Elizabeth Budde Lab

Marissa M. Del Real, Ph.D. is an assistant research professor in the Department of Hematology & Hemopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope and serves as the translational research lead for the Budde laboratory. Dr. Del Real earned her B.S. in biology from Notre Dame of Maryland University and her doctoral degree in developmental biology from the California Institute of Technology. At Caltech, Dr. Del Real contributed to the understanding of lineage decisions during early T cell development. She then completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the Budde laboratory at City of Hope studying novel immunotherapies for hematological malignancies, including leukemia and lymphoma. One of her primary research interests is the preclinical development of novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies targeting tumor associated antigens. Dr. Del Real has extensive expertise in translational research including techniques to preclinically evaluate the function of CAR T cells and optimize CAR T cell manufacture for clinical use. Dr. Del Real also leads the correlative studies for several clinical trials evaluating CAR T cells and bi-specific antibodies for hematological malignancies.  

"Jonas” Jian Wu joined Dr. Budde’s laboratory in 2021 and dedicate to developing highly efficient CAR T cells for curing myeloid leukemia. He performed studies for an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for Budde lab’s CD33-CAR T cell anti-leukemia therapy which later got permission by FDA in 2022. He conducts correlative studies for Budde lab’s clinical trial investigating CD123-CAR T cell anti-leukemia therapy and performs single-cell multi-omics data analysis. He is interested in designing next generation CAR structure for better immune effector function, memory longevity, and bone marrow homing ability.

Jonas received his Bachelor of Medicine (B.M.) at Anhui Medical University (China) in 2005 and Ph.D. at University of Toledo (US) in 2013. He then had trainings at University of Southern California (USC) and Louisiana State University (LSU), and was awarded a postdoctoral American Heart Association (AHA) grant. He has authored 17 peer-reviewed publications in Cell Reports, Hypertension, JBC, etc., and performed > 60 Ad hoc peer-reviews for Frontiers in Immunology, Oncotarget, Scientific Reports, and BMC Genomics, etc.

Alan Macias grew up in Riverside, CA where he was always encouraged to ask big questions. This curiosity inspired Alan to pursue a degree in Science at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona where he earned his Bachelors in Biology. He then began an internship at City of Hope in the TCTRL which led him an opportunity to work in industry. There, Alan worked on product and process development for cell & gene therapy platforms, using technology to novel advance the CAR T research process for various collaborators. In 2021, Alan rejoined the Budde Lab where he studies novel CAR T cell therapies as well as performing correlative analysis on ongoing clinical trials. Under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Budde and Dr. Marissa Del Real, Alan hopes to help advance research from the lab to the clinic to develop a better understanding of how to improve patient therapies. Alan hopes to follow his curiosity to earn a graduate degree in translational medicine.

Emanuela Marcucci first joined Dr. Budde's laboratory as a high school student in the Eugene and Ruth Roberts Summer Academy in 2016. Her enthusiasm and dedication led her to continue in the lab as an intern, where she contributed to several innovative projects over the years, gaining valuable hands-on experience and insights into the complexities of biomedical research.

After earning her Bachelor of Arts in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley in 2021, Emanuela returned to the lab as a Research Associate. In her current role, she focuses on studying novel CAR T therapies, contributing to the development of innovative treatments aimed at improving outcomes for patients with cancer.

Kenneth Ng graduated from California State University of Los Angeles and earned a M.S. from California Polytechnic University Pomona. Through the CIRM graduate internship, he did research under the mentorship of Dr. Ellen Rothenberg at the California Institute of Technology studying the early T-cell fate commitment gene Bcl11b. After he completed his master’s, he joined the lab of Dr. Hao Yuan Kueh at the University of Washington where he focused on understanding the molecular regulators of CD8 effector and memory cell lineages. In 2021, Kenneth entered Dr. Elizabeth Budde’s group to contribute to new CAR T immunotherapies for patients with leukemia and lymphoma.  Kenny is currently a PhD candidate at City of Hope.

Elizabeth Garcia-Matamoros earned a B.A from California State Polytechnic University Pomona in biochemistry and earned an M.S from Western University of Health Sciences in pharmaceutical sciences. During her undergraduate and graduate studies she did research under Dr. David Sanchez of Western University studying innate immune signaling modification of the JAK-STAT pathway in HIV infected helper T cells. After completing her master’s in early 2023 she joined the lab of Dr. Elizabeth Budde developing novel CAR T cell therapies.