Byeong Hyeok Choi

R&D Director @ iCell Gene Therapeutics

About

Skills Translational Program Development & Clinical Readiness • End-to-end experience translating cell therapy programs from discovery through IND • Led CAR-T and CAR-NK development for oncology and autoimmune indications • Cross-functional collaboration with CMC, Regulatory, QA, and Clinical Ops teams • Authored IND sections, Investigator Brochures, and preclinical data packages • Familiar with regulatory guidance, ICH/GCP principles, and FDA communications • Target selection, validation, and screening cascade design for CAR constructs In Vivo Experience • Design and execution of xenograft tumor and autoimmune models for PoC and PoM studies • CAR-T/NK administration (IV/IP), IVIS imaging, tumor burden and survival monitoring • Blood, spleen, and bone marrow isolation for downstream immunophenotyping • Preclinical efficacy and safety evaluations of CAR constructs and cytokines In Vitro Experience • Extensive experience in primary T/NK cell activation, transduction, and expansion • Co-culture cytotoxicity assays for CAR-T and CAR-NK functional validation using flow cytometry and live-cell imaging • Ex vivo readouts supporting PoM via cytokine secretion, CAR expression, and immune subset profiling • Generation of stable, antigen-expressing target cell lines for potency and QC assays • Transduction efficiency assessment and titering via qPCR, ELISA, and reporter assays Viral Vector Engineering & Production • Lentiviral and retroviral vector design, plasmid engineering, and codon optimization • Upstream optimization: transfection conditions, media screening, harvest timing, and scale-up • Established stable producer cell lines for consistent high-titer vector production • Vector potency and release testing using qPCR, ELISA, and functional cell-based assays

Country

City

United States

Industry

Pharmaceuticals

Skill

Research and Development (R&D), Drug Development, Clinical Development, Molecular & Cellular Biology

Experience

R&D Director

iCell Gene Therapeutics

2023-10 - Present · 3 yrs

- Developing and testing of CAR T and NK cells - Cell line development - in vivo CAR-T and NK preclinical study - QA/QC testing of viral and CAR products, including qPCR, ELISA, immunoassays, functional assessment, and viability assays. - Preparing documents to submit to the FDA and patent application

Assistant Professor, research faculty

NYU Langone Health

2021-10 - 2023-9 · 2 yrs

New York, New York, United States

• Experienced in T-cell isolation and immune cell phenotyping • Proficient in lentivirus and retrovirus-mediated gene transfer. • Experience in immunostaining and flow cytometry • RT-qPCR and gene expression analysis • Knockout mice generation

Senior Research Scientist

NYU Langone Health

2017-2 - 2023-7 · 6 yrs 6 mos

New York, New York, United States

• Designed and executed experiments to characterize post-translational modification system of KRAS • Conducted immunoaffinity purification and mass spectrometry, and discovered PIAS4 as a RAS E3 ligase, mediating SUMO-modification of KRAS, and further discovered SUMOylated KRAS plays a role in promoting tumor development in pancreatic cancer • Conducted immunoaffinity purification and mass spectrometry to identify RASG12V-specific binding proteins, discovered a list of RASG12V-binding proteins; • Designed and executed experiments to understand how stress response in tumor cells is linked to immune suppression with a focus on tryptophan metabolic pathway (Selected Publication #1 and an in-press manuscript)

Research Scientist

NYU Langone Health

2011-2 - 2017-2 · 6 yrs 1 mo

New York, New York, United States

• Conducted series of experiments to investigate the role PTEN in cell cycle regulation, DNA damage, and chromosomal instability; Analyzed DNA damage using various biochemical assays and confocal microscopy; Published research results in reputable journals, covering biochemistry and cancer biology

Researcher in Dermatology

Korea University Medicine

2008-8 - 2011-2 · 2 yrs 7 mos

Seoul, South Korea

• Developed and optimized in-vitro, ex-vivo and in-vivo assays, and conducted pre-clinical studies such as skin epidermal stability, toxicity, irritation, and functional characterization of cosmetic raw materials for skin care products • Major hand-on skills in this project * human and mouse skin cell culture * 3D skin culture for epidermal differentiation assay and cytotoxicity assay * In vivo skin irritation test * immunohischemistry (IHC) and immune-florescence (IF) staining for confocal microscope * Flow cytometry for intracellular ROS measurement using skin cells * Signaling pathway analysis for cellular mechanism-of-action study * Immuno-staining and optical imaging for epidermal phenotyping and keratin analysis * Cell based assays: HaCaT skin keratinocyte differentiation assay, proliferation/cytotoxicity assay