On Episode 2 of our CAR-T series, microbiologist and immunologist Joseph Fraietta, PhD (UPenn), discussed with our moderator, Neil Canavan, some of the foreseeable challenges we face with CAR-T cell therapies, including the efficacy of CARs in solid tumors, adaptive resistance, and the use of gene editing in cell therapies. 

Joseph Fraietta, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Director of the Solid Tumor Immunotherapy Laboratory, and a part of the Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania. As a post-doctoral fellow under the tutelage of Dr. Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Fraietta developed novel approaches for the treatment of cancer through genetic modification of T lymphocytes that contributed to the initiation of multiple clinical trials and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first CAR T cell therapy. In 2015, Dr. Fraietta assumed the directorship of a research laboratory in the first-of-its-kind Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies, where his group led initiatives to interrogate CAR T cell infusion products for key biomarkers and mechanisms of potency, with the objective of predicting clinical responses to adoptive cell therapies. He now directs the Solid Tumor Immunotherapy Laboratory in the same center.