Touch-free optical technologies to streamline the production of T cell therapies.

Currently approved adoptive T cell therapy relies on autologous (obtained from the same patient) T cells, which often suffer from poor quality that diminishes treatment efficacy. Due to the heterogeneous nature of T cell quality between and within patients, significant efforts are aimed at optimizing cell manipulation and growth conditions for potent T cell products. We believe that touch-free imaging and sensing technologies are critical to monitor single-cell features during T cell manufacturing to ensure consistent and optimally timed methods for cell manipulation and growth. Here, we discuss emerging label-free optical imaging and sensing methods, along with machine learning techniques that could enable in-line feedback to optimize T cell quality at multiple stages during manufacturing. These methods have the potential to streamline current workflow, accelerate the manufacture of safe high-quality T cell therapies, and improve our understanding of the dynamic, heterogeneous processes of T cell manufacturing.
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Melissa Skala reports financial support was provided by National Science Foundation. Melissa Skala has patent issued to Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Melissa Skala has patent pending to Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Guest editor for this special issue of COBME (MCS).