Louai Labanieh, PhD

In the doctoral program at Stanford University, Louai Labanieh leveraged synthetic biology and protein engineering to develop more innovative, safer and more effective CAR T cells using drug-regulated switches. Previous work in the Mackall Lab identified that disrupting CAR signaling to “rest” cells improved their fitness. With this knowledge, Louai created a best-in-class, drug-regulated CAR platform, called SNIP, that leverages this phenomenon, overcomes the limitations of previous technologies and is designed for clinical translation. 

As a postdoctoral researcher, Louai is engineering next-generation CAR T cells to overcome many of the current limitations of immunotherapy and extend effective treatments to more patients. He is the recipient of a Siebel Scholars award, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and Stanford Graduate Fellowship. He has invented numerous technologies, several of which are being commercialized by startup or publicly traded biotech companies.

Louai is a Parker Scholar and postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, where he is engineering platform technologies designed to propel next-generation cell therapies into the clinic. He earned his PhD in bioengineering at Stanford University.

• 2022: Stanford University, PhD, Bioengineering
• 2016: University of California, Irvine, BS, Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering
• 2016: Research Intern, xCella Biosciences
• 2013-16: Research Assistant, University of California, Irvine
• 2013: Research Intern, Iowa State University

• 2022: Parker Scholar
• 2021: Siebel Scholar, Siebel Scholars Foundation
• 2016: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, National Science Foundation
• 2016: Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Doctoral Fellowship, Stanford University
• 2016: Stanford Graduate Fellowship, Stanford University
• 2015: Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), University of California, Irvine
• 2015: Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), University of California, Irvine