Engineering the future of advanced therapy medicinal products: a bioengineering call to action

Abstract

Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products — cell therapies, gene therapies, and tissue-engineered products — are beginning to deliver on the promise of curative medicine: CAR-T therapies double survival in chemotherapy-refractory lymphomas, gene therapies reverse the natural history of spinal muscular atrophy and hemoglobinopathies, and Pluripotent Stem Cell (PSC)-derived islet transplantation renders type 1 diabetic patients insulin-independent. Yet the trajectory from proof-of-concept to equitable, scalable deployment is consistently impeded not only by unresolved biology but also by engineering, manufacturing, logistical, regulatory, and economic bottlenecks that the bioengineering community has not engaged with at the required scale. In this Perspective, grounded in clinical experience across hematological malignancies, monogenic diseases, and metabolic disorders, we identify five rate-limiting bottlenecks where bioengineering intervention is urgently needed and uniquely tractable: scalable and adaptive biomanufacturing; real-time in-process quality control; precise targeted delivery; biomaterial and scaffold engineering for cellular engraftment and immune protection; and data-driven patient stratification constrained by health equity. We argue that the evolving regulatory landscape in Europe — including the European Biotech Act framework and ICH Quality by Design principles — creates structural incentives for engineering-led solutions, and that economic sustainability requires bioengineering to drive down production costs and enable the off-the-shelf transition. We call on the bioengineering community to engage with ATMP translation not as technical support to clinical medicine, but as a constitutive partner shaping its pace, cost, and equity.