As the many challenges facing cell therapies are being addressed, the CAR T field continues to evolve beyond its original design of T cells engineered to target hematological malignancies. During the 32nd Annual Congress of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT), held in Seville Oct. 7-10, several studies showed how this technology is being redefined as programmable and adaptable immune cells with expanded functional versatility.

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “is a story full of holes, but with enormous capacity to absorb all your attention,” Heiner Linke told reporters. “And other things.” Linke is Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. On Oct. 8, 2025, the committee announced that it has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks” (MOFs).

Activation of cannabinoid receptors in the peripheral nervous system may help treat inflammatory and gastrointestinal disorders as well as pain, and several full agonists have been reported but they present safety concerns. Partial agonists, such as those that activate receptors to 20%-50% of full activity, may be safer, yet so far such agonists have emerged serendipitously.

Pharma companies are collaborating to boost the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery by allowing access to proprietary structural data to train a large language model. Each of the partners is contributing data from several thousand experimentally determined protein:ligand interactions, creating one of the most diverse datasets and the richest chemistry assembled to date for model training.

Generating gametes from nonreproductive tissues could help overcome infertility. Previous studies have successfully transformed stem cells into viable oocytes through cellular reprogramming. Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) developed a method to derive them from skin cells via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), unlocking a mechanism that blends mitosis and meiosis. Now, the researchers have taken another step forward by generating fertilizable eggs from human skin cells.

Two independent studies applied CRISPR-based genetic editing – one to treat leukemia and the other to target myeloma – to overcome the challenges faced by CAR T cells, such as exhaustion, impaired activation and fratricide, a phenomenon in which they attack each other.

Antibodies that bind to sugars on the surface of cancer cells, rather than to proteins, have not yielded satisfactory results so far due to their low binding affinity. However, scientists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have developed therapeutic proteins that recognize so-called tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) using lectins with a robust structure resembling velcro. This design is highly specific and eliminates only tumor cells, regardless of cancer type, while sparing healthy tissues.