Three Rockefeller Scientists Join Biohub NY Program

Researchers to focus on immune cell engineering, disease detection, and cancer treatment

Apr. 2, 2026 at 1:38am

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Three scientists from Rockefeller University - Gregory M. Alushin, Michel C. Nussenzweig, and Jeffrey V. Ravetch - have been selected for the newest cohort of 11 researchers in the Immune Cell Reprogramming Program at Biohub New York, a biomedical research organization. The program aims to harness and engineer immune cells for early detection, prevention, and treatment of diseases.

Why it matters

The Biohub NY program represents a major initiative to combine AI and frontier biology to solve complex medical challenges. The selection of these three prominent Rockefeller researchers highlights the program's focus on novel therapeutic strategies, disease monitoring, and hard-to-treat cancer types like ovarian and pancreatic.

The details

Alushin will use advanced imaging to map how immune cells physically interact with other cells, aiming to better understand disease detection and response. Nussenzweig will engineer immune cells to act as long-term sensors that can deliver treatments. Ravetch will focus on activating immune responses in 'cold tumors' that typically evade detection.

  • The Immune Cell Reprogramming Program at Biohub NY provides three years of unrestricted funding to the selected researchers.

The players

Gregory M. Alushin

A researcher at Rockefeller University who will use structural biology to study how immune cells physically interact with other cells in the body.

Michel C. Nussenzweig

A researcher at Rockefeller University who will engineer immune cells to act as long-term disease sensors and treatment delivery systems.

Jeffrey V. Ravetch

A researcher at Rockefeller University who will focus on activating immune responses in hard-to-treat 'cold' tumors like ovarian and pancreatic cancers.

Andrea Califano

The President of Immune Cell Reprogramming and Head of Biohub NY, who said the program represents an 'extraordinary inflection point' in combining AI, synthetic biology, and immunology to engineer the immune system.

Biohub NY

A biomedical research organization building the first large-scale initiative to combine AI and frontier biology to solve disease.

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What they’re saying

“We are at an extraordinary inflection point, where the convergence of AI, synthetic biology, and immunology is making it possible to move from observing the immune system to truly engineering it.”

— Andrea Califano, President of Immune Cell Reprogramming, and Head of Biohub NY

“This is a new direction for the lab. I'm a structural biologist. I expect to benefit from interacting with card-carrying immunologists who can teach me about the latest and greatest in their field, and I hope that my lab's perspective and technical specialization will help immunologists answer new questions.”

— Gregory M. Alushin

“Our ultimate goal is to investigate and create new innovative detection and treatment modalities for diseases that could benefit from our cell engineering approach. We have proposed a number of experiments that should encourage clinical translation, greatly increase the chances of creating accessible drugs, and provide means to establish permanent surveillance systems in the body.”

— Michel C. Nussenzweig

“We aim to define the immune architecture of immunologically 'cold tumors' and to investigate whether this treatment drives immunity hub formation and reprograms immune cells. Our goal is to determine how the drug modulates dendritic cell function and define additional pathways that promote antitumor immunity in these cancers.”

— Jeffrey V. Ravetch

What’s next

The Biohub NY program will provide the selected researchers with three years of unrestricted funding, advanced tools, training, and a collaborative research community to pursue their projects.

The takeaway

The selection of these prominent Rockefeller scientists for Biohub NY's Immune Cell Reprogramming Program highlights the organization's ambitious goals to leverage the convergence of AI, synthetic biology, and immunology to develop transformative new approaches for disease detection, prevention, and treatment.