Ashley Krull, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Cell Therapy Manufacturing and Engineering
James Cancer Hospital Cellular Therapy Laboratory
Assistant Professor, Hematology
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio, United States
As 2024 draws to a close, the Editorial Board of the Telegraft is once again looking back and marveling at the amazing events and people we were honored to feature in this newsletter. Every year, we gather metrics on the top articles, look at what worked and what didn’t, and look ahead to the coming year. In this final editorial for 2024, we would like to review the top articles of the year and remind our readers of the valuable content that was produced by ISCT members and is archived on the ISCT website under the Telegraft Hub.
Not to toot our own horn, but the top three articles in terms of readership, were all “From the Editors” pieces. Clearly 2024 was a year for career trajectory ruminations, as the most-read article from this year was “To PhD or Not to PhD” by Dr. Joacquim Vives, PhD. The next two articles covered nagging challenges and new(ish) developments in the field of cell therapy: “Guiding Potency Assurance in Cell Therapy from All Angles,” by Dr. Wouter Van’t Hof, and “Re-Introducing CAR-MSCs,” by this author.
Our community also was incredibly proud to feature four outstanding ISCT members in our “Member Spotlight” series. Three of these members – Dr. Nisa Renault, Caroline Rulleau Hared, and Kah Min Yap – are relative newcomers to the society but took home top abstract awards at the Annual Meeting and ANZ Regional Meeting, respectively. The future is certainly bright for Early Stage Professionals in ISCT! We also featured Dr. Erja Kerkela, PhD, from the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, who was incredibly generous with her insights on kind collaboration in CGT. In May, we tried something new for this piece and invited several ISCT members from The Ohio State University Cellular Therapy Laboratory – all Annual Meeting newbies and veterans – to share their experiences and tips on navigating the largest meeting of the year. If you’d like to see more spotlights like this or you have someone to nominate for a Member Spotlight, please let us know!
The Telegraft also featured pieces on cutting-edge science in the “Under the Microscope” series. To kick off the year, Dr. Vincenzo Di Cerbo, PhD, took us under the cryoTEM microscope to examine recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors. Then, a group of authors from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City brought us a deep dive into allospecific regulatory T cells for in vivo tolerance induction. CAR-MSCs continued to fascinate readership in July thanks to a piece by some of the leading voices working with this cell type, Dr. Saad Kenderian and Olivia Sirpilla from the Mayo Clinic. The year ended with two features examining exciting new developments in cell therapy: human pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelial cells and in vitro produced red blood cells. We thank all of these researchers for sharing their knowledge and excitement with us.
In 2024, the Telegraft was privileged to share touching tributes to two giants in our field. Dr. Connie Eaves, PhD, was a pioneering researcher in stem cell biology and cancer treatment and a fierce advocate for women in STEM. She was a founding member of ISCT and helped establish the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance. In January of 2024, we lost Dr. Darwin Prockop, MD, PhD, an extraordinary mentor and scientist, and the namesake of the newly established Dr. Darwin J. Prockop Early Stage Professional Scholarship Fund and the Darwin J. Prockop Mentoring Award. He was a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences and helped promote the field of MSC research. ISCT as a society was indelibly shaped by these two legends in our field, and we share our condolences to the many friends and family they left behind.
As always, the Telegraft featured the work of our many ISCT committees and partners, such as FACT and JACIE. In the recurring Snapshot pieces, members of the Laboratory Practices Committee shared best practices around topics such as analytical testing validation. We also had members graciously cover important ISCT and FDA-sponsored webinars and news items. Notably, ISCT covered a landmark Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the United States that will help protect patients from unregulated cell therapy products – a leading mission of this society.
2024 was one for the history books, but we have no doubt 2025 will bring even more exciting news, research, and discoveries from our outstanding ISCT members. And your Telegraft Editorial Board will be here to share it all!