Junu is a hematology/oncology fellow interested in gastrointestinal cancers. He grew up (partially) in Pittsburgh (woo woo!) and did a PhD in Chemistry, which drove him into medicine. His unique perspective has set him up to develop novel approaches to attack GI cancers and study how mechanical stress impacts T cell function. In his spare time, Junu reads books about old wooden ships.

Amanda grew up in Illinois. She traveled north to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for her undergraduate degree, where she found her passion for research and gained an interest in cancer immunology. Outside of the lab, she is usually baking (and eating) pastries or hanging out with her two cats, Poppy and Fig.

Shelly grew up in Taiwan and cut her scientific teeth as a research technician working on T cell activation. She went on to do her PhD at the prestigious Academia Sinica, focusing on development of therapeutic antibodies. During this time, she spent a summer as a visiting fellow at a CAR T cell lab in Germany, which led her to our lab in St. Louis. Her work focuses on T cell memory differentiation and engineering approaches to tune T cell lineages. Like many others in the lab, Shelly loves to cook!

Vishaal grew up outside of Atlanta. He graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering, where he was first introduced to developing synthetic receptor immunotherapies. In the lab, he’s interested in improving CAR function by using protein engineering to better understand and enhance CAR-T cell biology. Outside the lab, he endures the pain of watching Atlanta sports or escapes to hike and kayak through national parks.

Deepesh grew up in North India. After completing his masters from IIT Roorkee (India), he moved to Uppsala University in Sweden to complete his PhD. His PhD work focused on adhesion dependent mechanisms regulating cell, gaining expertise in cell biology and imaging. He moved to Wash U in 2021 as a postdoc in pediatrics where he developed advanced skills in transcriptomic analysis of clinical samples. In our lab he uses high resolution imaging and innovative biochemistry to understand how CARs interact with other T cell proteins. Outside of the lab, he loves to cook new (ish) vegetarian food - which typically happens due to missing ingredients!

Henry is an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee studying Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology and Russian. He is returning to the Singh Lab for a second summer through the WashU MSTP ACCESS program. His research interests lie in protein engineering and signaling. When not in the lab, Henry can be found going to new restaurants, trying to birdwatch, or running.

Olivia grew up in Philadelphia and is currently pursuing her bachelor's in molecular biology and biochemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. Originally introduced to cell therapy through research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (another Grupp Lab alum!), she is excited to continue developing new CARs. In her free time, she enjoys playing squash, watching football, and trying new restaurants around STL. 

Yangdon grew up in northern India and completed her undergraduate degree Macalester College in Minnesota. It was there that she developed an interest in immunology, and enrolled in the Wash U PhD program in 2022. Her interests lie in understanding how T cells interact with innate immune cells and using engineered T cells as mini bioreactors to influence the function of immune cells in tumor microenvironments. In her free time she enjoys running, attempting to cook, or playfully annoying her cat, Shilo.

Bryant grew up in St. Louis before graduating from Case Western Reserve University with a degree in Biochemistry. Prior to joining the Immunology PhD program in 2025, he worked in industry focusing on a sampling of different T-cell-based therapeutic modalities. His research interests currently focus on optimizing the stability of the CAR-T immunological synapse and the efficiency of downstream signaling pathways. Outside of the lab, he enjoys hiking, reading and cheering on his beloved Cardinals.

John grew up just outside of Philadelphia. After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a degree in biomedical engineering, he spent two years developing peptide-centric CAR T cells at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In 2021, he matriculated to WashU and has been frequenting the Arch ever since! He is working to design better CAR signaling domains through wet lab data generation, design of synthetic proteins and machine learning. Outside the lab, he enjoys suffering through Gamecock and Philadelphia sports seasons, working out, and playing guitar.