Tinka and the B Cells - A Children's Book about CAR-T-Cell Therapy


09/14/2022   News


In her first book, Dr. Nina Graffmann explains in an easy-to-understand and child-friendly way how CAR T-cell therapy works.

Tinka and the B-cells Frontcover

In their daily work, stem cell researchers investigate complicated topics with the aim to develop novel therapies for patients. But how do you explain these complex treatments in a way that is easy to understand, especially when children are involved? This question was the starting point for Dr. Nina Graffmann to write a children's book about CAR T-cell therapy.

In the book "Tinka and the B cells" this novel cell therapy is described from the point of view of the T cell Tinka. The reader dives into the world of Tinka, a young T cell. Although Tinka always paid attention during her classes in T cell school, she realizes after graduation that neither she nor her siblings are able to fight the rampaging B cells which terrorize the blood of the young child Jessica. Then one day, Tinka is kidnapped from the blood and her great adventure begins. Luckily, she and her siblings survive a terrifying viral attack but after being equipped with a super-receptor, they manage to return to Jessica's blood. Due to their new super-receptors Tinka and her sibblings can call themselves CAR T-cells now and are able to fight the B cells and thereby heal Jessica from cancer.

 

Dr. Nina Graffmann, who has been working as a stem cell researcher at the University Hospital of Düsseldorf since 2007 and is mainly concerned with fundamental questions about liver development and disease development, used the time of the corona lockdowns to put her book idea into practice. Her friend Angela Krug supported the project by proving 11 lovingly designed illustrations. As a mother of two children, Angela Krug also ensured that the text remained comprehensible for the target group.

 

The book is aimed in particular at children aged 4-10 who are about to undergo CAR T-cell therapy, as well as their parents.

It has been self-published via epubli and is available in bookstores (German only).

 

Bibliographic Data:

Dr. Nina Graffmann & Angela Krug (2022), Tinka und die B-Zellen – Ein Kinderbuch über die CAR-T-Zell-Therapie

ISBN: 9783756525997, epublib