In the Crooks Lab we are interested in how the immune system is generated during normal development and from pluripotent stem cells. Our work has evolved into three complementary areas of study that focus on the T cells of the immune system: 

1. Human lymphoid development

2. Engineered T cell therapies from human pluripotent stem cells

3. The microenvironment of the newborn and aged thymus 

To study these areas we use a range of technologies including in vitro models of T cell development, manipulation of gene expression with gene editing and lentiviral vectors, pluripotent stem cell cultures,  multi-parameter flow cytometry, single cell RNA-Seq, xeno-transplantation and tumor immunotherapy models.

The goal of our work is to develop new ways to generate and regulate 

a healthy immune system from hematopoietic stem cells.