T cells genetically engineered to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR-T) have shown remarkable clinical success against hematologic cancers. Such transformative clinical outcomes for patients with relapsed and refractory diseases has led to 14 FDA approvals to date. While these examples highlight the promise and curative potential of CAR-T cells, in practice, only a small fraction of cancer patients stand to benefit from this potentially life-saving therapy due to limitations in how these are manufactured for clinical use ex vivo. Ex vivo manufacturing of CAR-T cells is hampered by prohibitively high costs, delayed manufacturing times, logistical challenges, loss of T cell functionality, and manufacturing failures. In vivo engineering has the potential to bridge this critical gap by enabling cell therapies to be generated in situ via a gene delivery vector (e.g., lentivirus, mRNA, etc.) that can be directly infused into the patient. This approach would provide an off-the-shelf solution to expand patient access to these revolutionary therapies. By working at the interface of synthetic biology, immunology, and cellular and genetic engineering, the Labanieh Lab will develop novel platform technologies for in vivo engineering and control of cell therapies. We aim to develop tools that allow for the precise genetic and functional manipulation of cells in vivo towards making safer and more effective therapies for cancer and beyond.