Solid tumour cells often use receptors such as PDL1 to block killing from immune cells. In this episode of the Cell Therapy Podcast we talk with Sébastien Wälchli, senior scientist at the Section for Cellular Therapy, Radiumhospitalet in Oslo, Norway about ways to bypass this cancer cell defense and how to improve CAR T cell therapy using combinatorial CARs.

We discuss two recent papers from Dr Wälchli’s group called ‘Built-in” PD-1 blocker to rescue NK-92 activity from PD-L1–mediated tumor escape mechanisms’ (link: https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1096/fj.202100025R) in FASEB and ‘Combinatorial CAR design improves target restriction’ (link: https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(20)00106-4/fulltext) in JBC.

Read more about professor Sébastien Wälchli and his research here: https://www.ous-research.no/home/cellulartherapy/Group+members+TR+Unit/8303.