Cytequest Inc

Adaptable and Scalable Electroporation for Cellular Therapy - Project Summary Cellular Therapies Have Demonstrated the Potential to Treat a Variety of Inherited and Acquired Diseases, But the First Generation of Approved Cell Therapies Rely on Viral Vectors for Cellular Reprogramming. Viral Vectors Are Recognized as a Bottleneck in the Development of These Therapies and Other Delivery Methods, Like Electroporation, Are Being Clinically Investigated. to Address Limitations in Existing Electroporation Technology, Cytequest Is Developing a Simple, Scalable Electroporation Platform to Optimize Transfection Parameters and Deliver Cargo Efficiently and Reproducibly at High Throughput. Cytequest’s Platform Consists of a Planar Flow Chip With a Thin Slab Geometry That Ensures That Cells Are Subject to a Uniform Electrical Field for Reproducible Electroporation. the Flow Cell Geometry Allows for Seamless Scaling to a High- Volume System for Delivery at Clinical Scale. the Key Objectives of This Proposal Are to: (1) Demonstrate High-efficiency Delivery of Clinically Relevant Cargo Including CRISPR/CAS9 Ribonucleoprotein Complexes to Primary Human T Cells, and (2) Construct a Prototype Large- Volume Electroporation Flow System Compatible With the Volumetric Throughput Required for Cellular Therapy in a Clinical Setting. Cytequest Will Demonstrate That the Optimized Electroporation Parameters of the Small Volume System Can Be Used Directly in the High-volume System With Less Than 5% Variation in the Biomolecular Delivery Efficiency and Cell Viability. the High-volume Electroporation Flow System Can Be Manufactured in a Process That Is Cost-effective and Robust. Cytequest Ultimately Aims to Use This Novel Platform in Conjunction With CRISPR/CAS9 Technology as a Therapeutic Application for Adoptive Cell Therapy.