L2M-Designing a Stable CD19 Protein Mimic for CAR T-cell Therapy

CAR T-cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy that displays remarkable potential to treat B-cell cancers. In this treatment, a protein on the surface of B-cells called CD19 is targeted, allowing for the specific killing of B-cells in patients. However, CD19 is a “difficult to express” protein, characterized by high levels of aggregated protein and low yields of active, folded protein.3 Furthermore, CD19 must currently be expressed and purified using mammalian cell lines which are expensive and time consuming. Overall, the use of CD19 for analyzing and testing CAR T-cell cultures is a major bottleneck in the developmental pipeline, and these inefficiencies greatly hinder the process of working with CAR T-cells. In this project, we have designed a CD19-like protein mimic that allows researchers to streamline CD19 production for CAR T-cell therapies by cutting down on costs and time currently required in this process.

Faculty Supervisor:

Zev Ripstein

Student:

Partner:

North Forge

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Manitoba

Program: