Adoptive T cell therapy has demonstrated tremendous outcomes against treatment-refractory leukemias and solid tumor malignancies. As opposed to industry-developed drugs that are manufactured and dispensed to hospitals and/or patients, T cells are produced in academic laboratories for clinical research and are a highly personalized therapy that represents a “living drug.” The technology behind genetic modification of primary T cells has been developed and refined by a few academic medical centers. We anticipate that the exciting results generated by these efforts will lead to further investigation by other academic and industry institutions. To facilitate this adaptation we present optimized protocols for gammaretroviral production, T cell isolation, and genetic modification to create gene-targeted T cells.