CCI Seminar: “Engineering self-amplifying RNA and CAR T cells” (Wilson Wong, Boston University)

Wilson Wong

Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Biological Design Center, Boston University

Dr. Wilson Wong is an Assistant Professor for Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. He obtained his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and his Bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. His reserach interests are in applying metabolic engineering and immune cell engineering to rapidly and predictably engineer desired properties in human immune cells to treat diseases.

Research Synopsis:

mRNA and CAR T cells are revolutionary therapeutic technologies.  In this talk, we will share our recent discovery on minimizing the immunogenicity of self-amplifying RNA, leading to prolonged gene expression in vivo and enabling us to develop a highly potent COVID vaccine that outperforms mRNA in a live virus challenge study in mice.  Our discovery will serve as a powerful platform for developing other vaccines and gene therapies.  If time permits, we will also share our recent work on engineering a nanofiber mesh that can be surgically implanted onto tumors to allow local delivery of an activating adaptor molecule to CAR T cells, enabling highly specific tumor eradication without off-target toxicity in a mouse on-target-off-tumor model.