Editorial: Innovations in development, translational research and manufacturing of CAR T cells

Editorial on the Research Topic Innovations in development, translational research and manufacturing of CAR T cells The surging development of cellular immunotherapies sparked the creation of this Research Topic dedicated to Innovations in Development, Translational Research and Manufacturing of CAR T cells. This Research Topic addresses the current benefits observed with CAR T-cell immunotherapy, which raises the question of scalability of CAR T-cell products to provide access to a wide range of patients. Current improvements include both automation combined with artificial intelligence (AI) as well as non-viral gene transfer to improve safety, lower complexity and costs. In addition, data-driven knowledge about various diseases is changing the field, moving from hematological to oncology patients as well as to autoimmune diseases. The clinical translation and correlative studies of CART cell therapy continues to evolve through studies that refine our understanding of treatment dynamics, patient outcomes, and mechanisms underlying therapeutic success. A key contribution in this area comes from the work of Garcıá-Calderoń et al., who performed a detailed kinetic and immunophenotypic analysis of circulating CD19 CART cells in B-cell malignancies. By validating optimized flow-cytometric and digital PCR monitoring methods and linking early CART expansion profiles to toxicities such as CRS and ICANS, the study correlates robust tools for real-time clinical monitoring. Importantly, their data identify PD-1/LAG-3 co-expression and reduced CD107a levels at peak expansion as early biomarkers associated Frontiers in Immunology frontiersin.org 01