Dr. Megan Levings

Investigator and Lead, Childhood Diseases Research Theme, BC Children's Hospital; Professor, Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia 
Research in Dr. Levings's laboratory is focused on a novel subset of CD4+ T cells, termed T regulatory (Treg) cells, which control immune homeostasis.

Current work is focused on determining how Treg cells differ from normal CD4+ T cells at both the biochemical and molecular levels, and elucidating their role in transplantation tolerance, cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. A long-term goal is to develop methods to generate Treg cells in vitro for use as a cellular therapy to replace standard immunosuppression in the context of organ transplantation or to restore tolerance in the context of autoimmunity.

Sabine Ivison

Research Associate and Project Manager, PhD

I majored in microbiology and biochemistry at the University of Muenster, Germany and did my doctoral work (in dubious German) with Paul Tudzynski, studying the role of active oxygen in the pathologic mechanism of the rye pathogen Claviceps purpurea (most notorious for producing the LSD precursor lysergic acid).

As a postdoc in Vancouver I switched to the field of medicine, comparing heat shock protein epitopes in pathogenic and commensal strains of Staphylcococcus- and wondering how the immune system differed between the two (remember flesh eating disease). In my second postdoc with Dr. Ted Steiner, I looked at the influence of stress (ATP, active oxygen) on intestinal cell sensing of bacterial flagellin; did strange (but gentle) things to mice to further the understanding of inflammatory bowel disease. I moved to a research associate position with Kirk Schultz, who specializes in leukemia immunotherapy. In his lab I organized his clinical research trials, ran yet more ELISAs and dabbled a bit on the side in the immunostimulatory properties of mitochondrial DNA, among other things. Finally I have landed in Megan's hardcore adaptive immunology lab where I am all about developing and standardizing assays for the clinical setting. One project aims to stratify patients with autoimmune disease based on likely response to biologicals, another deals with immune monitoring of post-transplant patients by flow cytometry.

My prevailing interest is in the conflict between self and everything that is not self (including altered self-cancer, and somebody else's self-transplant). Which covers just about everything. 

Majid Mojibian

Research and Development Manager, PhD

I began my professional career as a medical laboratory doctor.  My strong interest in research, particularly in immunology, compelled me to enter a PhD program in immunology at the University of Ottawa.  My specific interest in diabetes started when I joined the research team of Dr. Fraser Scott at the Ottawa Health Research Institute. I expanded my technical expertise and knowledge in his laboratory, which has a major focus on understanding diabetes-promoting interactions between dietary antigens, the gut immune system, and the endocrine pancreas.  After receiving my PhD, I trained in the lab of Dr. Timothy Kieffer in the area of developing novel therapies for patients with diabetes. I was privileged to collaborate with our industry partners, enGene, a pioneer in gene delivery technology to mucosal tissue, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen BetaLogics group, an expert in developing human embryonic stem cell-based therapies for treating type 1 diabetes.

In Dr. Levings' team, I manage projects involving laboratory-based research in the area of immune regulation. The projects I work on are focused on translation to clinical applications and the initiation of first-in-human clinical trials in the fields of transplant medicine and autoimmunity. Specifically, my role involves collaborators and working with staff affiliated with industrial funding partners as well as with collaborators who are located at different sites nationally and internationally. 

Rosa Garcia

Lab Manager

Rosa is in charge of the daily operations in the lab, making sure everything runs smoothly. Her research interest is on Tregs in the site of inflammation and the role of inflames microenvironment on the biology of this cells. She is looking for specific markers to distinguish these cells and their mechanism of action.

Jana Gillies

Lab Technician

IPEX is a fatal autoimmune disease caused by a defect in the development of regulatory T cells. The disease results from mutations in FoxP3, a transcription factor which is necessary for the development of regulatory T cells. My project is aimed at understanding how the FoxP3 mutations found in IPEX lead to this regulatory T cell defect.

Jessica Qing Huang

Lab Technician 

My research currently focuses on tissue based T regulatory cells, especially on skin. Skin resident T cells were isolated donors skin biopsy. Treg characterization and cytokines profiles in skin and peripheral blood are examined in scleroderma and GvHD diseases.

Madeleine Speck

Lab Technician

As a lab technician, my role in the lab focuses on in vivo and in vitro studies, from Cell culture to technical assistance in organ transplantation in mouse models. One major project I’m assisting with is looking at Tregs that have been engineered to recognize the human HLA-A2 protein which is very important for matching transplant donors and recipients to prevent the rejection of skin transplants.

And besides taking care of our mouse colonies, I’m also helping with daily operational tasks in the lab.

May Wong

Lab Technician

Antigen recognition by T-cells is crucial for their function. My research focuses on whether engineered antigen recognition by Tregs can rescue their ability to suppress unwanted inflammation and whether antigen specific T-cell responses can be used as a prognostic tool in these incurable diseases.

Vivian Fung

Lab Technician 

In animal models of type 1 diabetes (T1D), injecting regulatory T cells (Tregs) bearing islet specific T cell receptors have been shown to prevent and reduce disease. The Levings’ lab has previously shown Tregs expressing chimeric antigen receptors against HLA-A2 have potent activity and are antigen specific. My research project is to engineer antigen specific Tregs expressing chimeric antigen receptors against T1D-relevant peptide-MHC class II.

Awards: 

• Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s (CGS M) Scholarship
• Canucks for Kids Fund Childhood Diabetes Laboratories Graduate Studentship award (Declined)

Dominic Boardman

Postdoctoral Fellow 

I am interested in the biology of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and how these cells can be used as a therapy to treat inflammatory disorders, autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection. I obtained my PhD from King’s College London where I explored the benefits of using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology to improve the therapeutic efficacy of human Tregs for treating transplant rejection. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Levings’ Lab, I am now investigating how this concept of CAR Treg therapy can be adapted to treat inflammatory bowel disease. I am also researching how novel gene editing techniques (CRISPR) can be used to maximise the efficacy of CAR Tregs and promote their implementation in the clinic.

Awards: 

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowship
• Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) Trainee Award
• Mining for Miracles Postdoctoral Fellowship (Declined)

Isaac Rosado Sanchez

Postdoctoral Fellow

The success of organ transplantation depends on the administration of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ. However, these drugs have many side effects that lead to cancer and infections risk. Alternatively, regulatory T cells (Treg) are suppressive cells that can be used as cellular therapy to tolerate the transplanted organ. Dr Levings’ lab has been a pioneer in the use of Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) to generate organ-specific Treg cells for use as cellular therapy to prevent rejection. My research focuses on optimizing these CAR constructions for their use in Treg therapies, trying to enhance their
effectiveness and safety.

Awards: 

• UBC School of Biomedical Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowship Award
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowship Award
• Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) Trainee Award

Mahdis Monajemi

Postdoctoral Fellow 

I received my MSc in the field of Immunology and Infectious disease from Memorial University, Canada and completed my PhD in the field of Immunology in the Department of Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Canada. My research focuses on developing strategies to prevent allograft rejection of hESCs derived beta cells and enable long-term transplant tolerance. I am also interested to understand how innate and adaptive regulatory cells change the beta-cell regeneration. 

Awards: 

• BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship

Manjurul Haque

Postdoctoral Fellow

I am a trained Veterinary Parasitologist who came to know about the magical regulatory T-cells (Tregs) while working on PhD research at the Institute of Parasitology, McGill. Then, I decided to pursue post-doctoral training in the Levings Lab to know more about Tregs therapy in the context of organ transplantation and autoimmune diseases. My current project involves studying the bystander effect of Treg therapy on the immune response to other systemic infections. Besides this, I love photography, traveling, and fishing.

Awards: 

• BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship

Andrew Brown

PhD student

To better harness their immunosuppressive function, regulatory T cells (Tregs) can be engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) on the cell surface. CARs are designed to recognize and activate Treg immunosuppressive mechanisms upon contact with disease-specific antigens. However, further research is required before CAR Tregs achieve clinical utility, for example, to extend the duration of benefit, reduce donor variability, and increase the safety of administered cells. My PhD research aims to address these challenges using genetic engineering strategies to design CAR-Tregs with minimal risk and optimized disease-specific function. That is, to create "designer" Tregs that are specifically suited to establish immune tolerance for transplantation and autoimmune diseases.

Awards: 

• Anne and John Brown Fellowship in Diabetes and Obesity Related Research

Bruno Freitas

PhD Student

My research is involved in investigating if innate and adaptive immune cells benefit Stem-cell beta cell maturation and engraftment in Type 1 Diabetes. Upon beta cell death in T1D, islet-resident macrophages have been found to shift to a reparative state, enhancing beta cell maturation and function. Further, regulatory T cells (Tregs) support a role in resolving inflammation, stimulating tissue repair and supporting angiogenesis. I am interested to see if macrophages and Tregs can be exploited to improve the regeneration and function of transplanted stem cell-derived beta cells.

Christine Wardell

PhD Candidate

One of the most exciting prospects for curing type 1 diabetes is to replace the patient’s insulin-producing islets, which have been destroyed by an autoimmune response, with islets isolated from a healthy donor. However, the largest barrier to widespread islet transplantation is the risk of transplant rejection. I am investigating whether we can genetically engineer regulatory T cells to protect the transplanted islets from rejection and move islet transplantation one step closer to becoming a reliable cure for type 1 diabetes.

Awards: 

• Canadian Society of Transplantation Research Training Award
• British Columbia Graduate Scholarship
• UBC Four Year Doctoral Fellowship
• BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute Graduate Studentship Award

Katie N. MacDonald

PhD Candidate

We have found that discarded thymuses from children undergoing heart surgery are a rich source of Tregs for cell-based therapy. My research focuses on developing methods to isolate, expand and cryopreserve these cells that can used in clinical applications. I am also interested in investigating new conditions to further enhance Treg growth in culture.

Awards:

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research / Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral Award 

Matthew Budd

PhD student

My project aims combine fundamental elements of data science and immunology to achieve two primary aims: 1) isolate and characterize rare subsets of immune cells from pancreatic islets, and 2) study regulatory T-cell (Treg) function in terms of modulating beta-cell proliferation, insulin production, and cellular development pathway regulation in type 1 diabetes (T1D). To do this, I’ll be using a specialized sequencing and expression analysis technique known Cellular Indexing of Transcriptomes and Epitopes by Sequencing (or CITE-seq). My interest is to support the use of Treg cellular therapy as a potential treatment option for patients with T1D by developing a deeper mechanistic understanding of the role of Tregs in T1D development.

Awards: 

• UBC Four Year Fellowship

Macyn Leung

MSc Student

A robust and reproducible assay to measure the suppressive capacity of Tregs is needed to evaluate their function in health and disease. My research focuses on standardizing the commonly used Treg suppression assay using thymus-derived Tregs. My work also involves using CRISPR gene-editing to identify the mechanisms by which Tregs mediate suppression in vitro.