Webinars & Presentations Seminar: Non-viral Cell Engineering Advantages and Applications with Stanford University, Touchlight and MaxCyte

Seminar: Non-viral Cell Engineering Advantages and Applications with Stanford University, Touchlight and MaxCyte

This webinar was broadcasted live on November 1, 2023.

In this seminar, cell engineering scientists from Stanford University, Touchlight Genetics, and MaxCyte® shared promising advances in non-viral gene therapy. These experts from across the globe present the latest innovations in gene delivery platforms and single-stranded CRISPR HDR donor technologies.

Key case studies:

  • Homology-Independent Targetred Insertion for Clinical-Scale CAR T Manufacturing
    Dr. Hyatt Want at Stanford University (Crystal Mackall & Steve Feldman Labs)
  • Efficient Gene Knock-ins with megabulbDNA (mbDNA) - a closed synthetic single-stranded CRISPR HDR donor
    Dr. Elena Stoyanova at Touchlight Genetics
  • Organoid Engineering Case Studies
    Dr. Marianna Romito at MaxCyte.

Each presenter shares data on how to increase engineering efficiency in primary and stem cells, all while maintaining high cell viability and recovery for applications in gene editing and autologous/allogeneic cell therapy.

Speakers

Elena Stoyanova, PhD

Elena Stoyanova, PhD

Senior Scientist in the Research Touchlight Genetics

Dr Elena Stoyanova is a Senior Scientist in the Research department at Touchlight Genetics working on the molecular development and ex vivo testing of some of their emerging platforms. She specialises in the validation and optimisation of Touchlight’s technology for gene editing applications, with a focus on a novel circular single-stranded CRIPSR knock-in template – MegaBulb DNA (mbDNATM). She joined the company in August 2020, shortly after finishing a PhD in Epigenetics and Chromatin Dynamics at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK, where she studied metabolic regulation of gene expression by histone modifications. Elena has a BSc in Genetics from the University of York, UK.

Hyatt Balke-Want

Hyatt Balke-Want, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow Stanford University

Stanford Center for Cancer, Cell Therapy Stanford Cancer Institute Stanford University

Hyatt Balke-Want is a Postdoctoral Fellow with Crystal Mackall and Steven Feldman at the Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford since 2020. Prior to joining Stanford, Hyatt has been a resident in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology with Michael Hallek (University Hospital Cologne) since 2015 and took care of the very first lymphoma patients treated with CAR-T cells in Germany. During his postdoc Hyatt has focused on developing a CRISPR knock-in based platform to manufacture non-viral CAR-T cells with the ultimate goal to increase the accessibility to CAR-T cell therapies for patients.

Marianna Romito1

Marianna Romito, PhD

Senior Field Application Scientist, UK & Ireland Cell & Gene Therapy Specialist, Europe & Middle East
MaxCyte, Inc.

Marianna is a Senior Field Application Scientist and Cell Therapy Specialist for Europe at MaxCyte, where she supports the scientific activity of customers, collaborators, and prospects. She joined the company in December 2019, after finishing her post-doc on CRISPR-Cas9 and AAV6 HDR-mediated gene correction of IL7RA-deficient hematopoietic stem cells at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Her Ph.D. work was focused on the pre-clinical development of HIV-resistant genome-edited T cells using TALEN nucleases at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. Marianna holds two patents on genome and epigenome editing of clinically relevant cells and several publications in high-impact factor journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Nucleic Acids Research, and Nature Communication.

Debra Barberini

Debra Barberini, PhD

Sales Manager, UK and Ireland
MaxCyte, Inc.

Debra is the UK and Ireland Sales Manager for MaxCyte supporting customers and partners across both cell and gene therapy and bioprocessing fields. Debra received her PhD from Cardiff University studying the role of the cardiac ryanodine receptor in CPVT and sudden cardiac death. Since completing her PhD in 2009, Debra has worked at various companies including Miltenyi Biotec, GE Healthcare Lifesciences and Cytiva, before moving to MaxCyte, offering dedicated support and advice to their customer base. Please connect with her should a discussion be useful.