In the evening edition of Mainichi Shimbun on November 17th, 2020 (General news section, Page 7), a research activity of the team led by Professor Hiroshi Kawamoto, the Vice Director of Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University and an executive director of Rebirthel, was introduced.
In the article entitled “Therapy for the novel coronavirus infection using iPS cells”, Professor Kawamoto explains “Killer T cells can kill virus-infected cells and work together with antibody. Aggravation of pneumonia can be prevented if killer T cells are sufficiently induced in the patient.”
TCR gene that can recognize coronavirus-infected cells will be transferred into iPS cells, and killer T cells will be regenerated from these iPS cells. Regenerated killer T cells will be stocked to be administered to patients as needed. His team aims to start a clinical trial within 2 to 3 years.
Link to the article (Available to members and only in Japanese)