Leonardo Ferreira, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Pharmacology & Immunology
Cancer Focus:
Engineering immune cells as living drugs for solid tumors
Research Program:
Research Interest
My goal is to control how the immune system recognizes self and non-self. This knowledge will allow us to reestablish immune tolerance in autoimmunity and organ transplant rejection, as well as to enhance immunity in cancer and persistent infections. My laboratory focuses on using engineered immune receptors to systematically study how specificity, affinity, and signaling modulate T cell function in autoimmunity and organ transplant rejection, as well as on using this knowledge to develop new cellular therapies.
Positions and Scientific Appointments
2021-Present: Research Member, Hollings Cancer Center, Charleston, SC
2021-Present: Assistant Professor, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC
2016-2021: Postdoctoral scholar, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
2011-2016: Graduate student, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Education
Postdoctoral
June 2021
Immunology
University of California, San Francisco, California
PhD
May 2016
Biochemistry
Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts
BSc
June 2011
Biochemistry
University of Coimbra, Portugal