Meghana Kalluri

Current Research

Evaluating T cell quality for CAR T cell therapy manufacturing using autofluorescence lifetimes

CAR T cell therapy is a type of cancer treatment in which patient T cells are collected, genetically engineered to incorporate a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) protein and reinfused into the patient following expansion. There is a need to screen T cells for quality during the CAR T manufacturing process to ensure success or to propose timepoints for manufacturing interventions which may improve outcomes. Throughout CAR T cell manufacturing, T cells go through differentiation into various subsets which are characterized by specific metabolic profiles. Autofluorescence lifetime flow cytometry of metabolic coenzymes NAD(P)H and FAD is a new label-free technique which reveals information about the protein-binding state of the coenzymes and thus the metabolic features of the sample. This method is nondestructive and provides real-time, high throughput analysis while preserving single-cell information. Validation of this technique as a clinical material quality screening tool will benefit patients who need a real-time quality evaluation metric for CAR T cell therapy success.