Driving CARs on the biomanufacturing road to clinical success

Cell & Gene Therapy Insights 2021; 7(11), 1613–1621

10.18609/cgti.2021.215

Published: 10 January 2022
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Chelsia Qiuxia Wang, Andy Hee-Meng Tan

Chelsia Qiuxia Wang, PhD, is currently an Associate Staff Scientist, Immune Cell Manufacturing at Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore (A*STAR). Her research is focused on improving immunotherapy using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immune cells, with the goal of translating her work to clinical use. Dr Wang received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from National University of Singapore (NUS) and completed her postdoctoral training in Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMCB), A*STAR and Cancer Science Institute (CSI), NUS, where she worked on elucidating the roles of RUNX family genes in leukemogenesis.

Andy Hee-Meng Tan, PhD, is Senior Scientist and Group Leader of Immune Cell Manufacturing at Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore (A*STAR). One major part of his research encompasses chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) engineering of T and NK cells for tumor immunotherapy. He is the lead investigator in a joint laboratory with a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) to enable process optimization for large scale production of CAR-T cells. Andy also co-directs the Centre of Innovation for Sustainable Banking and Production of Cultivated Meats (CRISP Meats), a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research programme which aims to develop innovative technologies for manufacturing of cultivated meat. As Consultant Analytical Scientist with Health Sciences Authority, he supervises the building of capabilities in nucleic acid- and immune-based analytics for characterization of prophylactics. Andy received his BSc and MSc in Physics from National University of Singapore (NUS) and PhD in Immunology from NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering. He completed postdoctoral training in Immunogenomics at John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University before joining BTI as a Research Scientist.