Our Research
Our lab is advancing the frontiers of cell engineering to develop transformative immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and beyond.
We bring together biomolecular engineering, nanotechnology, immunology, and cell engineering to build platform technologies that reshape how immune therapies work. By focusing on antigen specificity, precision immune modulation, and disease-tailored cellular responses, we aim to overcome the major barriers that limit current treatments—such as non-specific immune activation, severe side effects, and poor outcomes against solid tumors.
Themes in Our Work
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Develop precision immunotherapy
We engineer disease-specific therapeutic cells or autoreactive cells within our body to treat or prevent diseases. We aim to develop a new class of immunotherapy that only modulates the immune cells relevant to the target disease, while preserving the rest of the immune system.
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Interrogate T cell diversity
We explore the diversity and the change of T cell repertoire in our immune system. Our goal is to better understand the T cell biology and to profile T cell repertoire for immune monitoring and disease detection.
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Program disease microenvironment
We engineer the disease environment for better immune responses and treatment outcomes. For example, we strive to reshape the hostile tumor microenvironment for enhanced anti-tumor responses of engineered cell therapy.
Featured Project
Engineering antigen-specic T cell immunotherapy in vivo
We developed “antigen-presenting nanoparticles” (APNs), tiny lipid carriers that deliver mRNA directly to the specific T cells responsible for fighting a given disease, allowing those cells to be precisely reprogrammed inside the body. In mouse models, this approach has turned flu-specific T cells into cancer-killing CAR T cells and has eliminated harmful autoimmune T cells to prevent type 1 diabetes, showing strong potential for safer, more targeted immunotherapies.
Representative papers:
F. Y. Su*, J. C. Siebart*, C. S. Chan*, M. Y. Wang, X. Yao, A. S. Trenkle, A. Sivakumar, M. Su, R. Harandi, N. Shahrawat, C. H. Nguyen, A. Goenka, J. Mun, M. V. Dhodapkar, G. A. Kwong. Antigen-specific T cell immunotherapy by in vivo mRNA delivery. bioRxiv, 2024.
F. Y. Su, Q. Zhao, S. N. Dahotre, L. Gamboa, S. S. Bawage, A. D. Silva Trenkle, A. Zamat, H. Phuengkham, R. Ahmed, P. J. Santangelo, G. A. Kwong. In vivo mRNA delivery to virus-specific T cells by light-induced ligand exchange of MHC class I antigen-presenting nanoparticles. Science Advances, 2022, 25;8(8):eabm7950.
Featured Project
Engineering macrophages as drug depots for programmable drug delivery
We created an inhalable antibiotic platform called “drugamers,” which turn lung macrophages—the immune system’s first responders—into tiny drug depots that can reach pathogens hiding inside cells. By designing smart linkers that control how and when antibiotics are released inside these macrophages, the therapy successfully protected all mice from otherwise lethal lung infections, offering a powerful new strategy for hard-to-treat intracellular diseases.
Representative papers:
T. Chavas*, F.Y. Su*, S. Srinivasan, D. Roy, B. Lee, S. J. Skerrett, D. M. Ratner, T. E. West, and P. S. Stayton. Macrophage-targeted, protease cleavable drugamer potentiates antibiotic activity against pulmonary melioidosis in vivo. J Control Release, 2021, 330, 284-292.
F. Y. Su, S. Srinivasan, B. Lee, J. Chen, A. J. Convertine, T. E. West, D. M. Ratner, S. J. Skerrett, and P. S. Stayton. Macrophage targeted drugamers delivering high intracellular dosing and controlled drug pharmacokinetics against alveolar pulmonary infections. J Control Release, 2018, 287, 1-11.
Thank you to our funding agents
