Gates Institute In the News

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.

The Gates Biomanufacturing Facility (GBF) has announced the successful completion of the full cycle manufacturing of the recombinant Bulk Drug Substance (BDS) of the anti-Tau vaccine, AV-1980R, in collaboration with the Institute for Molecular Medicine (IMM), California.

The prognosis for lymphoma patients who don’t respond to chemotherapy has always been bleak. But new cellular therapies are transforming the field of cancer research, inspiring new hope for patients.

In November 2021, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus—which includes UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHC)—was designated a Rare Disease Center of Excellence by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), the nation’s leading advocacy organization on rare diseases.

Approved by the FDA in 2017, tisagenlecleucel is a genetically engineered product that forces a patient’s own T-cells to destroy acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL. These chimeric antigen receptor cells, or CAR T-cells, work by targeting CD19, a surface protein most ALL cells express. The problem is that, in about half of relapsed cases, ALL cells mutate to lose CD19, leaving the CAR T-cells nothing to attach to. One potential solution is a CAR T-cell product that can seek another surface protein, CD22. Researchers at Children’s Hospital Colorado and the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility on the Anschutz Medical Campus are currently manufacturing a product that can target both proteins – and the clinical trial is enrolling.

The EB iPS Cell Consortium announced its formation today to fight the rare and debilitating genetic disease Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), affecting thousands, many of whom are children, across the U.S. and worldwide.