{"603976":{"#nid":"603976","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Engineering Consortium Focuses on Cell Therapy Production","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs a new consortium of researchers, clinicians, and engineers from academia, industry, and government work toward a common goal of expanding the use of cell therapies, engineers are playing a critical role in developing proper manufacturing techniques and standards for mass production for this emerging industry.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo highlight the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/aabme.asme.org\/posts\/virus-shortage-for-cell-therapies-creates-engineering-opportunity\u0022\u003Eimportant role\u003C\/a\u003E engineers will play in the industry, the National Science Foundation (NSF) last fall awarded [Georgia Tech] nearly $20 million to support a new engineering research center to facilitate mass production.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe grant was awarded around the same time the Food and Drug Administration approved the first two gene therapy treatments, Novartis\u0026rsquo;s Kymriah and Kite\u0026rsquo;s Yescarta, which were followed by the approval of Spark Therapeutics\u0026rsquo; Luxturna in December. More than 300 biotech and pharmaceutical companies are currently working on cell and gene therapy products.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe skills needed to meet the manufacturing complexities, scale and quality assurance in the production of those therapies is creating a demand for engineering expertise\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Its time has come because these products are now coming onto market without any clear path on how people can manufacture them for a broader base,\u0026rdquo; says \u003Cstrong\u003EKrishnendu Roy\u003C\/strong\u003E, director of the recently established NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) and Marcus Center for Cell Manufacturing at Georgia Institute of Technology. The Atlanta-based university leads a consortium that includes other universities in the U.S. and abroad, industry, and U.S. national laboratories.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We started thinking in this area about three or four years ago,\u0026rdquo; Roy says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOne of the first major steps in creating the consortium was developing a 60-page, 10-year roadmap that laid out \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/aabme.asme.org\/posts\/industry-confronts-challenge-of-shipping-cells-for-therapy\u0022\u003Echallenges\u003C\/a\u003E and barriers, as well as a technological wish list for the next 10 years. More than 25 companies and 15 academic institutions collaborated to produce the roadmap.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESee the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/aabme.asme.org\/posts\/engineering-consortium-focuses-on-cell-therapy-production\u0022\u003Ecomplete article\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;from the Alliance of Advanced BioMedical Engineering (AABME) website.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech Engineers created an organization to develop standards and production processes designed to mass produce life-saving cell-based therapeutics"}],"uid":"27513","created_gmt":"2018-03-19 17:06:47","changed_gmt":"2018-03-19 17:06:47","author":"Walter Rich","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2018-03-05T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2018-03-05T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"603974":{"id":"603974","type":"image","title":"CMaT research lab staff at work","body":null,"created":"1521478810","gmt_created":"2018-03-19 17:00:10","changed":"1521478810","gmt_changed":"2018-03-19 17:00:10","alt":"CMaT research lab staff at work","file":{"fid":"230204","name":"CMAT lab personnel-bluecast.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/CMAT%20lab%20personnel-bluecast.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/CMAT%20lab%20personnel-bluecast.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":111815,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/CMAT%20lab%20personnel-bluecast.jpg?itok=HhBlKxgD"}}},"media_ids":["603974"],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1612","name":"BME"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWalter Rich\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["wrich@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}