Ben Biggs Graduate Student
An international student from Sydney, Australia, Ben is currently a PhD student at Johns Hopkins University in the nation’s top biomedical engineering program. His research seeks to harness the power of the immune system to directly combat cancer, uncovering new insights in adoptive T-cell therapy, biomaterial platforms, and molecular strategies. Ben’s current research interests are in altering the metabolism of T cells to promote memory formation, as well as to increase the diversity of T cell repertoires. Ben is driven by the pursuit of more effective, accessible, and personalized cancer therapies for patients across the world to improve the current standard of care.
Funding
- The Quad Fellowship by IIE
- The American Australian Association Graduate Education Scholarship
Projects
- Using MHC-derived peptides to expand antigen-specific T cell populations targeting tumor cells
- Investigating the role of co-stimulatory molecular signaling including LFA-1/ICAM-1 interactions in T cell activation and differentiation
- Applying a novel 3D pillars microstructure platform to enhance antigen-specific T cell expansion for anti-cancer immunotherapy
- Examining the application of metabolism altering drugs to influence TCR signaling, T cell repertoire diversity, and phenotype
- Leveraging an artificial lymph node platform to induce tissue resident memory T cell populations for anti-cancer immunity and surveillance
