Working towards a cure
Precision immunotherapies for autoimmune and rheumatic diseases
Let’s change the way we treat autoimmunity.
Current treatments for autoimmune and rheumatic diseases rely on broadly acting immunosuppressive drugs that reduce self-reactive immune responses, but also diminish protective immunity, leading to a high risk of infection, poor vaccine responses, and treatment-related deaths.
An ideal treatment for autoimmune diseases would specifically target and eliminate only the self-reactive immune cells that cause damage, while leaving protective immune responses intact. Our research aims to develop antigen-specific precision immunotherapies to achieve this goal.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell therapies have already revolutionized the treatment of blood cancers by achieving long-lasting cancer-free remission. Our lab develops and uses new precision T cell therapy approaches, such as CRISPR-based engineering of chimeric autoantigen-T cell receptors (CATCRs), to reprogram a patient's T cells so they can selectively target self-reactive immune cells while preserving normal immune populations. These precision therapies have the potential to transform the lives of patients living with autoimmune and rheumatic diseases by providing new treatments that can control autoimmunity without increasing the risk of infection that is common to all existing treatments.
We believe that antigen-specific immunotherapies have the potential to offer curative treatment options for many patients suffering from systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases, shaping the future of rheumatology.
Our Research
Welcome to the laboratory of Maximilian F. Konig, M.D. at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. We are passionate about developing the next generation of cell- and protein-based therapies for autoimmune and rheumatic diseases.
Our team uses CRISPR-mediated homology-directed repair genome editing and novel immune cell engineering technologies to generate precision immunotherapies. Additionally, we apply these tools to immuno-oncology to augment the cytotoxic killing of solid cancers by chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells directed against mutation-associated neoantigens (MANAs) and other targets expressed on hard-to-treat cancers. Our goal is to build better drugs that are more precise, more potent, and less toxic.
News
News about our lab and research.
The tools to end some rheumatic diseases already exist today.
Contact us
Thank you for your interest in what we do. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Join the Team. For inquiries about postdoctoral research opportunities (2 years or more), graduate student rotations, and thesis work in cellular immunotherapy, protein engineering, and autoimmunity, please email with your CV or resume.
Consider making a donation ♥
We have one goal.
Making rheumatic diseases history.
We want to fundamentally change the way that rheumatic diseases are treated. We envision a future where precision therapies can eradicate a patient’s self-reactive immune cells without impairing the normal immune responses that protect us from infection and cancer. It takes a village to develop personalized therapies and bring them to our patients. Your support can make all the difference .
