Novartis is to tap the engineering expertise of Vyriad Inc of the US in order to discover and develop in vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies. Announced on 20 November, the agreement will take cell-based gene therapy technology to a new level by enabling the CAR recombinant protein to be delivered to T cells in their natural environment. This will be done by using a lentiviral delivery system to target and transduce resting T cells and reprogramme them while they are still inside the body. The reprogrammed cells would become potential treatment for patients.
