Agilent - Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy- 2019 - 9

Application Note Engineered Cells

Combining High-Performance
CRISPR Guides with Sensitive,
Time-Resolved Cell-Based Assays
Cytotoxicity is not enough, in vitro assays must also assess
persistence and durability

T

he great challenge of immune cell-based therapies is to safely engineer cells that have
enhanced performance characteristics compared to native immune cells. Although we are
still in the early stages of fully realizing this promise, proof of concept has been more than
achieved with such hallmarks as the first approved CAR T cell therapies Kymriah and Yescarta1,2.

CRISPR gene editing systems have emerged as highly effective surgical tools for modifying genomes
in living cells with unprecedented ease. However, to reach their full potential increased activity,
stability, and specificity is needed to achieve high fidelity edits with a minimal nuclear footprint. In
addition, finding the most effective edits will require live cell analysis tools that deliver both functional
relevance and assessment of potency and persistence. Live cell assays that are both quantitative and
report out real-time kinetics can achieve these requirements. Based on a wealth of early learnings in
immunotherapy, it is well appreciated that cytotoxicity is not enough. Engineered cells must be persistent in a hostile, immunosuppressive, and changing tumor microenvironment throughout the time
course of tumor elimination and surveillance to achieve durable results3.
To address these challenges, Agilent has brought together an innovative set of solutions that
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Additional Info

Download the
CRISPR Technical
Guide for a
comprehensive
overview:

https://www.agilent.com/en/promotions/crispr-libraries-tech-guide-form http://www.GENengnews.com

Agilent - Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy- 2019

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