Researchers ready B cells for novel cell therapy

Scientists at Seattle Children’s Research Institute are paving the way to use gene-edited B cells — a type of white blood cell in the immune system — to treat a wide range of potential diseases that affect children, including hemophilia and other protein deficiency disorders, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases. If successful, their research would open the door to offering this experimental cell therapy as the first-of-its-kind in clinical trials at Seattle Children’s in as soon as five years. B cells play a central role in the immune system. When the body is confronted with an infection, they turn into plasma cells that release protective antibodies that both fight ongoing infections and prevent future ones. Unlike other cells of the immune system that have relatively short lifespans, plasma B cells can survive and continuously produce antibodies for decades. Because plasma cells are so efficient at making and secreting proteins like antibodies, they could...