About

Tarek Fahmy is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Yale University, with additional appointments in Immunobiology. He holds a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on biomaterials for drug and antigen delivery to the immune system, the development of novel MRI contrast agents for detecting specific T cells and antigen-presenting cells, and the biological-driven design of materials for drug delivery. Fahmy has been recognized with awards such as the Early Career Award from the Coulter Foundation for his work on multimodal nanoparticles targeting autoimmune T cells for non-invasive diagnosis and targeted drug delivery. His contributions include developing innovative nanosystems for imaging and drug delivery to T cells, creating biodegradable artificial antigen-presenting cell microparticles for T cell stimulation, and designing vaccine delivery systems using inflammasome-activating biodegradable nanoparticulates.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Biology
• Medicine
• Immunology
• Biochemistry
• Cell biology
• Internal medicine
• Computational biology
• Materials science
• Endocrinology
• Cancer research
• Pharmacology
• Nanotechnology
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Compositions and methods for adoptive and active immunotherapy

  OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2023-01-23

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Modular aAPCs and methods of their manufacture and use are provided. The modular aAPCs are constructed from polymeric microparticles. The aAPCs include encapsulated cytokines and coupling agents which modularly couple functional elements including T cell receptor activators, co-stimulatory molecules and adhesion molecules to the particle. The ability of these aAPCs to release cytokines in a controlled manner, coupled with their modular nature and ease of ligand attachment, results in an ideal, tunable APC capable of stimulating and expanding primary T cells.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate electrolyte as poly(vinyl chloride-co-vinyl acetate-co-2-hydroxypropyl acrylate) plasticizer: Thermal degradation and optical characteristics

  Research Square · 2022-03-07 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Casting method was employed to prepare films of poly(vinyl chloride-co-vinyl acetate-co-2-hydroxypropyl acrylate) (PVVH) copolymer doped with different concentrations of tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate ([TBA][BF 4 ]) electrolyte. The interaction between copolymer and electrolyte was clearly evident in the reduction of FTIR peaks intensity at 1666 and 1729 cm -1 with increasing electrolyte concentration. This reduction was related to the deacetylation of PVVH by the electrolyte. Effect of deacetylation was also visible in the reduction of DTG/DTA peak temperature ( T p ) of the second stage of the composites. The reduction of DSC glass transition temperature ( T g ) from 344 K to 310 with increasing electrolyte content was another evidence of the deacetylation effect that reduces the inter- and intramolecular interaction maintaining flexibility of PVVH copolymer backbone to bend and slide more readily. Based on the aforementioned results, one can assume that [TBA][BF 4 ] electrolyte acts as an external plasticizer for PVVH that is internally plasticized by random copolymerization of vinyl chloride (VC) with vinyl acetate (VAc) and 2-hydroxypropyl acrylate (2HPA) to reduce the T g of VC from 355 to 344 K. Another reduction was observed in the optical energy gap ( E g ) with increasing the electrolyte content. Linear and nonlinear optical parameters were estimated and discussed in terms of the single oscillator model. Besides, the optical conductivity (σ op ) and dielectric constant of all samples were investigated.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Students’ learning sustainability – implicit, explicit or non-existent: a case study approach on students’ key competencies addressing the SDGs in HEI program

  International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education · 2022-01-20 · 104 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Purpose This study aims to understand better the student awareness and knowledge on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are used in higher education institutions (HEIs) to motivate students’ learning on sustainability. It is essential to consider students’ understanding of sustainability at the end of their studies to assess whether they feel prepared to apply sustainability in their daily work life. Design/methodology/approach The study has a quantitative case study design, and the specific method used is an online survey with masters’ students using the university student platform EvaSys. The study assesses approaching how students perceive the overall education integrating sustainability into programs and curricula. Findings The results showed that work-integrated learning (WIL) projects learning and real-life experiences as part of their studies enhanced the students’ understanding of sustainability. Moreover, the study showed that integrating an understanding of the SDGs in teaching offers universities a way to frame students’ key competencies in ways that allow them to develop their interpersonal competencies as ambassadors for sustainability in their future work life. Practical implications This study supports the argument that WIL and real-life university experiences enhance students’ key competencies critical for sustainability. Originality/value The pedagogical approach advanced in this paper addresses how WIL and real-life experiences might develop students’ key competencies on sustainability. This approach indicates that working with SDGs in teaching encourages students to promote their interpersonal competencies for sustainability.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 448 Stage migration in patients with lymph node positive cervical cancer

  International Journal of Gynecological Cancer · 2021-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Metabolic and immunomodulatory control of type 1 diabetes via orally delivered bile-acid-polymer nanocarriers of insulin or rapamycin

  Nature Biomedical Engineering · 2021 · 55 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Chemistry
  • Internal medicine
  • Endocrinology
  PublisherDOI

• Targeting prostate cancer with Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin functionalized nanoparticles co-encapsulating imaging cargo enhances magnetic resonance imaging specificity

  Nanomedicine Nanotechnology Biology and Medicine · 2021 · 13 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Cancer research
  • Chemistry
  • Medicine
  PublisherDOI

• Direct Comparison of B Cell Surface Receptors as Therapeutic Targets for Nanoparticle Delivery of BTK Inhibitors

  Molecular Pharmaceutics · 2021-01-11 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  assays comparing the efficacy of targeted NPs often do not adequately control for these differences in particle-receptor binding, potentially confounding their therapeutic readouts and possibly even limiting their experimental value. In this work, we characterize the conditions under which NPs loaded with Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitor differentially suppress primary B cell activation when targeting either CD19 (internalizing) or B220 (noninternalizing) surface receptors. Surface binding of fluorescently labeled CD19- and B220-targeted NPs was analyzed and quantitatively correlated with the number of bound particles at given treatment concentrations. Using this binding data, suppression of B cell activation was directly compared for differentially targeted (CD19 vs B220) NPs loaded with a BTK inhibitor at a range of particle drug loading concentrations. When NPs were loaded with lower amounts of drug, CD19-mediated internalization demonstrated increased inhibition of B cell proliferation compared with B220 NPs. However, these differences were mitigated when particles were loaded with higher concentrations of BTK inhibitor and B220-mediated "paracrine-like" delivery demonstrated superior suppression of cellular activation when cells were bound to lower overall numbers of NPs. Taken together, these results demonstrate that inhibition of B cell activation can be optimized for NPs targeting either internalizing or noninternalizing surface receptors and that particle internalization is likely not a requisite endpoint when designing particles for delivery of BTK inhibitor to B cells.

  PublisherDOI

• Author Correction: Metabolic and immunomodulatory control of type 1 diabetes via orally delivered bile-acid-polymer nanocarriers of insulin or rapamycin

  Nature Biomedical Engineering · 2021-11-04 · 3 citations

  erratumOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multiple Sclerosis: LIFNano-CD4 for Trojan Horse Delivery of the Neuro-Protective Biologic “LIF” Into the Brain: Preclinical Proof of Concept

  Frontiers in Medical Technology · 2021-04-07 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access

  Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating autoimmune disease that attacks the brain, with year-on-year loss of brain volume, starting late teens and becoming manifest late twenties. There is no cure, and current therapies are immunosuppressive only. LIF is a vital stem cell growth factor active throughout life—and essential for health of the central nervous system (CNS), being tolerogenic, myelinogenic, and neuroprotective. Nano-formulation of LIF (LIFNano) using FDA-approved PLGA captures LIF's compound therapeutic properties, increasing potency 1,000-fold when targeted to CD4 (LIFNano-CD4). Moreover, circulating CD4 + lymphocytes are themselves regulated by LIF to express the Treg phenotype, known to release T cell-derived LIF upon engagement with cognate antigen, perpetuating antigen-specific self-tolerance. With the longer-term aim of treating inflammatory lesions of MS, we asked, does LIFNano-CD4 cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB)? We measure pK and pD using novel methodologies, demonstrate crossing of the BBB, show LIF-cargo-specific anti-inflammatory efficacy in the frontal cortex of the brain, and show safety of intravenous delivery of LIFNano-CD4 at doses known to provide efficacious concentrations of LIF cargo behind the BBB.

  PublisherDOI

• Platelet P-selectin initiates cross-presentation and dendritic cell differentiation in blood monocytes

  Science Advances · 2020 · 76 citations

  • Cell biology
  • Immunology
  • Biology

  Dendritic cells (DCs) are adept at cross-presentation and initiation of antigen-specific immunity. Clinically, however, DCs produced by in vitro differentiation of monocytes in the presence of exogenous cytokines have been met with limited success. We hypothesized that DCs produced in a physiological manner may be more effective and found that platelets activate a cross-presentation program in peripheral blood monocytes with rapid (18 hours) maturation into physiological DCs (phDCs). Differentiation of monocytes into phDCs was concomitant with the formation of an "adhesion synapse," a biophysical junction enriched with platelet P-selectin and monocyte P-selectin glycoprotein ligand 1, followed by intracellular calcium fluxing and nuclear localization of nuclear factor κB. phDCs were more efficient than cytokine-derived DCs in generating tumor-specific T cell immunity. Our findings demonstrate that platelets mediate a cytokine-independent, physiologic maturation of DC and suggest a novel strategy for DC-based immunotherapies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Targeting the vascularity for delivery of inhibitors of metastasis in ovarian cancer.

  NIH · $2.5M · 2015–2021

• NIRT: Modular Nanodevices for Creation of Smart, Adaptable Vaccine Delivery Vehicles

  NSF · $1.0M · 2006–2010

• CAREER: Engineering Therapeutic Immune Responses with Artificial Antigen-Presenting Cells

  NSF · $400k · 2008–2013

• NIH Grant R01EB008260

  NIH · $1.5M · 2012

Frequent coauthors

• Eric Stern

  45 shared

• Mark A. Reed

  37 shared

• Jason Y. Park

  The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

  33 shared

• Jung Seok Lee

  32 shared

• Su Metcalfe

  University of Cambridge

  32 shared

• Wenda Gao

  Antagen Pharmaceuticals (United States)

  27 shared

• Terry B. Strom

  25 shared

• Steven M. Jay

  University of Maryland, College Park

  22 shared

Awards & honors

• Early Career Award from the Coulter Foundation (2006)