University Health Network

Published purpose

Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) are produced from a patient’s own Tcells in order more actively engage the immune system in cancer treatment. The CAR-T production process is highly complex and assays are not currently available to accurately predict the potency of the CAR-T cell product. This project will develop and verify a panel of protein biomarkers that measure both T-cell activation and metabolic programming in order to assay CAR-T potency using cytometry time of flight mass spectrometry (CyTOF). We will analyse Tcells and CAR-T cells from banked samples and ongoing clinical trials being conducted in Canada. This data will be linked to benchmark our novel CyTOF potency assay versus current standard metabolic and functional assays of CAR- PAGE 4 T cell potency. The outcome will be a verified potency assay that can be used to predict efficacy of CAR-T treatment