TEAM
Marcela Maus, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Antonio Almazan
Research Technician I
Tony was born and raised in Los Angeles, California but has been living in New England for the past few years. He is a recent Brown University alumnus, where he completed his undergraduate studies in Neurobiology. He joined the Maus Lab as a Research Technician in August 2022 and is particularly interested in investigating ways to design CAR T cells that are more effective at targeting solid tumors. He is very excited by the clinical relevance and translational potential of CAR T cells and hopes to pursue a career in oncology in the future. In his spare time, Tony enjoys watching basketball and soccer as well as exploring new restaurants and traveling.
Alexander Armstrong
Research Technician I
Amanda Bouffard
Veterinary Technician
Andrea Garmilla
MD, PhD Graduate Student
Aiyana Parker
Research Technician I
Aiyana grew up in Plainville, MA and recently graduated with her undergraduate degree in Biology and Bioinformatics from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She joined the Maus Lab as a technician in June 2023 and has been investigating methods to increase the efficacy of and understand/mitigate toxicities associated with CAR T cell therapies. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, and exploring the city.
Benjamin Mantarian, MBA
Director of Research Operations
Charlotte Graham, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Charlotte grew up in Oxford and studied at University College London for her undergraduate degree before moving to the University of Warwick for Medical School. She completed her medical internship in Oxford University Hospitals, Internal medical training in London, and specialist Hematology training at King’s College Hospital, London. She undertook my PhD at King’s College London, investigating the use of gene-edited allogeneic CAR T cells in patients with B cell malignancies. She joined the Maus lab and IML for her Postdoctoral training and is currently investigating the mechanisms of cytopenia following CAR T cell therapy. In her free time, Charlotte likes bike rides, barre classes, going to the theatre, and drinking coffee. She has a ginger cat called Spike who has stayed in London.
David Bargiela, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Diane Brunett
Administrative Assistant
Deshea Harris, MS
Lab Manager, IML
Deshea was born in the Midwest but has lived most of her life on the East Coast. She acquired her undergraduate degree in Biology from Rutgers University before completing her Masters in Zoology/Conservation Genetics and Phylogenetics at The George Washington University. Prior to joining the Maus lab, she worked in Ophthalmology research in the Boston area for 27 years. Deciding a change was needed, she was thrilled to join the IML in September 2023 and begin to learn about the field of cellular therapy and cancer research! In her free time, Deshea enjoys spending time with her husband, two children and many pets. Some of her hobbies include kayaking, crocheting, gardening, and bird watching.
Diego Salas-Benito, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Elijah Darnell, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Eli is from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He completed his undergraduate degree at Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana) before moving west to spend several years as a research technician in an immunology lab at UCSF. He migrated back to the Midwest to attend medical school at the University of Chicago, moving yet again to do his internal medicine residency training at MGH. He is currently an upper-level fellow in the MGH/Dana-Farber medical oncology program. Eli joined the Maus lab in 2022 to pursue his interests in cellular therapy, lymphoma, and translational investigation. In the lab, he works on novel cell therapy techniques to circumvent resistance in hematologic malignancies, as well as translational analysis of T cell exhaustion in cellular therapy patients.
Emily Schneider
PhD Graduate Student
Emily Silva, MS
Lab Manager
Felix Korell, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Felix is a physician from Germany and is currently working as a fellow in the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at MGH. He spent his childhood in his home city of Munich and in Düsseldorf. After completing his pre-medical studies at the University of Marburg, he earned his medical degree at the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2018. Since then, he has been a resident in Hematology and Oncology at the University Hospital Heidelberg. In the Maus Lab, Felix aims to improve the design and further evaluation of next generation CAR T cells as immunotherapy for patients with cancer while also trying to enhance their functionality and widen the field of application. His favorite activities are skiing and hiking. His favorite quote is “Things are only impossible until they are not.”
Filippo Birocchi, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Filippo grew up in Ligurian Riviera, Italy. He graduated in Biotechnology and later in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the University of Genova (Italy). In 2017 he joined Luigi Naldini’s Lab at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (Milan, Italy) for his PhD. During his experience in Naldini’s Lab, he focused his studies on the development of an inducible tumor-targeted delivery gene therapy platform for the treatment of Glioblastoma. Currently, he is working on novel chemokine-based technologies to increase the infiltration and function of CAR-T cells in solid tumors. He is a foodie, and he likes to think he is the best Italian cook in town. He is crazy about any type of treasure hunt: mushroom hunting, vintage stores, crime investigations, and obviously research!
Giulia Escobar, PhD
Director of Preclinical Research
Hannah Donner
Undergraduate Student
Hannah is from Bethesda, Maryland is currently an undergraduate student at MIT studying biological engineering. In the Maus lab, she is involved in projects developing novel strategies to improve CAR T cell performance in solid tumors. In her free time, Hannah enjoys diving for the MIT varsity swim and dive team and biking around Boston.
Hannah Nolan
Research Technician, IML
Hana Takei
Research Technician I
Hana was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She completed her undergraduate studies in Chemistry (Biology track) at Brown University. She started as a Technician in the Maus lab in July 2022 and has been loving the fast-paced nature of the laboratory thus far. She is working primarily on developing solid-tumor CAR T cell therapies. During her spare time, Hana loves exploring Boston, running, and reading/watching true crime.
Kathleen Gallagher, PhD
Director of the Immune Monitoring Lab
Kiana Graham
Research Technician, IML
Lu Huang, PhD
Clinical Research Project Manager
Magdi Elsallab, MD, PhD
Regulatory Program Fellow
Magdi grew up in Mansoura, Egypt, where he also attended college and medical school. After that, he moved to Berlin, Germany, for his Ph.D. in regenerative therapies. Prior to joining the Maus lab, Magdi held a number of positions in good manufacturing practice (GMP) facilities, including production manager and regulatory affairs specialist. He is interested in process development, manufacturing, and the regulation of cell and gene therapies. Currently, he is working on the distributed manufacturing of CAR T cells and the process development of exciting new CAR T cell innovations. In his free time, Magdi enjoys photography, cooking, and drumming.
Mark Leick, MD
Instructor
Mark grew up in Tucson, Arizona and completed undergraduate degrees in bioengineering, biochemistry, and molecular biology before heading to Georgetown for medical school. He did his residency training in internal medicine training in the Johns Hopkins Osler program before matching into the joint medical oncology fellowship at MGH/DFCI. During his first year of fellowship, he developed an interest in bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapies and joined the Maus lab in 2018 with a focus on acute myeloid leukemia as well as translational investigations into FDA approved CAR-T cell products. He now splits his time between the lab and caring for BMT and CAR-T patients.
A former Sweetgreen ‘black status’ achiever and member of the salad bourgeoisie –Mark was devastated to learn about the dissolution of the Sweetgreen loyalty program and is now reduced to independently trying to manage his habit. When he’s not in the lab you will invariably find him doing something active involving weights +/- buried deep in a thought-provoking audiobook.
Merle Phillips
PhD Graduate Student
Merle grew up in the small town of Gower, MO. He then attended college at Missouri Western State University and earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Mathematics. He is now a PhD candidate in the Program in Biological and Biomedical Science at Harvard Medical School. He joined the Maus lab in January of 2022 and is interested in using synthetic biology to generate CAR T cells that overcome barriers to long-term proliferation and persistence, such as T cell exhaustion and antigen-dependent proliferation. In his spare time, Merle likes to paint, read, and explore the greater Boston metro area with his partner and their min-pin, Frtiz.
Sadie Goncalves
Research Animal Technician II
Sangwoo (Steven) Park, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sangwoo grew up in Changwon, South Korea. He completed his undergraduate degree in Physics at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). During his education, he served as an emergency medical technician and firefighter for his military service in South Korea for two years. He then moved to Ithaca, New York for his PhD in Biophysics at Cornell University. He then joined Matthew Paszek’s lab to develop advanced microscopy techniques and study the biophysical properties of a sugar-coating layer called glycocalyx. In 2023, he moved to Boston for his postdoctoral studies in Marcela Maus’s lab. He is working on developing novel CAR-T cell therapies for solid tumors. He enjoys driving cars and spending time with his cat, Pooka, derived from the reverse of Cappuccino (ppu-ca).
Tamina Kienka
MD, PhD Graduate Student
Trisha Berger, PhD
Director of Scientific & Medical Communications
Valentina Supper
Research Technician I
Valentina was born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, and completed her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida. She joined the Maus lab as a technician in August 2022 and has been involved in work evaluating novel CAR constructs targeting solid and liquid tumors. In her time off, Valentina loves to spend her time on the water kitesurfing or in the mountains hiking, skiing, or mountain biking. You can also catch her enjoying a sunset run or picnic on the Charles River!
Won-Ho Lee
Research Technician, IML
Won-Ho grew up in Amherst, MA, and attended Yale College for his undergraduate degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. He started working in the IML lab in June 2022 as a research technician and is interested in epigenetic mechanisms of CAR-T functional impairment in B-cell lymphomas. His hobbies include playing soccer and reading.