The Karchin lab is developing on AI approaches to neoantigen prediction, including its relevance for vaccine design, TCR repertoire modeling, and spatial approaches to tumor and TCR clonal evolution. These projects overlap with TTEC’s interests in Immuno engineering and single cell/spatial transcriptomics.
Dr. Boheler is a cardiovascular researcher with over 20 years of experience in Aging Research and over 25 years of experience in pluripotent stem cell biology. He has extensive expertise in the creation of human pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines to model diseases such as Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy, Marfan Syndrome, and vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Coupled with the hiPSC derivatives are tissue engineered systems which are employed to study cell biology and mechanics. He is also a leader in the use of cell surface capture technologies and proteomics to study the surfaceome of in vitro differentiated cells, the results of which have proved informative of some normal and disease states, as well as for the development of markers for cell types and maturation.
The Phillip lab focuses on Aging, with a key emphasis on how individual cells change during aging, in the context of health and disease. To accomplish this, the lab combines approaches in experimentation and computation/machine learning with the long-term goal of developing technologies for cellular reprogramming and precision medicine. The key model systems currently studied in the lab are immune aging, skin aging, and female reproductive aging/longevity.
My research is centered around developing new techniques to better understand immunologic responses to skin cancers and the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) and engineering new therapeutics to activate the anti-tumor immune response. My lab is focused developing new approaches to activate the anti-tumor immune response to skin cancer using micro- and nanoparticle formulations, with a specific focus on developing novel approaches using non-viral nucleic acid delivery systems. We have developed effective nanoparticle systems which can deliver plasmids or mRNA or siRNA to tumors and drive signal 2 and signal 3 expression and/or modulate additional downstream or upstream machinery locally, and are exploring the utility of that platform to treat aggressive skin cancers, locally or in combination with checkpoint immunotherapy. Additionally, to better understand the immune response to skin cancer in human tumors, we are using multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF), digital pathology, microdissection, and artificial intelligence to develop improved biomarkers of treatment response and resistance. We are working on better understanding the immunopathologic changes in the TIME in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibition, rigorously testing our mIF biomarkers, and extending our work on superficial spreading melanoma to rare melanoma subtypes including acral melanoma.
My research occurs in educational spaces to understand and improve the learning experience for students. Specifically, I direct laboratory courses that highlight cell engineering, tissue engineering, and immunoengineering for all levels of trainees at our institute including pre-college, undergraduate and graduate students. These studies ensure our earliest researchers and engineers are able to show technical proficiency in advanced cutting-edge research techniques, ethical and appropriate analytical interpretation of biological datasets, and scientific literacy to assess and present research products.