Can We Make CAR-T Cells Inside The Body? | Dr. Luke Russell - President, Vyriad

Send us Fan MailCAR-T therapy can be extraordinarily powerful against cancer - but there's a catch. We currently have to take a patient's T cells out of their body, genetically engineer them in a laboratory, manufacture billions of cells, and then put them back. But what if we could skip the factory entirely - and genetically program the T cells inside the patient's body?Dr. Luke Russell, Ph.D. is President of Vyriad ( https://vyriad.com/ ), a biotechnology company developing viral therapies designed to deliver genetic payloads directly to cells in the body.Dr. Russell has spent much of his career at the intersection of cancer immunotherapy, oncolytic virotherapy, gene delivery, and biotechnology strategy. Before moving into executive leadership, his research focused on using viruses to attack tumors and stimulate antitumor immunity. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from The Ohio State University, where his work included developing an immunostimulatory oncolytic herpesvirus for brain cancer, and later earned an MBA in Finance and Strategy from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.Dr. Russell joined Vyriad in 2018 and has held increasingly senior roles spanning research, alliance management, business development, operations and corporate strategy. During that time, he has helped build strategic relationships with major pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, Regeneron and Merck KGaA.And now, as President, Dr. Russell is helping lead Vyriad’s effort to develop a new generation of viral medicines - including VV169, the company’s third clinical program, and its G-Link platform, which is designed to give viral vectors a modular, “plug-and-play” ability to retarget which cells they deliver their genetic payloads to.At the center of today's conversation is a particularly provocative possibility: in-vivo CAR-T - using a targeted viral vector to genetically reprogram a patient’s own T cells inside the body.#CAR T #CAR TCellTherapy #Cancer #CancerResearch #Immunotherapy #ImmunoOncology #GeneTherapy #GeneDelivery #CellTherapy #InVivoCAR T #CAR TResearch #TCells #ViralVectors #OncolyticVirotherapy #Biotechnology #Biotech #PrecisionMedicine #MedicalInnovation #DrugDevelopment #FutureOfMedicine #Vyriad #LukeRussell #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #PPPSupport the show