BUFFALO, N.Y. — State taxpayer supported efforts have been working to set up a new cell and gene therapy hub program at Roswell Park.
On Monday, they officially cut the ribbon on the new facility with this major push in medical technology.
This academic gene therapy operation will benefit cancer patients with the support of fundraising events such as the 11 Day Power Play hockey event and the Ride for Roswell. Now, they have put it all together and opened the doors.
Politicians such as Governor Hochul took center stage for this event and emphasized that Albany has put money into a new effort to develop lifesaving therapies to enhance cancer treatment. She said the $98 million center is supported by $30 million from the state.
The research capacity will actually be expanded as they increase from 6 to 20 specialized clean rooms or sterile environments, where doctors and technicians can work with the extracted T-cells from a patient's immune system and then genetically modify them to eventually transplant back into the patient and boost the cancer fighting elements of the human body. That could eventually mean more scientists and technicians.
Dr. Yeong "Christopher" Choi, a senior VP at Roswell, said "We're ramping up to hire 61 new employees to operate the facility. But as we get new therapies and as we develop new technologies, that number can rapidly increase."
Christopher Vogelsang, who we've featured before on WGRZ, recovered from lymphoma, a blood cancer. He made this point to reporters with the benefits of what is known as CAR-T therapy use genetic principles: "It's just gratifying for our city to know that this is going on here as a world leader in cellular therapy," Vogelsang said.
And he feels the research going on at the Roswell Park facility, in part with private investment from medical firms, could go much further.
"They will now evolve into treating patients with not just the blood cancers but hard cell cancers, the tumors and what not that are, that they think they can do the research to figure out," Vogelsang said.
Roswell officials also hope that other private bio-technology firms might collaborate and use their expanded clean room labs to test out their own cancer treatment programs perhaps providing more revenue for the state supported Roswell Park facility.
