THE METABOLIC CHALLENGE OF CELL THERAPIES
CAR T therapy often fails for one underlying reason: insufficient metabolic fitness. Metabolic stress during manufacturing can lock cells into short-lived phenotypes, while protocol variability creates inconsistent products.
After infusion, especially in solid tumors, CAR T cells face nutrient competition and oxidative stress that accelerate dysfunction, exhaustion, and loss of persistence.
CAR T cells attacking a tumor cell
MITOCHONDRIA:
MORE THAN ENERGY PRODUCTION
Mitochondria sit at the center of cellular decision-making. Beyond ATP generation, they integrate nutrient availability, stress signals, and biosynthetic demands to regulate cell fate, functional persistence, and stress resistance.
In immune and therapeutic cells, mitochondrial metabolism plays a critical role in determining whether cells adopt short-lived, highly activated states or durable, long-term functional phenotypes. Early metabolic decisions, particularly during manufacturing, can irreversibly shape downstream cell behavior.
A PLATFORM APPROACH
TO METABOLIC MODULATION
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Metabolic modulation has the potential to rejuvenate a wide panel of cell types, both ex vivo and in vivo.
MPC Therapeutics has spent numerous years working at the intersection of immunology and mitochondrial metabolism, building deep mechanistic insight into how metabolic pathways shape cell function.​
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​Our small-molecule approach is:
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Transient and non-genetic, preserving the native identity of therapeutic cells
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Scalable and controllable, compatible with industrial manufacturing
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Therapy-agnostic, applicable across multiple cell therapy platforms​
By acting during critical windows of cell preparation or treatment, metabolic modulation can reset cellular trajectories without durable modification.
