Research - Daniels Lab

Engineering Receptors and Gene Circuits to Control Cell Behavior

The lab will use synthetic biology, medium- and high-throughput screens, and machine learning to: (1) Engineer immune cells to achieve robust and durable responses against various cancer targets, (2) Coordinate behavior of multiple engineered cell types in cancer, autoimmune disease, and payload delivery, (3) Control survival, proliferation, and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and immune cells, and (4) Explore principles of modularity related to engineering receptors and gene circuits in mammalian cells.

Research Interests

We are interested in harnessing the principles of modularity to engineer receptors and gene circuits to control cell functions.

Modular Receptor Design

Controlling
Cell
Function

Quantitative
Models
of Receptor-Phenotype Relationship

Decoding CAR T cell phenotype

How is CAR T cell phenotype encoded in the CAR costimulatory domain?

We used libraries of CARs with synthetic signaling domains to understand how short peptides called signaling motifs determine the cytotoxicity and stemness of CAR T cells.