Britney Washington

Current Research

My project determines whether cryopreservation methods alters the molecular profile or distribution of phenotypes within patient cell isolates or manufactured cell therapies that could affect bioprocessing parameters or clinical efficacy, respectively. Several cryopreservation techniques and reagents will be evaluated in a comparative manner on a small bank of patient leukapheresis samples and their corresponding engineered CAR-T cell cultures as well as on a small bank of iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs). If deleterious perturbations are observed, then alternative cryopreservation or culture strategies will be attempted to eliminate or counteract such changes. If such efforts are not successful then this will motivate development of alternative strategies for transport and storage of patient isolates and cell therapy products.