Car-T Cells for Research

Promab Biotechnologies has generated CARs (chimeric antigen receptors) specific for a variety of target antigens, many of which are overexpressed on tumor cells. These target antigens include CD19, CD22, CD133, Her-2, EGFR, Mesothelin, and more (see Table, below). In addition, Promab has modified the CARs in a number of ways to increase their utility, including adding inducible caspase-9 as a safety switch; adding non-immunogenic tags to provide for CAR identification and selection; and using different costimulatory domains to modulate CAR functional responses.

Promab Biotechnologies uses high-titer lentivirus transduction to introduce the CARs into T cells, generating CAR-T cells. Promab has also generated CAR-NK cells and CAR-macrophages for a subset of CARs. The CAR-T cells are validated using multiple methods, including flow cytometry (to determine the CAR-T frequency and phenotype), real-time and end-point cytotoxicity assays, cytokine production and checkpoint protein upregulation.

For a negative control, Promab has generated a mock CAR which lacks the target-recognizing scFv domain but can be detected with the Beam-2 antibody. Promab also offers non-transduced T cells as another negative control.