USC-led research will combine high-dimensional flow cytometry with Nanovial-based Cell-Cell-seq to study how individual CAR T cells respond when they encounter their targets
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESS Newswire / October 14, 2026 / Partillion Bioscience today announced that its Nanovial technology will be used in a USC-led research project supported by a $2.5 million California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Discovery Award. The project is led by Mohamed Abou-el-Enein, M.D., Ph.D., of the USC Keck School of Medicine.
CAR T therapies have transformed treatment for several blood cancers and are increasingly being investigated for autoimmune disease. Yet therapeutic responses can vary, and standard measurements do not always capture the functional differences between individual CAR T cells. By combining high-dimensional flow cytometry with Nanovial-based Cell-Cell-seq, the researchers aim to understand why some CAR T interactions produce effective responses while others fail.
"This project gives us the opportunity to go one level deeper, to the individual CAR T cell and the moment it encounters its target," said Mohamed Abou-el-Enein, M.D., Ph.D. "By bringing these different layers of information together, we aim to build a CAR T-cell atlas that could provide new insights into potency, failure and persistence, and inform the development of more consistent and durable cell therapies."
The project builds on prior Cell-Cell-seq research using Nanovials to study defined interactions between immune and tumor cells and connect those interactions with changes in gene expression. The CIRM-funded study will extend this approach to patient-derived samples through the Community Care Center of Excellence at Loma Linda University.
"We see cell-cell interactions as an important next frontier for functional cell analysis because they capture biology that is difficult to understand by studying cells in isolation," said Joseph de Rutte, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Partillion Bioscience. "Our goal is to make it possible to study these interactions at scale and ultimately make them a routine part of therapeutic development. This work shows how Nanovials can help bring that type of functional information into increasingly complex therapeutic research.
About Partillion Bioscience
Partillion Bioscience is pioneering a functional cell analysis platform built on its award-winning Nanovial technology. The company enables pharmaceutical and biotech partners to accelerate therapeutic development by screening millions of live cells in parallel, capturing critical functional outputs such as secretion, signaling, and viability.
Partillion's technology has been featured in Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, PNAS, Science Advances, and ACS Nano, and recognized with the 2020 SLAS Innovation Award, 2022 SLAS New Product Award, and 2025 CYTO Innovation & Technology Showcase Award.
Learn more at www.partillion.com or contact info@partillion.com.
SOURCE: Partillion Bioscience
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/biotechnology/partillion-nanovials-to-support-2.5m-cirm-funded-study-of-car-t-cell-potency-1236463
