Team

The Yarmarkovich lab is comprised of domain experts across protein engineering, computational biology, immune engineering, CAR engineering, cancer biology, immunology and gene therapy. Our team brings unique perspectives and expertise from 14 different countries with a common focus on developing new immunotherapies for cancer patients.

Mark Yarmarkovich, PhD

Principal Investigator

Assistant Professor

NYU School of Medicine

Dr. Mark Yarmarkovich leads a lab focused on developing safe and effective cancer immunotherapies through innovations in biotechnology. He has worked across disciplines including: oncology, protein engineering, immunology, immuno-oncology, structural biology and computational biology. He has worked in industry at Genentech and completed his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and postdoctoral work with John Maris at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He has applied these multidisciplinary experiences to addressing the major challenges in developing the next generation of immunotherapies.

He has led the development of new technologies for the discovery of tumor-specific targets and the engineering of target-specific receptors. He spearheaded the development of new therapies from target discovery, to receptor engineering to clinical trials, leading the discovery and targeting of novel immunotherapy targets derived from previously undruggable oncoproteins and pioneering a new class of peptide-centric (PC)-CAR T cells against these targets.

Dr. Yarmarkovich led the discovery of cross-HLA recognition of PC-CAR T cells, allowing for significantly expanded application of immunotherapies. Collectively, the application of his efforts has resulted in a PC-CAR T cells entering first-in-class clinical trial in pediatric neuroblastoma in 2025 and a pipeline of PC-CARs being additional cancers. His work has led to the formation of two companies and he is the recipient of the STAT Wunderkind Award, the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award and the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize. He leads a lab focused on developing the next generation of immunotherapies with the goal of being able to offer safe and potent therapies any cancer patient.

Team Members

Rachel Yamin, PhD

Senior Scientist

profile bio in progress ... ...

Jason Tang, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jason is a biochemist – specialized in engineering proteins through large combinatorial libraries and is branching into the use of new computational tools to assist in rapid protein design. Jason completed his PhD training between 2018 and 2023 in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto where he had the unique opportunity to train under several mentors. As such, Jason has worked on many projects: developing protein-based tools to inhibit the proteasome, on the discovery of new autophagy proteins, targeted-protein degradation, and the design of proteins for the recognition of methylation and efficient gene repression. His goal is to apply his excitement for engineered proteins and his experience from other fields to advance CAR T therapy, while gaining independence as a researcher. (Although he has many other projects to apply in other diseases) Apart from research, you can find Jason trying to replicate food he ate from restaurants, playing badminton, biking, and fishing.

Minkyung Kim

Lab Manager

Minkyung graduated from University of Florida in 2018 majoring in Biology with a concentration in veterinary medicine. She's worked as a veterinary and nurse technician where she grew her passion for working in medicine. After working in inpatient rehabilitation working with variety of patients with different comorbidities such as oncological, neurologic, cardiac, and musculoskeletal injuries and through working closely with pediatric oncology patients, she wishes to pursue a doctorate degree in pediatric oncology. With the Yarmarkovich Lab, she wishes to learn and pursue her interest in cancer immunotherapy. In her spare time, Minkyung likes to cuddle with her cats Dwight and Mo with a nice book, or go to the gym to lift weights with her friends.

Xinya Liu

PhD Candidate

Xinya is from Wuhan, China. He did his undergraduate studies in biotechnology at Guangdong Technion before attending the biotechnology M.S. program at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. His previous research was about nanoplasmonic immunoassay microarray chips, where he accumulated relevant knowledge of cancer treatment and CAR T therapy. He's interested in CAR T therapy, and his current project is developing a logic-gated CAR/BiTE platform. Outside of work, his interests are working out and video games.

Seyed Morteza Mahmoudi, MD

MD Fellow

profile bio in progress ... ...

Christoph Neumayer, PhD

Senior Scientist

Chris is a translational tumor biologist developing CAR-T therapies in collaboration with Umamaheswar Duvvuri. He completed his undergraduate studies in Molecular Biotechnology at the Technical University Munich in Germany. He completed his PhD at the Rockefeller University in New York developing RNA therapeutics for a pediatric liver cancer and developed surface proteomics to identify new immunotherapy targets. In his free time, he is a competitive pool player and avid rock climber and likes to chase his cats Bunbun and TabbyTab.

Darren Taylor, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Darren is a geneticist who specializes in transposable elements. He completed his undergraduate studies in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Leeds. He has also gained industrial experience at GSK and AstraZeneca, working on 3D liver models and Influenza vaccine development, respectively. Following his time in industry he completed his PhD with Dr Miguel Branco developing a novel technique to map epigenomic data to individual transposable element copies. Subsequently, he investigated the role of transposons in senescence and early development at the Laboratory of Medical Sciences with Dr Michelle Percharde. In his free time, he enjoys live music, hiking, cycling, skiing, swimming and cuddling with his cat, King.

Omar Uriel Guzman-Bringas

Research Associate

Uriel earned his degree as a Pharmaceutical Chemist Biologist from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in 2017. His undergraduate thesis focused on isolating human CDRH3 sequences from healthy donors to construct a semi-synthetic antibody library. Since then, Uriel has specialized in phage display technologies and therapeutic antibody development. As an analytical chemist, he contributed to the development and validation of new phage display libraries, and to the discovery of novel therapeutic antibodies against multiple targets, including TNF-α, Chikungunya virus, CD20, CD36, and hPD-1. He worked on the development of therapeutic antibodies against COVID-19 in Mexico and also participated in creating a diagnostic kit to detect anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG in patient serum. He later served as Head of the Discovery of Therapeutic Antibodies Area, leading international efforts to identify antibodies against targets of therapeutic interest. His current research in the Yarmarkovich lab focuses on developing novel discovery panning protocols using phage display libraries and performing phage-level screening techniques (ELISAs) to identify enrichment of potential binders against cancer-related peptides presented on HLA Class I molecules and subsequently converting those binders into PC-CAR T-cell format to perform functional assays against different types of cancer cell lines. Personal interests: In his free time, Uriel enjoys exploring new places and connecting with nature. He also likes learning and trying new recipes. One of his favorite hobbies is dancing salsa with friends and doing karaoke.

Douglas Shea

MD/PhD Candidate

Doug received a Sc.B. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Brown University in 2019 and studied the architecture of the nucleosome core particle in the lab of Sarah Delaney. After graduation, they spent two years as a Research Associate at the Broad Institute working with Viktor Adalsteinsson to chemically optimize circulating tumor DNA extracted from blood for next generation sequencing-based solid tumor diagnostic technology. He matriculated to the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in 2021 and has completed the majority of their medical degree. His clinical interests include pediatrics as viewed through the lens of the complex identities, interpersonal relationships, and lived experience every child (and family!) possesses and informs their unique needs from the healthcare system. Doug has had leadership positions in the LGBTQIA2S+ affinity groups of NYU’s medical school, graduate school, and MD/PhD program as well as NYYGSoM’s Student Diversity Initiative. In the summer of 2024, Doug joined the Yarmarkovich group as PhD student and is excited to investigate how the intrinsic capacity of T cells to effect tissue-specific and enduring biological change can be modulated by creatively harnessing biochemical components of related or unrelated biological systems to develop the next generation of cell-based therapies for a myriad of diseases. Doug deeply enjoys living in New York City and frequents many parks, restaurants, thrift stores, theaters, and running paths across the different boroughs.

Michele Palamenghi, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Michele Palamenghi graduated in 2017 in “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” at the University of Pavia, Italy. Here, Michele started to grow interest in the combined use of cell and gene therapy to treat different types of diseases. This led him to enroll to the “Regenerative and Molecular Medicine” PhD program at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, under the supervision of Professor De Luca, where in 2021 he graduated. During his PhD, Michele participated to the development of novel safety assays and gene therapy approaches to tackle rare genetic epithelial disorders, such as epidermolysis bullosa and ectrodactyly-ectodermal dysplasia clefting syndrome (EEC). In this time, he was able to use his passion for art to draw several of the scientific article illustrations that were published by De Luca’s lab.

Ritchlynn Aranha, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

profile bio in progress ... ...

Aman Sharma

Research Associate

Aman is from India. He has the academic background in Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology. He earned his Master’s degree from IIT Madras, and his Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from VIT Vellore. For his Master's thesis, Aman delved into a research project titled "Production of Omega-3 & 6 Fatty Acids from Supplement of Lactic Fermented Culture & Stoichiometric-Modelling-Based Analysis of Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) Production", conducted in collaboration with Polytech Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France. Currently, Aman's research interests lie at the intersection of cancer biology, bioinformatics, and immunology. In his leisure time, Aman enjoys immersing himself in the world of entertainment, often found binging Netflix. Additionally, he has a keen interest in culinary exploration.

William Aguilar

Research Associate

William is a bioengineer specializing in immunotherapy and translational oncology. His work focuses on the development of next generation cancer therapeutics, including CAR-T cell engineering, bispecific antibody platforms, and recombinant protein development. He earned a Bachelor of Science in molecular biology from John Jay College, where his research centered on the development of chemotherapeutic agents targeting p53 deficient cancers. He later completed a Master of Science in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where his work focused on CAR-T cell and antibody based strategies targeting cancer-specific glycans. He aspires to co-found a startup dedicated to the development of cancer specific therapeutics involving antibody discovery and CAR-T therapies. Outside of the lab, William enjoys playing video games and teaching his dogs to coexist peacefully with his cats.