Our research on cell-based therapies also includes cutting-edge immunotherapies that harness the patient’s own immune cells to fight disease, including genetic engineering of immune cells to attack and kill cancer cells. In one approach, patients’ T cells are programmed with synthetic receptors called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to kill cancer cells that bear certain cell-surface proteins.
Stem Cell Transplantation
Stem cell transplants are a potential cure for many advanced blood cancers because they replace a patient’s damaged immune system with a healthy one from a donor with a compatible tissue type. The stem cell transplant typically takes place after chemotherapy, radiation or both to destroy the cells causing disease. Dozens of researchers at Fred Hutch are working to improve the safety of transplantation procedures, which come with potentially life-threatening risks, including infection and graft-vs.-host disease, whereby the newly transplanted donor immune system attacks the recipient's healthy cells. Major innovations include the “mini-transplant,” which requires a minimal dose of radiation, and foundational research on donor-patient matching.
Cord blood transplants, which use stem cells from a newborn’s umbilical cord, are a lifesaving option for patients who cannot find a suitable match among family members or from bone marrow registries. Researchers in our Cord Blood Program are working toward improving transplant outcomes and better understanding how cord blood cells take hold in a patient.
Making Gene Therapy Affordable
Dr. Jennifer Adair has created a portable device that enables medical staff to genetically manipulate a patient’s blood stem cells without the need for an expensive and highly regulated facility. The device may help pave the way toward making gene therapy accessible and affordable beyond a handful of specialized research centers around the world.
Immunotherapy and Genetic Engineering
Some of the most exciting advances in immunotherapy involve the genetic engineering of patients’ immune cells to attack their cancer cells, using gene editing technologies such as CRISPR. Pioneering immunotherapy researcher Dr. Phil Greenberg focuses on engineering T cells to target malignancies that include acute myelogenous leukemia and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Sylvia Lee is leading the development of a therapy aimed at amplifying patients’ existing immune responses to advanced melanoma. Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem, a blood stem cell transplantation specialist, is using gene therapy to improve treatment for glioblastoma, HIV and genetic diseases such as Fanconi anemia.
Photos by Robert Hood / Fred Hutch
