NIH grant: Ultrahigh-Throughput Cell Interaction Screening to Advance CAR-T Therapeutic Development (1R44CA310740-01)

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NIH grant 1R44CA310740-01: Ultrahigh-Throughput Cell Interaction Screening to Advance CAR-T Therapeutic Development
Institute: {'code': 'CA', 'abbreviation': 'NCI', 'name': 'National Cancer Institute', 'admin_org_id': '12500008', 'admin_funding_url': ''}. PI: Robin  Prince. Award: $306872.
Start: 2026-08-07T00:00:00.
ABSTRACT
Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies have demonstrated incredible efficacy in certain cancers
and hold enormous potential for others, yet their broader success—especially in challenging indications like
solid tumors—is ultimately limited by the need for significant improvements. Current assays rely on activation
or proliferation markers as proxies for cytotoxicity, which poorly predict true tumor-killing ability. As CAR
designs become more numerous and complex, there is a critical need for scalable methods that directly
measure function at the single-cell level. We are developing CAGEs (Cell Assemblies in Gel Enclosures), a
platform that enables millions of defined CAR-T and cancer cell interactions to be assayed in parallel.
Encapsulated in biocompatible gel shells, these assemblies support multi-day co-culture, direct measurement
of cell killing, and recovery for downstream cytokine profiling and sequencing. This allows functional selection
from large CAR libraries—capabilities not possible with existing technologies. CAGEs offer throughput more
than four orders of magnitude higher than current assays, meaning millions of CAR-Ts can be screened based
on their cytotoxic function in hours, with single-cell resolution. By directly linking cell function phenotype to CAR
design, CAGEs will accelerate the refinement of cell therapies toward enhanced efficacy and safety.

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