Professor Alok Joglekar focuses on immunotherapy, particularly in enhancing T cell responses against cancer and autoimmune diseases. His research explores T cell receptor (TCR) interactions and antigen discovery, using engineered molecules to manipulate immune responses. Joglekar's lab has developed novel synthetic biology methods like SABRs (Signaling and Antigen-presenting Bifunctional Receptors), which enable two-way communication between T cells and their targets. This platform has potential applications in cancer treatment and autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
"A microenvironment-driven HLA-II-associated insulin neoantigen elicits persistent memory T cell activation in diabetes"
Srivastava N, Vomund AN, Yu R, Peterson OJ, Yang Y, Turicek DP, Abousaway O, Li T, Kain L, Stone P, Ansar A, Clement CC, Sharma S, Melhem R, Zhang B, Liu C, Joglekar AV, Hu H, Hsieh CS, Campisi L, Santambrogio L, Teyton L, Unanue ER, Arbelaez AM, Lichti CF, Wan X. Nat Immunol. 2026, 27, 1, 82-97
"Sliding Window Interaction Grammar (SWING): a generalized interaction language model for peptide and protein interactions"
Siwek JC, Omelchenko AA, Chhibbar P, Arshad S, Rosengart A, Nazarali I, Patel A, Nazarali K, Rahimikollu J, Tilstra JS, Shlomchik MJ, Koes DR, Joglekar AV, Das J. Nat Methods. 2025, 22, 8, 1707-1719
"CD8+ TEMRAs in severe asthma associate with asthma symptom duration and escape proliferation arrest"
Ramonell RP, Oriss TB, McCreary-Partyka JC, Kale SL, Brandon NR, Ross MA, Gauthier MC, Yue M, Nee TJ, Das S, Chen W, Joglekar AV, Ray P, St Croix CM, Rajasundaram D, Wenzel SE, Ray A. JCI Insight. 2025,10, 8, e185061
"Immunopeptidomics for autoimmunity: unlocking the chamber of immune secrets"
Arshad S, Cameron B, Joglekar AV. NPJ Syst Biol Appl. 2025, 11, 1, 10
"De novo identification of CD4+ T cell epitopes"
Zdinak PM, Trivedi N, Grebinoski S, Torrey J, Martinez EZ, Martinez S, Hicks L, Ranjan R, Makani VKK, Roland MM, Kublo L, Arshad S, Anderson MS, Vignali DAA, Joglekar AV. Nat Methods. 2024, 21, 5, 846-856