Originally pioneered as lifesaving treatments for patients with cancer, cell therapies have burst onto the biotech scene as promising, disease-eliminating treatments for autoimmune disorders – a notoriously difficult class of diseases to treat. In 2024, scientists out of the University Hospital Erlangen published a series of papers that demonstrated that CAR-T, when administered to patients with lupus, could induce an immune system reset and lead to a durable, drug-free remission. Traditionally, researchers have assumed that to treat autoimmune disease, you must suppress the immune system forever. However, cell therapy approaches aim to ultimately “reset” the immune system by eliminating pathogenic immune memory. Today’s biotech companies are drawing on more than a decade of research from the oncology world, as well as expertise across cell therapy and immunology to bring the potential of cell therapy beyond cancer and apply it to a range of autoimmune diseases. In this panel, speakers represent the companies blazing new trails to bring targeted, durable therapies for autoimmune diseases to patients in need.