Taking the Final Leap: CARAT Meeting in Bergisch Gladbach

It seems like yesterday that the CARAT partners met for the first time at their kick-off meeting in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, in 2016. Now, almost four years later on 4-5 November 2019, the consortium returned to the same place to conclude the project. The meeting was hosted by the coordinator Miltenyi in the impressive Kardinal Schulte Haus built in the roaring 1920ies.

Although the meeting might not have been as “roaring”, discussions among the partners were rather lively and animated. While the partners presented their latest work in the individual work packages, a particular focus was put on detecting the key results of the project and defining strategies to exploit them further after the end of CARAT. The CARAT team closely cooperates to put all pieces together and paint the big picture of how their work can help to make CAR T cell manufacturing safer and more cost-effective.

The first day was rounded off with a visit to Miltenyi’s premises and a glance at their CAR T cell manufacturing site. Moreover, the last two months of the project and the final reporting were thoroughly planned. There is still a lot of work ahead but the consortium is enthusiastic to bring this project to a successful end.