Dr Rachel Perret
Team Leader - Perret Laboratory
Designing better, safer CAR T-cell therapies for cancer and other diseases.
The Perret Research Team spearheads the research arm of the Malaghan Institute’s CAR T-cell programme. Working alongside the ENABLE clinical trial, the team seeks to better understand the internal mechanisms behind CAR T-cell technology to make the therapy even safer and more effective. This includes investigating a CAR T-cell safety switch, dual-specificity CAR T-cells targeting multiple myeloma, and new quality control methods for the cellular and genomic analysis of CAR T-cell products.
The team is developing new approaches to improve CAR T-cell fitness and to broaden the therapy’s application to a wider range of disease types, including solid tumours. In addition, they are working on incorporating mātauranga and tikanga Māori into research and clinical practices
Research areas
- CAR T-cell therapy
- Development of new CAR T-cell constructs
- Functional and genetic characterisation of CAR T-cells
Research projects
- Characterisation of transgene number and sites of CAR T-cells
- Development of CAR T-cell safety switches
Annie Bai
Research Officer
Brigitta Mester
R&D Manager
Danielle Sword
PhD Student
Lauren Goodman
Research Officer
Paul Owaci
PhD Student
Puja Paudel
Senior Research Officer
Rosemary Jackson
PhD Student
Research highlights
Marsden funding to drive discovery and innovation in cancer, allergy and infectious disease research
5 November 2025
Developing next generation CAR T-cell therapies for more equitable cancer care
30 October 2025
Faster CARs: overcoming cellular exhaustion to enhance cancer immunotherapies
29 October 2025
Malaghan CAR T programme wins KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Award
23 October 2025
Malaghan scientists awarded Research for Life grants
15 October 2025
New funding supports cutting-edge research into immune cell metabolism
13 October 2025