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
Research highlights
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
In Focus: From the lab to the clinic in New Zealand’s first CAR T-cell therapy clinical trial
8 March 2023
Blood Cancer Awareness Month 2022: harnessing the power of the immune system to tackle blood cancers
29 September 2022