The Maciocia Lab, Christmas 2025
A multidisciplinary team of scientists, clinicians, and engineers developing curative immunotherapies for cancer.
The Maciocia Lab, Christmas 2025
Associate Professor & Honorary Consultant Haematologist
Paul is a clinician-scientist who splits his time between treating patients with lymphoma and CAR-T cell therapy at UCLH, and running a translational research lab at the UCL Cancer Institute.
His lab focuses on developing new CAR-T therapies for cancers that don't yet have good treatment options — particularly T cell malignancies, where the shared biology between the therapy and the disease creates unique challenges. His group's work on targeting TRBC1, published in Nature Medicine, led to a first-in-human clinical trial that has shown real promise for patients with T cell lymphoma.
Paul trained in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, completed his PhD at UCL, and holds a CRUK Clinician Scientist Fellowship (2021–2026). He is passionate about getting lab discoveries to patients as quickly as possible, and about making sure patients have a voice in shaping research from the very beginning.
Clinical Senior Research Fellow & Honorary Consultant Haematologist/Transplant Physician, UCLH
Nicola works on CAR-T cell therapies for T-ALL. She led the preclinical development of anti-CD21 CAR-T cells, published in Science Translational Medicine (2025), and is translating novel CAR-T approaches into clinical trials for children and adults with T cell leukaemia. Funded by the UCL/UCLH Biomedical Research Centre.
Clinical Lecturer
Anjui is developing CAR-T cell therapies for lung cancer, working on strategies to overcome the unique challenges of targeting solid tumours with engineered T cells. Funded by the UCL/UCLH Biomedical Research Centre.
Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Matt leads our metabolic reprogramming programme, investigating how engineering T cell metabolism can create more persistent and effective CAR-T cells. He is also involved in CRISPR screening, CAR-T testing in multiple myeloma, and has interests in solid tumour applications. Funded by Blood Cancer UK (Matthew Wilson Fund).
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Jongwon earned an MSc in genetic engineering and gained experience in the biopharmaceutical industry in Korea before completing his PhD at UCL (2022–2025) in the labs of Paul Maciocia, Lydia Lee, and Kwee Yong. His research focuses on deciphering the mechanisms that govern CAR-T cell persistence within the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment, integrating high-throughput CRISPR screening and advanced animal models to develop the next generation of resilient cellular therapies. Funded by the Medical Research Council.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Merve completed her PhD at the University of Oxford investigating human HSC heterogeneity, followed by postdoctoral research at USC on CAR-T and TCR-T cell therapies. She now designs novel CAR-T cell binders for T-ALL and develops humanised mouse models. Funded by Children with Cancer UK.
PhD Student
Yashvinnie graduated with First Class Honours in BSc Cell and Molecular Biology from Universiti Putra Malaysia (2022), followed by a Distinction in MRes Translational Cancer Medicine from King’s College London (2025). Her PhD uses CRISPR screening to identify metabolic pathways that could enhance the persistence of CAR-T cells in B-ALL. Funded by a Malaysian Government Scholarship.
PhD Student
Malika is developing protein-based approaches for allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy, engineering strategies to create off-the-shelf CAR-T products that avoid immune rejection.
PhD Student
Katie works on T cell immortalisation approaches for CAR-T investigation and allogeneic CAR-T development, in collaboration with Paul Maciocia and Marc Mansour.
PhD Student
Jamie completed his undergraduate degree and MSc at the University of British Columbia, before joining Cancer Research UK as a research assistant where he was awarded a Staff Scholarship to pursue a PhD at UCL. His research focuses on developing novel allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies, with a particular interest in using viral immune evasion proteins to create universal, off-the-shelf products. Funded by the CRUK MBPhD Programme.
Research Assistant
Camilla supports the FRACTALL clinical trial programme and works on CAR-T engineering strategies to overcome tumour kill resistance mechanisms. Funded by the Medical Research Council.
Research Assistant
Eve works on the CAR-T for T-ALL programme, contributing to the development and preclinical testing of next-generation CAR-T approaches for T cell leukaemia. Funded by Blood Cancer UK.
| Name | Years | Role | Next destination |
|---|---|---|---|
| FoongJun Yap | 2022–2025 | MBPhD Student | UCL Medical Curriculum |
| Brandon Wade | 2022–2025 | Research Assistant | PhD, UCL |
| Ciaran Acuna | 2023–2026 | Research Assistant | MRC DTP PhD, UCL |
| Saumya Ramanayake | 2022–2023 | Research Assistant | NHS Laboratory |
| Sam Devereaux | 2022–2023 | Research Assistant | PhD, UCL |
| Thanes Karpanasamy | 2019–2022 | Research Assistant | PhD, QMUL |
| Amy Burley | 2019–2022 | Research Assistant | PhD, ICR |
| Leo Kassimatis | 2018–2019 | Research Assistant | Autolus Therapeutics |