Our Research
In the Roybal Lab, we harness the tools of synthetic and chemical biology to enhance the therapeutic potential of engineered immune cells. We take a comprehensive approach to cellular engineering by developing new synthetic receptors, signal transduction cascades, and cellular response programs to enhance the safety and effectiveness of adoptive cell therapies. We also study the logic of natural cellular signaling systems, and the underlying principles of cellular communication and collective cell behavior during an immune response. These interests are complementary as cell engineering is often informed by knowledge obtained from studying natural mechanisms of cell regulation refined by evolution.
Our Partners
Our People
The Roybal Lab is a dedicated group of students, post-docs, physicians, and staff scientists with diverse backgrounds ranging from basic science to cellular engineering and synthetic immunology. Each member brings expertise in their field to our unique and highly collaborative research environment.
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Recent Lab News
June 2023
This June we welcomed Sarah Wyman as a new Staff Scientist. Sarah earned her PhD from Johns Hopkins and completed her post-doc at Cornell. She then worked in industry for Regeneron and Cell Design Labs/Kite Pharma, focusing on cell signaling in malignant and normal immune cells. She has co-authored Investigational New Drug (IND) Applications for biologics and cell therapies and several patents for a variety of novel synthetic receptors. Sarah has considerable experience that spans academia and industry and we are excited to have her in the Roybal lab.
May 2023
Two-time Roybal lab summer intern Maria Chirinos has always impressed us with her drive and willingness to take on new challenges. From her commitment to her research project, to presenting at SACNAS and ABRCMS, to her academic studies at CCSF, Maria is all in! For this reason, we were overjoyed but also not surprised that she was accepted to Stanford undergrad starting Fall 2023. Congratulations Maria this was well earned and we are so proud of you!
April 2023
This April we welcome two new rotation students, Minna Apostolova and Kamyar Yazdani. Minna is a first-year graduate student in the BMS program. She comes to us from Vanderbilt University where she worked with Dr. Mary Philip to better understand cellular mechanisms of tumor-specific CD8 T cell dysfunction. Minna is currently working with Casey and Julie to test new methods to enhance CAR T cell efficacy against solid tumors. Outside of the lab, she enjoys going on outdoor walks/hikes, making music with friends, skiing, watching movies, and trying new restaurants around the city.
Kamyar is a graduate student from UCSF’s Chemistry and chemical biology program. His previous work has been in developing chemical probes to target nucleic acids. While in the Roybal Lab he is working with Dan Goodman on pooled screening of CAR-T cells. In general he is interested in developing novel therapeutic modalities for cancer … outside of lab he enjoys traveling, hiking, and weightlifting.
March 2023
Congratulations to Jay Daniels for completing his post-doc in the Roybal Lab! During his time at UCSF he worked closely with Julie Garcia and others to advance the CARD11 fusion project, while also developing shRNA libraries with Nate Perry. Prior to joining us as a post-doc, Jay collaborated with our lab while earning his PhD with Jaehyuk Choi, of Northwestern. As a result, Jay’s transition to UCSF was a seamless extension of his previous work. We wish him the best in his new endeavor, which we expect to hear more about soon!