Richard O'Neil, Ph.D.

The major goal of my research program is to understand the role of adaptive immunity in the context of cancer therapy and progression. My laboratory leverages the flexibility and cost effectiveness of transposon-based genome engineering to facilitate efficient systematic study of pre-clinical cell therapy platforms in immune competent murine tumor models. We have built comprehensive cellular atlas of our tumor models using single cell sequencing, which has provided us with a unique and nuanced understanding of the tumor microenvironment. We also leverage our single cell pipeline to conduct TCR and BCR sequencing in mouse and in human tumor tissue obtained through a collaboration with thoracic surgeons and oncologists. We are developing platform technology that will improve and expand the utility of engineered cell therapies for treating cancer. My laboratory uses molecular and cellular tools to enable characterization of T cell receptors associated with durable remissions and exploit antigen discovery tools to better understand therapeutic mechanism. In parallel, we investigate clinical outcomes of patients who have been treated with cellular therapeutics by combining outcomes, biomarkers, and genomics to better understand the factors driving efficacy, toxicity, and pharmacokinetics of T cell-based therapeutics. My experiences provide me with the broad knowledge of pre-clinical models for investigating cancer therapeutics as well as a solid understanding of what it takes to translate them into the clinic. I am an expert molecular biologist with extensive experience in cellular engineering.