T-cell transfer: How engineered immune cells can kill tumours

1

Doctors take biopsies of primary tumour and metastases

2

Immune cells that have infiltrated the tumour tissue are extracted from biopsy material and grown in their billions in a lab

3

Gene sequencing of the tumour tissue reveals the main mutations that characterise it

4

The immune cells are screened to find those which target the cancer’s key mutations

5

These immune cells create a powerful living drug which can adapt to cancer over the patient’s lifetime

1

Doctors take biopsies of

primary tumour and metastases

2

Immune cells that have infiltrated the tumour tissue are extracted from biopsy material and grown in their billions in a lab

3

Gene sequencing of the tumour tissue reveals the main mutations that characterise it

5

These immune cells create a powerful living drug which can adapt to cancer over the patient’s lifetime

4

The immune cells are screened to find those which target the cancer’s key mutations