Our Team

Etienne is a postdoctoral fellow from France.

During his Ph.D., he investigated the transcriptional programs supporting the differentiation and anti-tumor properties of CD4 helper T cells.

He joined the Kamphorst lab in 2018 with a strong interest in understanding how chronic antigen stimulation, such as in cancer, alters T cell function.

Taking advantage of mouse models of chronic viral infection and tumor, he studies how costimulatory molecules modulate maintenance and differentiation of exhausted CD8 T cells.

Verena is a joint postdoctoral fellow in the Kamphorst and Homann labs in the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai.

Her research interests focus on the induction, regulation, and modulation of CD8 T cell responses in the context of acute and chronic viral infection as well autoimmune disease.

Verena investigates how contact with antigen-presenting cells shapes the differentiation and maintenance of specific CD8 T cells during chronic antigen exposure.

Abishek is a Ph.D. Student in Immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

He studies the differentiation of PD-1+ CD8 T cells into functional effector-like cells, including the helper role of CD4 T cells in the context of cancer and chronic infections.

Before joining graduate school. He earned his Masters's in Biotechnology and further worked on developing and generating CAR T cells, CAR-NK Cells, and Bispecific T-Cell Engagers for different immunotherapy modalities.

He enjoys trail running and scuba diving.

Isabel is an Associate Researcher and the newest member of the Kamphorst Lab.

She has bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Chicago. As an undergraduate, she worked in a nephrology lab, where she wrote her undergraduate thesis on kidney organoid models for polycystic kidney disease.

Isabel is excited to do research in immunology and study the factors modulating T-cell exhaustion in the context of cancer and chronic illness.

Nataliya is a postdoctoral fellow from Atlanta, GA

She completed her PhD at Emory University in the Kissick lab. Focusing on CD8 T cell differentiation in response to cancer, specifically on tumor-specific CD8 T cell activation within tumor-draining lymph nodes.

Her research interests focus is on understanding how CD8 T cell function is altered by the tumor microenvironment. She is working on how signals from antigen presenting cells and helper CD4s effect CD8 T cell differentiation and function in both cancer and chronic viral infections.