Dr Mark Yarmarkovich

Dr Mark Yarmarkovich's work converges at a longstanding interest in developing safer and more effective therapies for cancer and a fascination with the function of the immune system. Following these interests over the past two decades, he has worked with world leaders in antibody engineering at Genentech and later completed his PhD work at the University of Pennsylvania where the pioneering clinical work on CAR T cells was first done. 

He has built experience across immunology, protein engineering, cancer biology, and computational biology, and has applied his expertise to understanding the immune interface at of peptide/MHC/receptor. Interactions at this immune interface have demonstrated the ability to cure at least subsets of patients through immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and adoptive transfer of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). His work is focused on expanding the population of patients who can benefit from immunotherapies by characterizing and engineering interactions at this interface. 

To date, his work has resulted in the identification of novel targets that are highly specific to tumors, and CAR T cell therapies that can identify these targets in a highly selective manner. These CAR T cells completely eliminate tumors in mice and are slated for human clinical trials next year. His work in the coming years will focus on building on these methods and expanding their application to other cancers.