
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

Malaghan scientists awarded Research for Life grants
15 October 2025

New funding supports cutting-edge research into immune cell metabolism
13 October 2025

Cancer, measles and allergic disease research funded in latest HRC grants round
19 August 2025

Cancer Research Trust grant to improve CAR T-cell therapy
12 February 2025

CAR T-cell therapy, the battle of the blood cells
26 September 2024

Five areas of research advancing CAR T-cell therapy
11 September 2024