The combined focus of the Ellebrecht lab is to understand immune cells in the context of autoimmunity and manipulate them for use as precision cellular immunotherapies.

We are particularly fascinated with immune cells and their ability to remember: if we are exposed to a pathogen a second time, our immune system responds quicker and more vigorously than the first time around. Our research aims to elucidate the mechanisms behind how and when specialized human T lymphocytes, that are used to treat patients or reside in specific organs, commit to long- or short-lived cell fates.

We believe that science is centered on pushing the boundaries of knowledge and technology. To that end, we employ single cell multiomics to dissect fate decisions in human immune cells; our ultimate goal is to uncover the intricacies of autoimmunity and translate our findings to engineer next generation immunotherapies.