In this facility, research teams are making new biological agents for cell-based therapies and vaccines that target dysfunctional immune systems, heart disease and cancer. Having immediate access to this strictly controlled environment ensures that quality is built into each step of the cell design and manufacturing process. This guarantees that products developed in the lab are safe, pure and effective for clinical testing.

Building this lab will help move preclinical findings—such as the landmark discovery by Dr. Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker of how to generate stem cells in the lab, and coax them into becoming mature T cells, toward rebuilding damaged immune systems—faster and more efficiently to the clinic.

Sunnybrook Research Institute is at the forefront of inventing methods and technologies to generate new cell types from stem cells or other stem-cell-like cells, and to re-educate cells. With this facility, we are taking it up a significant notch; our biological scientists, who are developing preclinical models, are working with clinicians-scientists, who can test the efficacy of these models in patients. Similarly, imaging scientists who have developed ways to track and evaluate the efficacy of these cells in preclinical models are interacting with clinician-scientists to track and evaluate the efficacy of these cell therapies in patients. In each case, the cGMP lab is an essential step in the translational research process.