Meet the team
Research Teams
Team leader & Lab manager, PhD
Dr. Miriam Alb
Miriam Alb is biomedical scientist by training and has expertise in preclinical models for (CAR) T cell therapies (in vitro/in vivo). She is leading WP2 “Immuno-oncology models” within the EU/IMI project “imSAVAR” (immune safety avatar), a joint industry academia consortium, which aims at improving the preclinical safety assessment of CAR T cell therapy using novel 2D/3D in vitro models, incl. organ on chips and “real-world” datasets from CAR-T patients. In addition, she actively participates in the EU-funded project CERTAINTY (A Cellular Immunotherapy Virtual Twin for Personalised Cancer Treatment) led by Fraunhofer IZI. Furthermore, she will lead WP3 of the BMFTR funded project “METUSALEM” (starting 02/2026) that will investigate long-term and late effects of CAR T cell therapy in multiple myeloma. As lab manager, she oversees the laboratory’s financial and material resources.
PostDoc and Team Leader, PhD
Dr. med. Andoni Garitano Trojaola
Our research focuses on how glycosylation shapes CAR-T cell activity in hematologic cancers and solid tumors. Tumor cells frequently display abnormal glycan patterns that influence how immune cells recognize, engage, and kill their targets. These glycans can act as a protective barrier, affect receptor signaling, and contribute to immune evasion. We aim to understand how specific glycosylation features impact CAR-T cell activation, persistence, and functional exhaustion. By modulating glycan structures on tumor cells or engineering CAR-T cells to better operate within glycan-rich tumor environments, we seek to improve therapeutic precision and durability. Our goal is to translate these insights into next-generation CAR-T designs with enhanced efficacy and broader clinical benefit.
Team leader, PhD
Patrick Ho
The research team of Patrick Ho is primarily focused on applying synthetic biology principles to develop receptor architectures and novel enzymes that adaptively regulate CAR signaling and metabolic activities to regulate T-cell fate decisions.
Patrick Ho earned his Ph.D. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from UCLA, where he worked with Yvonne Chen to enhance CAR-T cell lytic selectivity by replacing natural cytotoxic payloads with engineered switches designed to detect intracellular antigens. He went on to receive postdoctoral training under Jeffrey Bluestone and Qizhi Tang at UCSF, where he applied single-cell multiomic sequencing to elucidate molecular mechanisms underlying inflammatory cytokine-induced instability of Treg identity.
This team is actively recruiting creative, self-driven trainee scientists! Interested masters and medical students should email a brief description of research background and/or interests along with your CV.
PostDoc and Team leader, PhD
Dr. Tamas Rasko
Tamás Raskó is a molecular biologist. The focus of his team’s research is on the utilisation of non-viral, transposon-based gene transfer technologies within the domain of cellular immunotherapy. The primary research focus of his team is the development of existing transposon systems, including the Sleeping Beauty, with the aim of optimising them for the generation of CAR T cells. The team’s objectives also include the enhancement of the vectorization of potential transposon technologies by developing a minicircle cloning system. The research team has devised two strategies to achieve its objectives: increasing the efficiency of transposon systems and improving the safety of transposase-driven gene integration.
