Overview
In the Wilson group we work at the interface of engineering and immunology with the goal of innovating and translating technologies to improve human health. We bring together expertise in immunobiology, molecular engineering, nanotechnology, and pharmaceutical science to develop strategies for more precisely modulating immune responses at the tissue, cell, and subcellular level. The major focus areas of my research program are 1) design and synthesis of novel materials for drug delivery to the immune system; 2) developing new modalities for cancer immunotherapy, including next-generation cancer vaccines, therapeutics for activating anti-tumor innate immunity, and therapeutics for enhancing T cell infiltration and function in cancer; 3) vaccine technology for infectious disease applications, with an emphasis on T cell-directed vaccines for mucosal pathogens; 4) development of nanoparticle and extracellular vesicle therapeutics for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
Awards
-Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
-Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Research Award
-Chancellor Faculty Fellow
-VICC Hancock Scholar
-National Science Foundation CAREER Award
-Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award
-Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Innovation Research Grant Award
-Susan G. Komen Foundation Career Catalyst Research Grant Award
-Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation ‘A’ Award
-2019 Emerging Investigator, Biomaterials Science
-Cellular and Molecular Engineering Young Innovator Award
Selected Publications
A Cancer Nanovaccine for Co-Delivery of Peptide Neoantigens and Optimized Combinations of STING and TLR4 Agonists. Baljon JJ, Kwiatkowski AJ, Pagendarm HM, Stone PT, Kumar A, Bharti V, Schulman JA, Becker KW, Roth EW, Plamen Christov, Joyce S, Wilson JT, ACS Nano, 5, 6845-6862, (2024) View Abstract
STING-Activating Nanoparticles Normalize the Vascular-Immune Interface to Potentiate Cancer Immunotherapy. Wang-Bishop L, Kimmel BR, Ngwa VM, Madden MZ, Baljon JJ, Florian DC, Hanna A, Pastora LE, Sheehy TL, Kwiatkowski AJ, Wehbe M, Wen X, Becker KW, Garland KM, Schulman JA, Shae D, Edwards D, Wolf MM, Delapp R, Christov PP, Beckermann KE, Balko JM, Rathmell WK, Rathmell JC, Chen J, Wilson JT, Science Immunology, 8, eadd1153, (2023) View Abstract
Structural Optimization of Polymeric Carriers to Enhance the Immunostimulatory Activity of Molecularly-Defined RIG-I Agonists. Jacobson ME, Becker KW, Pastora LE, Palmer CR, Fletcher RB, Colins KA, Baljon JJ, Fedorova O, Duvall CL, Pyle AM, Wilson JT, ACS Central Science, 6, 2008, (2020) View Abstract
Mucosal Immunization with a pH-Responsive Nanoparticle Vaccine Induces Protective CD8+ Lung-Resident Memory T cells. Knight FC, Gilchuk P, Kumar A, Becker KW, Sevimli S, Jacobson ME, Suryadevara N, Wang-Bishop L, Boyd KL, Crowe JE, Joyce S, Wilson JT, ACS Nano, 13, 10939-10960, (2019) View Abstract
Endosomolytic Polymersomes Increase the Activity of Cyclic Dinucleotide STING Agonists to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy. Shae D, Becker KW, Chistov P, Yun D-S, Lytton-Jean A, Sevimli S, Ascano M, Kelley M, Johnson D, Balko J, Wilson JT, Nature Nanotechnology, 14, 269-278, (2019) View Abstract
Education
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Washington, 2013Ph.D., Bioengineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009
B.S., Bioengineering, Oregon State University, 2002