Awarded in 2020
Home Department: Immunology
Faculty Advisors: Jennifer Cochran (Bioengineering) and Ronald Levy (Medicine – Oncology)

Research Title: Engineering a Designer Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor as a Novel Cancer Therapeutic

Research Description: Despite significant progress in using the immune system to fight cancer, many hurdles still remain. Leveraging protein engineering and cancer immunotherapy, Jack aims to engineer a designer immune checkpoint inhibitor with significantly enhanced binding affinity for specific immune inhibitory ligands as a way of blocking inhibitory signaling in T cells. With this targeted approach, Jack hopes to more effectively block cancer’s immunosuppression, thereby maximizing the therapeutic potential of immune checkpoint blockade.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Jack is working at a stealth biotech startup in Cambridge, MA.