Empowered Patient Podcast Increasing Yield of Engineered Cells Via a Non-Viral Delivery Approach Reduces Time from Discovery to Manufacturing with Dr. Paulo Garcia Kytopen
Dr. Paulo Garcia, Co-Founder of Kytopen, is developing systems to refine the types of payloads, including RNA, DNA, and CRISPR-Cas RMP, that can be delivered to primary T cells, primary Natural Killer cells, and CD34 stem cells. To maximize the number of successfully engineered cells, the Flowfect Discovery technology, using a non-viral approach, automates the process of cell engineering and gene delivery into cells while dramatically reducing the time to produce the cells.
Paulo explains, "One of the key differentiating aspects of our technology is that we are using a continuous fluid flow format for the engineering of our cells. This fluid flow contributes to the delivery of these payloads to the different cells. And to put it into perspective, the flow rates that we use are quite large. They are in the tens of milliliters per minute. And if you translate that into a throughput of cells, you're talking about being able to process anywhere between 1 to 2 billion cells in 30 seconds. And these are large quantities of cells that have the possibility of being able to be then used not only in an autologous setting but also in an allogeneic setting in which many cells have to be administered to the patients in the different doses that are required."
"No technology currently processes at the high-volume rates we're talking about. And generally, what is done today is a batch process. There are non-viral techniques, and there are viral techniques, but what is required is for these cells to be introduced into a bioreactor divide, let them grow to the relevant numbers, and then they can be administered to the patients. And with a process that leverages the throughput of the Flowfect technology that Kytopen is developing, you can really reduce the time these processes take. And that is the vein-to-vein time, and reduce it to numbers that are measured in days as opposed to in weeks or months."
"Right now, our goal is to shrink the time that it takes from discovery to process development and into clinical manufacturing with the Flowfect technology that leverages different types of energy, mechanical energy, electrical energy, and buffer chemistry to give the best outcome and chance of the cells to be engineered and modified for the therapeutic applications of our partners."
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