Fred Hutch study discovers rare set of cells that are highly effective at fighting cancer

The discovery and the new tech will be important for scientists developing CAR-T immunotherapies, treatments that reprogram a person’s T-cells to fight cancer.

The tech was developed by Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies, and it assigns a “barcode” to each T-cell based on the kind of T-cell receptor (TCR) it has. This allows researchers to track different kinds of T-cells in the lab and in patients’ bodies.