Personalized Cell-Based Medicine: Activated and Expanded T Cells for Adoptive Immunotherapy

by Bruce L. Levine, PhD
Volume 6, Issue 2 (Summer 2007)

The aim of personalized medicine is to provide the customized treatment likely to work best for each individual. A narrow interpretation of the definition attributes the appropriate treatment to be based on the patient’s molecular phenotype. A broader interpretation includes cell-based therapies that are derived from a patient’s own cells, or cells from a related or tissue-matched donor. Basic research findings contributing to the knowledge of the molecular and cellular basis of immune-mediated control of cancer and infectious diseases have created opportunities to develop new forms of cell-based vaccination for cancer and chronic infections like HIV. Cell therapy laboratories have developed from their roots in bone marrow transplantation and blood banking into what can now be described as cellular engineering laboratories where cells can be isolated, enriched, transduced, activated, expanded and otherwise manipulated in ways to change or enhance the function of in vivo-derived cells for eventual reinfusion…

Citation:
Levine BL. Personalized Cell-Based Medicine: Activated and Expanded T Cells for Adoptive Immunotherapy. BioProcess J, 2007; 6(2): 14-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.12665/J62.Levine