Michael Henneresse

My lab focuses on engineering human T cell responses to function in complex clinical environments.

We design T cells to retain function, safety, and lineage stability under clinically relevant stress. Our work focuses on the biological factors that constrain T cell function, including inflammation, immunosuppression, and tissue-specific signals, and on engineering strategies to control T cell function in these settings.

To address this, we combine mechanistic immunology with genome and RNA engineering to program T cell function, persistence, and tissue behavior. We use patient-derived organoid and tumoroid systems to evaluate engineered immune cells in human tissue contexts and identify failure modes prior to clinical application.

Overall, our work bridges immune engineering and clinical translation by developing therapies that are robust, controlled, and scalable across transplantation, cancer, and infectious disease.

Selected Publications

Ehlen L*, Farrera-Sal M* et al. Lung tumoroids as a testing platform for precision CAR T-cell therapy. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2026.

Schulenberg S et al. Multi-parametric profiling of IL-7-augmented GD2.CART products to assess product performance in a phase I clinical trial. iScience, 2025.

Wendering DL*, Amini L* et al. Effector-memory-type Regulatory T cells Display Phenotypic and Functional Instability. Science Advances, 2024.

Vollmer T et al. The Intra-tumoral CXCR3 Chemokine System Is Predictive of Chemotherapy Response in Human Bladder Cancer. Science Translational Medicine, 2021.

Amini L et al. CRISPR-Cas-edited Tacrolimus-resistant antiviral T-cells for advanced adoptive immunotherapy in transplant recipients. Molecular Therapy, 2020.

Wagner DL et al. High prevalence of S. pyogenes Cas9-reactive T-cells within the adult human population. Nature Medicine, 2019.

Selected Collaborative Contributions

McCallion O, Du W, Glaser V et al. HLA matching or CRISPR editing of HLA class I/II enables engraftment and effective function of allogeneic human regulatory T cell therapy in a humanized mouse transplantation model. Nature Communications, 2025.

Kahwaji N et al. mRNA-based CAR T cell engineering: Unmodified mRNA enables high CAR expression without innate immune activation in T cells. Molecular Therapy: Nucleic Acids, 2025.

Kath J et al. Integration of ζ-deficient CARs into the CD3-zeta gene conveys potent cytotoxicity in T and NK cells. Blood, 2024.

Du W et al. Gene editing of CD3 epsilon gene to redirect regulatory T cells for adoptive T cell transfer. Molecular Therapy, 2025.

Roemhild A et al. Regulatory T cells for minimising immune suppression in kidney transplantation: phase I/IIa clinical trial. BMJ, 2020.