Immunology · Cell & Gene Therapy
Engineering the next generation of CAR-T therapies.
Hover or tap a point to read what it represents.
Currently open to PhD, research/TA, and industry roles in cell & gene therapy — while pursuing academic opportunities.
Research
Why the tumor microenvironment is the real opponent
A quick primer for fellow CAR-T enthusiasts, plus where my own work sits inside it.
My interest in T cell exhaustion didn’t start in a seminar room. It started on the manufacturing floor — running QC on autologous CAR-T products, I kept seeing the same pattern: viability and cell numbers dropping in products from older, heavily pre-treated patients. Exhaustion, showing up before the cells even leave the clinic. That’s the question I want to spend a PhD on.
The same pressure shows up inside the tumor. The tumor microenvironment is immunosuppressive by design — hypoxia, inhibitory cytokines, metabolic competition — and it pushes infiltrating T cells toward exhaustion. That’s a large part of why solid tumors have been so much harder for CAR-T than blood cancers.
One lever I’m drawn to is JAK/STAT signaling, downstream of the cytokine receptors that shape T-cell fate — first explored during a Master’s rotation on STAT3, now a possible route to reprogram how a CAR-T cell reads a hostile microenvironment. But two questions come first: do we fully understand why second-generation CARs — still the only ones in the clinic — work the way they do? And why haven’t TRUCKs translated, despite the preclinical logic? That’s what I want to build a PhD around.
Current focus
T cell exhaustion in the TME
Understanding why T cells lose function inside the tumor microenvironment, and testing JAK/STAT remodeling as one possible way to help CAR-T cells resist that trajectory.
Cytokine receptor → JAK/STAT → T-cell
Most days, the honest version is smaller: an SOP says the process is finished, and I can’t stop asking why the result still isn’t.
Technical expertise
From bench mechanism to cleanroom manufacturing
A working scientist’s toolkit — built across academic labs and a GMP-regulated industry environment.
Flow cytometry & phenotyping
ISO 13485 qualification and routine operation of clinical flow cytometry (Navios), with daily T-cell immunophenotyping. My strongest technical skill.
Cell culture
Primary and clinical-grade cell culture across academic and GMP settings — from 3D organoid systems to autologous CAR-T products.
GMP cell manufacturing
Cleanroom production of autologous CAR-T products, SOP authorship under ALCOA+, and day-to-day quality operations in a regulated environment.
3D airway epithelium modeling
Air–liquid interface (ALI) organoid culture, at Universität Ulm, for modeling tissue context in epithelial and immune-cell response.
Molecular & vector engineering
STAT3 gain-of-function mutagenesis and AAV vector handling, from two Master’s rotations at UMG Göttingen and DPZ Göttingen.
Regulated documentation
Writing and maintaining SOPs and quality documentation to ALCOA+ data-integrity standards in a clinical manufacturing setting.
Building toward
Skills I’m actively growing into for the next stage of my research — and looking for a PhD environment that will help me build.
scRNA-seq & omics
In vivo mouse models
ELISA-based assays
Publishing & scientific engagement
Experience
Where the work has happened
Present — Cologne
Cell Therapy Process & Quality Specialist, Cellex CMT GmbH
GMP cleanroom manufacturing of autologous CAR-T products, including CD19-targeting and BCMA-targeting. Daily flow cytometry and T-cell phenotyping; SOP authorship under ALCOA+.
After the Master’s
Universität Ulm – research assistant
Airway epithelium molecular biology, using 3D air–liquid interface (ALI) organoid culture to model tissue context in epithelial and immune-cell function.
Master’s, cardiovascular focus — Göttingen
Rotations & thesis
First rotation at UMG Göttingen: STAT3 mutagenesis for gain-of-function cytokine signaling. Second rotation at the German Primate Center (DPZ): lentiviral and AAV vector handling. Thesis: optogenetic control of cardiac angiogenesis.
Bachelor’s
Biology / Biotechnology – University of Montenegro
Foundational training across molecular and cell biology, the starting point for everything since.
Resources (for the CAR-T community)
Resources, built for anyone learning this field
series
100 Days of CAR-T
A daily microlearning series on CAR-T biology, engineering, and manufacturing – one concept at a time.
series
100 Days of Immunology
The foundational companion series, for anone building up immunology fundamentals from the ground up.
INITIATIVE
Immunocards
An illustrated, card-based way to learn immune-cell biology – visual, memorable, and easy to share.
INVITED GUEST LECTURE
CAR-T manufacturing and bench to bed application
A talk on 03.04.2026.
Leadership
Building the NRW cell & gene therapy community
As Lead Communications Activator for Nucleate Germany 2026, and NRW Nucleate member I coordinate the regional community around cell and gene therapy (biotech) — connecting scientists, founders and students across North Rhine-Westphalia’s growing biotech ecosystem.
It’s the same instinct that drives the teaching projects above: this field moves faster when the people in it are actually talking to each other.
Where this is going
I have a research question I can’t stop thinking about, a read of the literature that got me there, and a clear sense of what I don’t yet know how to test.
I don’t have a lab or a mentor for this yet. That’s what I’m looking for — a PI who wants to help me find out whether it holds up, and who’s willing to train me properly while we do.
Looking for a PhD mentor
T cell biology in the TME
Publishing & scientific community
Open to co-developing the question
Contact
Let’s talk CAR-T
Open to conversations with PIs, collaborators, and fellow CAR-T researchers — especially around PhD and academic opportunities in armored CAR-T engineering.
Direct:
Email ()
LinkedIn
´Book a call´
Documents:
Download CV (PDF)
Presentations & publications
Writing