We’re making better cell and gene therapies.
Our lab combines basic research, pre-clinical development, and clinical translation to deliver next generation cell and gene therapies directly to patients.
Developing improved tools for cellular engineering.
Targeted genome engineering tools are revolutionizing our approach to studying disease variants, correcting genetic disorders, and reprogramming cell-based therapeutics. Our team is at the forefront of these innovations, developing novel technologies for precise genome and epigenome modification, multiplex engineering, and improved delivery of therapeutic agents. We use these approaches to create advanced cellular therapies with enhanced safety, purity, potency, and functionality.
Overcoming current challenges in cell therapy manufacturing.
There is enormous potential to enhance the safety and function of cellular therapies through inclusion of novel synthetic receptors, large genetic circuits, and multiplex targeting. However, increases in payload size and engineering complexity lead to lower editing efficiencies, DNA toxicity responses, and heterogenous populations of partially engineered cells. In addition, significant safety concerns have arisen through the demonstration of unintended genetic aberrations, translocations, and other chromosomal abnormalities. To tackle these issues, we leverage high throughput CRISPR screening technologies to understand the critical pathways mediating these responses and we are developing clinically-compatible solutions to enable pure populations of precisely edited cells.
Pre-clinical development for new cellular therapies
Our rapidly iterative pre-clinical pipeline is designed to fast-track cellular engineering technologies from the lab to clinical application. Our Cell Therapy Development (CTD) Lab, equipped with the latest GMP manufacturing technologies, focuses on integrating advanced cellular engineering tools, new delivery platforms, expanding to diverse cell types, and implementing closed-automated manufacturing systems. Products in development include a wide variety of viral and CRISPR engineered T cell and hematopoietic stem cell therapies targeting cancer, infectious disease, inherited immune disorders, and transplant indications.
Clinical manufacturing for next generation cell and gene therapies
We leverage three state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facilities at UCSF to generate advanced cellular therapies for early phase academic trials: the Human Islet and Cellular Transplatation Facility (HICTF), the Pediatric Cellular Therapy Laboratory (PCTL), and the Thermo Fisher Cell Therapy Manufacturing Facility. Our current products include a range of conventional and regulatory T cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and islet cell therapies. We employ diverse viral and non-viral engineering techniques for genome and epigenome modification, capitalizing on synthetic biology and cellular engineering breakthroughs from the Gladstone Institutes, UCSF, and the broader Bay Area scientific community.
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Support Shy Lab
If you are excited about our research and would like to support it through a philanthropic gift, please contact us.
Our People
We’re an experienced team of students, research technicians, postdoctoral fellows, and scientists working in genome engineering, cell therapy development, and GMP manufacturing.
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