The Surgery Branch Vector Production Facility (SBVPF) was established to provide clinical-grade retroviral and lentiviral vectors to support of our gene therapy clinical trials with the goal of providing GMP quality products while reducing production time and cost. These products, both retroviral and lentiviral vectors will be used to introduce novel T cell receptors (TCR) or chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) to genetically modify nave T cells to make them specifically recognize and kill tumor. To that end, SBVPF has developed and produced nine master cell banks and seven retroviral vectors: mF5 TCR, recognizing melanoma antigen recognized by T cells antigen (MART-1);CEA TCR, recognizing carcinoembryonic antigen;2G1 TCR, recognizing a renal cell carcinoma antigen;CD19 CAR, recognizing CD19 for the treatment of a variety of B cell malignancies;VEGF-R2 CAR, recognizing VEGF-R2 on tumor vasculature;hIL-12, a vector encoding the cytokine, IL-12, to augment T cell function;MAGE-A3 TCR, targeting the MAGE-A3 cancer testis antigen;DMF5 TCR, a human TCR targeting MART-1. In addition, we currently have our first lentiviral vector under development which is a TCR directed against MART-1. Of note, a standard retroviral or lentiviral vector production run provides enough viral vector to treat approximately 150 patients with cancer. The retroviral vector production can be easily scaled up to double the number of patient treatments to nearly 300. Efforts are currently underway in my laboratory to develop a CAR directed against Mesothelin for the treatment of mesothelin-positive cancers such as mesothelioma or pancreatic cancer.
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