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Nicola Ferrari Highlights Study on Engineering B Cells for Therapy

Nicola Ferrari/LinkedIn

Aug 18, 2025, 08:32

Nicola Ferrari Highlights Study on Engineering B Cells for Therapy

Nicola Ferrari, Director of Translational Science Lead for Respiratory and Immunology at AstraZeneca, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Engineering B cells to treat and study human disease

In this review, the authors provide an overview of recent developments in engineered B (eB) cell therapies, including early clinical studies, challenges to clinical implementation, and promising directions for leveraging B cell biology in future applications for cancer and chronic disease.

B cells exhibit multiple unique features, including a natural propensity to interact with and regulate other immune cells, a high capacity to produce proteins, and a long cellular lifespan, which are being applied in eB cell therapies.
B cell immunology has revealed the following three broad potential applications for engineered B cell therapies: engineered plasma cells (ePCs) for long-term in vivo production of biologics, eB cells to strengthen weak or generate new immune responses, and engineered regulatory B cells (eBregs) for regulating or limiting inappropriate immune responses.
While engineered T cell products entered the clinic in 2006, progress with eB cell therapies has lagged. This delay partly reflects both the slower advances in gene delivery methods for primary human B cells and in optimal culture conditions for generating B cell products.
The emergence of CRISPR– and transposon-based techniques has accelerated the development of eB cell products, leading to the initiation of the first clinical trials for ePCs.
In the near future, these clinical trials and others in a growing pipeline will provide real-world answers regarding the safety, efficacy, and duration of eB cells.”

Title: Engineering B cells to treat and study human disease

Authors: Nikita Trivedi, Ragan A. Pitner, David J. Rawlings, Richard G. James

Read the Full Article.

Nicola Ferrari