Synthetic Transcription Factors and Cell States for Cancer Immunotherapy


2025 Emerging Leader Award

Ansuman Satpathy, MD, PhD, Stanford University

Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment by harnessing the power of the immune system to fight cancer. However, the effectiveness of these therapies can be limited by the development of dysfunctional T cell states, such as exhaustion. This proposal aims to overcome this limitation by engineering novel, “synthetic” T cell states with enhanced anti-tumor activity, building on Dr. Satpathy’s novel approach to generating synthetic transcription factors (synTFs).  Additionally, the project seeks to create a comprehensive atlas of these synthetic T cell states and to utilize machine learning tools to refine its approach. These efforts will offer the field valuable new resources for identifying and characterizing T cell states with superior cancer-fighting abilities.  

Dr. Satpathy is a physician-scientist and Associate Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Stanford University. His lab works at the interface of immunology, cancer biology, and genomics to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning the immune response to cancer. Much of the lab’s recent work has focused on elucidating the dynamics of the tumor-specific T cell response to cancer antigens and immunotherapies using high-throughput genomic technologies. 

BACK TO OUR PORTFOLIO