Unconventional T cells drive new cancer immunotherapy research

The Wistar Institute has appointed immunologist Murad Mamedov as Assistant Professor in its Center for Advanced Therapeutics, strengthening efforts to develop next-generation cancer immunotherapies based on unconventional T cells.

Mamedov’s research focuses on gamma-delta T cells, a lesser-studied class of immune cells that detect cellular stress signals linked to cancer, infection and metabolic disruption. Unlike conventional CD4 and CD8 T cells, these immune cells are thought to recognise a broader range of disease-related changes in tissue biology.

At Wistar, he will use CRISPR-based genome editing tools to map how gamma-delta T cells identify cancer cells and to uncover new molecular targets that could be harnessed for therapy. The work aims to improve both the understanding and engineering of these immune cells for potential clinical use.

“We sit at the intersection of early-stage discovery and therapeutic development,” said Paul M. Lieberman, Director of the Center for Advanced Therapeutics at Wistar. “Murad’s expertise in gamma-delta T cells and genome editing will be central to expanding this emerging area of cancer immunotherapy.”

Mamedov joins from postdoctoral research at the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California, San Francisco, where he applied large-scale CRISPR screening approaches to investigate how the human immune system recognises cancer.

His earlier work at Stanford University focused on T cell biology under the supervision of leading immunology researchers, shaping his interest in unconventional immune cell populations.

Speaking on his appointment, Mamedov said the combination of CRISPR screening and gamma-delta T cell biology offers a powerful route to identifying therapeutic targets that were previously difficult to study at scale.

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