Off-the-Shelf CAR T Therapy to Show Data at ASH
Zugo-cel, an investigational CRISPR-edited cell therapy, is slated for a December 13, 2026 presentation.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Biotech
CRISPR Therapeutics will present clinical data from zugo-cel, an investigational allogeneic CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited CAR T cell therapy targeting CD19, in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma at the 68th ASH Annual Meeting. The therapy remains investigational and is under study in a Phase 1/2 trial; it is not an approved product.
Why it matters
The presentation extends the company's effort to make CAR T therapy off-the-shelf rather than built from each patient's own cells, a field where gene editing is being tested as a way to scale access. CASGEVY, the company's approved CRISPR-based therapy for sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia, shows the platform has reached regulatory approval, while zugo-cel is still at the clinical-data stage.
The evidence will come from an ongoing Phase 1/2 trial, presented as oral abstract 706 at the 68th ASH Annual Meeting. The source does not yet report response rates or safety figures, so the measured performance of zugo-cel remains unpublished.
The players
CRISPR Therapeutics AG
A Zug, Switzerland-based gene-editing company, co-developer of CASGEVY, with R&D operations in San Francisco and a platform centered on CRISPR/Cas9 therapies.
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
The professional society that hosts the annual meeting where hematology and oncology research, including CAR T and gene-editing trials, is presented.
The details
Zugo-cel uses CRISPR/Cas9, a gene-editing system that acts like molecular scissors to cut DNA at targeted sites, to knock out specific genes and insert a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that directs immune cells to CD19, a protein found on many B-cell cancers. Because it is allogeneic, the cells come from a donor rather than the patient, and the therapy is administered after a standard lymphodepletion regimen (a course of chemotherapy that clears existing immune cells to make room for the new ones) without requiring HLA matching, the tissue-type compatibility step that usually limits donor use.
Timeline
December 12 to 15, 2026: 68th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition takes place.
Sunday, December 13, 2026, 5:15 p.m. CST: zugo-cel oral presentation is scheduled.
The Tech Race
CASGEVY established that CRISPR-based therapies can clear regulatory review, and zugo-cel tests whether the same editing approach can produce allogeneic CAR T cells that avoid HLA matching. The field's competing allogeneic CAR T efforts will be judged on the same measures of durability and safety that the ASH data will be compared against.
Zugo-cel remains investigational and is not available to patients outside clinical trials, so no change in treatment access is possible yet. The timeline from this presentation to any approved use is not stated in the source.
The takeaway
The key insight is that CRISPR's path from an approved sickle cell therapy to an off-the-shelf cancer cell therapy will be tested on clinical data rather than on design claims. Watch for the zugo-cel data at ASH on December 13, 2026, and whether the company posts the full presentation at www.crisprtx.com.
What happens next
Zugo-cel's oral presentation at the 68th ASH Annual Meeting is scheduled for Sunday, December 13, 2026, at 5:15 p.m. CST, with a copy of the presentation to be posted at www.crisprtx.com once it concludes.
Further reading
For the wider field, explore our Biotech coverage of gene editing and cell therapy.
More information
A copy of the zugo-cel presentation will be posted on the CRISPR Therapeutics company website once the session concludes.
