Profile

The overarching goal of our laboratory is to engineer lymphocytes for adoptive immunotherapy and decipher the design principle of immune regulation in the process. Our primary focus is on reprogramming αβ and γδ T cells with rationally designed synthetic receptors to appropriate the specific, durable and affordable healing of cancer. Chimeric Antigen Receptors, or CARs, are synthetic modular receptors that judiciously integrate multiple domains to augment T cell functions. Illuminated by the promise realized in the cell and gene therapy space, we are generating CAR T cells targeting a range of antigens to resolve multiple clinical challenges in leukemia / lymphoma. We also explore the fundamental mechanisms at the nexus of Tumor: T cell interfaces by using three-dimensional culture in oral cancer models at the scale of metabolism and epigenetics.