Cell engineering and advanced analytics for the immunotherapy of cancer and other health applications
The BC Cancer Immunotherapy Program’s Conconi Family Immunotherapy Lab (CFIL) manufactures clinical-grade engineered cell products for the treatment of cancer in the clinical trial setting. For example, we are currently manufacturing Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells for an academic phase I/II clinical trial for leukemia and lymphoma patients. We also provide Mycoplasma testing for T-Cell therapy products on a fee-for-service basis.
Our target discovery and vector development capabilities enable the identification of new target antigens for T-cell therapy, development of novel strategies and tools for T cell engineering, and assessment of these strategies in animal models to generate the necessary preliminary data for future clinical trials.
Our Molecular and Cellular Immunology Core (MCIC) is a full service facility specializing in advanced molecular, genomic and histological methods including multicolour immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, automated image analysis, laser capture microdissection, multispectral flow cytometry, and single-cell sequencing.
Our group supports academic and industry projects both nationally and internationally, ranging from investigator-driven basic research, to correlative studies for clinical trials, to fee-for-service projects with industrial clients.
- Healthcare and social services
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
- Manufacturing and processing
- Professional and technical services (including legal services, architecture, engineering)
Specialized labs and equipment
|
Specialized lab |
Equipment |
Function |
|---|---|---|
|
CFIL |
Panasonic Cell Processing Work Stations (CPWS) (2) |
Integrated isolators used for clinical-grade manufacturing of cell products. Each CPWS unit is comprised of a Grade A positive pressure workspace, multiple dockable CO2 incubators, high capacity centrifuge and digital microscope, all housed within a single isolator with an integrated non-viable particle counting and vaporized H2O2 sanitizing capability. |
|
CFIL-Clean Room |
CliniMACS Prodigy instruments (4) |
Closed devices for clinical-grade manufacturing of CAR-T cells and other cell products |
|
CFIL-Clean Room |
Negative pressure compounding aseptic containment isolator |
For manipulation of lentivirus stock solutions under BSL-2+ containment |
|
CFIL-Clean Room |
Fresenius Kabi Lovo |
For cell harvesting/washing within a closed tubing set |
|
CFIL-Clean Room |
Terumo TSCD-II Sterile Tubing Welder (2) |
Sterile welding devices |
|
CFIL-Clean Room |
bioMérieux BacT/Alert 3D Microbial Identification System |
Sterility monitoring instrument |
|
CFIL- QC Lab |
Endosafe nexgen-PTS |
Handheld spectrophotometer for endotoxin testing |
|
CFIL |
Beckman Coulter CytoFLEX Flow Cytometer |
3 laser/9 colour flow cytometer |
|
CFIL |
Luminex FLEXMAP 3D System |
HLA (human leukocyte antigen) typing platform |
|
MCIC |
Leica LMD7 Laser Microdissection Microscope |
Microscopic isolation of samples of interest as large as thick tissue volumes or as small as single living cells |
|
MCIC |
Thermo Scientific Microm HM355S Automatic Microtome |
Automated microtome |
|
MCIC |
PerkinElmer Vectra Polaris Imaging System |
Automated quantitative pathology imaging system |
|
MCIC |
Leica Aperio VERSA Brightfield, Fluorescence and FISH Digital Pathology Scanner |
IHC, ISH and fluorescent tissue-based scanning including multiplex whole slide scanning |
|
MCIC |
10X Genomics Chromium Controller |
Single cell library construction for genome sequencing |
|
MCIC |
Cytek Aurora Cytometers (2) |
Spectral flow cytometer |
Private and public sector research partners
- BC Cancer Foundation
- BCRegMed
- BioCanRx
- CancerCare Manitoba
- National Research Council Canada
- The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI)
- Simon Fraser University
- Terry Fox Research Institute
- The University of British Columbia
- The University Health Network (UHN)
Additional information
|
Title |
URL |
|---|---|
|
BC Cancer Research Molecular and Cellular Immunology Core (MCIC) |
https://www.bccrc.ca/dept/drc/dept/drc/services/molecular-and-cellular-immunology-core |
|
BC Cancer Immunotherapy Program |
https://www.bccrc.ca/programs/bc-cancer-immunotherapy-program |
|
BioCanRx Core and Biomanufacturing Facilities |