By DoM Communications | Date published: October 1, 2026
CAR T Cell Therapy Continues to Show Promise for Lupus Patients
At UMass Chan Medical School, CAR T cell therapy continues to show promise for people living with lupus. Talaya Reid started chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy at UMass Chan to treat severe symptoms caused by the chronic autoimmune disease known as lupus nephritis, and since then, her quality of life has improved dramatically. Reid was one of the first three people living with lupus to enroll in an individualized clinical research study exploring the use of CAR T cell treatment in lupus nephritis for severe or nonresponsive lupus at the Lupus Center at UMass Chan. CAR T cell therapy works by removing some of a patient’s white blood cells, including T cells, and genetically altering them in a lab. Once returned to the body, these changes help the patient's T cells identify and kill antigens on the outside of harmful cells.
Roberto Caricchio, MD, the Myles J. McDonough Chair in Rheumatology, professor of medicine, chief of the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine, and director of the Lupus Center at UMass Chan, is the principal investigator of the CAR T cell therapy trial in lupus at UMass Chan. He notes that others enrolled in the CAR T cell therapy trial are also showing promising results.