The University of California Los Angeles opened the Center for Advanced Biotherapies, a 14,000-square-foot manufacturing facility designed to nearly double its capacity to produce cell and gene therapies for clinical trial patients, according to a May 27 announcement.
The new center is located within UCLA’s Center for Health Sciences and was built with support from the National Institutes of Health, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and private donors. The facility can manufacture up to 150 cell and gene therapy products per year—almost twice as many as its predecessor—and supports a broader range of personalized treatments such as cancer vaccines and stem cell gene therapies. The proximity of the center to UCLA hospitals allows researchers to deliver therapies directly from manufacturing suites to patients in early phase clinical trials on the same day.
Funding included a $7.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, $2 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and support from Dr. Eric Esrailian. The center is jointly supported by several UCLA entities including the David Geffen School of Medicine and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “UCLA has long been a national leader in cell and gene therapy research,” said Dr. Stephen Smale, vice dean for research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “The Center for Advanced Biotherapies gives our scientists and physician-scientists the infrastructure to bring transformative therapies from bench to bedside faster, and for more patients than ever before.”
Dr. Dawn Ward serves as medical director leading a staff of 19 across manufacturing, quality assurance, and quality control roles. Ward said, “I’m excited about the opportunity to support many more patients who need these cutting-edge therapies… This facility will allow us to support scientists at UCLA and across the country and hopefully help move these products all the way to the patients who need them.”
The center features ten cleanrooms with seven manufacturing suites capable of running multiple therapies simultaneously; two bioengineering rooms equipped with large-scale equipment; a dedicated suite for viral vector manufacturing; and an on-site quality control laboratory supporting comprehensive product testing.
Dr. Robert Prins has already used CAB’s resources in his trial producing personalized dendritic cell vaccines targeting relapsed glioblastoma brain tumors: “The CAB doesn’t just do one thing,” Prins said. “It does dendritic cell vaccines for brain tumor patients, engineered T cells for melanoma and sarcoma patients, bispecific CAR-T cells for lymphoma patients and gene therapy for SCID patients… that’s what distinguishes it.”
The University of California Los Angeles operates within a larger university system on its 419-acre campus supporting academic excellence across diverse disciplines—including Nobel laureates—while fostering inclusive environments through research programs, according to its official website.
