Jamie Chan
Process Engineer
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About
Cell therapy scientist with 5+ years of industry experience in engineered T-cell biology, assay development, and quantitative characterization of T-cell phenotype and function across in vitro and in vivo CAR-T platforms, specializing in logic-gated Tmod™ technology. Extensive experience designing and executing imaging- and flow-based cell assays to evaluate clinical candidates, characterizing potency, specificity, activation, exhaustion, and immunological phenotype for screening and IND-enabling studies. Experienced in primary T-cell culture and engineering using techniques such as mRNA/LNP transfections, lentiviral transduction, and CRISPR.
Proficient in independently optimizing experimental parameters, troubleshooting, analyzing and communicating complex datasets, and cross-functional collaboration across discovery, process development, and manufacturing teams.
Experience
Process Development Engineer I, Process Development at A2 Biotherapeutics (2024-05 – Present)
Cell Therapy & Assay Development. Promoted to Process Development Engineer I from Associate Process Development Engineer II within 14 months (July 2025).
- Independently designed and executed studies evaluating the effects of cytokines and transduction enhancers on T-cell activation, exhaustion, and immunological phenotype, identifying process conditions subsequently implemented in production-scale manufacturing processes
- Collaborated with discovery research in Q1 and Q2 of 2026: Designed, executed, and analyzed quantitative assays to characterize clinical candidate CAR potency (ET50), expression (MFI/%+), and specificity in mRNA and LNP format, supporting in vivo CAR pipeline lead candidate nomination
- Luminescence-based T cell cytotoxicity assays and flow-based primary stem cell assays to rank candidates by potency on cancer lines and protection of primary stem cells
- Flow cytometry to assess clinical candidate expression level and kinetics in mRNA and LNP-transfected T cells
- Jurkat NFAT reporter assays with transfected candidate CARs and blockers to assess construct sensitivity (EC50)
- Developed, executed, and analyzed screening assays using a 16-cell-line panel to quantitatively assess off-target selectivity of clinical candidate CARs, using luminescence and imaging-based fluorescence readouts (ImageXpress/Incucyte) to support IND filing
- Facilitated successful IND submission by supporting process scale-up technology transfer to the manufacturing department through data compilation, technical presentations, and hands-on trainings, in addition to co-authoring development and IND reports
- Mentored a summer intern by guiding experimental design for a small-scale IL-2 dose-response study and providing hands-on training in flow cytometry, aseptic cell culture, and data analysis/presentation
Research Associate II, Discovery Research at A2 Biotherapeutics (2021-07 – 2024-05)
Promoted to Research Associate II from Research Associate I within 18 months (Jan 2023).
- Led mechanistic studies to address investor inquiries, using (1) multiparametric flow cytometry to characterize activation, exhaustion, phenotypic, and cytokine profiles following T cell re-stimulation to inform understanding of the Tmod™ platform, (2) luminescence-based cytotoxicity assays to assess the correlation between target antigen expression and functional potency across multiple pipelines, and (3) binding assays to assess cross-reactivity of clinical candidate CAR with high-homology surface proteins
- Led a study to address investor inquiries about the in vivo biodistribution of a clinical candidate by processing serum and 12 tissue sample types from 15 mice and completing qPCR analysis to elucidate observed cross-reactivity between human and mouse models
- Optimized and troubleshot IND-enabling in vitro assays, including allogeneic program-specific assays (flow-based mixed lymphocyte reactions, fluorescence-based TCR blocking assays) and platform assays (off-target selectivity and cell transformation assays), supporting successful IND submission and first patient dosing
- Thawed, engineered, characterized and cryopreserved 15+ cell lines using CRISPR knockout, lentiviral transduction, single-cell sorting, flow-based and bead-based cell sorting, with validation by flow cytometry, PCR, and cell line fingerprinting to support off-target selectivity assays
- Supported in vivo studies by preparing T cell products for dosing through magnetic-column purification and performing downstream flow cytometric analysis of serum samples
Education
Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences, Minor: Biomedical Engineering – Carnegie Mellon University (2021-05)

