Cancer Discovery
2023
Type I Interferon Signaling via the EGR2 Transcriptional Regulator Potentiates CAR T Cell–Intrinsic Dysfunction
An interferon-driven resistance program identified in patients, then reversed by CRISPR ablation of EGR2.
DOI →Engineering Immunity
by Design.
AI-guided discovery and engineering of cellular immunotherapies.
The Lab
The Jung Lab develops engineered immune cell therapies for diseases where current treatments fail. We pair AI-driven therapeutic design with immune engineering, and we anchor every project in a question derived from real clinical data — a reverse-translational approach shaped by direct experience carrying CAR-T technologies from discovery into first-in-human trials. Our aim is not only to publish, but to build technologies that become medicines.
I · Research
Three thrusts, one loop.
Our research sits at the intersection of three capabilities: computational design, clinically grounded problem selection, and hands-on cell engineering. Each thrust feeds the others.
AI Design
AI-Guided Therapeutic Design
Designing therapies in silico before we build them.
- The problem
- The design space for cell therapies is combinatorially enormous — receptor architectures, cytokine circuits, edit combinations, payloads, vector tropism. Empirical screening cannot cover it, and most candidates fail late and expensively.
- Our approach
- We build predictive models from multi-omic and clinical datasets — single-cell multiome profiling, CAR-T infusion product characterization, trial response data — to prioritize designs before they enter the lab. Machine learning guides target selection, construct architecture, and the prediction of T-cell fate and patient response.
- Success looks like
- A design engine that reliably narrows hundreds of candidate constructs to the handful worth building.
Reverse-Translation
Reverse-Translational Engineering
We start with the patient who didn't respond.
- The problem
- Most preclinical work begins with a model system and hopes it maps onto patients. The resistance mechanisms that actually matter clinically are often invisible in those models.
- Our approach
- We begin with clinical specimens and trial data, identify the molecular programs that separate responders from non-responders, and engineer directly against those mechanisms. Resistance is defined in patients first; the construct is designed second.
- Success looks like
- Every engineering decision in this lab traceable to a defined, clinically observed failure mode.
Engineering
Immune Engineering
Building the cells.
- The problem
- Engineered immune cells lose fitness, persistence, and access to target tissue — particularly in solid tumors and in autoimmune indications. And ex vivo manufacturing is slow, costly, and reaches only a fraction of the patients who need it.
- Our approach
- Targeted in vivo T-cell engineering, viral and non-viral delivery vector engineering, CRISPR engineering, and cytokine engineering. We build platforms rather than one-off constructs, and design from the start for manufacturability and IND-enabling requirements.
- Success looks like
- Reproducible, manufacturable platform technologies that deliver clinical benefit large enough to transform a patient's life — not an incremental improvement on what already exists.
Long view
We are building a lab where a clinical observation can become a computational hypothesis, an engineered cell, and eventually an investigational product — within one group. And we are training the people who will carry that innovation forward, in academia and in industry alike.
II · People
Who we are.
In-Young Jung, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor · Principal Investigator
In-Young Jung is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biopharmaceutical and Regulatory Science at Sungkyunkwan University. He completed his Ph.D. in the Gene Therapy and Vaccines program at the University of Pennsylvania, where his work on T-cell engineering and transcriptional and epigenetic reprogramming appeared in Nature, Nature Medicine, Science, Science Translational Medicine, Cancer Discovery, Cell Reports Medicine, and Nature Communications. At both Penn and Synthekine, he led the development of a cell therapy product that entered Phase 1 clinical trials.
His work spans targeted in vivo T-cell engineering, CRISPR engineering, cytokine engineering, and viral and non-viral delivery vectors. He developed two CAR-T platform technologies that have been licensed to global biotech partners.
Full biography and career
Taking technologies into patients.
At the University of Pennsylvania, he pioneered a tissue-resident memory CAR-T modality — reprogramming T cells to accumulate and persist in solid tumors — which advanced to a Phase 1 trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (NCT06046040). At Synthekine, he led the discovery and IND-enabling programs for the SYNCAR-001 + STK-009 orthogonal cytokine combination, achieving Phase 1 initiation in systemic lupus erythematosus (NCT06544330), and led IND-enabling studies for hepatocellular carcinoma. He has worked directly alongside in vivo pharmacology, CMC, and regulatory teams, and understands what separates a promising result from a viable drug.
Building platforms, not one-off constructs.
As lead inventor and development lead for a DGK-knockout CAR-T/NK engineering platform, he saw the technology out-licensed to international cell therapy developers. He later invented a lentiviral platform for in vivo CAR-T engineering and out-licensed the technology to a biotech partner, and has led development for proof-of-concept partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotech collaborators.
Fluent in both academia and industry.
His career spans bioprocess development at GC Biopharma, platform R&D at Toolgen, doctoral and postdoctoral research at Penn, and discovery leadership at a US biotech, Synthekine — a path he draws on in training students to become drug developers fluent in both worlds.
2026 —
Assistant Professor, Department of Biopharmaceutical and Regulatory Science, Sungkyunkwan University
2023 – 2026
Principal Scientist, Cell Therapy Discovery, Synthekine (CA, USA)
2022 – 2023
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Pennsylvania
2018 – 2022
Ph.D., Gene Therapy and Vaccines, University of Pennsylvania
2015 – 2018
Senior Scientist, Toolgen (Seoul)
2013 – 2015
Scientist, GC Biopharma (Seoul)
2012 – 2014
M.S., Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University
2008 – 2012
B.S., Plant Science, Seoul National University (cum laude)
The lab is recruiting members — undergraduate interns, M.S. and Ph.D. students. See how to apply →
III · Publications
Publications
Science Translational Medicine
2022
BLIMP1 and NR4A3 transcription factors reciprocally regulate antitumor CAR T cell stemness and exhaustion
Two transcription factors that set the balance between CAR-T stemness and exhaustion.
DOI →Cell Reports Medicine
2023
Tissue-resident memory CAR T cells with stem-like characteristics display enhanced efficacy against solid and liquid tumors
A new CAR-T modality — now in a Phase 1 trial (NCT06046040).
DOI →Cancer Research
2018
CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Knockout of DGK Improves Antitumor Activities of Human T Cells
The engineering platform later out-licensed for clinical development.
DOI →Nature
2024
FOXO1 is a master regulator of memory programming in CAR T cells
Defining the master memory program in engineered T cells.
DOI →Nature Medicine
2022
PSMA-targeting TGFβ-insensitive armored CAR T cells in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: a phase 1 trial
First-in-human armored CAR-T in prostate cancer.
DOI →Science
2020
CRISPR-engineered T cells in patients with refractory cancer
The first-in-human trial of multiplex CRISPR-edited T cells.
DOI →Science Advances
2024
TET2 regulates early and late transitions in exhausted CD8+ T cell differentiation and limits CAR T cell function
An epigenetic brake on the exhaustion trajectory of engineered T cells.
DOI →IV · Join Us
We are recruiting.
Who we're looking for
We recruit undergraduate interns, M.S. students, and Ph.D. students on a rolling basis.
Prior experience in wet lab (cell culture, molecular biology, flow cytometry, gene editing) or dry lab (Python/R, single-cell analysis, machine learning) is welcome — but it is not required, and it is not what we select on.
What we actually look for: curiosity that doesn't switch off, and the ambition to become a drug developer who moves fluently between academia and industry. If you want to understand not just how a therapy works but how it reaches a patient — the science, the IND, the manufacturing, the licensing — this is the right lab.
What you get here
- Training in both experimental immunology and computational analysis — we don't force students to pick a lane
- Projects built on clinical logic, not model-system convenience
- Mentorship toward academia or biotech, on your terms
How to apply
Email us with:
- Your CV
- A short paragraph on what scientific question interests you and why — a paragraph is enough, no formal cover letter
Undergraduates: we take interns year-round. Reach out even if you have never worked in a lab.
정인영 교수 연구실은 AI 기반 설계와 면역세포 공학을 결합해 세포·유전자 치료제를 개발합니다. 임상에서 출발한 질문을 붙잡고, 그 답을 실제 환자에게 닿는 기술로 만드는 것이 목표입니다. 학부 인턴, 석사, 박사과정 학생을 상시 모집합니다.
실험 경험(세포배양, 분자생물학, 유세포분석, 유전자 편집)이나 바이오인포매틱스 경험(Python/R, 단일세포 분석, 머신러닝)이 있으면 좋지만 필수는 아닙니다. 기술은 들어와서 배우면 됩니다. 저희가 보는 것은 꺼지지 않는 호기심과, 학계와 산업계를 오가며 신약을 개발하는 사람이 되겠다는 의지입니다.
지원은 jiy11170@skku.edu로 CV와 함께, 어떤 과학적 질문에 관심이 있고 왜 그런지를 한 문단으로 적어 보내주시면 됩니다. 형식을 갖춘 자기소개서는 필요 없습니다. 학부생은 연중 언제든 연락 주셔도 좋습니다.
V · Contact
Find us.
Address
Room 530318, Pharmacy Building
School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University
2066 Seobu-ro, Jangan-gu, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
School of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University
2066 Seobu-ro, Jangan-gu, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea
경기도 수원시 장안구 서부로 2066
성균관대학교 약학관 530318호
성균관대학교 약학관 530318호
Email
Collaboration & licensing
Interested in collaborating or licensing? Get in touch.