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Email

glenna.foight@bcm.edu

Positions

Assistant Professor

Center for Cell and Gene Therapy
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
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Houston, US

Member

Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
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Houston, TX

Member

Chemical Physical & Structural Biology Graduate Program
Immunology & Microbiology Graduate Program
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Addresses

Office (Office)

1102 BATES
Suite 1770
Houston, TX 77030
United States

Education

Postdoctoral Training at University of Washington

12/2018 - Seattle, Washington United States

PhD from MIT

09/2015 - Cambridge, Massachusetts United States

Biology

BS from North Carolina State University

05/2009 - Raleigh, North Carolina United States

Biochemistry

Professional Interests

• Cellular immunotherapy
• Mammalian synthetic biology
• Protein design and engineering
• Transcription factor networks

Professional Statement

The Foight lab develops new molecular interventions to improve the control and performance of immune cell therapies. To create these new enhancements for engineered cell therapies, we use approaches from protein engineering and design, mammalian synthetic biology, and immune cell engineering. Cellular therapies offer an exciting prospect for treatment of cancer and other diseases. Achieving more effective cellular therapies requires exquisite control of the functional, disease-fighting state of the cell type being employed.

The transcription factor networks underlying T-cell exhaustion, memory, and effector states have been extensively characterized in recent years. Genetically engineered T-cell therapies offer the opportunity to encode proteins to regulate these networks to favor the most functional T-cell states for fighting tumors. Cell therapies need to be able to dynamically adapt to changes in their environment, such as the harsh conditions found in the tumor microenvironment. Our goal is to create new molecular technologies to enable dynamic reprogramming of transcription factor networks, starting with T cells, and expanding to other types of immune cells or stem cell platforms for cell therapy.

Websites

Selected Publications

• Foight, G.W., Wang, Z., Wei, C.T., Greisen, P.J., Warner, K., Cunningham-Bryant, D., Park, K., Brunette, T.J., Sheffler, W., Baker, D., & Maly, D.J. "." Nat Biotechnol. 2019;37(10):1209-1216. Pubmed PMID:
• Foight, G.W., & Keating, A.E. "." Protein Sci.. 2016;25:1273-1289. Pubmed PMID:
• Foight, G.W., Ryan, J.A., Gullá, S., Letai, A., & Keating, A.E. "." ACS Chem Bio. 2014;9(9):1962-1968. Pubmed PMID:
• Foight, G.W., & Keating, A.E. "." J Mol Bio. 2015;427:2468-2490. Pubmed PMID:

Intellectual Property

Product Patent #62/775,171 (Pending)