Cell and Gene Therapies

What Are Cell and Gene Therapies? Cell and gene therapies both involve the manipulation of human tissue to create treatments for diseases at the molecular level. However, the way they are used is vastly different.

Cell Therapy

Cell therapy involves infusing cells that may be from a donor or have originally been from the patient themselves. These cells are usually modified to specifically fight target cells, such as cancer cells, or altered to boost and support the function of the immune system.

Examples of cell therapy include T-cell therapies, such as TIL therapy and CAR T-cell therapy.

 

Gene Therapy

Gene therapy involves the transfer of modified DNA into specific cells with the assistance of vectors to treat disease.

Gene therapy may be used to silence a mutation, add or correct a gene to produce a necessary protein, or used to induce apoptosis in cancer cells.

Source: Gene & Cell Therapy FAQs | ASGCT – American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy. (n.d.). https://asgct.org/education/more-resources/gene-and-cell-therapy-faqs