BST advances in innovative immunological therapies against malignant blood diseases with the help of the Miquel Rutllant grant

The Blood and Tissue Bank advances in the search for new immunological therapies that have revolutionized the fight against cancer, through generating natural NK (Natural Killer) killer cells of the immune system for their important role in the fight against cancer, from umbilical cord stem cells from healthy donors.

NK cells are immune system cells specialized in detecting and eliminating, among others, tumor cells. Currently, they are the focus for the creation of new effective therapies in the fight against cancer, where the effectiveness of other immunological treatments is not yet very effective. The award-winning research generates NK cells from pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), a type of stem cells, which are reprogrammed from umbilical cord blood from donors.

The project, entitled "Universal, cord blood iPSC-derived CAR-NK cells for an off-the-shelf immunotherapy for cancer", received the first  FISP Miquel Rutllant grant in 2025 and is led by Dr. Miquel de Homdedeu from the Research Group on Advanced Therapies derived from iPSC from the Blood and Tissue Bank. The research, which has the collaboration of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), is an innovative alternative to treat lymphoblastic leukaemia, a paediatric disease that affects approximately four out of every 100,000 children.

The first edition of the Miquel Rutllan scholarship, awarded to the BST team just one year ago, has a duration of 2 years and a contribution of 100,000 euros. Funded research aims to achieve a more affordable and rapid treatment that can eradicate pediatric cancer more effectively and that is available in hospitals in the next two or three years.

These NK cells can be transferred to a patient without causing significant adverse effects.

Just yesterday, Homededeu explained the technical development of research at the Palau Macaya in Barcelona, just when half of the research is held. The new treatment aims to become a faster, safer and more affordable alternative to current CAR-T therapies, in order to effectively combat various types of malignant hemopathies. The current procedure is also an immunological therapy, but with CAR-T cells that consists of extracting these cells, the T cells, from the same patient, modifying them in the laboratory so that they attack their same tumor and reinject them. This process is expensive, slower and often the cells of the patient themselves do not work optimally.

The new proposal: donor cell therapy

The project seeks to improve current treatments through the use of these pluripotent stem cells, instead of using the cells of the same patient, as is done with CAR-T. Stem cells are cells that come from altruistic donations and are preserved in the blood bank. They have the ability to self-regenerate, which facilitates the obtaining of many final cells and to 'convert' them into NK cells.

This method will allow the treatment to be faster, cheaper and more accessible, since the cells will be prepared to be used universally and immediately. Dr. Homededeu underlines that "the use of altruistic donor cells makes the process much more efficient and functional than the existing personalized alternatives, since being prepared and stored, they are available immediately when the patient needs it."

To understand the difference between one therapy and the other, Dr. Homededeu uses an everyday simile: "treatment with CAR-T is like making a "tailor-made dress" that must be manufactured expressly for each person and, instead, the new therapy is like manufacturing a very functional brand dress, which is cheaper and ready to be used at the moment."

The project is currently in a scalability phase, that is, to make the leap to a larger production through bioreactors, and thus obtain large amounts of cells. At the same time, the team of researchers is determining how the best expansion protocol should be to produce these NK cells in large quantities to perform trials in mice.

L'equip investigador del BST: la directora, Belén Alvarez (BST), i els investigadors Kenia Rodríguez, Miquel Homededeu y Ruben Escribá