Abstract 6331: A novel automated platform for rapid manufacturing of CAR T cells
Authors: Sa Silin , Nguyen Ethan , Pan Jie , Yu Liping 
Published: March 2024

Autologous cell therapy using genetically modified T cells to express chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) has yielded durable responses in cancers patients. However, currently only a small portion of patients are privileged to receive the treatment. High cost and long manufacturing time contribute to the key limitations prohibiting cell therapy broad adoption. Researchers discovered that reducing ex vivo culture improves anti-tumor activity of CAR T cells1 and recently demonstrated the process of generating functional CAR T cells within 24 hours2. This rapid process provides great promise in cost reduction of CAR T therapy and opportunity to have cells manufactured in close-to-patient settings. CART cell manufacturing process involves: (1) collection of peripheral blood; (2) isolation of T cells; (3) performing transduction via viral vector; (4) washing CAR T cells to remove viral vector, and (5) harvesting CAR T cells in IV fluid. Conventional process uses magnetic separation and serial centrifugation technologies on multiple platforms with manual operations. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of rapid manufacturing CAR T cells on an automated platform with closed fluidics without centrifugation steps. The platform, MARS® Atlas, is built with innovative technologies in immune-magnetic cell isolation and acoustic cell washing and implemented as a modular system. In this feasibility test, T cells were isolated from peripheral blood from a healthy donoron MARS® magnetic module. eGFP expressing lentivirus were added to the enriched T cells. After short incubation, cells and virus were washed with fresh medium on the MARS® acoustic module and cells were incubated with virus overnight without activation. Infected cells were washed on the acoustic module to remove free virus. Product CAR T cells were harvested in saline solution and ready for QC analysis. Starting from 20mL of peripheral blood, magnetic T cell separation was done 2mL/min achieving 90% T cell purity, 90% recovery. In the first acoustic wash, medium exchange of the mixture of cells and virus took place at 0.9mL/min flow rate. As a result, 90% removal of contaminating molecule and 99.6% recovery of T cells were achieved. The second acoustic wash completed medium exchange of transfected cells at 0.9mL/min with 96.7% removal of virus and 90% CAR T cell recovery. As a result, 18 million GFP expressing T cells were produced.

In this study we have demonstrated the feasibility of rapidly manufacturing CAR-T cells on an automated platform MARS® Atlas. This result indicates the MARS® Atlas being a potential CAR T manufacturing platform to be used in close-to-patient settings to enable low-cost cell therapy.

1 Saba Ghassemi, Reducing Ex Vivo Culture Improves the Antileukemic Activity of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cells, Cancer Immunol Res; 6(9) September 2018

2 Saba Ghassemi, Rapid manufacturing of non-activated potent CAR T cells, Nature Biomedical Engineering | VOL 6 | February 2022 | 118-128

Citation Format: Silin Sa, Ethan Nguyen, Jie Pan, Liping Yu. A novel automated platform for rapid manufacturing of CAR T cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 6331.