Robert Jenq Lab

Marina Chen, Ph.D., earned her Ph.D. in molecular epidemiology from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under the mentorship of Dr. Curtis Huttenhower, where she trained as a computational biologist. Her doctoral research focused on microbial ecology and human-environment microbiome interactions, leveraging novel sequencing technologies and advanced computational approaches. She is currently continuing her microbiome research in the Jenq Lab, investigating how the gut microbiome and microbially derived metabolites influence graft versus host disease following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

After earning her Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from the National University of Mongolia, Altai Enkhbayar pursued laboratory research and completed a master’s in biological chemistry at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. During her graduate studies, she developed a strong interest in understanding host–microbiota interactions within the context of cancer biology. In 2022, she began her Ph.D. program at MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, where she joined Dr. Robert Jenq's team. Now continuing her thesis project in the Jenq Lab at City of Hope, she is investigating how diet and the gut microbiome contribute to the accumulation of somatic mutations in the colonic epithelium.

Edward Hu earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering with a biomolecular concentration from UCLA in 2025. As an undergraduate, he conducted research in the Junyoung Park Lab under the mentorship of Glenn Nurwono, contributing to projects on optimizing the biosynthetic production of Aspterric Acid and elucidating the pathway for a novel terpenoid. After graduating, he joined the Jenq Lab, where he assists on projects to improve CAR T cell therapy and cancer treatment efficacy, as well as on T cell-mediated antigen identification with Dr. Rishika Prasad and Dr. Maren Schmiester.

Cynthia Jinno, Ph.D., is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Jenq Lab, where she studies the gut microbiome in relation to graft-versus-host disease. She earned her Ph.D. in animal biology from the University of California, Davis, in 2022 under the mentorship of Dr. Yanhong Liu. Her doctoral research focused on how probiotic interventions influence the gut microbiota and health outcomes in weaned pigs under diarrheal stress. Prior to her current role, she held a postdoctoral scientist position at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Dr. Hideki Furuya’s lab, contributing to biomarker discovery projects in early-stage breast and bladder cancer using both murine models and clinical datasets.

Aqsa Mohammed graduated from the University of Washington Bothell with a Bachelor of Science in biology in 2020. As a post-baccalaureate researcher, she gained experience in immunology by characterizing gut immune populations in autoimmune disease models. In 2022, she joined the Ph.D. in immunology program at MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Jenq. She is continuing her graduate studies at City of Hope, where she is exploring non-antibiotic approaches to modulate the gut microbiome as novel treatment strategies for toxicities associated with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, including neutropenic fever and graft-versus-host disease.

Stephen Mok, Ph.D., is an immunologist and Assistant Research Professor currently working in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Jenq. His research focuses on bacterial engineering and the discovery of tumor-associated antigens for cancer immunotherapy. He earned his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Dr. Antoni Ribas at UCLA, where he studied T cell receptor (TCR) engineering and the interactions between immunosuppressive myeloid cells, T cells, and cancer cells within the tumor microenvironment. Dr. Mok then completed his postdoctoral training at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Dr. James Allison, investigating the effects of immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1, on memory T cell generation and strategies to reduce immune-related adverse events (irAEs).

Rishika Prasad trained as an engineer, earning her master’s degree from Cornell University before shifting her focus to cancer outcomes and immunotherapy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She joined Dr. Robert Jenq’s team at MD Anderson as a Ph.D. student to investigate how gut microbiota influence responses to CAR T cell therapy in lymphoma patients. Now continuing her training as a postdoctoral fellow at City of Hope under Dr. Jenq’s mentorship, Rishika is exploring ways to modulate the microbiota to improve outcomes for cancer patients undergoing stem cell transplantation and CAR T cell therapy.

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Mathilde Raybaud began her research journey with Dr. Robert Jenq at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2020 to 2021, where she served as an intern investigating the role of Akkermansia muciniphila in the development of neutropenic fever in patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation. In 2023, she earned her Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from McGill University, where she continued as a postbaccalaureate researcher. During this time, she worked under Dr. Jörg Fritz, characterizing type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) and exploring their inflammatory functions. Building on her interest in microbiome research, Mathilde rejoined Dr. Jenq at City of Hope as a research associate. She is set to begin her master’s in Translational Medicine at City of Hope, where her project will focus on genetic mutations in bacteria within allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation disease models.

Maren Schmiester, M.D., earned her medical degree from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and joined the university hospital’s Department of Hematology, Oncology and Cancer Immunology as a physician-scientist. Under the mentorship of Prof. Il-Kang Na, she led a project evaluating flow cytometric microbiome analyses in cancer patients. After completing her board examinations in internal medicine, she joined the Jenq Lab in 2024 as a visiting postdoctoral research scholar. She is currently investigating the role of microbiota-specific T cells in graft-versus-host disease.