title: How can the latest technologies advance cell therapy manufacturing?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cellular therapies show early proof of safety and efficacy in a, so far, limited number of clinical trials. Technical and regulatory difficulties in translating innovative preclinical cell therapy approaches into clinical protocols have been and still are a major roadblock for a more rapid progress. This is particularly true for broad clinical applications of cellular therapies outside specialized clinical centers and for the initiation of multicenter clinical trials. The increased awareness of such deficits in availability of cGMP-compliant technologies and integration of multistep procedures into one clinical manufacturing process has initiated efforts from both basic researchers and biotech companies to overcome these problems. These developments will be exemplified with a focus on T-cell therapies and, in particular, the use of regulatory T cells for bone marrow and organ transplantation or autoimmunity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Recent developments in the field of clinical cell sorting, identification of therapeutically relevant T-cell subsets, in-vitro cell culture technologies and automation have the potential to provide solutions for long-standing problems in the field of clinical cell processing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Recent technological developments and further attempts aiming at simplification, integration of multistep procedures and automation of clinical cell processing are key for the development of successful cellular therapies and their broad implementation in the clinics.
authors.affiliation: Clinics for Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, German Rheumatism Research Centre (DRFZ) Berlin, Leibniz Association, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scheffold
mesh_terms: D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D015551:Autoimmunity; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D064987:Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy; D006801:Humans; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens