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Sumana Sharma
Group Leader: Wellcome Career Development Fellow
My research focuses on how T cells signal and how these pathways can be precisely manipulated to engineer designer immune phenotypes.
I completed my PhD in Prof. Gavin Wright’s lab at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge, where I developed a genetic screening approach using CRISPR to identify receptor-ligand interactions on the cell surface. I then joined Evangelia Petsalaki’s group at EMBL-EBI for a computational postdoc, where I conceived a computational analysis tool (“CEN-tools”) using publicly available CRISPR essentiality datasets to define core and context-dependent genes in cancer. I subsequently moved to the MRC-TIDU as a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof. Simon Davis’ T Cell Biology group, where I developed genetic screening approaches to study signaling in T cells.
In 2025, I was awarded a Wellcome Career Development Award to start my group at MRC-TIDU, focused on developing new strategies for next-generation T cell immunotherapies. Our team is particularly interested in inhibitory receptor signaling in T cells and how it can be rewired to overcome immune suppression and enhance therapeutic efficacy. We use a multidisciplinary approach that combines omics technologies, CRISPR-based functional genomics, computational analysis, and primary T cell editing to uncover and exploit key regulatory mechanisms.
Key publications
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The current state and future of T-cell exhaustion research
Journal article
Jenkins E. et al, (2023), Oxford Open Immunology, 4
Recent publications
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The Structural Biology of T-Cell Antigen Detection at Close Contacts.
Journal article
Lui Y. et al, (2025), Immunol Rev, 331
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Structure of a fully assembled γδ T cell antigen receptor.
Journal article
Gully BS. et al, (2024), Nature, 634, 729 - 736
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Transcriptional reprogramming via signaling domains of CD2, CD28, and 4-1BB.
Journal article
De Sousa Linhares A. et al, (2024), iScience, 27
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A high-throughput two-cell assay for interrogating inhibitory signaling pathways in T cells.
Journal article
Sharma S. et al, (2024), Life Sci Alliance, 7
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Antibody agonists trigger immune receptor signaling through local exclusion of receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatases.
Journal article
Lippert AH. et al, (2024), Immunity, 57, 256 - 270.e10