Webinars & Presentations Seminar: Non-viral cell engineering platform with MegaBulb-Catapult

High Efficiency Cell Engineering Seminar - Hosted at the Catapult

Join us at the Catapult for an insightful seminar hosted by MaxCyte and Touchlight.

Tuesday 16th April 2024
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

In-Person Event
Sycamore House
Leyden Road
Gunnels Wood Road
Stevenage
SG1 2BP

About the seminar

Join us on Tuesday 16^th April for an in-person seminar hosted at the Catapult’s Sycamore House where we will discuss high efficiency non-viral cell engineering with MaxCyte electroporation and Touchlight’s MegaBulb DNA (mbDNA^TM), their novel circular single-stranded CRISPR knock-in template.

In this seminar you will find out how to rapidly drive your cell and gene therapy developmental efforts forward from research through to the clinic and commercialisation, safely and cost-effectively by leveraging MaxCyte’s flow electroporation^® technology and Touchlight’s enzymatically manufactured DNA vectors.

Genome engineering of haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) and T cells holds great promise for the treatment of diseases including cancer and genetic disorders. However, viral cell engineering has several limitations, such as high cost, lengthy manufacturing processes and the risk associated with viral integration into the host genome. Therefore, a non-viral genome editing approach has been gaining traction from basic to clinical research. MaxCyte’s clinical-scale flow electroporation efficiently delivers genome editing tools in the form of DNA, mRNA, RNP, and more recently Touchlight’s mbDNA^TM, into a wide variety of cells. mbDNA is a circular long single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), which shows low cellular toxicity and achieves high gene-length knock-in efficiencies, outperforming other non-viral technologies and rivalling viruses. mbDNA’s enzymatic manufacture, which leverages Touchlight’s established technologies and capabilities, addresses a major bottleneck for non-viral gene therapy development by facilitating access to long ssDNA as the optimal vectors for CRIPSR gene insertions. In this seminar, we will discuss high editing efficiency using MaxCyte electroporation to engineer clinically relevant cells with transposon-transposase or CRISPR-Cas9 platforms for knock-out or knock-in applications, while maintaining high cell viability.

Agenda:

12:00 – 12:30 pm: High efficiency cell engineering with the MaxCyte electroporation platform from concept to clinic, presented by Marianna Romito
12:30 – 1:00 pm: Non-viral cell engineering platform with MegaBulb DNA (mbDNA^TM) - a novel circular single-stranded CRISPR knock-in template, presented by Linda Meggiolaro
1:00 – 2:00 pm: Tour of the Catapult GMP training facility, coordinated by Ian Parnham

Please register to attend. Lunch will be provided for all attendees.

Speakers

Linda Meggiolaro, PhD

Cell and Molecular Scientist
Touchlight Genetics

Dr Linda Meggiolaro joined the Research department at Touchlight Genetics as a cell and molecular scientist in September 2022. Her work focuses on the implementation and optimisation of a cell-based platform for the study and development of Touchlight’s novel platforms, such as mbDNA^TM a novel circular single-stranded CRISPR knock-in template. Previously, Linda worked as a cell culture scientist at Aglaris ltd, where she solidified her skills in primary cell culture strategies, automation, and gene editing. She earned her PhD in Regenerative Medicine from the University of Manchester, UK, and her project focused on the implementation of stem cell-endothelium interactions for cell therapies. She graduated from the University of Trento, IT, with an MSc in Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology and a BSc in Biomolecular Sciences and Technology.

Marianna Romito, PhD

Senior Field Application Scientist and Cell & Gene Therapy Specialist
MaxCyte, Inc.

Marianna is Field Application Scientist and Cell Therapy Specialist for Europe at MaxCyte, where she supports the scientific activity of customers, collaborators, and prospects. She joined the company in December 2019, after finishing her post-doc on CRISPR-Cas9 and AAV6 HDR-mediated gene correction of IL7RA-deficient hematopoietic stem cells at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Her Ph.D. work was focused on the pre-clinical development of HIV-resistant genome-edited T cells using TALEN nucleases at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. Marianna holds two patents on genome and epigenome editing of clinically relevant cells and several publications in high-impact factor journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Nucleic Acids Research, and Nature Communication.

Debra L. Barberini, PhD

Sales Manager, UK/Ireland
MaxCyte, Inc.

Debra is the UK and Ireland Sales Manager for MaxCyte supporting customers and partners across both cell and gene therapy and bioprocessing fields. Debra received her PhD from Cardiff University studying the role of the cardiac ryanodine receptor in CPVT and sudden cardiac death. Since completing her PhD in 2009, Debra has worked at various companies including Miltenyi Biotec, GE Healthcare Lifesciences and Cytiva, before moving to MaxCyte, offering dedicated support and advice to their customer base. Please connect with her should a discussion be useful.