UMass Chan Medical School, Caring Cross and Trenchant BioSystems form Collaborative Research and Development Alliance to treat Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) patients with gene-edited HSCs utilizing new cell processing technologies
Alliance focused on providing affordable, autologous cell and gene therapies (CGT) manufactured at Place-of-Care
Worcester, MA, Gaithersburg, MD, San Diego, CA, March 30, 2026
The Department of Genetic & Cellular Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School, the academic department focused on advancing gene and cell therapies to treat rare inherited diseases, Caring Cross, which focuses on equal access to advanced medicines for all patients in need, and Trenchant BioSystems, the CGT manufacturing platform developer for gene-modified cells, today announce a collaborative research alliance for the development and manufacture of an accessible and commercially viable hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) manufacturing platform for diseases like SCD.
The alliance combines Trenchant BioSystems’ disruptive technology for automating patient-specific CGT processes, UMass Chan’s expertise on blood stem cell processes and Caring Cross’s expertise in increasing patient access.
The collaboration will develop a gene-modified stem cell manufacturing process with Trenchant BioSystems’ AutoCell automated CGT manufacturing platform that is designed to be scalable and operate at place-of-care in an ISO class 7 environment, to increase efficiencies and decrease costs.
A key reason Trenchant BioSystems’ automated CGT manufacturing platform was selected is its use of a microbubble separation approach as an alternative to immunomagnetic bead-based separation for stem cell gene therapies. In addition, AutoCell has a small footprint and therefore significantly fewer facility requirements, important factors for lowering the cost of these therapies.
In the first phase of the collaboration, UMass Chan researchers will work with Trenchant BioSystems to start evaluating blood products to separate stem cells and build the automated gene transfer genetic engineering platform with lentiviral vectors from Caring Cross. In the next post-validation phase, Caring Cross will evaluate the system and process for simplicity and cost before offering it as a potential alternative to its collaborators worldwide. UMass Chan and Caring Cross will conduct IND-enabling preclinical studies to launch a Phase I/II clinical trial of autologous gene-modified HSCs for patients with SCD or beta-thalassemia.
The alliance currently plans to hold an INTERACT meeting with the US FDA in Q1 2027 and launch the clinical trial at the start of the second half of 2027.
Jennifer E. Adair, PhD, Vice Chair and Professor of Genetic & Cellular Medicine and Director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center at UMass Chan Medical School, said, “Disruptive technologies such as the AutoCell platform that empower us to tap into the immense unexplored runway between current state of the art ex vivo and in vivo blood cell gene therapies stand to significantly expand and improve access to these transformative medicines.”
“Caring Cross is dedicated to ensuring the global affordability of advanced therapies, and a key driver for this is the adoption of cell processing platforms that effectively lower barriers to patient care,” said Dr. Boro Dropulic, Executive Director of Caring Cross. “The Trenchant AutoCell platform has the potential to lower cost, increase scalability, and expand the accessibility of place-of-care manufacturing.”
“Current cell and gene therapy manufacturing practices are too time consuming and costly to actually deliver CGT therapies to large-scale patient populations. Trenchant BioSystems has now released internal and independent data that confirms that its AutoCell platform is integral to the solution to these challenges,” said Jon Ellis, CEO, Trenchant BioSystems. “This alliance will allow Trenchant to contribute to the first autologous CGT clinical treatment of SCD patients that is simple, fast, automated, and affordable, thus scalable globally.”
About UMass Chan Medical School
UMass Chan Medical School, one of five campuses of the University of Massachusetts system, comprises the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School, MassBiologics, and a thriving Nobel-Prize-winning biomedical research enterprise. UMass Chan is advancing together to improve the health and wellness of our diverse communities throughout Massachusetts and across the world by leading and innovating in education, research, health care delivery and public service. It is ranked among the best medical schools in the nation for primary care education and biomedical research by U.S. News & World Report. Learn more at www.umassmed.edu.
About Caring Cross
Caring Cross is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to accelerating the development of and ensuring global access to advanced therapies. To achieve its mission, Caring Cross develops technologies and therapeutic candidates that improve the accessibility and affordability of advanced medicines like CAR-T therapy and stem cell gene therapy. Lentiviral vectors used to manufacture Caring Cross advanced therapy medicinal products are manufactured by Vector BioMed, a for-profit contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in rapid manufacturing solutions to provide the industry with affordable, high-quality GMP lentiviral vectors. For more information on Caring Cross, visit https://caringcross.org.
About Trenchant BioSystems
Trenchant BioSystems is a disruptive technology firm reimagining cell and gene therapy manufacturing to be scalable, efficient, rapid and affordable through the development of
truly automated, end to end manufacturing platforms. Trenchant has developed technology that will reduce the production times for CAR-Ts to 2.5 days. Its manufacturing platform will also reduce CAR-T manufacturing cost significantly. Trenchant was launched in 2022, and is based in San Diego, CA, US. It was founded by chairman and CTO Philip Coelho, CEO Jon Ellis, and Bill Busa, PhD. To discover more about Trenchant, visit https://www.trenchantbio.com.
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Neil Hunter
Hunter PR
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