Overview
The Hickey Lab sits at the interface of engineering and immunology, using and developing systems immunology tools to investigate tissue structure in situ. We also use multiplexed imaging and computational techniques to characterize spatial cellular responses related to the effectiveness of anti-cancer cell or biomaterial therapies. John has received a number of awards for his work, including the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, ARCS Scholar, Siebel Scholar, NCI Postdoctoral Fellowship, and American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
·
2024 - Present
Biomedical Engineering,
Pratt School of Engineering
Assistant Professor in Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
·
2024 - Present
Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Division of Integrative Genomics,
Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
·
2024 - Present
Duke Cancer Institute,
Institutes and Centers
Recent Publications
Engineering age-adaptive mRNA lipid nanoparticle cancer vaccines via reprogramming systemic gene expression.
Journal Article bioRxiv · April 12, 2026 Lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based mRNA vaccines have transformed cancer immunotherapy, yet their efficacy in older individuals, who represent the majority of cancer patients, remains poorly understood. Here, we uncover a critical and previously underappreciat ... Full text Link to item CiteMINGL Quantifies Borders, Gradients, and Heterogeneity in Multicellular Tissue Organization.
Journal Article bioRxiv · March 26, 2026 Tissues are organized with interacting multicellular organizational units whose interfaces and transitions shape function in health and disease. Current spatial-omics analyses typically assign cells to a single cellular neighborhood-ignoring natural gradie ... Full text Link to item CiteMORPHE: Bridging Image Generation and Spatial Omics for Tissue Synthesis.
Preprint · March 5, 2026 Full text Link to item CiteRecent Grants
CAREER: Origins of Cellular Heterogeneity by Dynamically-linked Multiplexed Imaging
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2025 - 2030Engineered Lipid Nanoparticles and Microgel Matrix to Program Th1/Th2 Immune Response
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Johns Hopkins University · 2025 - 2030Multiscale Modeling of Influenza Neutralizing Antibody and Fc Effector Biology
ResearchInvestigator · Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 2024 - 2029View All Grants
Education
Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine ·
2019
Ph.D.