Ritika Jain
BME PhD Defense Presentation

Date: 2026-02-06
Time: 12:00 PM
Location / Meeting Link: EBB 4029, 
https://gatech.zoom.us/j/98055643612

Committee Members:
Krishnendu Roy (advisor); Facundo Fernandez; Shivaram Selvam; Ankur Singh; Shuichi Takayama


Title: Improving Feeder-Free Natural Killer Cell Manufacturing for Adoptive Cell Therapy

Abstract:
Adoptive cell therapies using the chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells have revolutionized the field of cancer immunotherapy by harnessing a patient’s own immune cells to detect and eliminate cancerous cells. The success of CAR-T therapies has sparked interest in other immune cell-based cancer therapies. A part of the innate immune system, natural killer (NK) cells are a subset of lymphocytes that can recognize cancerous cells without prior sensitization, making them an attractive option as an adoptive cell therapy. The main obstacles to the use of NK cells as a therapeutic modality are the difficulties in expanding cells to a clinically relevant dose, as well as the general limitations related to cell manufacturing scale-up. Here, we present a feeder-free method for feeder-free NK cell manufacturing that uses a degradable microscaffold (DMS) functionalized with activating antibodies to trigger activation and expansion. We have optimized an NK cell manufacturing workflow using DMSes and identified critical process parameters for cell yield and quality. This work demonstrates a novel, scalable platform for feeder-free NK cell expansion, allowing for increased patient access to NK cell-based therapies in the future