Clinician-led approach could give doctors a control dial for cell therapies

A WEHI clinical team developed a prime editing platform that makes therapeutic T cells tolerant to tacrolimus while remaining sensitive to cyclosporin. In cells from SPTCL-HLH patients, the researchers corrected disease-causing mutations and added tacrolimus-tolerance edits, then applied the platform to virus-specific T cells and CAR T cells, which retained function under immunosuppression. The team is advancing toward a first-in-human trial; the work is published in Blood, DOI: 10.1182/blood.2026033156.