HSA Builds Cell Therapy Facility to Expand Pioneering Work on Novel Cell-based Therapies to Treat Cancers and Other Diseases

When fully completed, it will be a leading academic facility for one-stop research and translational service for cell therapy arena in Southeast Asia

The Health Sciences Authority's Blood Services Group is expanding its scientific capacity in the field of clinical cell therapy. Cell therapy is one of the most promising and rapidly advancing areas that exploit cells such as immune and stem cells to treat cancers and immune disorders.

2      HSA's pilot Cell Processing Laboratory was set up in 2006 as a prototype facility. Clinical trials were successfully initiated and are still ongoing in collaboration with clinical investigators. With increasing demand for laboratory space, the laboratories are now being expanded into a state-of-the-art Cell Therapy Facility.

3      When fully completed in November 2009, the expansion will more than double the laboratory's current floor space to include an additional four cGMP* compliant cell processing rooms equipped with a cascading pressure system of highly filtered, directed air flow at 99.997% purity. The new Cell Therapy Facility will provide a cutting-edge translational platform for clinicians and scientists to scale up promising research protocols in the transition from bench to bedside.

*current Good Manufacturing Practice

4      Current cell therapy projects include ongoing Phase I/II clinical studies, in collaboration with clinical collaborators from the Singapore General Hospital, that involve culturing cytokine induced killer (CIK) cells, a special type of immune cell. To date, more than 90 infusions have been administered to 30 patients with various haematological malignancies such as leukemia. The clinical trials have demonstrated the feasibility and safety of CIK cell applications to patients in autologous (from patients' own cells) and allogenic (cells from other donors) settings. The trial is ongoing, and preliminary results are encouraging with some patients continuing to remain disease free.

5      Another research focus by the team at the HSA Cell Therapy Facility is on natural killer (NK) immune cells. NK cells are fast in action and are potentially powerful weapons against a broad range of malignancies. HSA researchers are studying promising GMP-compliant culture conditions to generate large numbers of highly potent clinical grade NK cells for future applications in cancer patients. Molecular mechanisms of enhanced NK cytotoxicity (potency) are being investigated to allow future targeted NK design for the generation of an even more powerful and robust NK cell therapy product.

6      “As cell therapy involves the growing and expansion of living cells, HSA is ideally positioned to manage this, given our long history of blood processing and testing in relation to the national blood programme. Our staff are experienced in this specialized area and have been trained in international centres of excellence. Our work culture and systems are firmly grounded in a tradition of quality management. With our well-established clinical connections, HSA's Cell Therapy Facility is poised to fully embrace this fast expanding field that is now increasingly recognised as one of the most exciting new modalities in the treatment of cancers. I see this as a one-stop research and translational facility, and new clinical trials are already being planned.” says Dr Mickey Koh, Division Director of the Patient Services Division in HSA's Blood Services Group.

7      With the high demand and current space constraints, expansion of the current laboratory capacity is supported by funding from the Ministry of Health. Future research programmes will include developing novel cell therapy products arising from promising findings in genomics, immunology and proteonomics (the study of proteins which are the main components of physiological metabolic pathways of cells). These new capacities and capabilities will continue to strengthen HSA's valued partnerships with hospitals and biomedical research institutions in clinical translational trials. This work will also give promote the facility as a regional reference centre for new advances in cellular therapy.

8      Professor Edison Liu, Chairman of HSA, officiates at today's ceremonial opening of the Cell Therapy Facility in conjunction with the opening ceremony of the 3rd Singapore-World Health Organisation (WHO) Workshop on the Management of National Blood Programmes. About 23 participants from 15 countries in the region are attending the 5-day workshop jointly organised by HSA's Blood Services Group and WHO, with the support of the Ministry of Health and sponsorship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Singapore Cooperation Programme.

HEALTH SCIENCES AUTHORITY
SINGAPORE
27 JULY 2009

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