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
Homegrown Hope - Stuff's series on CAR T-cell therapy
11 February 2026
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