1. Genetic manipulation of human NK cells. Focus of this project is to design novel CARs and non-CAR constructs aimed at enhancing NK cell targeting of cancer cells and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. This is in collaboration with Professor Jianzhu Chen's group at MIT (Koch Institute).
2. Translation of memory-like NK cells in cancer: - AML, MDS and MPN relapsed after allogeneic transplantation. This clinical trial is currently enrolling patients (Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT04024761).
- MRD positive myeloma patients undergoing transplantation (collaboration with Dr. Giada Bianchi). This clinical trial is currently enrolling patients (Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT04634435)
- High risk smoldering myeloma (collaboration with Drs. Irene Ghobrial and Omar Nadeem). Pending IND submission. - Platinum refractory head and neck cancer (collaboration with Drs. Glenn Hanna and Ravi Uppaluri). This clinical trial is currently enrolling patients (Clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT04290546).
3. Immune reconstitution after HLA haploidentical ('Half Matched') donor transplantation.
4. Machine learning algorithm for KIR/HLA interactions in stem cell transplantation (collaboration with Dr. John Koreth).