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Dr. Ma focuses on immune engineering. He leverages genetic, chemistry, and engineering tools to dissect immune cell-cell and cell-tissue crosstalk and harness these crosstalk mechanisms to develop biomaterials, protein, and cell-based precision immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Bio
Dr. Ma’s laboratory focuses on immune engineering, an emerging field at the interface of immunology and multiple engineering disciplines. His research involves dissecting immune cell crosstalk in normal and pathological conditions using genetic and engineering tools and leveraging these crosstalk mechanisms to develop novel precision immunotherapies. Specifically, his current research focuses on developing novel biomaterial-based synthetic vaccines to enhance adoptive T cell therapy (e.g., CAR T, Treg, and TIL therapy), engineering therapeutic proteins via directed evolution, and developing novel tumor microenvironment-responding cell therapies.
Notable career achievements:
American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (2019)
NIAID New Innovators Award/DP2 (2021, Impact Score 14)
Education and Training
BS, Shandong Normal University, China (Biosciences and Bioengineering), 2008
PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School (Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology), 2016
Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Immune Engineering), 2021
Titles and Academic Titles
Assistant Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Professional Memberships
Biomedical Engineering Society, 2018-
Professional Awards
Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research, 2014
American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, 2019-2021
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