Achieving high non-viral transfection performance for cell therapy processing

Cell therapies often involve introduction of genetically transformed cells into a patient. Recently there has been renewed interest in non-viral gene modification for this application as an alternative to lentiviral vectors. Non-viral electroporation utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 is continuing to show improved performance and safety benefits in the area of cell-based immunotherapy. Furthermore, because electroporation is easy and rapid, it is able to transfect a large number of cells in a short time once optimum electroporation conditions are determined.

During this webinar, we will discuss the Gibco™ CTS™ Xenon™ Electroporation System, which has been developed to deliver reliably high transfection performance in volumes of 1–25 mL in a closed system with improved cell viability and recovery. The programmable interface, process flexibility, sterile single-use consumables, and available 21 CFR Part 11 compliance–compatible software upgrade- allow the system to seamlessly scale with your cell therapy process from development through clinical manufacturing. The 1 mL electroporation chamber enables efficient process development and scales directly to commercial manufacturing using the 5–25 mL cartridge. This larger volume consumable enables sterile processing, and an OPC-UA interface allows connectivity to a 21 CFR Part 11–compliant system.

  • Understand how process flexibility and ability to optimize electroporation protocols can assist through the process development phase of acell therapy program
  • Discuss the typical numbers of cells required for cell therapy process development and manufacturing applications
  • Explore the safety, performance, and regulatory advantages of mechanical, non-viral transfection for cell therapy

Nektaria Andronikou

Senior R&D Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Nektaria Andronikou is a Senior R&D Manager for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Biosciences Division focused on the development and improvement of mechanical based delivery products for use within cell and gene therapy workflows. She currently leads a small team of innovative scientists working with various primary cell models and payload/cargo types (CRISPR, mRNA, DNA, etc.) to improve non-viral based transfection and delivery. Throughout her time at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Nektaria was an integral member of the cross-functional teams that developed the Lipofectamine 3000, MessengerMAX and Invivofectamine 3.0 transfection reagents. She began her professional career at Ionis Pharmaceuticals (formerly ISIS Pharmaceuticals), as a research associate for the Cardiovascular Drug Discovery program. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry with a minor in Cellular and Molecular Biology from UCSD. She has been with Thermo Fisher for eleven years and has been dedicated to the understanding and commercialization of improving delivery technologies for clinical, translational and research markets.

Theo Roth PhD, MD

Co-founder, Arsenal Biosciences

Theo Roth is a co-founder of Arsenal Biosciences and was its founding CSO, and completed his MD/PhD training at UCSF. Through his PhD work at UCSF with Dr. Alex Marson, he developed non-viral genome targeting, a new efficient method for large scale genetic engineering of primary human immune cells without the need for complex viral vectors. Non-viral genome targeting has enabled new research and therapeutic applications in a variety of primary immune cell types. He further developed robust methods of pooled knock-in screening, enabling rapid discovery of synthetic sequences to re-wire T cell genomes. This work has led to pre-clinical development of novel cell therapies for both autoimmune disease and solid tumors. He is currently completing a residency in Clinical Pathology at Stanford University.

Joe Fraietta

Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Scientific Director, University of Pennsylvania

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