Fig. 4. Future cell therapy discovery and manufacturing processes.

a Single-cell functional profiling technologies can move beyond conventional genotype and surface marker-based analysis. Improved cell therapies will require the direct characterization of cellular function. Unlike conventional sorting systems that rely only on surface marker information, function-based sorting approaches (including those based on secreted products and interactions with other cells or environmental cues) can be helpful in preparing optimal starting cell populations for manufacturing and assessing and purifying cells to improve product quality. b Future cell therapies may use functional selection to (1) discover the optimal CAR, TCR or other key engineered functionality and (2) purify the heterogeneous populations of transduced cells for a final high potency formulation after engineering. These selected populations are characterized by functionality and expected to show higher therapeutic performance than conventional cell therapies. For simplicity, a schematic diagram focusing on CAR-T-cell therapies is shown.