Faculty

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Saba Ghassemi, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

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Department: Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

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1f Graduate Group Affiliations 8

Cell and Molecular Biology

46 Contact information
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Center for Cellular Immunotherapies
1e 3400 Civic Center Blvd
2c 9-101 SPE
Philadelphia, PA 19104

2e Office: 212-898-5040
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Email:
ghassemi@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

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13 Education:
21 b B.Sc. 23 (Mechanical Engineering) c
38 K.N.T. University of Technology, 2001.
21 a M.Sc. 23 (Mechanical Engineering) c
2d Villanova University, 2004.
21 c M.Phil. 23 (Mechanical Engineering) c
2c Columbia University, 2010.
21 a Ph.D. 23 (Mechanical Engineering) c
2c Columbia University, 2011.
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Links
5d Linkedin
86 Ghassemi Lab, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies
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5 3 3 92 Permanent link
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b6 > Perelman School of Medicine > Faculty > Details a

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Description of Research Expertise

cb CAR-T cell manufacturing; T cell activation, proliferation and differentiation; Lentiviral, retroviral and mRNA-based gene transfer; Nano-engineered cell culture platforms; Microfluidics
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Selected Publications

19f Yassin AA, Ureña Martin C, Le Saux G, Pandey A, Tzadka S, Toledo E, Pandit JJ, Sherf T, Nusbaum I, Bhattachrya B, Banerji R, Greenshpan Y, Abu Ahmad MA, Radinsky O, Sklartz M, Gazit R, Elkabets M, Ghassemi S, Cohen O, Schvartzman M, Porgador A.: Mechanostimulatory Platform for Improved CAR T Cell Immunotherapy. Advance Materials July 2025.

157 Ma C, Wang H, Liu L, Chen R, Mukherjee N, Tong J, Kazmi S, Fang X, Witkowski MT, Aifantis I, Ghassemi S, Chen W.: Bioengineered immunocompetent preclinical trial-on-chip tool enables screening of CAR T cell therapy for leukaemia. Nature Biomedical Engineering July 2025.

170 Behnia Akbari, Zahra Hosseini, Pardis Shahabinejad, SabaGhassemi, Hamid RezaMirzaei, Roddy S.O'Connor: Metabolic and epigenetic orchestration of (CAR) T cell fate and function. Cancer Letters 550(no issue): 215948, December 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2022.215948. Epub 2022 Oct 7. Review.

19f Lunan Liu, Chao Ma, Zhuoyu Zhang, Matthew T Witkowski, Iannis Aifantis, Saba Ghassemi, Weiqiang Chen: Computational model of CAR T-cell immunotherapy dissects and predicts leukemia patient responses at remission, resistance, and relapse. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 10(12): e005360, December 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-005360.

1b5 Joseph S Durgin, Radhika Thokala, Lexus Johnson, Edward Song, John Leferovich, Vijay Bhoj, Saba Ghassemi, Michael Milone, Zev Binder, Donald M O'Rourke, Roddy S O'Connor: Enhancing CAR T Function with the Engineered Secretion of C. Perfringens Neuraminidase. Molecular therapy 30(3): 1201-1214, March 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.11.014. Epub 2021 Nov 20.

206 Saba Ghassemi, Joseph S. Durgin, Selene Nunez-Cruz, Jai Patel, John Leferovich1, Marilia Pinzone, Feng Shen, Katherine D. Cummins, Gabriela Plesa, Vito Adrian Cantu, Shantan Reddy, Frederic D. Bushman, Saar I. Gill, Una O'Doherty, Roddy S. O’Connor, Michael C. Milone: Rapid manufacturing of non-activated potent CAR T cells. Nature Biomedical Engineering 6(2): 118-128, February 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41551-021-00842-6. Epub 2022 Feb 21.

18f Navid Ghahri-Saremi, Behnia Akbari, Tahereh Soltantoyeh, Jamshid Hadjati, Saba Ghassemi, Hamid Reza Mirzaei1: Genetic Modification of Cytokine Signaling to Enhance Efficacy of CAR T Cell Therapy in Solid Tumors. Front. Immunol 12(no issue): 738456, October 2021 Notes: doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.738456. eCollection 2021. Review.

1b4 Juan C Garcia-Canaveras, David Heo, Sophie Trefely, John Leferovich, Chong Xu, Benjamin I Philipson, Saba Ghassemi, Michael C Milone, Edmund K Moon, Nathaniel W Snyder, Carl H June, Joshua D Rabinowitz, Roddy S O'Connor: CAR T-Cells Depend on the Coupling of NADH Oxidation with ATP Production. Cells 10(9): 2334, September 2021 Notes: doi: 10.3390/cells10092334.

149 Behnia Akbari, Navid Ghahri-Saremi, Tahereh Soltantoyeh, Jamshid Hadjati, Saba Ghassemi, Hamid Reza Mirzaei: Epigenetic strategies to boost CAR T cell therapy. Molecular Therapy S1525-0016(21): 00397-X, August 2021 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.08.003.

239 Saba Ghassemi, Francisco J. Martinez-Becerra, Alyssa M. Master, Sarah A. Richman, David Heo, John Leferovich, Yitao Tu, Juan Carlos Garcia-Canaveras, Asma Ayari, Yinan Lu, Ai Wang, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Michael C. Milone, Roddy S. O’Connor: Enhancing Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T cell anti-tumor function through advanced media design Molecular Therapy Methods & clinical Development 18(no issue number): 595-606, July 2020 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.omtm.2020.07.008. eCollection 2020 Sep 11.

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