Over the last two decades advances in the understanding of disease at a cellular and molecular level has led to innovative therapies that are based on the administration of cells which have been modified outside of the body. Ex vivo cell therapy is in essence gene therapy delivered by transfer of therapeutic genes to cells in culture, which are then given to the patient to treat fatal infections such as AIDS, or other conditions such as cancer or genetic diseases. These manipulations include the purification and culture of therapeutic cell subtypes, as well as elimination of cells which cause disease (cancer cells or immune cells reacting to the body itself). Gene therapy can be delivered by transfer of therapeutic genes to cells in culture, which are then given to the patient to treat fatal infections such as AIDS, cancer or genetic diseases. For small-scale laboratory methods to become clinically applicable processes, these new therapies require efficient technologies for cell separation, cell production in culture and gene transfer. This book integrates the recent advances in biological and clinical research with developments in cell-based technologies to provide a comprehensive review for clinicians, researchers, biotechnologists and biomedical engineers working in this rapidly developing area. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry requires a broad perspective for development of future technologies, and this text will provide then with an excellent overview of this rapidly evolving field.

Author Biography

Klaus Schindhelm received his PhD in chemical engineering in 1978 at the University of New South Wales with a dissertation on patient hemodialysis interactions. The main focus of his research has been the manipulation of body fluids for extra-corporeal therapies ranging from hemodialysis to therapeutic immunoadsorption systems. This work has involved mass transfer studies, kinetic modeling and the investigation of blood material interactions. His interest in cellular therapy has evolved from a background in therapeutic solute manipulation, and is currently developing affinity membrane systems for the preparation of therapeutic cell subsets. Professor Schindhelm is a former chairman of the College of Biomedical Engineers in Australia and is currently the Head of the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales. Dr. Robert Nordon graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, in 1986, and following three years of clinical training commenced his research career at the Centre for Biomedical Engineering, UNSW. Since receiving his PhD in 1994, his central research interest has been the development of biomedical devices for hematopoietic stem cell selection and expansion. The British Columbia Cancer Agency, Canada, awarded him a Physician/Scientist training fellowship in 1996 to study at the Terry Fox Laboratory, Vancouver, where he established flow cytometric techniques for tracking the divisional recruitment of quiescent stem cells by hematopoietic growth factors. He is currently an Australian Research Council postdoctoral research fellow at the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW and is working with the Australian Children's Cancer Research Institute to develop novel systems for cord blood stem cell enrichment and expansion.