Mohamad Abedi, Ph.D.

Abedi focuses on designing new ways to program how cells sense signals, communicate and make decisions by building synthetic signaling proteins. His lab integrates computational protein design, synthetic biology and high-throughput experimentation to uncover the principles that govern cell fate and expand the natural language of cell communication. A central goal of his work is to develop predictive frameworks that link signaling inputs to cellular behaviors, enabling precise control over immune responses, stem cell differentiation and tissue regeneration.

In the long term, his research aims to enable a new generation of therapies that are more precise, adaptive and context-aware.  His work could help advance more precise therapies for diseases where cell signaling is dysregulated, including cancer and immune disorders, where current therapies often lack specificity and can cause toxicity. By creating programmable signaling systems that act only in defined environments or cell types, he seeks to improve the safety and effectiveness of cell- and protein-based therapies while establishing generalizable strategies for engineering cellular behavior.