Editorial: Potency assays for use in manufacturing cellular immunotherapies

metabolomics for assessing mitochondrial fitness, researchers can capture the true complexity of CAR T-cell products. Furthermore, as the field shifts toward unconventional manufacturing strategies like ultra-rapid protocols or in vivo CAR T-cell generation, the authors advocate for customized, omics-based potency panels to ensure product safety and efficacy.Tackling the formidable barriers of solid tumors, Burns et al. 2 introduce a conceptual "plying" framework for CAR-engineered platforms and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).Recognizing that simple 2D cell monolayers fail to recapitulate the complex, immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, the authors propose layering potency assessments. This iterative approach progresses from regulatory-compliant release testing to advanced exploratory assays utilizing 3D tumor spheroids, label-free real-time monitoring, and spatial transcriptomics.Importantly, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning into these spatial and imaging datasets promises to uncover subtle phenotypic patterns that predict clinical performance, fundamentally transforming how we assess cellular fitness in hostile tumor microenvironments.A highly potent cellular therapy must be safe. Li et al. Front. Immunol. 17:1725191. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2026.1725191