Nationwide Children's Events & Announcements

Jan 01, 0001

Investigators Develop Technique to Effectively Edit NK Cells to Target Specific Cancer Cells

Originally, NK cells seemed promising for a natural therapy to fight cancer due to their innate ability to recognize any cells expressing stress or signs of infection. But investigators quickly realized they faced three key challenges: first, it was difficult to grow a large enough number of NK cells in the lab to offer useful infusions at a reasonable cost; second, an ideal universal donor solution was needed to make NK cell products faster, more reliably and with off-the-shelf availability; and third, NK cells were resistant to genetic modifications that might help them better target specific types of cancer cells. Nationwide Children’s Hospital investigators and their collaborators painstakingly solved the first two problems over the past decade. Now, they’ve conquered the third.