Medical research advances blood stem cell and CAR-T cell therapies

Researchers at the University of Zurich’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IREM) have identified an alternative signaling pathway that could improve the success of blood stem cell transplants. The study focused on how the protein ‘activated protein C’ (aPC) influences human blood stem cells. By acting on the Protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1), aPC helps stem cells remain in a protected, quiescent state. This prevents the cells from losing their regenerative properties during the laboratory processing required for gene therapies.

In a related field of hematology, CAR-T cell therapy continues to advance as a specialized treatment for blood cancers such as lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma. This ‘vein-to-vein’ process involves extracting a patient’s own T-cells, genetically modifying them in a laboratory to recognize cancer, and reinfusing them after mild chemotherapy. In Austria, approximately 150 such treatments were performed in 2024 across eight specialized hospitals.