Our lab is dedicated to transforming cellular immunotherapy by developing advanced CAR T cell therapies that overcome cancer resistance. Drawing on our strong foundation in using high throughput CRISPR screens to functionally characterize tumor antigen variants, we are engineering resilient CAR T cells with refined gene editing. Recently, we have expanded our focus to include generative AI for designing de novo protein binders—innovative CAR binding domains that target resistant tumor antigens. Our emerging work drives a deeper understanding of cancer cell resistance and is poised to pave the way for more tailored and effective immunotherapeutic strategies.

• Mergen M, Abele D, Koleci N, Schmahl Fernandez A, Sugden M, Holzleitner N, Carr A, Rieger L, Leone V, Reichert M, Laugwitz K-L, Bassermann F, Busch DH, Grünewald J, Schmidts A. Engineering de novo binder CAR-T cell therapies with generative AI. bioRxiv 2024 https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.25.625151
• Schmidts A, Srivastava AA, Ramapriyan R, Bailey SR, Bouffard AA, Cahill DP, Carter BS, Curry WT, Dunn GP, Frigault MJ, Gerstner ER, Ghannam JY, Kann MC, Larson RC, Leick MB, Nahed BV, Richardson LG, Scarfò I, Sun J, Wakimoto H, Maus MV, Choi BD. Tandem CAR T cells targeting EGFRvIII and IL-13R⍺2 are effective against heterogeneous glioblastoma. Neuro-Oncology Advances 2023 https://doi.org/10.1093/noajnl/vdac185
• Leick MB, Silva H, Scarfò I, Larson R, Choi BD, Bouffard AA, Gallagher K, Schmidts A, Bailey SR, Kann MC, Jan M, Wehrli M, Grauwet K, Horick N, Frigault MJ, Maus MV. Non-cleavable hinge enhances avidity and expansion of CAR-T cells for acute myeloid leukemia. Cancer Cell 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2022.04.001
• Larson RC, Kann MC, Bailey SR, Haradhvala NJ, Llopis PM, Bouffard AA, Scarfó I, Leick MB, Grauwet K, Berger TR, Stewart K, Anekal PV, Jan M, Joung J, Schmidts A, Ouspenskaia T, Law T, Regev A, Getz G, Maus MV.CAR T cell killing requires the IFNγR pathway in solid but not liquid tumours. Nature 2022 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04585-5
• Petri K*, Zhang W*, Ma J*, Schmidts A*, Lee H, Horng YE, Kim DY, Kurt IC, Clement K, Hsu JY, Pinello L, Maus MV, Joung JK & Yeh J-R. CRISPR prime editing with ribonucleoprotein complexes in zebrafish and primary human cells. Nature Biotechnology 2021 * co-first author https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00901-y
• Jan M, Scarfò I, Larson RC, Walker A, Schmidts A, Guirguis AA, Gasser JA, Słabicki M, Bouffard AA, Castano AP, Kann MC, Cabral ML, Tepper A, Grinshpun DE, Sperling AS, Kyung T, Sievers QL, Birnbaum ME, Maus MV, Ebert BL. Reversible ON- and OFF-switch chimeric antigen receptors controlled by lenalidomide. Science Translational Medicine 2021 https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abb6295
• Schmidts A, Marsh LC, Srivastava AA, Bouffard AA, Boroughs AC, Scarfò I, Larson RC, Bedoya F, Choi BD, Frigault MJ, Bailey SR, Leick MB, Vatsa S, Kann MC, Prew MS, Kleinstiver BP, Joung JK, Maus MV. Cell-based artificial APC resistant to lentiviral transduction for efficient generation of CAR-T cells from various cell sources. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2020 https://doi.org/10.1136/jitc-2020-000990
• Schmidts A, Wehrli M, Maus MV. Toward Better Understanding and Management of CAR-T Cell-Associated Toxicity. Annual Review of Medicine 2020 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-med-061119-015600
• Schmidts A, Ormhoj M, Choi BD, Taylor AO, Bouffard AA, Scarfo I, Larson RC, Frigault MJ, Gallagher K, Castano AP, Riley LS, Cabral ML, Boroughs AC, Velasco Cardenas RM, Schamel W, Zhou J, Mackay S, Tai YT, Anderson KC & Maus MV. Rational design of a trimeric APRIL-based CAR-binding domain enables efficient targeting of multiple myeloma. Blood Advances 2019 https://doi.org/10.1182/bloodadvances.2019000703
• Choi BD, Yu X, Castano AP, Bouffard AA, Schmidts A, Larson RC, Bailey SR, Boroughs AC, Frigault MJ, Leick MB, Scarfò I, Cetrulo CL, Demehri S, Nahed BV, Cahill DP, Wakimoto H, Curry WT, Carter BS & Maus MV. CAR-T cells secreting BiTEs circumvent antigen escape without detectable toxicity. Nature Biotechnology 2019 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0192-1

Visit full publication lists at Google Scholar or PubMed. 

There are currently no open positions available.

• Emmy Noether Program (DFG)
• John Hansen Research Grant (DKMS)
• LETSimmun – SFB 338 (DFG)
• TUM ERC Seed Fund (Technical University of Munich)
• TranslaTUM Seed Fund (Technical University of Munich)
• Translational Group Start-up Funding (BZKF)