Speaker Profile
Ph.D., CEO, Enoda Cellworks
Biography
Michael co-founded Enoda Cellworks Inc. in 2022 after graduating from Stanford Bioengineering. In Professor Stanley Qis lab, he pioneered multiple lentiviral, CRISPR, and receptor technologies to realize the next generation of cell therapies. As a student, he led biology at Fifty Years, a venture capital firm that supports early-stage deep tech startups. Michael has received several prestigious awards, including the Siebel Scholarship, the NIH Predoctoral National Research Service Award, and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. His commitment to using synthetic biology for societal benefit reflects his passion for addressing significant global challenges through scientific innovation.
Talk
Harnessing Unexplored Cytokine Signals for Solid Tumor Cell Therapies
Enoda engineers cells with MIMICs, synthetic cytokine receptors that controllably and safely harness previously inaccessible and unknown signals. Screening all of cytokine space with MIMICs identified assets that enable T cells to resist immunosuppression, improving efficacy for both ex vivo and in vivo cell therapies compared to state-of-the-art armoring tools.
Emerging Therapeutics Showcase:
Enoda Cellworks
Enoda Cellworks is a team of synthetic biologists and immunologists whose mission is to expand the curative power of in vivo and ex vivo engineered therapeutic cells by arming them with cytokine signaling pathways unreachable and unknown to other technologies
Session Abstract – PMWC 2026 Silicon Valley
The PMWC 2026 Emerging Therapeutics Showcase will provide a 15-30 minute time slot for selected companies and researchers in the CRISPR, Cell and Gene Therapy fields. Major advancements in safer cell- and gene-level editing technologies are bringing us closer toward cures for life-threatening disorders, from cancer to HIV to Huntington’s disease. Cell therapy, in which cellular material such as T cells capable of fighting cancer cells, is injected into a patient, has been demonstrated safe and effective. The popular new CRISPR tool that has been used to edit the genetic code of nearly any organism will have an enormous impact on human health. More than a dozen clinical trials employing CRISPR on human cells are already underway.
- Emerging Therapeutics/Cell Therapy
- Emerging Therapeutics/CVD
- Emerging Therapeutics/Gene Therapy
- Emerging Therapeutics/Immunotherapy
- Emerging Therapeutics/Radiation Therapy
PMWC Hall of Impact
Previous Speakers Include
Nobel laureates, technology founders, regulators, CEOs and scientific pioneers who have taken the PMWC stage.
