CAR-T products do not allow producing CAR-Ts for the increasing number of patients with solid tumors. Whilst off-the-shelf CAR-Ts generated from healthy donor-derived T-cells offer an alternative to autologous CAR-Ts, they are also associated with a number of challenges including immune rejection and inconsistent quality. iPSCs provide an unlimited source of T-cells for the development of off-the-shelf CAR-T products that can be edited to remove immunological barriers, enhance CAR-T potency, and direct CAR-Ts to tumor tissue whilst obtaining a consistent phenotype. This interview took place at the EBMT-EHA 4th European CAR T-cell Meeting which was held virtually in 2022.