Cellular therapies are designed to improve the immune system's ability to fight cancer. Manufacturing them involves collecting a specific set of cells from the blood, modifying them to produce a more vigorous attack on a patient's cancer cells, and then reinjecting them into the patient.
Cellular therapies differ from stem cell transplantation in that the cells collected are not blood-forming stem cells. Instead, they may be certain types of immune system cells, including a subgroup of T cells capable of killing tumour cells.
They may also be tumour cells themselves that have been re-engineered to draw an attack by the immune system. And, unlike the cells used in a classical bone marrow transplant, the collected cells are altered before being infused back into the patient.
The Cellular Therapies Program at Peter Mac builds on our expertise in pre-clinical and clinical research, experience in CAR T-cell clinical trials and stem cell transplantation.
Peter Mac has an on-site integrated manufacturing capabilities via Cell Therapies P/L. Cell Therapies P/L is the leading provider of cell manufacturing and distribution in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
For more information see Cell Therapies webpage.
Peter Mac has the largest cancer immunotherapy research program in Australia. Started at Peter Mac in 2000, the program now has more than 60 scientists, students and clinician-researchers working in the cancer immunology space including fundamental, pre-clinical and clinical CAR T-cell research.
