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John Wirthlin Hickey

Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering

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 Biostatistics, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute · 2024 - Present Duke Cancer Institute, Institutes and Centers

In the News


Published November 8, 2024
Genomic Medicine, Beyond CRISPR
Published August 21, 2023
John Hickey: When It Comes to Studying Cells, Location is Everything
Published July 19, 2023
It’s a beautiful day in the intestinal neighborhood

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Recent Publications


High-throughput multiplexed serology via the mass-spectrometric analysis of isotopically barcoded beads.

Journal Article Nature biomedical engineering · February 2025 In serology, each sample is typically tested individually, one antigen at a time. This is costly and time consuming. Serology techniques should ideally allow recurrent measurements in parallel in small sample volumes and be inexpensive and fast. Here we sh ... Full text Cite

mRNA lipid nanoparticle-incorporated nanofiber-hydrogel composite generates a local immunostimulatory niche for cancer immunotherapy.

Journal Article bioRxiv · January 29, 2025 Hydrogel materials have emerged as versatile platforms for various biomedical applications. Notably, the engineered nanofiber-hydrogel composite (NHC) has proven effective in mimicking the soft tissue extracellular matrix, facilitating substantial recruitm ... Full text Link to item Cite

Ex vivo expansion and hydrogel-mediated in vivo delivery of tissue-resident memory T cells for immunotherapy.

Journal Article Science advances · December 2024 Tissue-resident memory T (TRM) cells preferentially reside in peripheral tissues, serving as key players in tumor immunity and immunotherapy. The lack of effective approaches for expanding TRM cells and delivering these cells in vivo ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Multiscale Modeling of Influenza Neutralizing Antibody and Fc Effector Biology

ResearchInvestigator · Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 2024 - 2029

Flexible Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure for Seamless Integration and Use of Human Biomolecular Data and Reference Maps [1 of 5]

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Carnegie Mellon University · 2024 - 2025

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Education, Training & Certifications


Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine · 2019 Ph.D.