Dr. James Riley

Biography

Dr. Riley’s lab studies the signals that control primary human T cell activation with special attention to manipulations that exploit developing T cell therapies for HIV, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. He is evaluating the use of TCR CARs to redirect T regulatory cells (Tregs) and studying methods to provide antigen suppression approaches that alter T regulatory cell stability. Part of his research includes understanding how the media used for T cell expansion affects their function and engraftment potential in vivo. His lab is focused on designing HIV resistant and HIV specific T cells as key players in the HIV Cure effort. As a leader in the BEAT HIV Martin Delaney Collaboratory, his lab is evaluating ways to make T cells resistant to HIV entry and integration while developing HIV-1 specific chimeric antigen receptors to assess their ability to control HIV replication in vitro using humanized mouse models. Dr. Riley’s basic research findings utilizing primary human T cells have been used as the basis for numerous Phase adoptive T cell therapy clinical trials.

Research Interests