Current translational and clinical practices in hematopoietic cell and gene therapy

Clinical trials over the last 15 years have demonstrated that cell and gene therapies for cancer, monogenic and infectious disease are feasible and can lead to long-term benefit for patients. However, these trials have been limited to proof-of-principle and were conducted on modest numbers of patients or over long periods of time. In order for these studies to move towards standard practice and commercialization, scalable technologies for the isolation, ex vivo manipulation and delivery of these cells to patients must be developed. Additionally, regulatory strategies and clinical protocols for the collection, creation and delivery of cell products must be generated. In this article we review recent progress in hematopoietic cell and gene therapy, describe some of the current issues facing the field and discuss clinical, technical and regulatory approaches used to navigate the road to product development.