image: Prof. Ayal Hendel, Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University
Credit: Courtesy Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University has joined a major new €8 million European initiative aimed at revolutionizing how personalized cancer treatments like CAR-T cell therapy are delivered in hospitals. Funded by the EU-backed Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), the five-year project—called EASYGEN (Easy workflow integration for gene therapy)—will develop a fully automated system that allows hospitals to manufacture CAR-T therapies on-site in just 24 hours instead of weeks.
CAR-T cell therapy is a cutting-edge treatment that modifies a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. But right now, it’s only available to a small number of patients because producing it is slow, expensive, and centralized in a few specialized labs. The EASYGEN project aims to decentralize this process—bringing advanced gene therapy closer to where patients are treated.
Bar-Ilan at the Forefront of Genome Editing Safety
A key contributor to the project is the lab of Prof. Ayal Hendel, a leader in genome engineering at Bar-Ilan University’s Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences. Prof. Hendel’s team will focus on evaluating the precision and safety of CRISPR-based gene editing, a core part of the therapy. Using cutting-edge methods, the lab will conduct detailed analyses to detect potential off-target effects—ensuring that the gene editing used in CAR-T therapies is both effective and safe.
“Our goal is to make sure the powerful gene editing tools used in this therapy are as accurate as possible,” said Prof. Hendel. “By improving the safety profile, we’re helping pave the way for hospitals around the world to offer these treatments directly and confidently to patients.”
A Europe-Wide Collaboration Led by Fresenius
The project is coordinated by global healthcare company Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA and brings together 18 partners from 8 countries, including leading hospitals, research institutes, and biotech companies. Other academic institutions involved include the Fraunhofer Institute in Leipzig, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Navarra.
“EASYGEN unites physicians, researchers, and partner institutions across Europe to collaboratively deliver innovative, personalized therapies more swiftly to where they matter most—to patients in need.” said Dr. Sonja Steppan, Head of Research Office/ Fresenius SE and Principal Investigator for EASYGEN. “Automating patient-specific therapies such as CAR-T is essential to make these treatments more broadly accessible, especially in non-academic clinical environments.”
Transforming Cancer Care, One Hospital at a Time
Ultimately, EASYGEN aims to enable hospitals—even those without large academic research facilities—to produce personalized therapies in-house. This would significantly lower costs, speed up treatment, and relieve pressure on clinical staff.
For Bar-Ilan University, the project highlights its growing role in high-impact, translational biomedical research. It also strengthens its position as a trusted partner in the global effort to advance gene and cell therapies.
About EASYGEN
EASYGEN is a five-year research project supported by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) under grant agreement No 101194710. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and COCIR, EFPIA, Europa Bío, MedTech Europe, Vaccines Europe and industry partners. Selected under the IHI call “User-centric technologies and optimized hospital workflows for a sustainable healthcare workforce”, the project aims to develop an integrated, automated platform that enables point-of-care CAR-T cell manufacturing—cutting production time, reducing costs, and expanding access to next-generation immunotherapies.
Disclaimer: Funded by the European Union, the private members, and those contributing partners of the IHI JU. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the aforementioned parties. Neither of the aforementioned parties can be held responsible for them.