Engineering a New Generation of Cancer-Fighting Cells

USC researchers develop a scalable cell engineering platform that could overcome key manufacturing and therapeutic limitations of CAR-based immunotherapies

October 28, 2026
3 min

The Medicine Maker

At a Glance

Category	Detail
Condition	Clinical topic addressed by the source article: Engineering a New Generation of Cancer-Fighting Cells
Key Mechanisms	Expanded granulocyte-monocyte progenitors (GMPs) are genetically engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to generate antitumor myeloid cells; a modified CAR containing an immunoglobulin G Fc domain was designed to recruit the recipient’s own immune cells.
Target Population	Population described in the source article.
Care Setting	Care setting described in the source article.

Key Highlights

SCF/2i culture supported mouse GMP expansion for more than 50 days, with nearly eight orders of magnitude increase while retaining progenitor identity and differentiation potential.
SCF/2i-IG supported extensive expansion of human GMPs from cord blood, bone marrow, and mobilized peripheral blood.
Whole-genome sequencing found no detectable increase in somatic mutation burden after 28 days of culture; the authors note that longer-term safety assessments remain necessary.
Inhibiting myeloperoxidase (MPO) promoted sustained GMP expansion.
CAR-engineered GMPs showed antitumor activity against leukemia and ovarian cancer in mouse models.
Human GMP-derived cells persisted for at least 180 days in immunodeficient mice, while infused mature macrophages became undetectable within seven days.

Guideline-Based Recommendations

Diagnosis

Management

Monitoring & Follow-up

Risks

Longer-term safety of expanded GMPs has not been established in the reported study.
Antitumor efficacy and persistence findings are from mouse models and do not establish clinical effectiveness in humans.

Patient & Prescribing Data

No human patients were treated; experiments used mouse models and human GMPs obtained from cord blood, bone marrow, and mobilized peripheral blood.

CAR-engineered GMPs improved survival in a mouse model of CD19-positive B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and suppressed tumor growth and improved survival in a mouse model of ovarian cancer. CAR-Fc enhanced antitumor activity in immunocompetent mouse models of lymphoma and breast cancer.