Perret Lab

Rachel P 40316 CBM4702

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