Genomic Engineering for Universal or Off-the-Shelf Cancer Immunotherapies

The advent of immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, yet major challenges remain in making these therapies broadly accessible, affordable, and effective across diverse patient populations. A key limitation of current cell-based immunotherapies, such as CAR-T cell treatments, is their reliance on patient-specific (autologous) products, which involve complex and time-consuming manufacturing processes.

Recent advances in genomic engineering, including CRISPR/Cas and other genome editing technologies, hold the promise to overcome these barriers by enabling the development of universal or “off-the-shelf” cellular therapies. By precisely editing immune cells to remove alloreactive elements, confer resistance to immunosuppressive environments, and improve anti-tumor specificity, genomic engineering paves the way for therapies that are readily available, scalable, and potentially more efficacious.

This Research Topic aims to bring together pioneering research and reviews in the rapidly evolving field of universal cancer immunotherapies. We invite submissions exploring novel genome editing strategies, advances in allogeneic cell therapies, innovative vectors and delivery platforms, translational studies, safety and efficacy profiles, and discussion of regulatory and ethical considerations.

Key themes include, but are not limited to:

Genome editing approaches to create universal cell therapies (CAR-T, CAR-NK, TCR-T cells, etc.)

Strategies to reduce graft-versus-host and host-versus-graft responses

Overcoming antigen escape and improving tumor specificity through engineering

Development of immune-evasive and tumor-homing cell products

Safety, efficacy, and scalability of off-the-shelf platforms

Case studies and clinical trial reports of universal immunotherapies

Manufacturing, regulatory, and ethical aspects of engineered cellular immunotherapies

We encourage original research articles, reviews, perspectives, and commentaries that advance our understanding and drive innovation toward next-generation, universally accessible cancer immunotherapies.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Universal CAR-T cells, Genome editing, Allogeneic immunotherapy, CRISPR/Cas9, Off-the-shelf cell therapy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.