Gates Institute News and Stories

A study at University of Colorado’s Gates Institute on the Anschutz Medical Campus is looking at CAR-T in adult patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, whose first round of chemotherapy either failed or gave a disappointing response that suggests it won’t work for long, executive director Dr. Terry Fry said. (The institute is named for rubber manufacturer Charles C. Gates.)

Encouraged by his care team at the Colorado hospital to apply for an internship at the Gates Institute research lab, Mann spent this summer surrounded by researchers helping develop novel therapeutics for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). He worked on an experiment that used cells from EDS patients to grow skin samples for study. The lab is investigating the use of exosomes — secreted by most cells and present in tissues and body fluids — as a vehicle for therapeutic intervention.

When you talk to Terry Fry, M.D., about why the Gates Institute is one of the best locations in the country to work in cellular and gene therapy, he has a lot of insight. As the executive director of the Gates Institute, a pediatric oncologist, and a pioneer in the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies, Dr. Fry has an intimate understanding of what it takes to get a drug from initial research phases to commercial manufacturing.

The University of Colorado has adopted an innovative model for running an academic GMP manufacturing facility without extensive endowment funding. The Charles Gates Biomanufacturing Facility is one of only a few GMP facilities able to manufacture cell- and protein-based therapies for both academic researchers and industry.