John Soro

Graduate Student in @xrtcell lab at Stanford Immunology | Caltech Bio ‘23

[Stanford Immunology @stanfordimmuno]

Please join us for the 2026 Stanford Immunology Preview on October 2 🔬

Register at https://t.co/fWQ0xIqPIx

[Kayla @KaylaKulhanek]

Feeling incredibly thankful to be awarded an NIH F30 Fellowship to continue my PhD work in cancer immunology. And grateful for my PI @xrtcell and my amazing lab for their support!

[Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 @michaelzlin]

It is with a heavy heart that I share the sad news that one of my lab members, Pengli Wang, PhD student in chemical engineering, has passed away on Friday, May 1, at the age of 28, in an unexpected accident.

I’ve struggled to write this because it is hard to put into words just how much Pengli meant to our lab, his friends, the Stanford graduate student community, and of course his family.

From my own limited perspective, Pengli was any advisor’s dream student: creative, insightful, courageous, and an extraordinarily gifted experimentalist. He was a true polymath, self-taught in everything from computational protein structural modeling to high-throughput protein engineering to animal behavioral testing.

In only 3.5 years in the lab, Pengli had already made an enormous and lasting impact on the field of protein engineering. He has a co-first-author paper in press describing a new method that will transform both empirical and AI-based protein engineering. He also recently submitted a first-author paper on imaging neurotransmitters through enzymatic light emission, enabling us to observe cellular communication in living animals completely noninvasively. I expect this work will lead to new ways of investigating and understanding neurological and metabolic disease.

Arthur C. Clarke wrote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Pengli was the best magician, producing eye-opening tricks, each better than the last. The loss of his future contributions is immeasurable, but the technologies he already created will continue to benefit science and medicine for years to come.

What truly made Pengli special, though, was his kindness and joy for life. He never hesitated to help others, and he generously mentored many newer lab members, all of whom spoke about what an exceptional teacher he was. He also had an unforgettable spirit — the loudest and funniest laugh in the room, and an ability to eat astonishing amounts of food while somehow remaining skinny. He is deeply missed by everyone who knew him.

Pengli, may you rest in peace and in the lasting glow of your accomplishments. You represented the very best of humanity and will forever remain an inspiration to all of us.

💔

[Anusha Kalbasi @xrtcell]

What if nature already has the optimal cytokine solution for T cell therapy, but we just haven’t found it yet? Check out our paper out today in Immunity on IL-9 as a naturally orthogonal cytokine ideally tuned for T cell therapy https://t.co/44chA4n6rm
1/9

[Parker Institute @parkerici]

When the hardest cancers go unsolved, @xrtcell, MD (@StanfordMed), gets to work. The PICI Investigator is a recipient of the 2025 CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR Award from @CancerResearch—recognizing investigators who take on cancer’s toughest questions.

Dr. Kalbasi’s lab is reshaping cell therapy by engineering T cells with synthetic cytokine receptors, delivering powerful, targeted signals without toxic conditioning chemo (@Nature).

Now leading a pan-California IL-13Rα2 CAR-T trial for melanoma and rare solid tumors, Dr. Kalbasi is translating science into new hope for patients who need it most.

PICI is proud to support boundary-breaking research.

https://t.co/qGJBBB3nWB

#CancerImmunotherapy #CancerResearch

[John Soro @john_soro_]

Check out this amazing work from my friend @karstenhouse_14 , can’t wait to see all the future applications

[Karsten Householder @karstenhouse_14]

Proud to share early work from my 1st year in the Garcia Lab! 🧬 the tldr: in just a few months, we go from computational design —> real cancer-specific T cell engagers!

https://t.co/7GBYDF2Brj

[Stanford Biosciences @StanfordBiosci]

SSRP Applications are open! Apply today: https://t.co/5ZJKgev4V1

Learn more about the program from the Director, participants and program leaders: https://t.co/0jh1MZQjhh

[Stanford Immunology @stanfordimmuno]

The Stanford Immunology Review Program for Applicants (SIRPA) assists individuals applying to the Immunology PhD program. Receive a round of feedback on statements of purpose and participate in a mock interview. Registration open from Oct. 4-31, 2024: https://t.co/XSlO5UmLWm

[Stanford Immunology @stanfordimmuno]

Interested in learning more about our Stanford Immunology PhD program? Join our open house event for prospective PhD students, designed to facilitate the application process. Fri, Oct 4, 2024 at 1-4pm PT. Register at https://t.co/tgsPfB99r7 #stanfordimmunology #phd

[Gita Abhiraman, MD, PhD @GitaAbhiraman]

Stanford Immunology Preview is open to prospective PhD students, especially from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM. The goal is to provide info to demystify the program and the admissions process. Apply to Preview here:
https://t.co/cHvGfnVQTw

[Jagannathan Lab @pjagannathanlab]

Save the date and spread the word! 🗓️ @stanfordimmuno's CDIII committee is hosting a virtual preview event for prospective PhD applicants on Friday, October 4th. See flyer for more details and registration (https://t.co/ql3oa3B227)

[Markús Ísfeld Diehl @markusisfeld]

Are you or someone you know interested in applying to the @stanfordimmuno PhD program? SIRPA provides one-on-one feedback on applications and offers interview practice with current Stanford Immunology Students! We also offer a guide for applying, sign up below!

[Noah F. Greenwald @NoahGreenwald]

I’m super excited to share our work, out today @NatureBiotech: a new deep learning algorithm to accurately identify cells in imaging data! Our method works across image platforms, tissue types, and species with no fine-tuning required 🧵 https://t.co/VqgyccAy4q