Clinical Trial to Evaluate Safer CAR T-Cell Therapy for Children

Research By: Stella Davies, MBBS, PhD, MRCP

Post Date: April 14, 2026 | Publish Date:

Agreement calls for Cincinnati Children’s to work with New Zealand-based BioOra to test Alta-cel as treatment for relapsed or refractory B-ALL.

Many adults with cancer are alive and thriving after benefitting from CAR T-cell therapies, a new class of medications that can make a person’s immune system better able to fight cancer cells. However, these treatments have been limited for use against childhood cancers because early versions have posed risks to brain development.

Now, Cincinnati Children’s is working with New Zealand-based BioOra, Ltd, to launch a clinical trial that would bring a lower-risk, “third-generation” CAR-T therapy—called Alta-cel—to children and teens with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). A strategic partnership agreement between the company and the medical center was announced April 13, 2026.

“Relapsed B-ALL remains one of the toughest problems in childhood cancer. The low neurotoxicity signals from the ENABLE program make Atla-cel a compelling candidate for pediatric investigation, and if that profile holds in children, it could mean bringing life-changing CAR-T therapy to more kids,” says Stella Davies, MBBS, PhD, MRCP, co-executive director of the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute at Cincinnati Children’s, ranked the #1 cancer care provider in the United States by US News and World Report.

Davies will serve as principal investigator for the clinical trial, which expects to include multiple sites in the U.S. and New Zealand. She is a recognized leader in pediatric hematology-oncology and hematopoietic cell transplantation and serves as President-Elect of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.

The study will be supported by the recently expanded Applied Gene and Cell Therapy Center in Sharonville, Ohio. In addition, Steve Davis, MD, MMM, Cincinnati Children’s president and CEO, is joining BioOra’s board of directors.

Read BioOra’s announcement about the collaboration