TEAM

Marcela Maus, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator

Amanda Bouffard
Veterinary Technician

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.

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.

Diane Brunett
Administrative Assistant

Diego Salas-Benito, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Elba Gonzalez
Research Technician, IML

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 is a Graduate Student in the Maus and Jan Labs.

Emily Silva, MS
Lab Manager
Emily was born and raised in New England and obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Rhode Island before heading to Harvard for her Master’s. Since the Maus lab joined MGH, she has taken on a wide spectrum of roles to ensure that the lab runs efficiently while it continuously grows and evolves. In her free time, Emily can be found on the water, at the beach, or enjoying good food and good laughs with her friends, family, and her dog, Rocco. Her ideal day includes yard work, exercise, a dip in the ocean and watching the sunset while enjoying gyoza.

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!

Hadley Wiggin
Research Technician, IML
Hadley grew up in Southern Maine before moving to Boston to attend Northeastern University. After graduating with a BS in Biology, Hadley joined the Immune Monitoring Lab as a technician. In her role at the IML, she performs sample processing, banking, and database management duties. She is interested in translational research and hopes to pursue this passion through a career in medicine.

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.

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.

Kathleen Gallagher, PhD
Director of the Immune Monitoring Lab

Korneel Grauwet, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Korneel is a Belgian post-doctoral Fellow originating from Bruges. He obtained his Engineering degree in Applied Chemistry at KHBO (Ostend, Belgium) and Engineering degree in Biosciences at the Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium). At UGhent, he also obtained his PhD in immunology and virology. Korneel is interested in improving current immunotherapies for cancer by fine-tuning the therapy to the patients’ immune system. Currently he is working to improve CAR T cell persistence in the patient by hiding the CAR T cells from the patients’ immune system.
In his free time, Korneel manages the Harvard-MIT Belgian Society, an organization to support Belgians Fellows at Harvard and MIT.

Lu Huang, PhD
Clinical Research Project Manager

Marc Wehrli, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

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.

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.

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.

Michael Kann
Research Technician

Rebecca Larson, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Becca recently completed her PhD thesis in the Maus lab as part of the Immunology Graduate Program at Harvard. She grew up in Bridgewater, MA and went to undergrad at Northeastern. She has lived in Boston for 10 years now as a result—she loves this city! Becca worked at Jounce Therapeutics studying cancer immunology with antibody therapies during undergrad and decided to pursue a PhD in the field to deeper her knowledge and one day work to become a project leader in a small biotech startup company. She has a passion for putting together teams and working on projects as a unit and hopes to be able to do this to bring our findings at the lab bench to the clinical bedside. Right now, Becca is working on researching CAR T cell resistance in glioblastoma and dual-targeting therapies in multiple myeloma. Outside of her science life, she likes to teach HIIT dance group fitness workouts, bake, go for long walks on the esplanade, and travel to Europe as much as possible.is

Stefanie Bailey, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Stefanie is a tried-and-true Texan, born in the panhandle and raised in a small town in west Texas called Andrews. She stayed in the desert of west Texas to obtain her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Lubbock Christian University before moving to the beaches of Charleston, SC to pursue her PhD in Immunology from the Medical University of South Carolina. Stefanie’s research focus thus far has been on improving CAR-T therapies in both solid and hematologic malignancies. While her PhD work was centered more on the selection of effective T cell subsets, her postdoctoral focus has been on genetically editing bulk T cells to maintain efficacy but mitigate toxicity in CAR-T patients. Being from Texas, Stef loves all things southern–the heat, Mexican food, college football and all things fried. In her free time, she enjoys reading, running, traveling, and spending time with family. Being near the water–lake, ocean or even thunderstorms–is her happy place.

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.
Away From The Bench



















