A research team at Penn Engineering led by Michael Mitchell, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Penn Engineering, has developed a novel method for manufacturing CAR T cells. This process takes just 24 hours and requires only one step, thanks to the use of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the potent delivery vehicles that played a critical role in the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines. The team created “activating lipid nanoparticles” (aLNPs), which can activate T cells and deliver the genetic instructions for CARs in a single step, greatly simplifying the CAR T cell manufacturing process. Read more here.