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 the founder and CEO of a stealth biotech startup in Cambridge, MA.