STEM Talent And China's Rise In The Race For CAR-T Immunotherapies
Anna Powers
Redefining science
, via Wikimedia Commons" align="" width="601"] A group of T-cells (green and red) encapsulate a... [+] cancer cell (blue, center). The T-cells kill the cancer cell by attaching and spreading over the cancerous cell. Special compounds contained in the T-cell (shown in red) are used to exterminate the cancer cell.
Timunity therapeutics is a biotech start-up company coming out of UPenn, with a cutting-edge technology in immunotherapy, it has recently attracted 135 million in funding for Series A. The start-up was founded on the groundbreaking work of professor Carl June, who was recently named by Time Magazine as one of the most important people in the world. Dr. June is considered a giant in the immunotherapy space and is a pioneer for the revolutionary T cell therapy (CAR-T), a promising treatment for various types of cancer. What is different about CAR-T therapy from other cancer therapies, such as radiation or surgery, is that it uses the patient's own immune system to fight off the disease. You may ask: how does this work? Well, the process is fascinating in that in CAR-T therapies use patient's own cells to kill tumor growths. The way the process works is that patient's blood is drawn and is separated to extract the T-cells, which are a type of white blood cell vital to the immune system as they signal to fight various types of pathogens. After the T-cells are drawn, they are genetically re-engineered to have specific receptors which are referred to as chimeric antigen receptors or CAR. Those receptors then act to kill specific tumors cells found in the body. Then these CAR-T cells are injected back into the patient with the hopes that they can reproduce and multiply kill the cancerous cells. In 2017 the FDA has approved two CAR-T therapies for the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma.
/ AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Although the groundbreaking CAR-T work was developed in the U.S., is not the only country in the race for CAR-T therapies. China is quickly racing to introduce CAR-T therapies into the mainstream, having 116 CAR-T trials it is more than the 96 currently registered in the US. It also helps that the biotech sector brought in China $10 billion of investment in 2017. Doctors in Hangzhou's Cancer Hospital have successfully used CAR-T therapies to treat cancer on humans. One American has flown to China to undergo CAR-T therapy treatment for his cancer successfully. He used a Chinese company, Nanjing Legend, which has recently partnered with J&J in 350 million dollar deal to develop CAR-T therapies. Unlike in the U.S., where there are tight FDA regulations on human trials, China does not have such tight regulations and thus has this advantage.
But that is not the only advantage that China has in the biotech CAR-T race. One of the other big advantages is the human capital in the sciences. The big push for STEM-related education in China coupled with a culture that emphasizes the technical sciences and the government's "Made In China 2025" initiative to become the world-class leader in emerging tech disciplines, has allowed many biotech companies to have a robust atmosphere of innovation and a supply of talent. In 2017 China had more than double of US graduates, to be more exact 8 million, and China is now the top producer of Science and Engineering bachelors degrees, according to American Institute of Physics. Thus, the science and technology educational space is rapidly growing in China. Nonetheless, U.S. doctoral programs continue to produce the most talent. Chinese students are an integral part of many U.S. doctoral programs in the technical sciences. However, with the recent visa regulations for foreign students, this may change, thus it is even more vital for America to strengthen and develop its own domestic STEM workforce in order to have robust innovation. It signals that in order for the U.S. to remain the top innovator in R&D, we as a country should be investing in STEM education and workforce, as well as redefining the perception of STEM in society. The National Math and Science Foundation found that the U.S. is lagging in STEM education from its international peers, while the Pew Center for Research found that most scientists rated the K-12 STEM education system as 'below average.' This implies that in order for our country to stay competitive and stay ahead, there is a strong need to invest in top of the line STEM education in order to keep to fostering economic growth through innovation. Innovation is vital to economic growth, but before innovation can happen we must have an educational system in place which can foster and cultivate science talent that will be responsible for this innovation. The way to do that is through an educational methodology in the STEM disciplines that ignites curiosity and makes science fun.
I am an an award winning scientist, and communicator. As the first woman to be awarded the Global STEM Leadership Prize, I share the beauty of science through my eyes