In the morning edition of Nihon Keizai Shimbun on April 26th, 2021 (P. 9), a research activity of the team led by Professor Hiroshi Kawamoto, an executive director of Rebirthel, was introduced. Professor Kawamoto has two laboratories; one is at Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, and the other is at International Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Fujita Health University. These teams are working together to develop a therapy for the novel coronavirus infection in cooperation with Rebirthel.
Collaboration team will collect blood from recovered patients and identify TCR gene that recognizes coronavirus-infected cells. TCR gene will be transferred into iPS cells and killer T cells will be regenerated from these iPS cells. The regenerated killer T cells kill coronavirus-infected cells in a patients’ body.
Professor Kawamoto explains “The therapy using killer T cells can be expanded to target other infectious diseases, and it provides us a solution to future pandemics of other infectious diseases.” The team aims to achieve the practical realization within 2 to 3 years.
Link to the article (Only available to members and only in Japanese)
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC161XE0W1A410C2000000/