About My Research

Immunoengineering promises to yield the next generation of therapies for unmet medical needs in infectious disease, autoimmunity, and cancer. A key challenge in the immunoengineering field is our limited understanding of how the immune system recognizes and responds to glycoconjugates. Glycoconjugates – biopolymers decorated with sugars, or glycans – coat the surface of every cell and play central roles in immunology. For example, glycoconjugates regulate immune cell trafficking, modulate immune cell activation, and represent molecular patterns that define self and non-self. The chemical structures of appended glycans are often altered in disease states and can contribute to pathogenesis by modulating immune responses. Thus, glycoconjugates represent a vast set of attractive, yet mostly untapped, disease-specific antigens and targets for immunotherapy.
My work has resulted in a suite of high-throughput and modular technologies for elucidating and engineering the immune response to glycoconjugates. I engineered a cell-free technology for on-demand and portable production of glycoconjugate vaccines. Cell-free synthesized vaccines protected mice from lethal pathogen challenge via induction of glycan-specific immune responses. My cell-free approach can further be used for rapid and facile biosynthesis of glycoproteins bearing a variety of user-specified glycan structures, which promises to accelerate interrogation of their immunomodulatory properties. My current work focuses on identifying and targeting glycoconjugates that allow cancer cells to evade anti-tumor immune responses. Specifically, I developed a new class of antibody-lectin bispecifics that enhance anti-tumor immune responses in vitro. The bispecific platform is modular and can be applied to diverse disease- or cell type-specific antigens and lectin (glycan-binding) immunoreceptors. In parallel, I established an interaction proteomics pipeline to define tumor-associated glycoconjugates that engage inhibitory glycan-binding immunoreceptors called Siglecs, revealing new targets for cancer immunotherapy. Collectively, my work has helped elucidate the roles of immunomodulatory glycoconjugates in disease and promises to accelerate development of new vaccines and immunotherapies.
Connect with Me
BioBits® lab activity
Education
Ph.D., Northwestern University
Chemical & Biological Engineering
Research Advisor: Prof. Michael Jewett
2013-2019
Management Certificate, Northwestern University
Kellogg School of Management
2016
B.S., Cornell University
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, cum laude
Research Advisor: Prof. Matthew DeLisa
2008-2012
Glycosylated protein production
Selected Awards
American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow
2021-present
National Cancer Institute F32 Postdoctoral Fellow
2020-2021
Northwestern University Chemical Engineering Distinguished Graduate Researcher Award
2018
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow
2015-2018
National Institute of Health Biotechnology Training Program Fellow
2014-2016
The Henry Luce Foundation Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellow, awarded by the Society of Women Engineers
2014-2015
Irwin and Joan Jacobs Engineering Scholar
2008-2012
Biological engineering laboratory
Work Experience
Rondo Therapeutics
Consultant
2022-present
Genentech, Inc.
gRED Infectious Diseases
May 2013-Aug 2013
Early Stage Pharmaceutical Development
May 2012-Apr 2013
Analytical Operations
May 2011-Aug 2011
NIH ARRA Research Experience for Undergraduates
University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Pharmacy
May 2010-Aug 2010