Aaron Morris
University of Michigan, MI·Biomedical Engineering·Early-career
The immune system has to strike a balance. It must attack infections and damage, then calm down before inflammation itself causes harm.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
regulatory T cells
Tregs
T cell reprogramming
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Apr 2031
What they work on
- Optimize hydrogel-based synthetic tertiary lymphoid structures (synTLS), 3D scaffolds that mimic immune tissue, and test how T cell receptor signals, stiffness, and metabolic cues affect conversion of T cells into stable Tregs.
- Evaluate how Thetis cells, immune checkpoint signaling, and co-stimulation blockade affect the stability and suppressive function of regulatory T cells induced within synTLS.
- Compare antigen-loading methods for implantable biomaterials and define how antigen-loaded materials enrich antigen-specific CD4 T cells and other immune cells at an accessible site in the body.
- Test whether antigen-loaded implants mirror central nervous system immunity better than unloaded implants, and use them to monitor adaptive immune therapies in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.
- Determine how T cell types and alarmin danger signals drive poor healing in diabetic skin wounds and the foreign body response, and test reprogramming inflammatory T cells into regulatory ones.
- Use synthetic biology to engineer cells that respond to alarmin signals by releasing regenerative factors, as candidate cell therapies for chronic wounds.
More about the research
Too little control leads to chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, and wounds that do not heal. This research uses engineered biomaterials and cell reprogramming to study immune cells where they act in the body. The goal is to shift harmful immune responses toward healing and to track disease-relevant immune cells in a living animal. Regulatory T cells (Tregs), immune cells that hold back runaway inflammation, are a common thread across the projects.
Why it matters
Many people live with chronic wounds such as diabetic skin ulcers, and with inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis. This work could help them through better ways to make stable regulatory T cells for therapy and engineered cell therapies that promote healing. Implant-based tools for monitoring disease-specific immune cells could also help match autoimmune patients to treatments likely to work for them.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Scott McPherson
University of Minnesota, MN·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how retinal microglia, especially the subset that acts as dendritic cells, present retinal self-antigens to T cells and drive autoimmune disease, using R161H mice with transgenic tracking and depletion of dendritic cells and microglia.
Yaoying Wu
Syracuse University, NY·Biomedical Engineering
Develop nanoparticles that encapsulate the immunosuppressant rapamycin and display proteins mimicking tolerogenic dendritic cells, including peptide-MHC class II plus inhibitory ligands such as PD-L1/2 and Fas ligand, for delivery to antigen-specific T cells.
Omid Veiseh
Rice University, TX·Biomedical Engineering
Make 3D alginate methacrylate (AlMA) hydrogels and optimize the dose of engineered cells that secrete VEGF-C, a lymphatic growth signal, to improve lymphatic vessel guidance and regeneration in living animals.
The school
University of Michigan: 124 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 963 research doctorates a year.
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