ABSTRACT
Using patients’ own T cells, engineered and redirected to target cancer, have now been established as a standard of care in certain blood cancers such as lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Dr. Maus will discuss novel designs of chimeric antigen receptors and modifications to enhance T cells and the main challenges and future prospects for the development and use of this powerful form of immunotherapy.
BIO
Marcela Maus grew up in New York, NY and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her undergraduate degree in Biology and Literature. She then earned her MD, PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where she studied the biology of human T cell activation under the direction of her PhD mentor, Dr. Carl June. After completing her doctorate degrees, Marcela did a one-year postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Kathy High at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia studying patient immune responses to liver-directed AAV-mediate gene transfer as a treatment for hemophilia. She then completed her clinical training in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology as a resident at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and a fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. While at Memorial Sloan Kettering, she worked in Michel Sadelain’s lab to engineer new genetically modified T cells to target the cancer-testis antigen NY-ESO-1 and received specialized training in Phase I developmental therapeutics. She was also awarded a K08 grant by the NIH to facilitate her transition to a faculty position.
Following her extensive training (11 years), Marcela returned to the University of Pennsylvania in 2012, where she was recruited by her former PhD mentor, to expand their research efforts in the development of CAR T cells for lymphoma, myeloma, and other cancers. While there, Marcela continued her efforts on preclinical development of CAR T cells and correlative studies of CAR T cell-related toxicities and resistance to therapies. They discovered and reported on the first cases of anaphylaxis to CAR T cells and off target cross-reactivity. She also led an entire arc of translational research, from preclinical testing to a first-in-human clinical trial of EGFRvIII CAR T cells for treatment of recurrent glioblastoma. Correlative data collected from this trial led to an understanding of CAR T resistant mechanisms that have led further refinement of these CAR T cells, which is one current area of focus in her current laboratory and has led to the development of another Phase I clinical trial for GBM patients.
Now, Dr. Maus is a Professor of Hematology and Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she runs a laboratory focused on developing and improving CAR T cell therapy for cancer patients while also periodically attending for the bone marrow transplant service. Marcela is the Paula O-Keeffe Endowed Chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and the Director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program. She has won numerous awards for her transformative research and is achieving her goal of using science to determine the best way to treat patients by harnessing the power of the immune system to solve intractable problems like cancer. She also enjoys training clinicians and scientists and watching her mentees succeed and become independent scientists and collaborators.
]]>Presented by:
Anjali Kumar - Pharma/Biotech CBO, Scientist, Advisor
Vincent Ling - Chief Business Officer, Morphocell Technologies
This interactive fireside conversation will explore key trends shaping pharma and biotech and what they mean for academic innovators and early-stage startups. Brief opening perspectives will set the stage, followed by an audience-driven Q&A and discussion.
Peptide hydrogels formed by self-assembly are increasingly used in medical applications ranging from drug delivery to wound care. The chemical composition and stereochemistry of the peptides, the mechanisms by which they assemble to form a given material, and the structures of the mesoscopic assemblies underlying material formation all influence the mechanical and biological properties of these materials. Dr. Schneider will explore these factors in molecular detail to develop materials for clinical applications, including antibacterial wound dressings, delivery of miRNA nanoparticles for mesothelioma treatment, and modulation of the immune system.
Dr. Schneider received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Texas A&M University with Jeffery Kelly and then went on to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics where he was a George W. Raiziss Fellow with William DeGrado studying protein design. In 1999, he began his independent career at the University of Delaware as an assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and was promoted to associate and then full professor in 2009 with a secondary appointment in Materials Science and Engineering. He joined the NCI in 2010 as lab Chief of the newly established Chemical Biology Laboratory and was later appointed Deputy Director in 2015. He currently serves as the president of the American Peptide Society and Executive Editor of Biopolymers-Peptide Science.
]]>Presented by: Joel P. Schneider, Ph.D., Chief, Chemical Biology Laboratory, Deputy Director of Basic Science, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute
Friday, October 16, 2026,1:00 p.m. (Pizza will be provided at 12:30 p.m.)
Emory University HSRB II N100
Virtual Link: https://zoom.us/j/97421219805?pwd=b2ZUZElTQ044anlVbFRib2VIQk1IQT09
Meeting ID: 974 2121 9805 | Password: 556677
Dial by your location: +1 470 381 2552 US (Atlanta)
]]>BIO
Saumya Jain is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences. He received a B.Tech and an M.Tech in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona. He conducted postdoctoral work at the University of California, Los Angeles as a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow in the lab of Dr. Larry Zipursky. His research focuses on the regulation of gene expression in developing nervous systems across space and time.
Animal brains consist of a vast number of neurons (~100 billion in humans, ~100 million in mice), and thousands of neuron-types. These neurons generated at different times and locations in the developing brain come together in precise ways to form specific connections (~100 trillion connections in the human brain). Even subtle defects in wiring are associated with conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy. How does biology ensure the assembly of such a complex structure? A key piece of this puzzle is ensuring that the right set of genes are expressed at the right time and in the right place. The Jain lab is trying to address the following questions: 1) How are the timing and cell-type specificity of gene expression controlled in developing neurons to ensure proper circuit formation? 2) How are these mechanisms perturbed in neurodevelopmental disorders? To address these questions, the lab applies single-cell genomics, genetics and molecular biology approaches in the developing mouse and fruit fly visual systems.
The Spatial Omics and Data Analytics (SODA) Center meets monthly for networking, information transfer, and active partnership formation. These seminars will feature internal faculty spotlights, external leaders, and dedicated time slots for “Synergy Sessions” where faculty pitch data challenges or analytical solutions, directly seeding joint grant applications and cross-departmental Ph.D. mentorship.
Bio
Lynn Kamerlin received her Master of Natural Sciences from the University of Birmingham (UK), in 2002, where she remained to complete a PhD in Theoretical Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Dr. John Wilkie (awarded 2005). Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral researcher in the labs of Stefan Boresch at the University of Vienna (2005-2007), Arieh Warshel at the University of Southern California (2007-2009, Research Associate at the University of Southern California in 2010) and Researcher with Fahmi Himo (2010). She is a Professor and Georgia Research Alliance – Vasser Wooley Chair of Molecular Design at Georgia Tech, a Visiting Professor at Lund University (from January 2025), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and of the Institute of Physics (FInstP), a Senior Editor of Protein Science, and the Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Structure. She has also been a Wallenberg Scholar, the recipient of an ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant (2012-2017) and the Chair of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE) in 2014-2015. Her non-scientific interests include languages (fluent in 5), amateur photography and playing the piano.
Research
Research in our group sits at the interface between chemistry and biology, with a focus on using computational tools to understand the chemical basis for complex biomolecular problems. In particular, we want to understand the dynamical and mechanistic parameters that shape the evolution of new enzyme functions, and to then harness these to engineer new enzymes with tailored physiochemical properties. To achieve this, we combine methodology development with applications to real world systems, in close collaboration with experimental groups across the world. Examples of recent and ongoing methodology development include replica exchange empirical valence bond simulations to describe chemical reactivity, and machine learning tools to design new enzymes.
More recently, we are working on natural language models to predict protein structure and activity. We combine these tools with a range of enhanced sampling approaches, structural bioinformatics tools and EVB and QM/MM tools to describe conformational dynamics and chemical reactivity, with applications to biomedically important enzymes such as protein tyrosine phosphatases, or quorum-quenching lactonases that can be used to disrupt bacterial communication. We are also particularly interested in the modular evolution of new protein scaffolds with catalytic function, as well as the incorporation of non-canonical amino acids into industrially relevant enzymes for design purposes.
Finally, enzymes are chemical catalysts, and to understand their biological function it is important to understand the intrinsic chemistry they catalyze. We have a long-standing interest, in particular, in understanding the underlying factors driving mechanistic selectivity in both biological and non-enzymatic phosphoryl (and related) group transfer reactions, as well as other fundamental problems in physical organic chemistry.
The IBB Breakfast Club Seminar Series was started with the spirit of the Institute's interdisciplinary mission in mind to feature local IBB faculty member's research in a seminar format. Faculty are often asked to speak at other universities and conferences, but do not often present at their home institution - this seminar series is an attempt to close that gap. IBB Breakfast Club Seminars are open to anyone in the bio-community.
Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.
Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.
]]>Note
Raffle Contribution Request:
Each exhibitor is encouraged to donate a promotional item (valued under $75) for attendee drawings throughout the event.
Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.
Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.
]]>Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.
Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.
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