Non-viral CAR-T (transposon or CRISPR knock-in) as the default manufacturing route
Putting the CAR gene into T cells without a virus removes the most expensive and delay-prone ingredient. Test whether non-viral products match viral ones.
Transposon systems (piggyBac, Sleeping Beauty) and CRISPR-mediated targeted insertion (for example into the TRAC locus) deliver CAR constructs as DNA or RNA without lentiviral vector, cutting materials cost and removing the vector supply queue; clinical experience exists from Poseida, MD Anderson, Chinese academic groups and others, with an early piggyBac safety signal (lymphoma from integration) in one Australian programme that informs design. The proposal is a head-to-head programme establishing non-viral manufacturing as the default for new autologous and allogeneic CAR-T, with integration-site safety monitoring as a shared standard.
- Manufacturing cost and time for living and radioactive medicines · Cell therapies take weeks to make for one patient and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Isotopes run short.