# Improving Yield of Cellular Therapeutics Using Unique Dense Magnetic Microparticles

> **NIH NIH R43** · RAVEN BIOMATERIALS LLC · 2022 · $400,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Cell therapies, including Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and T cell receptor
(TCR), have demonstrated promising results for treating hematological cancers. The manufacturing of these
cell therapies begins by collecting and enriching an adequate number of desired critical cells from the blood of
patients or donors. Raven Biomaterials plans to demonstrate a significant increase in speed and efficiency
and a reduction in cost over current cell separation methodologies used to enrich the desired critical cells in
cell therapy starting material . Our preliminary data has shown a rapid, efficient [high yield, high purity], and
cost-effective cell separation and enrichment methodology to greatly improve cell therapy starting material
quality. Our cell separation methodology enables improved antibody binding, particle dispersion and magnetic
separation leveraging the differences in unique physical properties our immunomagnetic particles provides:
surface coat for binding, 4x higher density and 20-50x higher magnetic susceptibility than current magnetic
bead separation particles. In preliminary studies we have demonstrated high recovery > 97% of desired cells
while rapidly [< 5 minutes] depleting > 99% of unwanted cells [CD4+, CD8+, and CD15+] in small 2-10 ml
specimen volumes using simple magnetics. According to product literature, current competitive cell
separation products only recover 30-70% of the desired cells, require specialized magnetic instruments, and
expose the desired cells to stress that can lower cell functionality. In this proposal, we aim to expand the types
of magnetic particle / antibody combinations to address the needs of cell therapy manufacturers, and to
optimize our cell separation and enrichment performance in larger leukapheresis specimen volumes (apheresis
bags). The goal of this Phase I project is to consistently achieve a >98% recovery of a selected cell
population with a depletion of >99% of unwanted cells from leukapheresis samples for at least 3 cell types. In
Phase II we will further expand our improved cell separation and enrichment with additional magnetic particle /
antibody combinations for therapeutic cell types, and we will develop simple equipment to automate the cell
enrichment process.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10484573
- **Project number:** 1R43CA265589-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** RAVEN BIOMATERIALS LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Thomas Russell
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $400,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-05-09 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10484573

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10484573, Improving Yield of Cellular Therapeutics Using Unique Dense Magnetic Microparticles (1R43CA265589-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-16 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10484573. Licensed CC0.

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