Advances in engineering and synthetic biology toward improved therapeutic immune cells

Engineered immune cells as therapies is a rapidly growing field that can successfully address complex and refractory disease in ways traditional molecular therapeutics cannot. Currently, engineering these cells entails viral-mediated genomic integration of desired genes or electroporation-based delivery of gene-editing machinery, notably the Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats - CRISPR-associated (CRISPR-Cas9) system. Recent advancements in nonviral delivery methods and improved Cas-based gene editors are providing new tools that may enable the production of consistent and precisely defined therapeutic immune cells. Combined with ideas borrowed from synthetic biology, these engineering advances are poised to help create the next generation of immune cell therapies with even greater precision and functionality to address complex diseases.