The disclosure relates to methods of preparation of fetal nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) from biological samples for diagnostic testing.

The invention relates to a method for imaging a body fluid sample for visual measurements relating to leukocytes, which comprises: —obtaining a measured concentration (WIC) of leukocytes in the sample; —diluting (330) a test solution obtained from the sample, with a dilution ratio (D) determined in accordance with the measured concentration of leukocytes in the sample, so as to obtain an optimum concentration of leukocytes; —rotating (400) the optical chamber containing the test solution by a centrifugation unit, so as to align the leukocytes of the test solution on an optical plane, wherein the optimum concentration of leukocytes for the test solution corresponds to a target surface density of between 20 and 1000 leukocytes per square millimetre on the optical plane; and —imaging (500) the test solution.

This invention addresses accurately and rapidly diagnosing diseases, disorders, or conditions characterized by aberrant red blood cell aggregation, including infections caused by RNA viruses, particularly those caused by positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses, known to cause human disease. Examples of such viruses include various betacoronaviruses, including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, that later of which causes COVID-19, a potentially fatal illness.

The present invention is directed to improved methods of preparing cells and compositions for therapeutic uses.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to systems, devices, and methods for the selective collection of cells from a heterogeneous cell population, including highly multiplexed detection of secreted and intracellular macromolecules and the targeted laser-assisted ablation of cells identified to be positive or negative for a given biomarker or phenotype. The resulting non-ablated cells can be collected individually or pooled to form a homogenous cell population for further processing including safe and efficacious cellular therapies.

The invention provides methods of depleting CD5+ cells in human patients undergoing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immunotherapy in order to promote acceptance of CAR expressing immune cells. Anti-CD5 antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) are administered as a conditioning regimen to a human patient receiving autologous or allogeneic CAR expressing immune cells such that the CAR expressing immune cells are accepted by the human patient. Compositions and methods of the invention can be used in combination with CAR therapy to treat a variety of pathologies, including autoimmune diseases and cancer.

Systems and methods for classifying T cells by activation state are disclosed. The system includes a cell analysis pathway, a time-resolved autofluorescence decay spectrometer, a processor, and a non-transitory computer-readable memory. The memory is accessible to the processor and has stored thereon instructions. The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: a) receive the time-resolved autofluorescence decay signal; b) compute at least a first phasor coordinate at a first frequency and a second phasor coordinate at a second frequency from the time-resolved autofluorescence decay signal, wherein the first and second frequency are different; and c) compute an activation prediction for the T cell using at least the first phasor coordinate and the second phasor coordinate.

We disclose various improvements for compositions of genetically-modified T cells which include a suicide switch. For instance, the composition may comprise CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, wherein the ratio of CD4+ T cells to CD8+ T cells is less than 2.

The invention provides methods of making immune effector cells (e.g., T cells, NK cells) that can be engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), and compositions and reaction mixtures comprising the same.

A method of generating an isolated population of non graft versus host disease (GvHD) inducing cells comprising a central memory T-lymphocyte (Tcm) phenotype, the cells being tolerance inducing cells and/or endowed with anti-disease activity, and capable of homing to the lymph nodes following transplantation is disclosed. The method comprising: (a) providing a population of at least 70% memory T cells; (b) contacting the population of memory T cells with an antigen or antigens so as to allow enrichment of antigen reactive cells; and (c) culturing the cells resulting from step (b) in the presence of cytokines so as to allow proliferation of cells comprising the Tcm phenotype. Cells generated by the method, pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treatment are also disclosed.