JHU’s Translational ImmunoEngineering hub gets $6.4M renewal from NIH

The Johns Hopkins Center for Translational ImmunoEngineering, or JH-TIE, recently earned $6.4 million in continued funding over the next five years from the NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).

The grant is part of  NIBIB’s  National Centers for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NCBIB) program, and JH-TIE is the program’s first center to focus on immunoengineering. The grant is envisioned as a 15-year commitment to JH-TIE technology development.

By integrating immunology and engineering, JH-TIE research teams are working on transformative therapies for cancer, muscular dystrophy, retinal disease, autoimmune disorders, and more. Since JH-TIE was funded in 2019, they have generated more than 95 publications and secured multiple technology patents.

The funding renewal will ramp up activity and facilitate more collaborations between immunologists, engineers, and clinicians.

“Thanks to this renewal, we will continue to advance the immunoengineering frontier with the translation of emerging technologies from the laboratory into the clinic,” said Jonathan Schneck, founding director of JH-TIE and professor of pathology, medicine and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

In parallel with the research efforts, a major aspect of the center is the training of undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs in translational immunoengineering research.

Leaning on the industry-relevant immunoengineering curriculum offered by the Department of Biomedical Engineering, JH-TIE offers unique educational opportunities for future leaders in the field, said Jordan Green, the Herschel L. Seder Professor of Biomedical Engineering and JH-TIE’s co-director.

“We’re very excited about the training component of the center, and dedicating resources to engage talent and support young researchers who are poised to make a substantial impact on immmunoengineering,” said Green.

The center hosts an annual three-week online workshop, “Advances in Immunoengineering,” which attracts over 400 participants from around the world and from various fields and educational levels. The center also runs courses, seminars, and demonstrations for researchers who want to learn to use JH-TIE innovations. Interested researchers can also request the technologies developed by JH-TIE to accelerate their own research.

In July, JH-TIE hosted the inaugural Frameshift, a three-day event that aims to teach trainees about the center’s cutting-edge technologies. The workshop included 24 aspiring researchers from Johns Hopkins, the National Institutes of Health, University of Maryland, and University of Pennsylvania; along with JH-TIE faculty, drug development experts, and partners from the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design and Blackbird Labs.

“Our goal with this initiative was to provide an environment that brings together scholars with deep scientific insights in fundamental immunology, enabling them to leverage bioengineering tools in a highly structured manner. We hope that this provides a catalyst for future collaborations at all levels and are excited to see what the future holds,” said Joseph Choy, a materials science and engineering graduate student who conceptualized and led the event.

Frameshift culminated in a hackathon-style competition, where the participants were split into small teams and asked to explore a new application. The teams then prepared 20-minute presentations and pitched their potential solutions to a panel of faculty and industry experts. Innovations pitched included new therapeutic approaches for lupus, stroke, and brain tumors.

Jacob Mitchell, a fifth-year PhD student studying human genetics and genomics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said the workshop offered practical experience with the latest technology along with other skill building, not least of all learning to work with people from other disciplines and institutions.

“My group devised creative approaches to the problem presented that pulled from each team member’s own research,” said Mitchell. “We had different perspectives and had to integrate our ideas to address a clearly stated goal. As our understanding of immunology and its importance in many aspects of human health continues to grow, the skill of coordinating multidisciplinary teams to approach complex research questions will be even more important for success.”

In addition to Schneck and Green, Hopkins faculty who are leading technology, research, and development (TR&D) projects at JH-TIE include Jamie Spangler, the William R. Brody Faculty Scholar associate professor of biomedical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering; Joel Sunshine, assistant professor of dermatology; Hai-Quan Mao, professor of materials science and engineering; Drew Pardoll, the Martin D. Abeloff Professor of Oncology; and Stephany Tzeng, assistant research professor in biomedical engineering.

More information about JH-TIE can be found on its website.