A Research-Integrated Curriculum on CAR-T Cell Therapy

Cell-based cancer immunotherapies such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy are an established and evolving class of cancer treatment, yet few cancer education curricula give students hands-on experience with the laboratory methods that underlie them. To address this gap, we developed and implemented a novel, small-enrollment curriculum designed to teach upper-level undergraduate and graduate students about immunotherapies and CAR-T cell technology by paralleling a typical bench-scale development process. Students isolated T cells from porcine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) via immunomagnetic selection, followed by flow cytometry to assess purity, viability, and yield. Students then used pre-engineered B7H3 CAR-T cells to perform co-culture assays with U87 glioblastoma cells to evaluate tumor cell killing efficacy. Cytotoxicity was qualitatively evaluated using immunofluorescence microscopy, while IFN-γ release was quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Student performance was evaluated through electronic laboratory notebooks, discussion questions, a capstone project, and student-generated data. Our results demonstrate students' high academic performance across assignments and the successful execution of complex laboratory workflows. Collectively, these findings establish the feasibility and implementation of a research-integrated curriculum providing foundational exposure to immuno-oncology research tools and CAR-T cell production techniques.