The development of a 14-day non-viral engineered CAR T-cell process

Immunotherapy utilizing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells is a promising strategy for the treatment of several types of cancer. Many preclinical and clinical studies engineer CAR T cells through a viral vector, presenting the potential for genotoxicity or insertional mutagenesis. We propose a 14-day non-viral process where we introduce the gene of interest via electroporation; integration can be achieved with the Sleeping Beauty transposon system. Minicircle (MC) DNA constructs containing the CAR, a surface marker (EGFRt), and a double mutant of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFRdm) are electroporated into previously frozen, unstimulated CD4/CD8 T cells with an RNA construct coding for the Sleeping Beauty transposase. After electroporation, cells are bead-stimulated with CD3/CD28 without the use of feeder cells throughout the process. CAR+ cells expressing DHFRdm are rendered insensitive to an FDA-approved small molecule drug, methotrexate (MTX), which allows for chemical selection of the cells of interest while avoiding a magnetic bead sort. The entire process is completed in 2 weeks with a media formulation that contains a serum-free replacement. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

PickCells: A Physically Reconfigurable Cell-composed Touchscreen

Touchscreens are the predominant medium for interactions with digital services; however, their current fixed form factor narrows the scope for rich physical interactions by limiting interaction possibilities to a single, planar surface. In this paper we introduce the concept of PickCells, a fully reconfigurable device concept composed of cells, that breaks the mould of rigid screens and explores a modular system that affords rich sets of tangible interactions and novel acrossdevice relationships. Through a series of co-design activities – involving HCI experts and potential end-users of such systems – we synthesised a design space aimed at inspiring future research, giving researchers and designers a framework in which to explore modular screen interactions. The design space we propose unifies existing works on modular touch surfaces under a general framework and broadens horizons by opening up unexplored spaces providing new interaction possibilities. In this paper, we present the PickCells concept, a design space of modular touch surfaces, and propose a toolkit for quick scenario prototyping