A philanthropic gift from the family of J.P. Singh is helping researchers at Georgia Tech push the boundaries of biomedical innovation.  

The Singh Family Research Awards were established as part of the Center for Immunoengineering, creating a seed funding program supporting both faculty and students that is designed to accelerate early-stage ideas with the potential to transform medicine. The awards support interdisciplinary projects pursuing high-risk, high-reward research that could lead to new therapies for cancer, infectious diseases, and chronic illnesses. 

The gift honors the legacy of J.P. Singh and reflects his family’s commitment to advancing research that could lead to safer and more effective treatments for patients. 

“The gift is giving scientists the freedom to pursue bold ideas that might otherwise be too early or too unconventional for traditional funding,” said Ankur Singh, Director of the Center for Immunoengineering and Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory (BME). “It allows Georgia Tech scientists to explore new frontiers in immunoengineering, from cancer to autoimmunity, and to build the scientific foundations that could ultimately lead to the next generation of transformative therapies.” 

The inaugural awards support four innovative projects that span multiple areas of biomedical research, including two Faculty Research Awards and two Student Fellowship Awards. 

Using AI to Guide the Immune System 

One Singh Family Faculty Research Award, given to Andrew McShan in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, will help develop AI‑guided tools to design synthetic immune‑like molecules that can detect lipids on cell surfaces. Most current immunotherapies are designed to recognize protein fragments presented on cells, leaving a largely untapped class of disease-associated targets — lipids — beyond the reach of modern immune engineering. By enabling programmable molecules that can detect lipids on cell surfaces, the work aims to expand immune targeting beyond traditional protein targets and open new diagnostic and treatment strategies for diseases such as leukemia, tuberculosis, and inflammatory skin disorders.  

An AI-guided design framework for lipid-sensing immune receptors would create an entirely new class of programmable immune molecules capable of identifying disease signals that were previously inaccessible. Such tools could enable earlier disease detection, new immune-based therapeutics, and a broader ability to engineer immune systems to recognize complex biological threats, fundamentally expanding the scope of targets addressable by modern immunotherapy. 

Developing the Next Generation of Cancer Treatments 

The second faculty award project, led by John Blazeck in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, focuses on engineering next-generation cancer immunotherapies using CAR-T cells, which are a patient’s own immune cells that have been re‑engineered to recognize and attack specific cancer cells. The team is developing new receptors for CAR-T cells designed to improve safety while enabling immune cells to recognize multiple tumor targets simultaneously.  

This approach addresses two major barriers that have limited the success of CAR-T therapies in solid tumors: the risk of attacking healthy tissues and the ability of tumors to evade treatment by changing or losing a single target antigen. If successful, the work could significantly expand the reach of CAR-T cell therapy, which has already transformed the treatment of certain blood cancers but has struggled to treat solid tumors such as breast, lung, and pancreatic cancer.  

By enabling immune cells to distinguish tumors more precisely and attack cancers that display multiple markers, the new receptor designs could make CAR-T therapies both safer and more effective. The technology could represent a major step toward translating cellular immunotherapies to the far larger population of patients with solid tumors, potentially opening the door to powerful new treatments for some of the most resistant cancers. 

Imaging Heart Risk Early with Ultrasound 

The gift also established two Singh Family Fellow Awards, supporting graduate students pursuing innovative research in immunoengineering.  

One fellowship was awarded to Yann Ferry, a graduate student advised by Costas Arvanitis in the Georgia W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and BME. Ferry’s project aims to advance ultrasound imaging technologies designed to visualize immune activity inside Atherosclerosis plaques, the fatty deposits that accumulate in arteries and can trigger heart attacks or strokes when they rupture.  

By tracking immune cells that drive plaque inflammation and instability (called macrophages), the team aims to develop a noninvasive imaging approach that can measure the immune state of plaques in real time. If successful, the technology could transform how cardiovascular disease is diagnosed and monitored.  

Today, physicians can detect plaque buildup but cannot easily determine whether a plaque is actively inflamed and likely to rupture. Imaging immune activity could allow doctors to identify high-risk plaques earlier, monitor how patients respond to therapy, and intervene before a heart attack or stroke occurs. Given that cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, such a tool could significantly improve prevention and treatment strategies. 

Working Toward a Cure for Type 1 Diabetes 

The second fellowship supports Alexander Kedzierski, a Ph.D. student in Andrés García’s  lab within ME. Kedzierski’s research focuses on improving stem-cell-based treatments for Type 1 Diabetes. The project aims to design degradable biomaterials that present that help control the immune response, protecting transplanted insulin‑producing cells from being attacked by the body.  

Current experimental therapies using insulin-producing cells that are derived from stem cells have shown promise but are limited by the need for lifelong medications that suppress the immune system to prevent rejection. By engineering biomaterials that locally regulate immune responses around transplanted cells, the researchers hope to enable long-term graft survival without suppressing the entire immune system.  

If successful, the approach could bring regenerative therapies for Type 1 diabetes closer to a practical cure, allowing patients to restore natural insulin production while avoiding the risks associated with chronic immunosuppressive treatment. 

Looking Ahead 

Together, the projects illustrate the core mission of the Center for Immunoengineering and the Singh Family gift. By investing in bold, interdisciplinary research, the Singh family’s gift is helping the Center for Immunoengineering accelerate innovations at the intersection of engineering, biology, and medicine.  

In the years ahead, the program is expected to expand a pipeline of high-impact research, from next-generation immunotherapies to immune-guided diagnostics and regenerative medicine. For the scientists involved, the goal is not only to advance discovery but to translate new insights about the immune system into real-world solutions for patients.