CAR T-cell Therapy: Reprogramming the Immune System To Treat Cancer

At the Malaghan Institute for Biomedical Reserach, researchers are developing third generation CAR-T immunotherapy treatments which aim to be more effective with less side effects than previous therapies.

Using patients own modified T-cells, CAR-T therapy has the ability to vanquish cancer cells, vastly improving outcomes of once life threatening diseases.

This year, 2019, Rob hopes to begin clinical trials for CAR-T therapy in New Zealand through the collaboration of scientists from the Malaghan Institute and international researchers. He is optimistic that this next generation treatment will present a new paradigm for treatment of lymphomas and possibly for other cancers in the future.

Dr Robert Weinkove is Clinical Director of the Malaghan Institute, a biomedical research institute in Wellington, New Zealand. After studying medicine at the University of Cambridge and Kings College London, Rob trained in Hematology in London and Germany before moving to New Zealand in 2008 and gaining a doctorate with the University of Otago.

Rob is a key member of the Cancer Immunotherapy Programme to develop and manufacture ‘chimeric antigen receptor’ (CAR) T-cells for treatment of lymphoma and other blood cancers. He also holds a joint role as a  Hematologist at Wellington Blood & Cancer Centre.