Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are capable of self-renewing and differentiating into any cell types of the body. iPSCs represent an unlimited starting cell source to generate therapeutic cells of various functions. For cancer treatment, immune cells such as γδ T cells and NK cells are invaluable therapeutic cells since they naturally express an array of built-in receptors to recognize cancers.
By combining iPSC technology and directed differentiation, we are able to generate a novel type of synthetic immune cells, γδ NKT cells that express cancer recognition receptors of both γδ T cells and NK cells from iPSCs to recognize a wide range of cancers without genetic modification.