# Allogeneic (off-the-shelf) cell therapy

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/allogeneic-cell-therapy/  
OnCo record `allogeneic-cell-therapy` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Cell therapies made from healthy donors in advance, so patients do not have to wait for their own cells to be engineered.

## Summary

Allogeneic cell therapy manufactures engineered cells from healthy donors in advance: TRAC knockout prevents graft-versus-host disease, and B2M/HLA editing or CD52 knockout with alemtuzumab conditioning delays rejection by the patient's immune system. Gene-edited donor T cells (Allogene cema-cel, ALLO-316 against CD70; Caribou; CRISPR Therapeutics) and iPSC-derived platforms (Fate, Century) are the main approaches. The appeal is immediate availability and industrial scale, removing the manufacturing wait that patients with fast-moving disease cannot afford. Persistence is the main limitation, because host rejection eventually clears the donor cells, and deeper lymphodepletion is needed to hold it off. The simple version is a cell therapy taken off the shelf rather than made from each patient's own cells.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: phase-2
- Last checked: 2026-09-04
- Principle: TRAC knockout prevents GVHD; B2M/HLA editing or CD52 knockout with alemtuzumab conditioning delays host rejection.
- Strengths: Immediate availability, industrial scale
- Limitations: Host rejection limits persistence; Deeper lymphodepletion

## Sources

- Depil et al., 'Off-the-shelf' allogeneic CAR T cells: development and challenges (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 2020): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41573-019-0051-2

## Connected records

- fronts: [Cell Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/cell-therapy/)
- technologies: [Allogeneic cell banks: one donor, hundreds of doses](https://onco.cc/technologies/allogeneic-cell-banks/), [Allogeneic donor and iPSC master cell banks](https://onco.cc/technologies/allogeneic-cell-banking/), [CAR-NK & CAR-macrophage](https://onco.cc/technologies/car-nk-macrophage/), [CAR-T cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/car-t/), [Cell-therapy release and potency testing](https://onco.cc/technologies/cell-therapy-release-testing/), [Cryopreservation and cell-therapy cold chain](https://onco.cc/technologies/cell-therapy-cold-chain/), [Gamma-delta T cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/gamma-delta-t-cell-therapy/), [NK cell therapy and CAR-NK](https://onco.cc/technologies/nk-cell-therapy/), [Virus-specific T cells](https://onco.cc/technologies/virus-specific-t-cells/)
- targets: [CD19](https://onco.cc/targets/cd19/), [CD7](https://onco.cc/targets/cd7/), [CD70](https://onco.cc/targets/cd70/)
- companies: [Adicet Bio](https://onco.cc/companies/adicet-bio/), [Allogene Therapeutics](https://onco.cc/companies/allogene/), [Allotera Therapeutics (formerly Wugen)](https://onco.cc/companies/allotera-therapeutics/), [Caribou Biosciences](https://onco.cc/companies/caribou/), [Cellectis](https://onco.cc/companies/cellectis/), [Century Therapeutics](https://onco.cc/companies/century-therapeutics/), [Fate Therapeutics](https://onco.cc/companies/fate-therapeutics/), [Guardian Bio](https://onco.cc/companies/guardian-bio/), [Imugene](https://onco.cc/companies/imugene/), [Indapta Therapeutics](https://onco.cc/companies/indapta-therapeutics/), [Mendus](https://onco.cc/companies/mendus/), [ONK Therapeutics](https://onco.cc/companies/onk-therapeutics/), [Orca Bio](https://onco.cc/companies/orca-bio/), [Poseida Therapeutics](https://onco.cc/companies/poseida-therapeutics/), [Sana Biotechnology](https://onco.cc/companies/sana-biotechnology/)
- key papers: ['Off-the-shelf' allogeneic CAR T cells: development and challenges](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-depil-nat-rev-drug-discov/), [UCART19: the first gene-edited, donor-derived CAR-T cells in children and adults with relapsed B-cell ALL](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-ucart19-allogeneic-car-t-lancet-2020/)
- cancers: [Acute myeloid leukaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/aml/), [Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD)](https://onco.cc/cancers/post-transplant-lymphoproliferative-disorder/), [Renal cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/rcc/)
- drugs: [Allogeneic regulatory T cell immunotherapy with HSPC and T cells-vldq](https://onco.cc/drugs/tregzi/), [Dorocubicel (UM171-expanded cord blood)](https://onco.cc/drugs/dorocubicel/)
- roadmaps: [Cell therapy roadmap: CD19 CAR-T → solid tumours → in vivo CAR](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/cell-therapy-roadmap/)
- people: [Feng Zhang](https://onco.cc/people/feng-zhang/), [Hans-Peter Kiem](https://onco.cc/people/hans-peter-kiem/), [Katayoun Rezvani](https://onco.cc/people/katy-rezvani/), [Polina Stepensky](https://onco.cc/people/polina-stepensky/), [Stephen J. Forman](https://onco.cc/people/stephen-forman/), [Waseem Qasim](https://onco.cc/people/waseem-qasim/), [Xiaojun Huang](https://onco.cc/people/huang-xiaojun/)
- bottlenecks: [Manufacturing cost and time for living and radioactive medicines](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-manufacturing-cell-therapy/)
- ideas: [Hospital-based CAR-T manufacturing at cost through a public network](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-fund-public-car-t-manufacturing/), [Non-viral CAR-T (transposon or CRISPR knock-in) as the default manufacturing route](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-reg-non-viral-cart-manufacturing/), [Off-the-shelf natural killer cells to sweep up residual disease](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-bio2-nk-cells-for-mrd/), [Plan the second CAR-T target before the first one is lost](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-bio1-adaptive-car-antigen-switch/), [Qualify one iPSC master cell bank once for many off-the-shelf cell products](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-reg-ipsc-master-bank-qualified-once/)
- trials: [MSB-GVHD001](https://onco.cc/trials/msb-gvhd001/), [Precision-T: A Randomized Study of Orca-T in Recipients Undergoing Allogeneic Transplantation for Hematologic Malignancies](https://onco.cc/trials/nct05316701/)
- terms: [Allogeneic stem cell transplant (allo-SCT)](https://onco.cc/terms/allogeneic-transplant/), [Bridging therapy](https://onco.cc/terms/bridging-therapy/), [NK cell](https://onco.cc/terms/nk-cell/), [Stem cell](https://onco.cc/terms/stem-cell/)
- institutions: [Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital / University of the Witwatersrand](https://onco.cc/institutions/wits-charlotte-maxeke/), [Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357](https://onco.cc/institutions/cche-57357/), [Christian Medical College, Vellore](https://onco.cc/institutions/cmc-vellore/), [Comprehensive Cancer Center Freiburg (CCCF)](https://onco.cc/institutions/ccc-freiburg/), [Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine](https://onco.cc/institutions/baylor-duncan/), [Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children](https://onco.cc/institutions/great-ormond-street/), [Hamad Medical Corporation / National Center for Cancer Care and Research](https://onco.cc/institutions/hamad-medical-corporation/), [Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe](https://onco.cc/institutions/la-fe-valencia/), [Institut Paoli-Calmettes](https://onco.cc/institutions/institut-paoli-calmettes/), [Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine](https://onco.cc/institutions/instem/), [Instituto Nacional de Câncer (INCA)](https://onco.cc/institutions/inca-brazil/), [Instituto Português de Oncologia de Lisboa Francisco Gentil](https://onco.cc/institutions/ipo-lisboa/), [IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Policlinico Sant'Orsola](https://onco.cc/institutions/sant-orsola-bologna/), [IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele](https://onco.cc/institutions/san-raffaele/), [King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre](https://onco.cc/institutions/kfshrc/), [King Hussein Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/khcc/), [Kyoto University Hospital](https://onco.cc/institutions/kyoto-university-hospital/), [Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota](https://onco.cc/institutions/minnesota-masonic/), [Narayana Health (Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre)](https://onco.cc/institutions/narayana-health/), [National Cancer Institute, Cairo University](https://onco.cc/institutions/nci-cairo/), [Peking University People's Hospital](https://onco.cc/institutions/pku-peoples-hospital/), [Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University](https://onco.cc/institutions/ramathibodi-hospital/), [Rambam Health Care Campus](https://onco.cc/institutions/rambam/), [Seoul St. Mary's Hospital](https://onco.cc/institutions/seoul-st-marys-hospital/), [Tata Medical Center, Kolkata](https://onco.cc/institutions/tata-medical-center-kolkata/), [Tawam Hospital](https://onco.cc/institutions/tawam-hospital/), [Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/texas-childrens/), [University Hospitals Birmingham / University of Birmingham Cancer Research Centre](https://onco.cc/institutions/birmingham-cancer-centre/)
- pathways: [NK-cell recognition: missing self & stress ligands](https://onco.cc/pathways/nk-cell-recognition/)

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