Meet the Team

PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR

Jason Lohmueller

Dr. Jason Lohmueller is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology. Jason is an avid synthetic biologist and immunologist who found his love for engineering biology in the iGEM program. Jason obtained his B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University in 2007 and as an undergraduate conducted BioE research in the lab of Jeffrey Morgan and evolutionary biology research in the lab of Eric S. Lander mentored by Pardis Sabeti at the Broad Insitute. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2013 from Pamela Silver’s lab engineering mammalian synthetic gene networks. He then conducted his postdoctoral training in Olivera Finn’s lab at the University of Pittsburgh developing monoclonal antibody and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell cancer immunotherapies, funded by an American Cancer Society fellowship. Dr. Lohmueller launched his independent laboratory in 2019 at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. The lab focuses on engineering synthetic receptors and gene circuits to improve adoptive cell therapies.

FACULTY

  • RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
    I received my PhD in Medical Sciences and Biotechnology in April 2017 from the University of Piemonte Orientale in Italy, studying the regulation of DGK-alpha in controlling activated T cell fate, and its role in regulating the intracellular trafficking of transmembrane receptors. I joined the Lohmueller Lab in January 2020 as a Post Doc associate and have been promoted in 2024 to Research Assistant Professor. My research focus includes universal CAR T cells including human tumor xenograft mouse models. In my spare time I love playing volleyball, tennis and baking. I enjoy hiking, swimming, visiting museum and spending time with my friends.

  • GRADUATE STUDENT

    Yuhan Wu is a medical school student from Tsinghua University, China. She finished her basic medicine coursework in China and joined the Lohmueller lab in 2023 as a visiting scholar as part of her medical school program. She focuses on making CAR T cells using non-genomic methods. She's a crazy runner and enjoys exploring new routes for running.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

  • GRADUATE STUDENT, TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY

    PhD student, Tsinghua University of Medicine; Visiting scholar, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

    Project name:

    Engineering sustained and tumor-specific therapeutic gene expression by CAR T cells via a synthetic feedforward gene circuit

  • GRADUATE STUDENT

    Michael is a PhD student in the ISB Program.

  • GRADUATE STUDENT

    Victor So is a graduate student in the Pitt/CMU Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology PhD program. His research interests are protein engineering and synthetic biology. Victor completed his undergraduate degree in Microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh where he worked as an undergraduate student in Dr. Seth Childers lab and participated for 2 years on Pitt's iGEM team. Victor joined the Lohmueller lab in 2021 where he works on the use of synthetic biology to expand CAR T cell signaling capabilities. He enjoys rock climbing and exploring new restaurants in his free time.

  • GRADUATE STUDENT

    Avani is a PhD student in Program in Microbiology and Immunology (PMI) at the University of Pittsburgh. Avani is originally from Mumbai, India where she is a registered pharmacist and she continued to gain in depth knowledge in Pharmaceutical Sciences as a master’s student at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. After earning her MS, Avani gained experience of working in biotech companies which focused on Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy in Cambridge, MA. Avani’s project as a graduate student focuses on using alternative adaptors to target Universal CARs. When not doing lab work, Avani enjoys cooking and hosting friends, working out, and is always down to try new restaurants in and around the city.

LAB ALUMNI

Eric L. Adams, MD

Rachel Wills, PhD