Clinical Development of Cell Therapies: Setting the Stage for Academic Success.

Cellular therapies have potential to treat a wide range of diseases with autologous immunotherapies showing unprecedented therapeutic promise in clinical trials. Such therapies are mainly developed by academic researchers applying small-scale production, targeting rare and unmet medical needs. Here, we highlight the clinical translation of immunotherapy product in an academic setting, which may serve as a success model for early academic development of cell-based therapeutics.