Research Interest: Cancer Immunology

PHD PROGRAM

RESEARCH INTEREST
Cancer Biology, Cancer Immunology, Developmental Immunology, Immunology, Pathogenesis & Infection

“I am interested in the tumor microenvironment and how it shapes the immune response. My current research experience centers on investigating the interplay between the developing immune system, metabolism, and T-cell response to infection or cancer. I hope to broaden my scope to encompass other immune cell types. At UNC, I wish to explore cancer immunology research using pre-clinical models to uncover new pathways for novel immunotherapeutic treatments.”

PHD PROGRAM
Cell Biology & Physiology

RESEARCH INTEREST
Bioinformatics, Cancer Biology, Cancer Immunology, Cancer Signaling & Biochemistry, Chemical Biology, Computational Biology, Gene Therapy, Immunology, Molecular Biology, Signal Transduction, Systems Biology, Translational Medicine, Virology

The Chung lab is engineering immune cells, particularly T cells, to achieve maximum therapeutic efficacy at the right place and timing. We explore the crossroads of synthetic biology, immunology, and cancer biology. Particularly, we are employing protein engineering, next-gen sequencing, CRISPR screening, and bioinformatics to achieve our objectives:

(1) Combinatorial recipes of transcription factors for T cell programming.

(2) Technologies for temporal regulation and/or rewiring of tumor and immune signal activation (chemokine, nuclear, inhibitor receptors).

(3) Synthetic oncolytic virus for engineering tumor-T cell crosstalk.