NHS Foundation Trust: Biomedical Research Centre Developing Enhanced Cells As Therapies

An increased understanding of the role of the body's immune system in the development of diseases such as prostate cancer, squamous cell carcinoma (a type of skin cancer), type 1 diabetes, autoimmune liver disease, and in the rejection of transplanted organs by some transplant patients, has paved the way for a pioneering research programme which aims to develop 'enhanced' cells as therapies. Researchers hope to find ways to extract specific cells which play a role in these diseases from patients, then activate or modify them in the laboratory and transfer them safely back into patients so that they can fight the diseases from within their own body. The GBP1 million research programme is being carried out at the National Institute for Hea...